From Hurricane Devastation to Hope: How One Streamer Found Mission in the Chaos

SunshineSgames: Just like trusting God's timing and keep your faith and keep sharing your testimonies and what you suffer through. It's there to help people. So keep sharing that and just know whenever you're going through something that it's God's timing. It's not ours, it's God's bill and it's his timing. And it might look like we're drowning, but God's going to pull us out and he knows. Bye. Control Alt Redeem is for anyone called to ministry in the digital frontier. Gamers, streamers, and everyday believers navigating life online. Each episode equips you to live on mission and the real stories of lives being changed. Reset your expectations, reframe your mission, and redeem the space you're already in. This is where digital ministry gets practical, creative, grounded, and hopeful. One episode at a time.

Flatcap: Welcome in all of you coming in with a raid. Thank you for hanging out with me in the morning, reading the Bible, hanging out with my fish for a little bit, which I finally got the fish up and working. I couldn't get it working before I went on vacation and I got it working again. And King Cobra, thank you for the cheers there for SunshineSgames. Absolutely. Give cheers. And if you're not following SunshineSgames, what are you doing with your life? You should be. You should be following SunshineSgames. And Phantom Mythos, thank you for coming in, friend. All right, so let me do a proper welcome. Welcome into Control Alt Redeem. We are resetting the culture and we are redeeming the space. And I have the joy of having SunshineSgames on the podcast today. So Sunshine is an OG mod of mine. When she found out I was going to start streaming, she was like, can I mod for you?

Flatcap: She was one of two people that immediately said, I want to help you. I want to mod for you. And so I have known her pretty much since I've been on Twitch. So welcome in, everyone. SunshineSgames.

SunshineSgames: Hey, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Flatcap: So how long have you been on Twitch? Because you were on Twitch before I came on the scene. So how did you first get connected onto Twitch? And what is it that caused you to decide to reach out to people and say, hey, can I mod for you? Can I help you? I want to support you doing it. Because you did that for me very early on. So I just want to know a little bit more of like what your decision process is for doing that.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, and November 14th, it'll be six years. Okay. But I have took a few breaks, cried a few breaks, and they've been pretty long. But I'm still here, and I love licking through the Christian tag that was not here whenever I came on. And it's amazing to have that. And that is how I found you. And it's a pleasure to mod for people. The first person who gave me the mod badge was not a believer. And they were very loud about that and let everybody know. And they knew that I believed. And they taught me all the ropes and all the commands and how to add commands into chat. And I fell in love with helping people in chat, welcoming them in. And if somebody came in with hate for the streamer, then I felt like I was doing good by protecting them and getting that out of chat so they wouldn't get hurt.

SunshineSgames: And to see a new streamer come in who loved God and wanted to share God with people, that was amazing. Because whenever I started, there was Pastor Susie and Crazy Cries and maybe for another person, there was very few. And it's great to see so many. And I'm thankful and I'm blessed that you let me mod for you to help you. And, yeah, it's a blessing. Whenever I met this lady, her name is Edith, and she helped teach me and guide me and tell me, show me an example of what a Christian should be and how to love people and how to help people. And you're somebody who does that here online. So it's great to have you here, too. Thank you for all you do.

Flatcap: Yeah, well, I love that, that someone saw in you and then helped you and then you've gone around and done that and you've helped other people. It's like, isn't that really? And it doesn't matter whether they were a Christian or not a Christian, but isn't that how we're supposed to treat others is to do unto them as we would want them to do to us. And so the helping someone in another community be able to learn how to do things instead of like, there's anybody who's had kids and knows this, you can yell at them for doing it wrong and tell them how to do it right. Or you can help them learn how to do it right. And, yes, sometimes learning, helping them learn how to do it right is going to take longer, but they're going to learn how to do it right. So isn't that a better way to do it?

Flatcap: And so showing someone, helping them learn, giving them rationales before, like, here's the thing I always say. If a kid doesn't ask you why, you still need to answer the question why, because they need to understand why they're doing something, what benefit does it make? What initially brought you into Twitch in the first place?

SunshineSgames: ManMaxerZ. He is my IRL brother and he told me about Twitch. Yeah, before him, I had no clue. And I had I'm a stay at home mom and I had an online job and it ended and I didn't know what to do. So I was home playing games with my kids and he's like, as many games as you do when you're looking for work, why don't you do this? Because there's always somebody here playing a game. And so we did this and at that same time, I had just gotten back into picking up my guitar and I have a cousin who's in the praise band at church. And I said, but do you happen to have an extra old guitar somewhere laying around and her husband played the guitar and he said, yeah, here you go. You can have this. So I was thankful to have that. And one of the first songs I learned was praise you in this storm. And I was so excited to share that on stream. And that is how I started.

SunshineSgames: I did play a racing game, Need for Speed, and I played Fortnite with my kids. But the majority of my streams the first year or two were me playing guitar. And I switched back into Fortnite and some other games. And I started modding for people and modding for more people. And I fell into the mod role because I loved it so much more than putting my face out there. My personality is just quiet. I am not a chit chat person. So if I could be in the chat and live on people, I was just fine doing that. And I took a couple of breaks and went to different platforms. And I got to meet new people and they came here to support me. And, yeah, the outdoor ones were awesome. Ukulele. We went to, I had some more breaks because of storms that came along. And everybody's afraid of taking a long break when you're a streamer, whenever you're a content creator because you lose your viewers go down.

SunshineSgames: But that is when God really works on the inside. And he helped me grow and he taught me so much more. And the last break I took, okay, the second to last break I took was when Hurricane Helene hit. And we completely lost all power. There was, nobody had any power. And it took me a couple of days before I even knew I was stuck at my house. But whenever I ended up with the driveway fixed, then I got to go to the Baptist on a mission. And I fell in love with volunteering. And I told my husband, I said, I can't stay here because he wasn't at work. He can stay home with the kids. Everybody's job got flooded. And I was thankful my mom had just remarried. So her new husband and my brothers, they came with chainsaws and tractors and got the tree out of my driveway. And I got to go volunteer. And while I was there, I was just helping people.

SunshineSgames: My tires weren't good enough for me to go out to the location and actually help with the other volunteers. So I stayed at the volunteer center and I cleaned up the rooms that they were staying in and did their laundry. And every room that I cleaned, they gave me Bibles to hand out. So I got to put a Bible or two in each of the rooms. The volunteers were staying up. And come to find out, every time I emptied a box of Bibles, they'd give me another box or two. So I started mailing these out to people on other platforms that I never planned on going to because people were meeting me there too. And so we got to mail out a few Bibles. And if I hadn't have came online, then I would have never had that opportunity to meet the people who needed them. And it's a blessing. So whenever you end up having to take a break, then just know God's working on your inside.

SunshineSgames: And you'll come back with more testimonies to share.

Flatcap: That's fascinating that you talk about that. And I think you're I think you're 100 percent right that there is this fear of taking a break and losing your audience, which which is a weird thought, because this is how television always was. You had a television season. You had nothing all summer. It was all reruns. So they didn't lose viewers when the channel came back on or even just think about football like they take a break. They're not football year round. I don't watch hardly any of it. But, you know, but the people that do, they know exactly when the schedule is and they're ready for it when you come on. So if you if you actually are building relationships instead of building an audience, I think that's the key to having people find you when you come back. And last last episode we had we are Amber Lights on who was also talking about doing intentional breaks.

Flatcap: It's funny how and I was just like we're just reading this in the in the Psalms. I think it was talking about resting and resting in God and blessed is the one who rest in God. And the whole reason for the Sabbath is so that we rest and that we aren't working all the time. We don't have to constantly be working. And so if we are resting, that means we're trusting God. And I love that idea of don't don't fear the break. God has something planned for you in the break and yours wasn't planned. You know, you didn't plan to lose power. It just happened. And then God blessed you in the middle of that break in other ways. Because of it, you you found out, which I'm not surprised at all, that you loved helping and giving back to people because that's all I've seen you do online. And we can get into that a little bit later on.

Flatcap: But do you do you still stay connected with some of the people that you met volunteering there and helping out in person?

SunshineSgames: Yes, I love it. Every chance I get to pop in, then I love being there. And they have a lot less people now, but there's still a great need for it. And I have links in my chat. If anybody wants to come, then you can come. And they have beds and food and laundry and all this stuff you need. And yeah, I love it.

Flatcap: That's really cool. It's interesting. I had several streamer friends that I knew that all got impacted by Helene, lost power, those kinds of things. And it was really fun to see the streamer community rally around several of those people as we were able to, as we knew information, you know, if they had damage to their house, if they lost their equipment to be able to stream. So the love of the community that's not present with you, that can reach out to you is also a really cool thing to have and be able to do with online spaces. Do you still give out Bibles or was that just a season there that you were doing that?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, it was totally a season, but I do still have some. And this one is a King James, but I have the ESB ones and I have one in Spanish. And I know that if I go ask for them, they'll give me more. So yeah, if you need it, but there is very, very tiny print. So beware.

