In this podcast episode, host Matthew Lilley interviews special guest Aaron Custalow about his journey in youth ministry and missions. Aaron shares about his encounter with God in Northern Iraq and how it led him to have compassion for teenagers. He also talks about the power encounter he experienced at a youth camp and how it transformed his heart. Aaron then shares about the challenges and breakthroughs he faced in starting Jesus Clubs in high schools and the impact they had on students.
Watch part two of this interview here:
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE 🔑
Encounters with God can lead to a transformation of heart and a deeper sense of compassion for others.
Prayer and waiting on God's timing are essential in seeing doors open for ministry.
Empowering young people to be leaders and ministers can have a significant impact on their peers.
God can work miracles and bring revival in unexpected places, such as high schools.
🔗ABOUT AARON 🔗
Aaron and Juliana Custalow are a missionary family serving with One Voice Student Missions, Gen Z For Jesus, and Maps Global. They are passionate about reaching youth and schools with the Gospel, and seeing young laborers raised up and sent to the nations. They devote their time to empowering young leaders and spiritually mothering and fathering the next generation with a desire to see sons and daughters healed and restored, and a student awakening happen in America that results in a student volunteer missions movement to the nations.
VIDEO TIMESTAMPS
00:00Introduction and Welcome
01:05Aaron's Introduction and Current Role
07:11Encounter in Northern Iraq and Compassion for Teenagers
10:18Encounter with God and Reconnecting with Compassion
12:10Powerful Encounter at Youth Camp
22:55First Jesus Club and Miracles in High Schools
27:46Legal Challenges and Impact of Jesus Clubs
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Matthew (00:01.524)
Hey everyone, welcome to today's podcast episode. I'm your host, Matthew Lilly, and I'm excited to have special guest, Aaron Custolo with us today. He's been doing amazing things over the last few years, reaching Gen Z, reaching the nations with the gospel of Jesus. He's got some incredible stories and testimonies and encouragement for you guys today about what God's doing. Before I introduce Aaron and invite him in, I just want to...
Welcome those of you who are part of the presence pioneers podcast community. Thank you for engaging with us. Thank you for following subscribing, sharing, commenting, all the good things you do to give us feedback and participate with us. We really appreciate that. If you could, if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, if you can leave us a rating, that really helps out a lot. And if you're new to the podcast, welcome, we want to help you.
to experience more of God's presence and to host God's presence in your life and in your community because we believe God's presence changes everything. Aaron, welcome to the podcast.
Aaron Custalow (01:05.972)
Hey, thanks Matt, I'm excited to be on today.
Matthew (01:09.052)
Yeah, it's great to have you, man. We kind of crossed paths a couple of times over the years in different context. And I think first met when you were up in Virginia, I'm down here in North Carolina and I think you might've even come down to North Carolina at one point maybe. Um, but yeah, just wanted to reach out to you and have you on today. I know you've been involved in a number of different things in ministries over the years and I wanted to just get to know you, introduce you to the podcast community here.
Aaron Custalow (01:16.479)
Yes.
Matthew (01:39.296)
And so take a few minutes, just kind of give a quick introduction, who you are and what you're up to.
Aaron Custalow (01:45.65)
Yeah, absolutely. No, thanks, Matt. Yeah, so, you know, I'm Aaron Custelo. I currently am serving at a missions organization, house of prayer called Maps Global that's located in Richmond, Virginia. So my wife and I are both staff and leaders here serving and I am the director of mobilization.
So that's what I have the joy of doing right now, which is super fun. I get to mobilize especially young people to consider giving their lives for the worth of Jesus in the nations and building day and night prayer across the 1040 window. So anyways, that's what I'm up to right now. But like you said, when we met, I was up in Fredericksburg, running with some incredible friends.
David Bradshaw and Randy Martinez, a bunch of crew. Maybe they've been on this podcast before, maybe not. But yeah, with the, totally. Yeah, with a ministry called Awaken the Dawn. And so I hail from Fredericksburg, Virginia. I went out and a couple years ago lived in Dallas, Texas for a hot second, or for about a year and a half we moved our family out there.
Matthew (02:48.8)
They have, both of them have, yeah.
