Ruslan KD

And the only way I can get the hours done is if I start doing it at Cherie's church and with Charles and Willie who live next door to me.

Blue collar guys.

Charles had some kids that I was friends with.

Willie was single.

And in that, I'm starting to hear about Jesus and I'm getting softened to the idea of Jesus.

I'm getting softened to the idea of God.

I'm not a Christian.

I'm still saying I'm an atheist.

But they're just talking and just saying like, man, like, and it was this beautiful balance of like, we're gonna accept you right where you are, but we're gonna tell you the truth about yourself.

Like, we love you and you're welcome, but you have some issues and you need to get your life in order.

And they were just talking to me like I was a grown man.

They weren't coddling me.

They weren't talking to me like I was a kid.

And so through Cherie, through Charles, through Willie, I started hearing about Jesus.

And it was weird because they would tell me stuff like, man, God's gonna use you to do great things someday.

You're going to reach millions of people for Jesus.

I'm in like sixth and seventh grade.

And this is now the environment I'm in.

At the same time, I end up, I'm in seventh grade.

I'm a 1.0 GPA student.