Flatcap: That's a good warning. One of the reasons is trying to keep it down and small so that they don't have like this giant. And the pages are, that's one of the things that was weird to me is how the Bibles have thinner paper than most every other book does. And it's like, this is counterintuitive because this is a book I want to continually use and continually read. And so I'm going to wear the paper out quicker and you're giving me thinner paper. But I know it's all about cost and volume and those kinds of things. But I love that there are several streamers, including yourself, who hand out Bibles, who are willing to give them out. There are people that absolutely need them. We come into people globally and having access, you know, to a Spanish Bible would be necessary or digital Bibles.

Flatcap: You know, those are easier to have, but there's something about having the physical piece of paper in front of you that I still enjoy having and not just electronic. Although that's what I do on my stream. I read it. I read it electronically so everybody can see what I'm reading. With getting started in Twitch, so you started out with some worship streams. What were some struggles that you had getting started with streaming? What was your experience like? What's some advice you could give to people who might be thinking, sure, I could try to do some worship music. What would it be like or how do you do that?

SunshineSgames: I'm not really sure. I think I have a very short attention span and just jump from thing to thing. And that's why I went from the guitar to the racing games to being a mod back to Fortnite to I had crochet streams and a lot of breaks. And my most recent break was not a physical storm like the hurricane, but just another storm on the inside. And I was away from streaming. I was digging into the Bible and just I read through the whole Bible. And whenever I had time to come back to stream, then I didn't even feel like playing Fortnite. I just wanted to play the praise music and pray for people. And I'm still kind of in that phase. Sometimes I'll play the games, but I have a Christian DJ and she makes Christian music. Like, and I'll play that while I'm streaming and yeah, I sometimes you just got to praise through this storm.

Flatcap: I think it's fascinating that some people find one thing and they stick with it and others are always trying and experimenting and doing new things. And somewhat there's the ability to, I don't want to say take yourself too seriously, but to, you know, allow yourself to be in the moment of what is right for you and what's right for others. And I'll go in this direction because I know that you have mentioned many different people that you run into in Twitch and say the friend of yours is going through this and you're always bringing them for prayer. And so that doesn't surprise me at all that, that there's a season where you're in the storm and all you want to do is just pray for others instead of focus on yourself and praise God because he will see you through. So we, we did, and I haven't focused on it recently.

Flatcap: And part of that's been a lot of different things of distraction and whatnot, but we, we early on on my stream did a thing called pass the cap. And I would ask people that, do you know, someone who has a need that we can pass the cap for and we can help. And I can't, I can't tell you how many times sunshine would have somebody and say, my friend here is dealing with this. My friend here is struggling with this. And so probably that first six months, half of them were, were people that you had suggested that we could, we could pass the cap for and help. And the others were people I ran into. And then two or three were probably suggestions from the rest of the larger community for the first six months. And then people started to get the idea and, and come up with ideas. But do you do anything like that yourself other than, and I do still have you share prayer requests with me.

Flatcap: And occasionally the suggestion that we do pass the cap. I just haven't been faithful with it recently. Is that just naturally who you are, or is that something that the platform of Twitch led you to do?

SunshineSgames: I have a friend, he was one of my OG mods and he said this, this is all his words, but I'm so thankful. I got to meet him, the first person who let me mod for them is the place where I met him. And he is on another platform, but he is online and he struggled with some serious IRL stuff. And I actually sent you a picture of his bike. I think it was that person. And he said that he's like, God is moving through you. He said, years ago when we met, it was like five years ago. He said, I didn't talk to God. He said he did not have no relationship with God. And I kind of can't shut up about God. So I'm like, well, there's a Bible verse. It says the first will be last and the last will be first. And because that was what he was feeling at the time. And yeah, he didn't have a relationship with God. And now he's on that other platform and he is reading the Bible to people.

SunshineSgames: He is having people come up and ask them if they know Jesus and their favorite Bible verses. And it's amazing. And disciples making disciples is why we're here.

Flatcap: Oh, I love that. Yeah, the disciples making disciples because our encouragement and connection with others impact us to move on to impact other people. So while people in the stream may not have any idea who you're talking about, they're being impacted by the cross connections that they have. It's, you know, I bring up Pastor Brock VR and unless you were on five, six years ago, he hasn't been on in a while. And people don't know who Pastor Brock VR is, but he is still contributing to what's happening on the space, even though he's not in the space, because I'm in the space and I've impacted people who are now streamers. And so that ripple effect of that discipleship goes on and it impacts down the road and it continues to make an impact. Yeah, Phantom Mythos is saying you miss Pastor Brock VR.

Flatcap: Yeah, Phantom Mythos, Pastor Brock, myself, and Alice in the Palace all got together to go to a museum. So that that was a fun experience to get together with one person I knew and had been in person with and then two people I hadn't that without Pastor Brock, I wouldn't have met. So it's it's pretty fun to to see how those relationships are interwoven and frankly, in ways that we'll never, ever know.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, it's such a blessing, too, because Pastor Brock is awesome. And Alice, I had a very funny first encounter when I met Alice, as we all did. But I said, hey, I just saw this lady get baptized. I don't know who it is, but I'm so happy. And I was like having the hype, praise music. And then Alice pops in chat. That was me.

Flatcap: Wow. Wow. That's that's something to have have been talking about her. And then she shows up and in your chat. That's pretty cool. Alice. Alice was my my first follower. So I was hanging out in other people's streams. And they Pastor Brock kept telling everybody I was going to stream. And I kept saying, no, I'm not. But he said it one day in stream and Alice immediately went and followed me. And then it wasn't until six months later that I that I streamed. So it wasn't like I was planning on doing it or being here. But there's some people who who just on a whim will support and encourage you. And it turns out to be an impact for the kingdom, which is just really fascinating how God does that. So we've been talking about influence and impact. Do you have a couple of stories of of how you've seen people's lives impacted by connections on Twitch?

SunshineSgames: How people's lives have done what?

Flatcap: Like some like impact in somebody's life because of something that happened on stream that you got to be witness to. Or it happened in Discord, just connecting with people that something some stories of positive experiences that you've got to witness on Twitch.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, I have totally had mods and friends who grew and they are friends. They are family. You build relationships with these people, these names and chat. But they are real people with feelings and a life and everybody has their ups and downs. And to watch somebody go up to telling people about Christ whenever they weren't close to Christ. And I have so many mods who are just closer to Christ and so many of mods who brought me closer to Christ, too. And Jay is another person who brings me up as well. And, yeah, I have a big heart for the veterans and I pray for them to be closer to God and knowing just Jay, a veteran who is close to God, it encourages the other ones, too. It's awesome.

Flatcap: Yeah, it's. I think you.

SunshineSgames: I think it's important that we always lift up people like that. And whenever you're online, there's people who ask the same question, how do you stay away from the bad stuff? How do you keep into the good stuff? I keep falling back. I had that problem, too. I always tell people reading Hebrews helped me. But another thing that helps me is staying in the content that you want to be in. You want to be in the good. You want to be away from the bad. I want to stay with the people who are reading the Bible, with the people playing the praise music, with the people who are asking people, how can I pray for you? That's where I want to stay. And people will jump from the music community, to the Fortnite community, to the racing game community. And being in the Christian community is just like you're in, you're outside in the sunshine.

SunshineSgames: You're not in a dark room with bad music and bad stuff playing on the table. You got Bibles on the table now. You got the praise music still in your head. You got people lifting you up, asking how they can pray for you. And it makes a difference, the environment you put yourself in, even if it is through a screen.

Flatcap: It does make a big difference to the environment you put yourself in. And we can see it all around. It's so easy to be able to witness what is a thing that you are investing your time and energy into. The person that, and I'm not picking on anybody, but the person that spends, you know, 20 hours a week at the gym is thinking about fitness all the time versus the person that goes out to the bar 20 hours a week. They're not thinking about fitness and the atmosphere, the people you hang out with. And it could be anything. I mean, you can spend 20 hours at Starbucks, you know, drinking coffee. You're going to become like the people you hang around with. It's one of the reasons why the disciples start to look like Jesus because they hung out with Jesus. They start to sound like Jesus. They start to reflect Jesus because they had been with them.

Flatcap: And I love that that's what it says in Acts when they heal a man and they're brought into court. It's they could see these were uneducated men who had been with Jesus. Like not they were educated men, not that they were wonderful men. They had been with Jesus. That was what was evident by how they conducted themselves, how they acted. And so I think that's very true. Who you hang out with is going to impact you, the things you allow to have influence in your life. Yeah, it's a big deal. Now, let's go back to you were talking about veterans and there are different groups of lost and lonely people online and lost for various reasons. Not knowing where to go, not having direction in life can be a reason for being lost. Lost in regards to relationship with God can be another aspect. So I'm just giving the big general category there. And lonely. There are a lot of lonely people.