Aaron Custalow (03:11.202)
because we had launched an initiative called Gen Z for Jesus. That was really birthed out of doing Jesus clubs in high schools. Because I was a youth pastor for about 10 years and then began training students going into high schools preaching the gospel. And kind of birthed this, yeah, this initiative called Gen Z for Jesus and we felt the Lord inviting us to move out to Texas.
to link arms with One Voice and Brian Barcelona, he was a dear friend of mine, which I was already serving with doing Jesus Clubs in high schools. And so we moved out to Texas with the One Voice squad for about a year and a half, got to be at Upper Room as our church home, and actually Upper Room jumped in as a collaborator with Gen Z for Jesus, which is amazing. And then after about a year and a half felt the Lord drawing us back to Richmond.
Virginia to kind of rejoin with Maps Global because I had been with Maps Global, but to kind of rejoin. And I spent about a decade in youth ministry mobilizing youth to reach high schools and to fill, to pray in high schools. And so felt the Lord inviting us to continue doing that but mobilizing young people for a student volunteer missions movement.
to the nation. So that's kind of what brought us to Maps Global for this time, still mobilizing young people to preach the gospel, so mobilizing them to pray, but now also mobilizing them to go to the nations and Unreach. So it's super fun. But anyways, that's a little bit about me and what me and my family have been up to.
Matthew (04:37.502)
Mm.
Matthew (04:58.288)
Yeah, that's amazing. Well, I'd love to get into some of your journey even more so. And because I think there's just the way God drew you into some of these things. So there's even some supernatural elements to it. I know as there are for many of our journeys into ministry and into the assignments God's given us, but maybe take us back. How did you get, you know, I know you were in a house of prayer in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but then God sort of led you into this.
you know, student ministry outreach to high schools, that kind of thing. Maybe you could start there. You may want to go back even earlier, but like, how did you kind of get into this stuff?
Aaron Custalow (05:37.194)
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I was on staff. The whole story about how I got to the House of Prayer is a long one, but a fun one too. But basically the Lord gripped my heart. I was in college. I was in a metal band. And we were touring bars and clubs, preaching the gospel, seeing people get saved. Yeah, I'm a drummer. Seeing people get saved, healed, delivered.
Matthew (05:48.102)
Sure.
Matthew (05:58.964)
Yeah, you're a drummer, right?
Aaron Custalow (06:05.51)
while we were just ministering to the Lord with metal music, which was really interesting, but that literally we played every show vertically to the Lord. It was offering our incense to him. And in the midst of that, yeah, this is like 2007, 2008. Yeah. And I began to fall in love with
Matthew (06:19.336)
Was this like early mid 2000s when there was kind of a scene? Okay. Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (06:33.322)
Jesus more, but with ministering to him on my instrument and then seeing the way that he would show up and minister to people in the context of prayer and worship. And so anyways, that kind of was my doorway into the house of prayer. I was like, man, I want to minister to the Lord on my instrument day and night. I want to continue to see God touch people's lives in his presence.
Matthew (06:53.097)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (07:02.29)
And so anyway, so I joined the House of Prayer in Fredericksburg, which at that time was called the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace, which was the OG title. And an incredible crew of people, so much fun. I met my wife there. But I became the youth pastor of that House of Prayer and church community. And kind of fast forwarding, you know.
Matthew (07:11.272)
Hehehe
Aaron Custalow (07:28.93)
got to do incredible stuff, youth camps, man the Lord just would show up in crazy powerful ways. But fast forward to 2000's, I say there were two key encounters, one in 2014, one in 2015. The encounter in 2014 I was actually in Northern Iraq with Maps Global doing 50 hours of prayer.
because ISIS had just invaded and come across the Syrian border and they were killing Christians, kicking people out of homes and it was a mess. And we flew in with a small team to run 50 hours of non-stop prayer with mostly refugees and a couple local missionaries that hadn't left because most had and a few local pastors that hadn't left because most had. And the room was
full day and night of mostly young people, which I was shocked. And most of these young people had lost their, a lot of them had lost their parents. They were sharing stories of ISIS beheaded our mom, our dad, or they captured my mom. They, you know, just horrific stories. But yet here they are, they found a home in God's presence in this little church building where we did day and night prayer, and they were getting encountered and filled with joy. And I was like,
like, Lord, what is going on? And I had an encounter there where the Lord basically spoke to me that compassion for teenagers was gonna be a key to the Middle East. And I was like, compassion, compassion for teenagers. Like, what? And so anyways, then we find out on that trip that actually teenagers have one of the widest open doors for the gospel in the Muslim world.
Matthew (09:12.232)
Wow.