Flatcap: You can be lonely because of mental health. You can be lonely because you don't have family around you. You can be lonely because you're isolated. You're a homebound person. You've got physical disability. So there's lots of reasons why somebody could be lost or lonely. And you found yourself particularly migrating to those who have served in the military. Is there something that just draws you to them?

SunshineSgames: Yeah. My grandpas were both there. And I have good friends whose husbands have been there. And my son aspires and dreams to go there too. And my dad, he wanted to, but he had a muscle disease and they didn't allow him in. So when he came back, all his friends got to go, but he didn't. And it was his idea. So he formed the rescue squad. And today we call it the EMS, the EMT here in this county. Before that, they had to wait for three hours for the ambulance to get there. And him doing that, it brings along some trauma. And you remember stuff that you don't really want to remember. And being in that environment where people pray for you and lift you up and you get the virtual hugs. And you, I tell people, even though we saw some stuff that we didn't want to see, we learn from that to be more cautious.

SunshineSgames: And we get to share with other people how you should be cautious and look out for this, be prepared for this. And it can really help to have a different outlook.

Flatcap: Yeah, it absolutely can. And I like how you brought up and through your father, unable to go, but then having a call in another direction to do EMT work, the trauma of seeing things that you don't necessarily want to witness and experience. And how do you deal with those afterwards? Because, yeah, it is first responders in the in-country and it is service members overseas that witness horrible things that people do. I was not an EMT, but I did work as a chaplain and I would work in the ER for a bit of time. And yeah, I saw things I never want to see again, a gunshot wounds, death, various different levels of what that is. And I was only doing that for a semester while I was going through seminary. So it was, you know, it was not an extensive long term. I did have on one occasion nine deaths in an overnight period of time, which was a lot of deaths to deal with in an eight hour shift.

Flatcap: You know, it's like a death every hour plus an extra one just to, you know, make sure. But I felt God's presence all the way through that as I was ministering to other people. A couple of those deaths were somebody waiting to go see Jesus. And I got to share the joy with the family as they were celebrating their loved one going to see Jesus because they knew it was time. But I also had the tragic side of that with a mom dying, you know, after giving birth to a child. Like, so it's like the whole spectrum of things of life and death in the palm of hands. And people need people to walk alongside of them. And so I'm so thankful for your call and compassion to those people who have experienced that kind of trauma. And then they're trying to cope with life. And it's not always easy to cope with life after experiencing such trauma.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, thank you. It really helps to think of a viewpoint of being prepared because in life you have storms and you need to be prepared for it. And to understand that, hey, this could happen if you don't slow down or if you don't look around the corner, this could be there. So be prepared and be cautious. You, everything is a learning experience. And to be able to have, like, whenever the hurricane happens, we don't have many hurricanes here in the mountains. But you have a backpack ready with the bandages and the blankets and the water and the flashlights and the stuff you need. And it can make a big difference in somebody else having a better life if you can help prepare them through it.

Flatcap: That's an interesting comparison there. Of a hurricane coming, you, though you don't live where they happen frequently, you knew enough to have something ready for when it happens and to be able to respond to help people. But at times it feels like people that suffer from trauma and traumatic, you know, experiences, we don't always have a backpack ready to aid them when it's mental health things that they're dealing with. And we don't know how to triage them. We don't know how to sit with them. They make us uncomfortable. And so instead of, you know, we're really like James saying, be warm and be filled and go on because I don't know how to help you. Instead of just sitting and sometimes knowing that what they need at times, it's just someone to be with them. And that sometimes is the best gift that you can give people is just being with them.

SunshineSgames: It is. Yes, it really is. After my driveway got fixed and I was able to get out, I went to the church very first place. And they have a little church now. But I told my kids, I said, I've never been there before. But these ladies ran up to me. Hey, do you need this? Do you need this? They were so generous and welcoming. You had to go say hi. And whenever I got to my home church, then there were people coming in. Hey, I need a mattress. My, I don't have no clothes. Everything's gone. And you could see God's timing. Because as soon as somebody said, I need blank, there is somebody right behind it. He said, I have blank. And not many people have a mattress on hand or a big freezer on hand or a camping stove on hand. But you could totally see God's timing. And whenever I came back from taking my breaks, and I would do nothing but play the praise music and say, how can I pray for you?

SunshineSgames: Because that was all I could do to praise through the storm. And that is when people came in and said, yeah, I need help. I need people to be with me and lift me up. And that's why that mod is over there preaching to people now. And it's God's timing. I met him years ago. We had no food. None of these storms were going to happen. And God planted that seed years ago for him to come back to me. I mean, I'm no big name. And yeah, God's timing is amazing. And we had a bucket of powdered milk. And we got to hand that out. My brother was going up the back roads. And it was a blessing to be able to give him a bag of powdered milk to take to babies who needed milk. And to have stuff on hand, to have Bibles to send to people who don't have one. Then it can change a life. It's a blessing. All this suffering that we do. This is something I had to learn. All the suffering you go through.

SunshineSgames: God really does use that to teach you how to help others through those same storms.

Flatcap: Yeah. And it doesn't have to be the same storm. It is something, though, that if we instead of focusing on why is this happening to me and what did I do wrong, and we focus on the blessings that we have in the middle of it. You know, I've been in and through storms. I've even had a tree fall on my house. It didn't crush my house. It just fell on the house. So that was thankful it didn't do anything worse. But, and I know people who've lost their house. I mean, they've been like far worse conditions than I have ever been in. And I'm always, I don't say always, I am able to, if I choose to, reflect on it's not as bad as it could be. And maybe God was protecting me from it being even worse. And so there, maybe that's why I also enjoy going and doing, you know, disaster relief.

Flatcap: I know when the, when Helene went through, I really wished there was a way I could have gone and, and helped and been a part of it. It was just a little bit too far on the, too far away to travel and, and be able to get there and, and to help. I didn't have connections. Most of the people I had connections with were all in the middle of needing help. And so, so that didn't turn out to be something I could do, but I've done it before and I'm sure it'll happen again. The, but I think it's really a matter of our heart posture of, do we have a heart that is breaking for and having compassion for the people in need? Or are we having a, I'm, I'm better than that person. And they did something to be in the situation that life's put them in.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, you can still see signs of people helping others through the storms. Now there's people, there's people searching rescue and there's still eight dump trucks in the road. Anytime you go out and you do still want to help people. And that's the same way with coming back on here, even though I didn't feel up to play in the game. And I still wanted to come and let people know I'm here to pray for you and people come in and they still talk to you.

Flatcap: Yeah. And that's a good point as well that, yeah, there are still dump trucks there. They just because Helene, what was it? Two years ago or is it three? I lose track of it because I'm not there. It, it's still going to be years before recovery is fully there. I mean, I've, I've gone to places in Florida or Louisiana and seen a decade later, there are still houses that will have a tarp on them because they still have damage from a hurricane a decade ago. And they haven't been able to get the insurance taken care of or the money to repair it or the suppliers to be able, or the, you know, the contractors to do the work, or they had someone who took advantage of them. Like there's still disaster that's going to be dealt with for the next five or 10 years still after Helene went through.

SunshineSgames: And yeah, yeah, yeah, these volunteer groups at the church, they've been here for months and maybe a year and we're thankful they're there. And it filled up the churches. I've never seen the church so full and to be able to come back here and see people still saying, Hey, where do you pray for me? There's still a need for people too.

Flatcap: Yeah. So we've mentioned this a number of times. Do you have any stories of impact of prayer on stream? I mean, there's somebody came in with an urgent prayer request, you're able to pray with them. And how did that story turn out?

SunshineSgames: What story?

Flatcap: You mentioned that you have people asking for prayer. So do you have a story of someone who came in asking for prayer? They're like urgently needed prayer and you prayed for them. So do you have any stories like that? And then what happened afterwards?

SunshineSgames: Yeah. One of my mods, whenever I had the opportunity to mail out the Bibles, then she said, you know, I haven't been to church in years and I don't think I have a Bible. And I said, here, I've been handed some to mail out. So I was able to mail her a Bible and now she's texting me saying, Hey, I want to get baptized. And I want to get baptized at your church. I'm like, okay, that's cool. And she kept me encouraged enough to share my church live streams. The only regular stream I have is my Sunday stream when I share church.

Flatcap: Oh, that's really cool. I remember you doing that. I haven't, haven't poked in there in a while. So how are you sharing your church's stream live? I mean. Whenever I get to church. Yeah. Tell us how you're doing that. Yeah. Yeah. Are you giving me that fight purse? The fight purse. Thank you. The mod who wants to get baptized. It's missing. It's not in here. She made me a big phone holder.

SunshineSgames: So when I go to church, then I have a bag that has a purse, a purse that has a Bible and a phone holder. So I can stand it up and record this stream. Whenever I go there in person and she really encouraged me to keep going. And if it wasn't for all of her encouragement, then I wouldn't have been in church as much as I am. And I have made IRL friends in the church and they invited my son's friends to church and they got baptized. So it's so cool. And yeah, they have a live stream and I'll share it. And I have people in chat who, hey, I miss church. I'm so glad you're here sharing it. And yeah, it's great to be able to do it.

Flatcap: That's really cool. So I love that you're doing that. Are you usually engaged in the chat while the service is going on? So you're chatting with people or do you just set the camera up and just let it go until the end of service and then chat with people?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, I used to do it like that. And I met a girl and she had people come in with the prairie press and she was like the preacher's granddaughter or something. So she would interrupt him and she said, hey, I have this person on my phone and they're asking for prayer. So let's pray for them now. And he would.

Flatcap: I love that.

SunshineSgames: Yeah.

Flatcap: That's really cool.

SunshineSgames: Yes. I got a new pastor at the church that I attend and he is so supportive. It's a blessing to have a pastor who is supportive of online. And I've had ones before, they're like, afraid of it. They say, yeah, good for you. And that's it. But this one is so encouraging. He's paid shipping to help me mail out the Bibles. He's bought a pink Bible because somebody wanted one that's pink. And it might have took him half a year to mail it, but he's supportive of it. And yeah, it's great to have that support.

Flatcap: Oh, definitely. That is really good. And I also think that part of it, and I'm going to work on writing, is as we do stuff online, we really need to be focused on not making people spectators, but allowing them to be participants in what's happening. And part of what people did in COVID is they just went online to whatever platform they could stream live on and they didn't engage people. And maybe they acknowledge them with a hello, everybody watching online at the beginning of the service. And then you never speak to them the rest of the time. Like, you made them a spectator. It's just like the evening news where he says, welcome in, everybody. It's evening news. And he gets to the end. He says, and I'll see you here tomorrow. He's not seeing me. He's got no relationship with me. That's what we've done to church in many ways.

Flatcap: But you're taking that in a different direction by having the relationship piece of it where you're engaging with people. And that's what I think we need to figure out with a church. And like I said, that's one of the things I want to, I'm doing a bunch of blogs this year. That'll be the next one that I write. So by the time this podcast is out, start looking for it on the Church Digital website. And we do have a new section where the blogs are at. So it'll be under my category there. You'll be able to find it there. We did have a question in the chat, Samarella. I did see your question. I just wanted to finish where the conversation went there first. So asking the question about, is it mandatory to be baptized? Because you were talking about being excited about baptisms happening. So mandatory depends on what do you mean by mandatory.

Flatcap: Is it important for salvation or necessary for salvation? No, it is not. Mandatory in the sense of Jesus told us to go and baptize people in his name. Then I would say, yes, if you're talking about fulfilling what Jesus told us to do, to baptize and to be baptized. But what we are doing is claiming the promises of God when we baptize, that they are for us and for our children, for those near and those who are far off. We are claiming all of the promises of God. We are showing obedience to Jesus. We are showing our loyalty to Jesus, whether that is for us or our children. And you can be on different sides of the children baptized or not. I still think it means the same thing. So those are all the reasons why we would do it. I also don't think we should do it lightly. I do think that we need to know what it means, why we're doing it, what are we seeking to do.

Flatcap: And there's an aspect that is a public profession of our loyalty to Christ that happens in baptism. So those are all the reasons why people do it. I love that your mod is like wanting to be baptized at your church. Is that going to happen? Have you figured out how to make that happen? I don't know how far away your mod is, if it's a long journey or a short journey. But have you figured out how to make the baptism happen?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, it's not going to be a short journey unless I get some help from somebody who's in my DMs. And they can make it short, but they have some storms they're going through. And I understand that completely. But this pastor that is at the church I attend, he is so supportive. And he's texting my mod. My mod is texting the pastor at the church I attend. Yeah, I love it. And yeah, they're trying to figure out the days. And yeah, it's wonderful. And whenever my son's friend got baptized, he was so excited to do it. And it's sad to know that in his home, he doesn't have that Christian support from his family. And I thought I texted another friend's mom and I said, hey, this kid's getting baptized. Why don't you come and give him some support? And I told a teacher, I said, hey, let's go support this kid and lift him up and encourage him.

SunshineSgames: And whenever the pastor started, he said that he felt the Holy Spirit telling him to wait, that there was going to be more people come up to get baptized who didn't have a change of clothes. And so instead of doing it at the beginning of service, he said, only a few people know I'm going to do it now, but I'm going to wait because the Holy Spirit said to. So he waited until the end of his sermon to do it. And then that kid's friend also came up. And a couple more people came up. And it's just an excitement. But whenever you're filled with the Spirit and you just, you can't keep it in, it's so good. You got to share it. And baptism is a public where you want to share it with people and say, hey, this is good. I want to share it with you. Come and share this moment with me. It's amazing.

Flatcap: Yeah, that sounds like a really great moving of the Spirit. I love how you worded that. Samarella, following up with the question, been told, including myself, that following Jesus, like following his footsteps, is enough to let you be at peace, if you got that right. Just curious if you have to be baptized to fulfill that. No, you don't. I mean, the thief on the cross is the example that shows us that it's not a necessary thing to be at peace with God or to have peace with Jesus. However, one of the things that it does is it marks you and seals you as God's own forever. So it's a way for us to be, you know, have a sign and a seal of God upon us. So it's also, you know, can be making a public declaration of our faith and doing those things. So why would we, if we have and when we have an opportunity to do that, not want to join in doing it?

Flatcap: In some ways, there is an outward kind of pledge of loyalty that we go through in baptism when we make that declaration. So we can also then turn back to when we struggle in life and see, yes, I have been baptized. I have made that declaration. I have, you know, I can hold on to and cling to that moment in time when I was washed clean and washed new. So those are some of the reasons why we do it. I don't know if I'm fully going to answer your question to the extent that you will want me to. So it's not necessary in that standpoint of to have a relationship. It is something that you would want to do to signify and demonstrate the relationship. So in the same way that I have a ring on my finger that shows I'm in relationship with my wife, it's not necessary. There's no rule. There's no law. There's nothing that says if I don't have a ring on my finger that I'm not married.

Flatcap: It's just what I choose as a sign and a symbol to show that relationship. And baptism is one of those things that shows the sign and the seal of our relationship. So. Just curious if she is a twin because Donnalise, because it looks so much alike. You failed. OK, in a way you felt like God won't accept me if I'm not baptized. But I was also having the feeling of it's not necessary. Well, and I would say if and when you are ready, Sam, it can be really, really powerful for some people in the moment of baptism. I've even heard stories. I've not witnessed this one myself, but I know several pastor friends of mine who and part of the thing that you do in baptism is renounce Satan and the power of Satan in the world. So you are, you know, putting your allegiance in Jesus that there have been.

Flatcap: I'll just say it for lack of a better way to describe exorcisms that happened at baptism where an evil spirit had been tormenting or possessing or in whatever way you want to describe it upon a person. And in baptism, there was release of that because of the power of the anointing of the spirit of God and the presence of Jesus in that moment of baptism that the evil spirit fled and the person was freed from those. I've heard I've heard I've heard multiple stories of that. I'm not saying it happens all the time, but just saying, wow, what a powerful thing that can happen at baptism for people who who really have had traumatic lives and the power of Satan was upon them trying to keep them from coming to God. Samarella, you just want to let us both know something and you may also to whoever cares and chat.

Flatcap: Yeah, there are plenty of here who absolutely would love an update on anything Samarella. So if you put that in chat, I would love to hear that. Sunshine, you know, Samarella. Yeah, never from your chat, from your stream. OK, OK. She she she she sounded like she knew you. And I was like, I I never know who fully knows people in chats because they do get shared across others. But she's had some some major health issues and things and we prayed for her. So we're talking about answers to prayer. She was, you know, boy, it was over a year ago, was in a coma and did not think she was coming out of the coma whatsoever. And answers to prayers. Definitely. Samarella has been a lot of answers to prayer. So people who've been on the pod or listen to the podcast certainly know.

SunshineSgames: Sam, yeah, I remember their friend coming in chat, giving the updates, too.

Flatcap: So Sam is your online name and your real name is Siria, which most people have no idea how to pronounce. I hope I'm saying that right. Sir, Siria. I know you're trying to spell it differently to help me pronounce it right, but I still might have got it wrong. So thank you for sharing that, letting us know a little bit more about you. So one of those things that people begin to do when they trust you, they they allow you a little bit more information of getting to know you and know more about you when they know that they you can be trusted and you build those relationships. You move people from lurkers to connectors to community to friends and and that's what we're all all striving to do in some way online. She's one of your inspirations to pull through your difficulties in life. Sunshine is such an inspiration in that way.

Flatcap: What you know, one of those things where sometimes people's names are just fantastic, like Sunshine, like if I just need, you know, someone to encourage me. Sunshine is is the one like, yeah, going to be a ray of sunshine in the middle of the day, no matter what is going on. So I just I just love that.

SunshineSgames: Thank you so much. And the same goes for you. You uplift so many people like Sam and Sam's friend came in to you. And yeah, it's amazing how being here can uplift people. That's that's why I'm here. That's why all the people in and chatter here. And I love it.