Aaron Custalow (09:26.466)
because it is illegal for adults to proselytize or evangelize minors. But if you are a minor, it's actually culturally acceptable, even in Muslim culture, that those underage can share their faith, even if it's contrary to Islam. They're like protected.
Matthew (09:26.484)
Hmm.
Matthew (09:50.502)
Interesting.
Aaron Custalow (09:50.622)
And so anyway, so I was like, oh my gosh, anyway, a couple of years later, we brought a team of youth back to Northern Iraq, preached the gospel, had these 16 and 17 year olds leading worship, preaching the gospel. God moved in crazy ways. But anyway, that kind of encounter in Northern Iraq and that even phrase, compassion for teenagers, would be a door for the Middle East, for the gospel, really marked me for.
for saying yes to Jesus to believe for a student awakening that would result in a student volunteer movement. And so anyways, that's 2014 that happens. Then in 2015, had gone through a rough patch, I was burnt out. I was getting super stoked for missions and a little less stoked for youth group. And I was like, man, all these moms are always complaining about the...
Matthew (10:36.744)
Mmm.
Ha ha ha.
Aaron Custalow (10:44.45)
the snacks we serve at Youth Group and Part Healthy, or they didn't like what I preached on, or the kids didn't like the games. I was just getting a little bit burnt out. But really what it was is my heart was closing up. My heart was, I was disconnected from God's heart of compassion for young people. And so anyways, I told David, David Branchow, at the time, who was my boss, and I was like, David, I don't think I can keep.
Matthew (10:51.559)
Yeah, yeah.
Aaron Custalow (11:13.75)
being the youth pastor, like can we start looking for a replacement? I'm lit up for missions. I want to focus on the nations. And so I'm preparing in that mode. And then about nine months go by and no replacement has been found. And I'm like, I can't keep doing this half-hearted. I'm feeling my heart.
Matthew (11:39.369)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (11:42.094)
colder than ever towards young people. And I was just like, I can't keep doing this. I've got to train. I've just got to give them a hard deadline that I'm quitting. And so I tell David, I was like, I'll lead this summer's youth camp, but then I'm done. And so anyways, fast forward to the youth camp, August 2015. Camp goes great, it's awesome. We're on the last day of camp, and I'm planning on preaching.
a session on identity, on like gender identity, you know, identity of sons and daughters, all that kind of stuff. And the Lord.
Matthew (12:18.42)
You got to watch out for those last days of youth camp, man. They'll, they'll get you.
Aaron Custalow (12:21.838)
Totally dude, they'll get you, they'll get you. And you know.
Matthew (12:26.241)
I've had an encounter with God when I was young on the last day of U camp, so it changed my life.
Aaron Custalow (12:30.174)
Yeah, yeah, to all you guys listening, go attend the last day of the youth camp somewhere. God knows if God's going to show up. But I, you know, the Lord whispers to me and he's like, hey, just preach the gospel. And I was like, okay. And so I just share the gospel with the youth camp, you know, and they had been hearing it all week so it wasn't even that new. But um.
Matthew (12:35.956)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (12:57.806)
kids just started repenting and turning to the Lord. And all of a sudden, it was like God Himself was in the room. And it was hard to explain, but we say, hey, everybody that's giving your life to the Lord, whoever wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit, stand up. And almost the whole room is on their feet at this point. And this is a small room, mind you. This is like 50 kids packed into a small classroom.
not a huge flashy youth camp. There was no band, no lights, no, we were literally just in a classroom with the ceiling lights on, packed in, sitting on the floor. And there's this one girl, and she had never been to church, barely ever read her Bible, had never been to a youth camp. She gave her life to the Lord, and she had stood up. And before I could even get down the line to like pray for her.
Matthew (13:26.568)
Yeah. Right.
Aaron Custalow (13:55.466)
I see her all of a sudden just go, just like she got hit with a thousand volts of electricity when no one's even praying for her. I'm like, what is going on? I grab a couple of our leaders and I'm like, hey, why don't you take her out and pray for her? Because I'm thinking if somebody is going to manifest or needs deliverance from the demonic or whatever, now would be the time.
Matthew (14:21.427)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (14:24.922)
And so they pull her out and I'm like, all right, they're gonna love on her and walk her through whatever healing and deliverance she needs. In this moment, this is awesome. And we keep praying for kids and the presence of God is just increasing and increasing. And then all of a sudden they bring this girl back into the room, like 60 seconds later. And I'm like, why is she back already? And the girl opens up her mouth, sorry. And she tells us what she saw.