Flatcap: So we were we were we were chatting a little bit about, you know, uplifting stories, places where we've inter inter interacted with people answers to prayer. Do you have any other other stories of that of things that have been, you know, a blessing in your stream?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, just getting to meet more people who are, who are seeking to do more good. And there is a DJ out here now doing a Bible study and. He is reaching a totally different crowd than the people that I reach. And I'm so excited to see what's going to come out of that. It's not from my stream. I didn't meet him in my stream. Just under the Christian tag. But, yeah, you've made so many people being here and you to inspire people to give them more faith and to never give up and to keep the hope. That's what it's all about.

Flatcap: I love it. Like I used to have time to to just go and explore and find new people. I haven't had that for a while, but it's people like you who are doing that and I did that for a season and then you can bring those people to get like the going to the DJs and find like I was finding the people who are doing music. I was just looking under the music category before they, you know, had a DJ category or. Going and searching with the Christian tag, finding people before they had that, I was just trying to search people out and find them. Once you connect with someone and then you get them within the community and then this is one of the beautiful things of rating out at the end of a stream where you can take people and introduce them to someone else who can introduce them to someone else.

Flatcap: So if you brighten someone's day, which you do, sunshine, and and you hang out for a while and then you bring them to someone else, you're leaving them in good hands and you're moving them to someone else where they can still get a little bit brighter in their day, a little bit more encouragement. So that if they're not ready for the rest of their day, they're still someplace with someone else that sometimes, you know, a lot about, sometimes, you know, a little bit about, but you can bring them over and introduce them to others who hopefully can carry them along a little bit further throughout the day and whatever they need.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, it makes such a big difference.

Flatcap: Well, let's, let's flip this around a little bit. What have been some struggles that you've had with streaming? I know we talked about the hurricane and all of that, but what have been some other things? Have you had struggles with being a mom and keeping a schedule? Have you had struggles with things that happen in your community that roll over into, you know, problems with, you know, credibility or anything like that, that, you know, issues on stream? Or have you just had life situations that have gotten in the way of streaming? What have been some difficult things you've faced as a streamer?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, there's totally been difficulties and having the people, those amazing mods and chat who come in and get rid of all the toxic behavior that can happen in chat is, is this so different? It makes such a big difference. It can be the difference of somebody continuing to stream even. And yeah, I'm just so thankful to have mods who block out that toxic environment from coming in. And because all the darkness is, is an absence of light. And whenever you have mods who shine that light, it makes the world a difference. And to carry that on into IRL, there's going to be storms that hit us, whether it's a hurricane or relationships. And you have to continue to keep that faith. One of my favorite Bible verses I recently made into a memory verse is John 13, 7. And let me put it in chat just so I don't get it wrong. But it says like, what happens today, you don't know, but you will one day.

SunshineSgames: And let's see. Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this. And another one is Romans 12, 12. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, and continuing in prayer. Pray through these storms. Blast your praise music. Because we don't know why we're facing the stuff that we're facing. But in one of the hardest things I've had to face, a couple of them. You see God's timing shine. And you can see how it could lead to a miracle in somebody else's life. And only God could know that. It would come out of such a devastating situation. And yeah, I'm just so thankful for the light that God brings and the hope.

Flatcap: Yeah, I really like that image you're saying of the... And I've pointed this out many times. Darkness is not a thing. Darkness is the absence of light. So it's just the void of light being there. So your mods shining light into your stream brings the light to the darkness and counters the darkness. Which is such a good thing. And I was struggling for the word you used to write. Toxic. The toxic environment that can come in. Because if you're using the Christian stream, people could come in and try to attack you for using that. They control you. They can attack you. They can attack you for being a woman playing Fortnite. I mean, there's so many different levels at which being a female gamer on Twitch, being a streamer in the space, being an open Christian in the space. You are a lightning rod for the toxicity to come in.

Flatcap: So other than having good mods who are helping you, are there other secrets that you've figured out of how to handle the toxicity that you face as a streamer, as a Christian streamer?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, I had to block the DMs for a time. And it's there. It's a dark place. But it happens to everybody. It's like we were talking about another streamer earlier in chat. Somebody put a name. And they had to close their DMs, too. They said, only my spouse is going to read them. They just let everybody know right off the bat, if you DM me, my spouse is going to read it. I'm not going to read it. And my spouse will probably reply to you.

Flatcap: That's a very interesting strategy. I haven't heard that one. I do know a number of well. And that's one of the nice things on discord. If you're on discord is you can have it. So only friends can DM you. So you can give the person privilege to do that once you know the person. But until you know the person, they can't just do that and harass you and do DMs. And there's some communities that just say no direct messages. You chat in the chat where other people can see it. So there's always two or three people there to prevent the toxicity on one level. Another is, yeah, if they're being a problem or causing other issues. And also to, you know, keep away from temptation. All of those are good reasons to do it. But I've not heard of the, my spouse is going to be the one who reads all of the things you send me. That's an interesting way to do it for sure.

Flatcap: To be a screener, to be a, you know, a helpful person to keep you away from the toxicity. I think that's just, you know, and it doesn't have to be a spouse. Just someone else will read these. I won't read them. I have a mod for those to protect me, a barrier to keep me from the harmful things. Because frankly, it doesn't matter who you are, even as a pastor. You know what? Like, it's so true. Like, for every negative thing you hear, you need 10 positive things to be equal. Like, 10 positives are equal to one negative. That's how our brains work. Okay? We'll focus on the one negative. We need to get 10 positives just to get back to zero. So the same would be true. I could have, you know, 100 people after the service come up to me and say, hey, that was a great sermon, pastor. Really appreciated it. It spoke to me.

Flatcap: And I have one person that comes up and says a negative thing about the sermon or the music worship. Or something like, all I can think about is the negative thing. It's like so hard to not focus on that one thing. Oh, I need to do better. Oh, I need to make it better. Oh, I didn't do that right. Oh, I misspoke. Oh, I think the negative just is like a worm that just, you know, earworm just gets in there and it's stuck and you can't get rid of it. A negative thought just creeps in and it's so hard to get rid of. So I like that level of let's prevent it from happening. Let's let's stay away from it. Avoid that. If someone truly does need to reach you, there are discord communities where they can say things publicly. They can request prayer. They can do all of those things in a group. It doesn't have to be private to be able to to do that.

Flatcap: So for and I also think it's just good common sense to have things on the up and up and available for other people to know, hey, what you think is private isn't always private. It's it. We're in a public place. You're viewing a stream. You're part of a community. We're not going to make this private. You're joining the community. We want everyone in the community to know what what other people should say and do and how we behave towards one another. So, yeah, have you come up with any other strategies besides that? Things to do to keep you from the toxicity?

SunshineSgames: I think Siri bought the CRI that really helps keep out a lot of stuff and finding more people who are super encouraging to people. And loving people and having the mercy that God has for people really makes a difference because in one of the last streams that I did on a different platform, somebody came in my chat and there was somebody coming in to attack me and they were there just loving all loving. I mean, you couldn't nobody could get a punch in on that guy. He was just so loving towards this person. And it makes so much difference to have those people who are going to fill you up with love. Even IRL, that's one of the reasons I love the Volunteer Center so much and why I love being in your stream so much because you fill up people with this light that is so needed. I don't I don't I don't I can't I don't understand how people can go through life without it.

SunshineSgames: And it's important to surround yourself with it. IRL and through the screen, make sure you have uplifting people around you.

Flatcap: Yeah, absolutely. Constantly knowing those people. I mean, there's certain people that if I'm having a bad day, I know I just need to go hang out with them for a while and I won't have a bad day anymore. You know, so, yeah, those people that are going to fill you up there, they're always overflowing, you know, into you, lifting you, saying saying things that you need to hear things, you know, are true. But you just need to hear them and being able to be an encouragement. Yeah, that is so important to have those things and even building that time in your day, too. I think it's important. One of the reasons why ukulele was here earlier, she's probably still lurking and working. I love going to her in the morning is I'm starting with praise and worship. I love I love that aspect of start today with praise and worship.

Flatcap: So no matter, like I had a bad dream last night or I'm feeling tired, I'm not ready for the day, you know, a couple of songs in the morning are going to move me in the right direction. And there's other people in the chat who are going to do that. There's so many wonderful friends that I have online that I can go or I can DM and I can say, hey, just not feeling it today and know that they're going to be around. So I love that you're doing the same thing. You're having some of those IRL people, you're having some of those online people so that you're never more than a tap on the shoulder away from I just need a hug right now and someone able to do that. Now, I do do like the in-person hugs better than the IRL hugs. I'll be glad when VR figures out how to actually make you feel the hug. If someone gives you a hug in VR, that'd be really cool.

Flatcap: I don't think, I think it's a matter of time and we'll get that, but I got, like I was on vacation last week and it was funny. I got introduced to, and to meet someone for the first time and they're like, I'm a hugger. I'm like, cool, let's hug. I just met you. Let's hug. I don't have the hugs enough. So that was really cool. Oh yeah. VR hugs can feel so close to. Yeah. It's, it's even more personal. It's a closer level. And I phantom, I know, you know, that it's a closer level than just exclamation point hug. I can feel the emotion of it. I can't feel it, but with a VR hug, I can see it. And that does have a different feel of seeing the, seeing the hug, uh, as well. But I, I still, I still, I still know there's ways we could get sensory things that would be able to feel, which would be really cool. Just haven't got those yet. You probably have to have a special shirt on or something.

Flatcap: I don't know. Well, well, maybe we'll go there. If there's money in it, we'll go there.

SunshineSgames: One of the things I loved about modding right off the bat was greeting people when they come into chat and there was a hug command and I hugged everybody. People are like, really? Everybody? Yep. Everybody needs a hug.

Flatcap: Exactly. Everybody needs a hug. And now there are some people who, who do not like even the virtual hugs. They're, they're anti-huggers and they know who they are and they usually let you know that. But I'm like, come on, you can at least get the sentiment of the virtual hug. We're sharing. We care and appreciate you. And we want you to feel welcome, which, you know, introverts, I get in person, like finding out you're the visitor and everybody wanting to hug you and touch you. I get that in person. And some people want to just lurk online too. So I get all of that. But I love the aspect that we can show care for one another. And that's what I see what's happening when people give virtual hugs to one another. Are there, are there some other things that you've learned over your time at streaming that would just be helpful to share with other people?

SunshineSgames: Yeah, continue to share that love and that mercy. Everybody needs the love. And you had a thing early on about loneliness in your stream. And I knew somebody who was going through that and he had the online friends to pull him out of that. And it made a huge difference in his life to have a friend in Australia mail him Maramite, the yucky steak sauce. I'm sorry if you like it. I can't stand it. But it made his day to get that. And, yeah, having people like that makes a huge difference. And help with streaming is people who know the tech and can help you with the tech. And there is a new person I was introduced to who learned how to make his own bot. And he could add all the commands. And he wouldn't need, like, 10 bots to do it because he made a bot that could do all of it. So that's pretty cool. It's helpful.

Flatcap: Yeah, there are some really skilled people out there with doing things. We talked about CeriBot, which is a fantastic one for keeping, you know, phantom raids and bots botting your stream and all of that stuff keeps a whole bunch of stuff out. But beyond that, learning from the community, the online community is so ready.

SunshineSgames: Hey, I need my phone.

Flatcap: There's such a great ability to ask within the community and say, hey, I need this or I need to learn about this or what can I do that they'll jump in and show you that. I've even had people talking about, you know, you're learning a game. Like, people want to backseat, you know, what's going on in a game. But if you don't know the game, let them backseat. Let them tell you how to play it. Let them show you the right thing to do or how to do it and move in. I was talking about is people helping one another. The asking about how to do something in stream, like right there, if I wouldn't have, you know, seen it was a problem. I just all of a sudden, you know, after you mentioned, wait a minute, my box isn't showing up on the stream together that it's there. But I did look at the microphone output and it was showing good.

Flatcap: So not like if I didn't know that I had to look in two different places and that it was a problem of the stream together and it wasn't a problem of the OBS. Like, it would take maybe 20 minutes of people helping me to learn. But I mean, I know that now. And, you know, it's one of those things where when we got on before stream and trying to figure out the stream together and it was just a matter of echoing through. And it's like, you're going to have to get headphones to keep your mic from picking me up because I'm blasting through and coming back through. And I'm hearing myself double and you're hearing it. It's like, like, I love the community of Twitch itself that is friendly and helpful for them overall. Not every place, not everyone, but overall. And the Christian community is so much that way.

Flatcap: Like, I'm not saying there aren't times where we don't have that creep in of jealousy of I've been on the platform longer than this person and they're blowing up and I'm not. I'm not saying we don't have those problems that we, you know, cause ourself. But I'm saying the genuine desire to help others because we want to see more Christians in the space is here in such a beautiful way of, sure, I'll help you figure that out so that you can be better at what God's calling you to do is such a vibe in the community. It's why we have places like Reach Conference, NCMS, Hopeful Disasters, and Digital Creators for Christ, DC4C, TCD. We're all out here trying to encourage, support, learn from one another, build up one another so the body of Christ is fully equipped to do all the work God's calling us to do in digital spaces.

Flatcap: So I just love that spirit of collaboration and contribution and empowering and encouraging, which is what we started with of you just jumped in and let me, let me be a mod for you. Great. Cause I don't really know how to train a mod or how to ask for a mod. So you volunteering, I'm like, I'm not turning that down. I'm saying yes to that. And I know you're not as regular on my stream with your life schedule and all of that stuff as, as you were, uh, several years ago, but it's, it's still an essential piece of my journey that you were there at the beginning.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, it was great to see a new Christian streamer pop up and I love being in the chat greeting people and I don't have as much time to do that now. I moved my kids to online school, so the device is not being used for streaming as much as it is math, but that's needed. And I get to, I'm thankful that I get to help others who are coming in and being new to it too. And whenever you're new, I feel like that's when people need a lot of encouragement because it's so easy not to keep going whenever you're new. I never thought I would be here for five or six years. And especially with as many breaks as I've checked, like every two years I take a big break, I'll have something come up. But being here and knowing people and being able to help people is, it's why we're here. And I have a bookmark we made in, in Bible school one year.

SunshineSgames: And I don't think my camera will focus on this, but it has, it is full of names of Christian streamers. I have met online and I get to pray for them and it helps so much to, to pray for people.

Flatcap: That's really cool. I like that. Like, you know, I, I, I go, I go the sticker route. Like you got a sticker, give me a sticker. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put it on here. I also have my, in addition to my, my two, you know, tea mugs, I've got two water bottles on my bike covered with stickers. I've got my luggage. I travel with covered with stickers, which my, my luggage wheel is totally shot and broken. And so I'm like, I hate to get rid of this suitcase with a broken wheel because that was a lot of work to get all those stickers that are on my suitcase. And I'm going to have to get a new suitcase and start over with stickers because I don't think I can take them off and transfer them. But it's, it's fascinating the connections and relationships there and the different ways that we can be thinking about.

Flatcap: Like, yeah, like I could just sit here and a lot of these have been on the podcast, North Hill Live, B Gilbert, Hopeful Disasters, NERCH. I haven't had NERCH on the podcast. They're, they're, they're nerd church Germany for those that do not know. But those are just such wonderful aspects of being in relationship that, like, I pray on my stream at 10.02 for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Luke 10.2 for God to send more workers in the harvest. And man, I've been praying that for two years on stream, I think. And watching that God is, there are constantly new people who are on in new categories, doing new things who will reach people. I will never end up seeing because I'm only on a limited time and they're not on when I'm streaming. And so to see what God is up to and what he's doing and the connections is, is just, it's just so fun that way.

Flatcap: I love that you have that bookmark with streamer names that you can just be thinking about, even when you're not in stream with them to be reminded of, of those people that God is using.

SunshineSgames: Yeah. Yeah, it's a blessing to know so many people and it's grown. The number of people has grown and the writing gets smaller and smaller and the stickers get moved to a second luggage. And I have your recent sticker on the back of my laptop here. And I still have the bit dude in my room and I don't know where to put it. I like it too much. I don't want to put it somewhere else because then I can't put it somewhere else.

Flatcap: Well, I can always get another one down the road too. So I think I have the bit dude in the little tiny one. I love the super tiny like that. I like, I'm inclined to, I haven't done it yet. The next time I get stickers is to make the sticker so super small like that. So I can cut the sticker into nine stickers, you know, like the, the, the two and a half or three inch one, cut it into nine little stickers and give them out as little tiny ones. Cause like I could still fit a sticker right there if it was small enough or up here, but nobody's stickers are small enough. They, they go with the big size. So I'm thinking that might be what I try to do is, is miniature stickers so that there's always a spot that they could fit, which I think would be fun.

Flatcap: Do you have anything that you're planning or looking forward to this year that stream related, whether it's something you're going to do in stream or whether it's get together with streamers anywhere. Do you have any, anything that you're planning on doing this year or you're looking forward to?

SunshineSgames: I need to be planning something. I had, I didn't know I'd still be here, so I need to be planning something and, um, I know that it'll involve my newest friend's praise music that she makes and I've been playing that a lot and yeah, I need to be planning.

Flatcap: Yeah.

SunshineSgames: It's hard for me to make plans.

Flatcap: Okay. Well, and I know some people are not planners. I'm, I'm one of those people that plans and I like book stuff out. Like I, I, I have, uh, like the month of October and November with plans all the way through. So if you want to get on my calendar, like December is going to be the easier place to get on my calendar than, than in next month. Because, because, because I do a lot of planning and things and, and trying to, to coordinate it's, it's a job in and of itself sometimes it seems like. Yeah. So, but I was going to mention you, you mentioned your, your new friend that you've been hanging out with, who's doing music. Some, I just had, I'm trying to think of who it was. I just had a conversation with someone who was talking about how they like highlighting new Christian streamer music on their stream. And I can't remember who it was, uh, that was mentioning that to me.