Matthew (14:32.159)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (14:54.086)
is she said, I was standing in line waiting for prayer when all of a sudden I saw Jesus walk through the door of the classroom, walk down the line to me and put his hand on me. And that's when the thousand volts of electricity, she just gets fried. And as soon as she tells the room this, it was like,
Matthew (15:12.66)
My end.
Aaron Custalow (15:21.214)
It was like another realm of glory opened up and kids begin to weep and cry. And all of a sudden, all kinds of kids start having open encounters where they're seeing Jesus, they're feeling a hand on them when no one's praying for them. It got scary. And I'm not, I don't know what the tone of the podcast is. We don't build our life on wild and...
necessary. I mean everything is you know we based it on the Bible, the scriptures, the Word of God, but this was a moment in God's presence where he was in the room. And funny enough Matt, I go and I take a seat in the back corner of the room at this point because I'm mad. I'm like God you're gonna show up like this on my last day.
Matthew (15:48.896)
Sure.
Matthew (15:56.905)
Yeah.
Matthew (16:08.596)
Mmm.
Matthew (16:14.908)
Right?
Aaron Custalow (16:15.93)
I've been a youth pastor for years. I've prayed so many times for you to, Jesus, just walk into the room, you know? And like now on my last day when I'm quitting, you actually walk into the room. Like, what am I supposed to do with this, God? And so I'm mad. And so I'm sitting arms crossed in a chair along the back wall of the room. Kids are probably wondering like, why isn't he praying for us? You know, but I was just upset. And then all of a sudden, it's like, you know, when you go to the...
Matthew (16:39.89)
Right?
Aaron Custalow (16:44.474)
and they hit your knee with the little, you know, to do the reflex test, you know? It was all of a sudden like this reflex just hits me and I, like I can't control it and I jump to my feet and I start screaming at the top of my lungs what God's doing in this room, he wants to do in high schools all across America. What God's doing in this room, he wants to do in high schools all across the nation. And...
Matthew (16:47.58)
Yeah, right.
Aaron Custalow (17:11.738)
And meanwhile, in my mind, I'm like, what am I even saying? Like, I don't even believe this. Like, why am I shouting? And anyways, fast forward, we're in this encounter for about two hours of weeping, intercession. Kids start feeling calls to the nations. They start, you know, travailing for different nations. And so then I was just like, let's dismiss all the kids, send them to the prayer room to journal.
about what just happened, because I don't know what else to do. How do you end a moment like that? You know? And so they go to the prayer room, and I'm left alone in this room. I just stayed back in the classroom, and I just laid on the floor, and I just wept, because I was just like, Jesus, I don't know what to do with this. And then all of a sudden, as I'm laying there, it was, I hope it's okay to tell swirly stories.
Matthew (17:44.456)
Yeah.
Matthew (18:07.84)
This is great. That's wonderful.
Aaron Custalow (18:10.626)
I'm laying on the ground and all of a sudden it was like a thousand pounds of weight just fall onto my body and begin to drive me into the floor is what it felt like and I can't breathe. And I can suddenly, it was a vision, but it was like I could see it. Suddenly I could see through my eyelids into the room where I was and I could see these two blazing golden feet right in front of my face.
where I'm laying and I am terrified and I start trying to get the words out, Jesus don't kill me. That's what I was trying to say because I was I instantly knew I am my heart has not been connected to his heart. I am not in a good place right now. I was terrified and so I'm trying to get the words out Jesus don't kill me but I can't say anything and then
I just hear this whisper to my heart as he's standing there. I hear him say, Aaron, go to the high schools. And then in my heart, because I can't even speak, in my heart I say yes. And then the weight lifts, I can breathe, and I just cry and cry and cry on the floor, and the Lord begins to reveal to me.
hardened my heart had gotten, how little of his compassion for young people I had. And I felt that day like a real exchange, like a heart, like a hard heart got taken out. I felt like a rock leave my chest and a tender heart towards young people put in. And so I just said, I said yes and I got up off the floor and went and told my wife
And she was like, yeah, I knew you shouldn't have been quitting. So I always joke. I always tell people, you know, cause people are always like, whoa, that's such a crazy encounter, God encountered me. And I'm like, really? That was the mercy of God. Because I wasn't listening to my wife because she, the whole time was like, why are you quitting these ministry? You know, and if I just listened to my wife, it probably would have gone better for me. But.