Flatcap: If I think about it, I'll have to try to connect you. I don't, I don't remember if it was like revocation radio who plays music or if it was a streamer that just, I don't remember who it was, uh, that was talking about that. But just, there are, there are people out there that, that are making music and there are people out there that are trying to share music. I know several creators of, of music out there and I, I love connecting whether they're Christian or not Christian. There is beauty in music and appreciating the beauty of it is just something that I, I really thoroughly enjoy with, with music. Although for the most part, I'm more inclined to have a song that's 20, 25 years old and enjoy it more than a brand new song. I've never good at, uh, you know, you, we're going to, we're going to sing it through once and then have the congregation say, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not ready.

Flatcap: I don't know the song yet. I've got to hear it at least a dozen times before I'm going to open my mouth and try to sing it. So you go ahead and keep playing this every week for three months and then I'll be ready to sing with you until then. No, I want the old song. I already know, but, uh, I do have appreciation for people that are creative and do that kind of stuff. So you were, we started with you singing praise song. Are you, do you do any writing of your own music?

SunshineSgames: Not that I share. And I do have some friends who do, but I'm not too big into doing that myself. as much anymore, but I want to give a, a shout out to DJ Courageous. Wednesday nights, I go to Bible study at the church and I'm so thankful and full of praise that my kids have joined that and love it. And whenever I get home from it, this is how I know it's on a Wednesday night because I get home. Lux Digital Church goes live and he had the. Druzy was talking about the book of James and if it's God's will. And I don't know if it was a whole month ago, but it was really good about God's will and it, it stuck with me. And one of the more recent ones, they ended and they rated out to DJ Courageous. And I remember you having him as a guest and his music is just so full of hype.

SunshineSgames: and I was so tired because on Wednesdays, I have a whole lot of appointments to take the kids to and then doing the Bible study and then I didn't want to miss Lux church. And then he rated out and listening to DJ Courageous, just all that hype and all that music. Here I am laying in bed trying to go to sleep and I'm just filling this chat with emotes because I can't sleep. It's too hype. I love it. I'm up partying and somebody said, hey, I'm going to sleep. I'm like, yeah, I should do that too. But it's too much fun here.

Flatcap: That's, that's really cool. I love when you can create that in community. And I, you brought something up that goes back to the idea of being participatory as opposed to being a spectator. And you just gave an example there. Emojis in the chat are participation in the praise and worship that's happening on stream. Other people will, like I'm Watching You People, type the lyrics out. And put them in. I'm singing along. They'll do emojis with musical notes and other stuff to join in. The, the feeling like you're participating in that way to me is, is really cool of, of engagement there. So thank you for that reminder as I plan to write that I will have to remember the, that piece of it, of the engagement of participation from the person who is not in the room live for worship.

Flatcap: But it can be so impactful because of the, the conversation and the, like, I love, I love when you get the emoji battle. And I don't mean in a bad way, like we're trying to outdo each other. But the, I throw in my emoji that's expressing my appreciation for the song and you throw yours in and someone else throws in. And we're all just trying to flood the chat with as many emojis as we can, just expressing our participation and appreciation for music when it's happening. I love, love that aspect of things. I have a lots of dancers on my channel. If you, if you've not been on mine, I've got all the, the Charlie Brown emojis of the Charlie Brown dancers. And so I've got a lot of options to throw out there of, of dancers to, to put in the chat, but just to kind of like joyful noise. I'm celebrating, I'm dancing, I'm, I'm doing all those things.

Flatcap: So yeah, and DJ Courageous, if you haven't caught his podcast episode, he is the last or second to last of season two. We're now in season three. So it's not that many episodes back. We took a break over the summer. So you can go back and find that one pretty easily. You've mentioned Pastor Druzy. He's been on the podcast. That was a little while ago from Lux Digital Church. Pastor Andy, who's the church digital and Lux Digital Church. He's, he's been on the podcast. I haven't had Pastor Mark yet on the podcast. I, I knew he was on sabbatical over the summer. He's a pretty busy guy. I will probably try to get him on later this year. I think I'll try to reach out and see if I can get Pastor Mark on the, on the podcast. Would love to have him on. Pastor Mark, by the way, he and I have road bikes together. I, I, my, uh.

Flatcap: My wife's grandmother lived in the same county that he lived in before she passed away. And so over the last couple of years, I, I, she once, when she was alive, I traveled there and we made arrangements one time for me to, to ride bike with him. So we met up, rode, I went to his house, rode bike from his house around and came back. It was, and I got to see the whole church, the Lux church set up the studio in person, which was, which was really cool. So there we go. We're just continuing to make more connections with, with more people. Have you had a much chance to, to meet up IRL with any of the streamers that you're, you run into online?

SunshineSgames: I, I stay home a whole lot. I don't get out unless I have to go to a doctor's appointment. They don't hardly ever leave the state. And, uh, I can't tell you the last time that I did leave the state, I'm always taking kids to an appointment or something. And, uh, it's such an encouragement though. I recently, just the last half of this year, met three people and who are in the same state as me. And one of them used to be like a neighbor to me. And one of them is like an hour away and there's another one. I can't remember. My memory is awful, but it's pretty cool. Whenever you can meet people that are that close to you and there's a cabins where they have Christian retreats and yeah, it's not everybody's cup of tea. We're not this city. We have the woods and hunting and camping, but they have a really cool Christian retreat. And, uh, they have internet, they have power.

SunshineSgames: And, uh, so that's cool. But, uh, yeah, the emotes being in chat is just so encouraging to people. And that's one of the things that kept me going when I started, even though I don't ever, but like at Christmas time, bring the guitar out and play it. People who put those emotes in the chat really helped keep me going in that first year of streaming and rest in peace to one named Zimmy Jimmy. He was a older man and he was always there. He was such a great supporter and he loved to travel. He was, his profile picture showed him out in the Holy Land where he had went to visit. And yeah, it's cool to hear about other people's travels. I love that. And the pictures you put in your discord of people and I'll sit there trying to guess who it can be.

Flatcap: That is, that is one thing I, yeah, that's one thing I do tell people is you're welcome to, to, you know, dox yourself. But if you're just a person that is in chat and you're not a streamer, I don't want to dox you. So I don't ever say who I'm with. I just put a photo in the, in there of people that I meet IRL whenever it happens, which I feel so privileged. I have met so many people in person. There's, there's people on my list, frankly, my mods. So you miss Jelly Beans, who wasn't my other original, uh, mod, she hasn't been on for a couple of years, modding. I'm Watching You People. Like I've not met any of the three of you and I'm like, man, I really like Looses. I have got to meet Looses, which is really cool. And I believe Looses is going to be at a reach conference.

Flatcap: So I'll get to see Looses and one or two of her daughters, uh, again this year, um, and meet up, which will be longer than the, the, the hour, hour and a half. I got to hang with her at a hotel last year, which was, which was fun, but the, the connecting and meeting people. Yeah. I still, uh, well, what's, what's bad. So since I don't put people's names in there, there's a couple of people that I met like four or five years ago, and then they've disappeared from my chat and I haven't seen them around in like three plus years. I can't remember their names because I haven't seen their name. And I just have a photo of them like, oh, that was such a lovely couple. We went here and we had lunch and they brought their kids. What was their name? I don't remember myself. So I can't even dock some because I don't know. And then another one of those two just recently popped in my stream.

Flatcap: I hadn't seen in three years and said, Hey, how are you doing? Just wanted to give you a life update. I'm getting married. Like that's super cool. So that was those kinds of like reconnections are cool when they happen, but they don't always happen. So you need to keep your own local folder with names. You have a, I have a, yeah, I should do that. But I have so many people that I know that it's like, even people that were at my church previously, I like, I have to sit here and go, okay, that was back in South Dakota. And that was 20 years ago. What was their name? So it's not just a streamer thing. It's a problem I have, but that sounds like a better way to solve it. Yeah. I love to be able to picture people when you're praying for them or think, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. We've covered a lot of ground and, and topics.

Flatcap: Uh, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you'd like to share with people?

SunshineSgames: Just like trusting God's timing and keep your faith and keep sharing your testimonies and your sufferers or what you suffer through. It's there to help people. So keep sharing that and just know whenever you're going through something that it's God's timing. It's, it's not ours. It's God's will and it's his timing. And it might look like we're drowning, but God's going to pull us out. And he knows why we got to get our feet wet in that moment. And there's a lot of things where only God can know why that happened. And it does lead to miracles happening and keep seeking the good because that's how you, that's how you get out of those times. Sometimes it's to keep on seeking the good and keep digging into the truth. I am loving the discipleship class that my church is having on Wednesday nights.

SunshineSgames: And then to be able to come home and hear the Lux Digital Church have their Bible study, it just adds to it. And there's so many times it goes hand in hand. Sometimes they say the same chapter. Other times it's the same topic. And it, it goes hand in hand. Whenever it's the truth, that's, it's the truth. Keep encouraging others. And I love volunteering at the, the center because you just really feel like you're the hands and feet of Christ. And whenever you're online doing this, you're, you're reaching so many people from all over. People who don't have the freedoms, we have to go to an IRL church. They have to meet on top of a mountain. They have to meet under the, the roads. They have to meet wherever they're at. And to be here, you give them a place where they can make fellowship and have people pray for them and read the scripture on your screen. Like you show it. That's so important.

SunshineSgames: I'm so used to having my Bible in my lap and just reading it. But where you have it up on screen, that's their scripture for, that's what they have. And some of them can't have it in their hand to hold. It's a blessing. The pastor at the IRL church, he is in the Dominican Republic on a missionary trip to send clean water. And it's awesome because it's so far away and you can reach people online. Even if I can't go, there's people in my chat from little islands that I've never heard of. I don't know where they're at. And it's amazing. Yeah.

Flatcap: Yeah, that is so true. You talked about you don't go very many places, but your impact is going places because you're in other people's community who are on little islands you don't even know the names of. Or as we've had several people in the chat who are not in North America, they're from other places around the globe who are chiming in and participating. And you're absolutely right. There are people that are in places. This is the thing that if people will see that digital is a mission field, you'll be able to open your eyes to this. But there are people who like governments are cracking down on the gospel being shared online, but they're not cracking down on the gospel you shared on Twitch because they don't know it's being shared on Twitch. It is so far underground to share the gospel on Twitch. The government's like, it's a gaming platform. We don't have to shut that down.

Flatcap: So I love looking at this. I will have people in closed countries who I know they don't necessarily have the freedom to walk through the doors of a church. They, that conversion is punishable by imprisonment, or if they convert, it might be an honor or a killing by their family. Those kinds of, I don't know these people because they don't chat because they know that that could be something that doxes them to, to perhaps chat, but they will hang out in a stream on Twitch and find and hear the gospel and go around. It doesn't have to just be like mine where I've got it on screen and they can see it. You know, it's in chat. It's shared. It's just from, we're praying for people, you know, whatever the streamer's doing, if it's playing games or otherwise, there are Christians sharing the gospel in various different ways, reaching those people who that's their only way to get exposure to it.

Flatcap: And it's, it's just so beautiful to see what God's up to in those spaces.

SunshineSgames: It is. It's amazing.

Flatcap: Roxy Dallazur, you brought your devotional to school today. So I'm going to be catching up on that. Okay. And welcome in. I'm guessing, you know, Roxy.

SunshineSgames: Roxy Dallazur, one of the things that I've been doing when I don't play games as often as I do anymore is catching up on my devotionals. And I get these mailed to me and a link should have popped up in chat with where you can get one of these for free to be mailed to you. And they also have it written out online, so you can read it online. But yeah, Roxy listens to the devotionals with me. It's a blessing to have her in my chat.

Flatcap: Very cool. All right. Well, we've been going for, for a while and just kind of wrap it up here. Thank you for being on it. It's one of those things where I knew that you didn't have such a regular schedule. So it took a while to decide that, hey, is now a good time to, and, you know, and then after the, you know, Helene happened, all of that, to get your life back settled and straightened out. So it is a privilege to have you on. I got to go look at my list of people on, on this season, but so far starting off with some of the people I've known the longest on Twitch. I know I've got Matthew URG, we're talking about meeting people in your state. He's just down the road from me. And so we have met up in person before, along with DeMarquis Battle from Bible with the Battles. So I met up the two of them. The two of them know each other in person. I met them both separately online.

Flatcap: And then we got together and had a cup of coffee, which was fabulous. So I love meeting people whenever I get a chance to. I will be at Reach Conference later this year. Looking forward to that and hanging out with some people there. But otherwise, yeah, jumping back in with the podcast, getting that rolling. I've got a couple of interviews coming up with churches. So trying to figure out where God wants me to serve IRL. And we'll see what God is up to in in spaces and where he leads. And I love your your free flowing. It's going to work out. I don't have to plan. I'll just do what what we're working on now in this season. And then God will lead you to the next thing when it happens. So I love that sunshine.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, it is so cool. And a big shout out to Yike Benhir. If there's anybody who does not know Yike Benhir, you're really missing out. He has an amazing YouTube channel with some jokes that I love to share with my kids and my husband. And Yike Benhir is one of my OG mods. And I have so much love for him from the very beginning. When I was playing the guitar, he would come in and chat. And I'll say, you know, in the Bible, it says this, but I don't know where it is. And he'd have the whole verse in chat before I could even say that his scripture knowledge is just tough. It can't be beat.

Flatcap: Yeah, he is fantastic. I do have a couple of things on my shelf here that he gave me. I met him at HopeCon last year. I don't believe, boy, unless something just suddenly changes. HopeCon is beginning of October. I don't see myself making it to HopeCon this year. I'd hoped to. And life is just going to get in the way of that. Like I said, unless there's some reason God changes my plans, I don't plan on being there. But I did get to meet him, which was fantastic to meet him in person and hang out in that space. And so it is. Yeah, he definitely is one of those. And before we had bots that were telling us all the scripture, he was the one that would just boom. Here's the passage. Here's all the info. Here's it is. Now we can just have someone, you know, and you're right. When you don't know where to what the passage is, he will find that passage and share it for you.

Flatcap: I love that about him, his scripture prowess.

SunshineSgames: I would not be here today on this stream if it wasn't for him saying, hey, you need to do this. And I'm like, yeah, I haven't done that yet. And he really helped bring this stream about. And I'm thankful for that because it's a blessing. It's an honor. It is such a happy time. And I'm just so thankful.

Flatcap: Yeah, he's definitely one of the people that encourages a lot of people and a great mod out there. He has been on the podcast. So you can go back and watch that episode with him. I did a mod takeover. He and Blanco, I think, did the podcast together. And then I did I'm Watching You People and Five Looses together. So that's what we had. So, all right. As we finish this up, I do love to have the, unless you're going to stay on, Sunshine. I do love having the guest have a pick of where we can raid out and bless people and do a double blessing and double raid.

SunshineSgames: Yeah, that sounds awesome.

Flatcap: All right. So if you let me know who we'd like to raid out to, we will, we will get that set up.

SunshineSgames: I saw earlier on your stream, somebody came in with a affiliate anniversary or something.

Flatcap: Yes. Yeah, that was. Are they live? Let me check if Onesimus is. Yeah, he needed a nap or something. Yeah. If I can remember how to spell it. Let me look at my phone here a second. I don't know if I'm following on my, on the Church Digital, which he also, I want to have him on the podcast. There's a pretty cool story behind that. No, I am not seeing him live at all. No, he's not live right now. So maybe he'll be on later.

SunshineSgames: Okay. Yeah. I do have one. He has been in my chat. He is super encouraging. And the story of how I met him, his name is Courageous. Let me type it in chat. Okay. I met him through another Christian streamer. And like we were talking about people who can't have a Bible to hold. This guy was preaching while he was playing Fortnite. And I met this guy in his chat. And yeah, it's, it's so cool. Because that way they got the, they got to hear the word. C-O-U-R-A-G-E-O-U-S, J-14. C-O-U-R-A-G-E-O-U-S.

Flatcap: Courageous. Courageous J-14. That is it. All right. Found it.

SunshineSgames: Yeah. He is playing Fortnite. And yeah, he's DMed me before asking for advice. And he knows that I met him in the other person's chat before they were talking about the Bible. And he wanted some good encouragement. And it's a blessing to, to know people are looking for that.

Flatcap: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, we'll go raid there. I guess I, well, I'll go to credits and you can see what all the upcoming podcasts are going to be the next couple of weeks. I don't remember off the top of my head, my schedule. I just got back from vacation. So I'm still, and then I go six. So I'm very thankful that I didn't have to cancel this today because yesterday morning I wasn't feeling so good still. So feeling pretty good today. So I'm very thankful for that. Any last thoughts or things you want to share before we raid out?

SunshineSgames: I'm thankful you're feeling better. I was missing you.

Flatcap: Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's, you know, that's always one of those things like there's a part at which I'm on vacation. I feel like I should still stream. And it's like, no, I need the vacation. I need to not do more than I should do. And so I, boy, I felt really refreshed until I got sick. So just what happens occasionally when I travel, you end up sick afterwards. So we're all good now and we'll just keep doing what God has us doing. So thank you again, Sunshine, for being here. One of my oldest acquaintances and friends from digital space online and Twitch. It's been so much fun hanging out with you again and getting caught up on stuff. And just knowing that you're being faithful with where God places you and what you have to do. I just such an encouragement. So thank you for bringing some sunshine into all of our lives today. And let's go bless others and do the same for them.

Flatcap: I'm going to start my raid. If you want to start yours, I'll throw my credits and we'll head over there. I'm going to start my raid. I'm going to start my raid. I'm going to start my raid.