Matthew (20:11.202)
Of course.
Matthew (20:23.42)
right?
Matthew (20:27.936)
That's hilarious.
Matthew (20:33.792)
That's a good word. That's a word for somebody right there.
Aaron Custalow (20:35.646)
Hey, that's a word, take it. But I, so I'm, you know, I leave this encounter, I'm like, okay, so I decide not to quit. And I'm like, I'm gonna stick with the youth group and I'm gonna start. And it's funny, because I had reached out, I had talked with Brian Barcelona from One Voice in the Jesus Clubs before, and he was like, dude, do you wanna be the East Coast guy for One Voice in Jesus Clubs? And I was like, nah, no thanks. And that was like a year prior.
And so when after this encounter, I was like, I just knew I needed to call Brian back and be like, hey man, I'm gonna go after high schools. Like the Lord told me, I need to go after high schools. And so I call him, I connect with Jesus Clubs, and we start praying. As one of the artists in our prayer room takes this old door.
like out of a renovation that had gotten ripped out of a house, paints the door all artistic and paints the name of every high school in our region on the door and puts the door in the prayer room. And so every day we would go stand at this door and we would pray Colossians chapter four verse two. We would pray for an open door for the gospel and at this door in the prayer room.
And honestly, I was expecting after this power encounter with Jesus, I was thinking like, I'm going to walk onto a high school, like first week of school, and it's going to be revival is game on, you know? And it wasn't. It was about two years later before I ever saw a door budge. And so the first two years after that encounter was just prayer.
Matthew (22:09.648)
Right.
Aaron Custalow (22:25.782)
It was actually almost three years actually. It was almost three years. It was two and a half years that it was just praying for an open door, going and knocking on the doors of high schools and getting a no. Every kid I was like, hey, let's go reach your high school. You know, like it just didn't work out. And I was like frustrated trying to make it happen to my own strength and all that. And when one day this one girl who got also touched at our youth camp and got a heart for her high school.
She decided, I want to do this. And she spent a year and a half trying to find a teacher sponsor. She finally found one. And we launched the very first Jesus Club in Virginia. On February, oh man, I forget the exact date. I shouldn't have the exact date. But anyways, the date is significant because this. Because.
Matthew (23:08.669)
Mm.
Aaron Custalow (23:22.058)
we had been praying, we had been waiting, and at the right time God opened the door and that morning when I show up on the campus my phone buzzes with the news that Billy Graham just that morning had died. And you know which was significant to our community because we had been praying and believing a prophetic word that when Billy Graham passed.
that a fresh grace for evangelism was going to come on the next generation. And so I suddenly, I feel a shot of faith in my heart, you know, stepping onto this campus. We've been praying for years, nothing budged, and now here we are, our very first open door, and Billy Graham had just passed away. And I just had this moment with God where I was like, Lord, I'm going to go all in, and I'm going to believe.
Matthew (23:56.625)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (24:20.078)
for many to be saved. You know, because I had been praying small prayers, which are great. I had been praying, God, if you save just one through all of this, you know, if you save just one kid, it'll be worth it. And it would have been, but the Lord challenged me of like, Aaron, would you believe, do you have faith to believe with me for more than one? And so anyways, that morning we opened up the Jesus Club at a little podunk high school out in the.
Matthew (24:25.78)
Sure.
Matthew (24:29.683)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (24:47.81)
boonies of Virginia and 300 kids show up and about 130 of them responded to the gospel to give their life to Jesus the very first day. I was blown away. News started spreading across school districts. We began to see, you know, we began to come back every week to do Jesus Club.
Matthew (24:54.322)
Mm.
Matthew (25:02.271)
Mm.
Aaron Custalow (25:16.982)
We began seeing kids get healed. We wouldn't even lay hands on them. We were just preaching the gospel and kids sitting in their seats in the auditorium would get healed of various ailments and different things. We would sometimes at Jesus Club just stand up and give words of knowledge and pray for healing. We saw all kinds of just wild stuff. And it was all in this place of like...
Matthew (25:38.236)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (25:46.85)
like the Lord had lingered the process out so that I could connect to his heart of like actually wanting to carry something that was on his heart for these youth, you know? And then he had to let me wait a couple years to break me. And so anyways, we did baptisms on this public school campus, which was crazy. I remember one kid had cuts on his hand.
Matthew (25:57.716)
Hmm. Yeah.
Matthew (26:12.02)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (26:16.726)
and we dunked him in the water and when he came up out of the water he had no cuts on his hand. And just story after story like it made the news, they reported it, the article went all over. I heard news of like pastors conferences of like the whole four square denomination had a pastor's conference and they showed our news article at the pastor's conference because they were like God's still moving on campuses and I'm like what? And um
Matthew (26:21.6)
Come on, wow.
Matthew (26:36.168)
Yeah.
Matthew (26:39.738)
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (26:44.178)
And so, you know, anyways, it was cool because some legal groups reached out and tried to file a lawsuit against us. And the crazy awesome thing was is they threw out the case because everything that we were doing was legal because we were empowering students. It wasn't just, you know, our show. It was we were.
Matthew (26:47.144)
That's amazing.
Matthew (27:03.292)
Yeah. Right.
Aaron Custalow (27:10.078)
we were empowering young people to pray, we were empowering young people to fast, we were empowering young people to preach the gospel and be leaders on their campus. And so anyways, there are just all kinds of wild stories across high schools and yeah.
Matthew (27:20.748)
That's amazing. Sure. Yeah. So we're, we're coming up here probably to the need to wrap up this first half. This is an amazing story. I, uh, I remember when Billy Graham died and actually we were hosting a conference down here in North Carolina that David came to like that weekend, whatever the weekend was, cause I remember he shared that story. It was fresh at that time. That it just happened that week.
Aaron Custalow (27:31.394)
Cool.
Aaron Custalow (27:42.222)
Wow.
Aaron Custalow (27:46.911)
Yeah.
Matthew (27:47.964)
And he came down here for a conference with us that weekend. And it was a very significant weekend and kind of time period for us here as well because of just the anticipation of that, not the anticipation Billy Graham would die, but just the anticipation of what God would do after that in light of some of the prophetic words and that kind of thing. So, man, this is amazing. I just want to leave people with a couple of things here. Number one, listen to your wife.
Aaron Custalow (28:02.858)
Yeah.
Aaron Custalow (28:15.726)
That's right.
Matthew (28:17.028)
Uh, number two, I mean, the fact that you prayed for a couple of years, like God, God spoke to you, but then you didn't see the manifestation of that for a few years and you and your community held on to what God had spoken and you prayed faithfully and then eventually God started to open the door. I think that's just an encouragement, um, to all of us to stay in the place of faith of God's spoken, he will do what he said he's going to do.
Aaron Custalow (28:36.862)
Yeah.
Matthew (28:43.552)
And we can't force it in our own strength, but we can partner with him in prayer and hold on to those promises that he's spoken until we see those things fulfilled. And, and then it was just one girl, you know, I think that Jesus talked about, he, when he sent his disciples out, he said to find the person of peace, you know, and that was sort of the, that, what that person would be the open door to more people. And so I think of that.
Aaron Custalow (28:53.471)
Yeah.
Matthew (29:08.276)
Who is that one person who's that person of peace that you, that we can connect with that we can minister to. And that could open a door to more. So anyway, those are some things I kind of took away from your story there, Aaron. Um, man, this is so good. I want to encourage people to check out the second part. Aaron and I are going to continue this conversation. Uh, and I'm going to ask him kind of how, uh, that phrase, compassion for teenagers is the key to the middle East. Like, I want to dig into that some, what is,
Aaron Custalow (29:21.246)
Yeah.
Matthew (29:38.868)
What does what God's doing in Gen Z in high schools have to do with what God's doing in the nations? Because that's not immediately clear, but I think there's a connection there. And then I want to just ask him about how all of us who are maybe not students, not Gen Z, not young people, how can we minister? How can we connect? How can we be a part of what God's doing among young people, among Gen Z and among students? And so I'm going to ask some of those questions to Aaron in the second half. And if you want to.
Listen to that. Just click the link in the description. Uh, we offer it on presence pioneers premium, which is our subscriber community. And if you want to go deeper with us, you can join presence pioneers premium and we sit out bonus episodes. We do early releases. Uh, you can comment and engage, just kind of in a deeper way with us. And it just allows us, um, to fund the podcast and help, uh, produce this content and these resources for you guys. So Aaron, this was amazing. Thanks so much, man.
Aaron Custalow (30:37.918)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Matt.
Aaron Custalow on Gen Z for Jesus and Student Awakening