Episode 69: A Chef, a Calling, and a Healing Kitchen

What if the path back to purpose winds through a kitchen? I sit down with Jeff Reynolds, a chef whose story spans late-teen addiction, a decade in a grunge-era band, a pandemic crisis, a dusted-off Bible, and a calling he once ran from. The turning point is startlingly human—a night of fear and honesty at home—followed by small, faithful steps: reading John, hard questions that outgrew a brother’s answers, and a four-hour lunch with a pastor that reframed “ministry” as more than a pulpit.

We walk through Jeff’s craft and recovery, and into his work at World Relief’s commercial learning kitchen, where refugees and immigrants rebuild livelihoods far beyond the 90-day resettlement window. He explains how culinary training becomes a vehicle for dignity, micro-enterprise, and healing from trauma. Along the way, he learns the language of spice markets, the etiquette of cross-cultural respect, and a deeper theology of the Imago Dei that holds firm in a plural space—open about faith, never coercive, always grounded in love and truth. The result is a kitchen that functions as classroom and community hub, where cinnamon and cardamom carry stories across continents.

Jeff also shares the discernment he and his wife, Lori, are navigating now—what shepherding a flock could look like, why stewardship precedes promotion, and how intentional practices like daily prayer can anchor a life that once drifted. His three takeaways are simple and strong: keep praying for prodigals, hold your calling with open hands, and make space for God every day. If you need a reminder that vocation can be redeemed and redirected, this conversation will meet you right where you are.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so others can find Above the Noise. What part of Jeff’s journey speaks to yours?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Jeff Reynolds
• 1:56 Culinary Roots and Craft
• 4:45 Addiction’s Spiral and Band Life
• 9:07 COVID, Fear, and a Heart Shift
• 12:40 Returning to Scripture and Call
• 19:57 From Beverage Sales to World Relief
• 24:27 Cooking with Refugees and Cultural Humility
• 29:07 Faith in a Plural Space
• 32:08 Future Callings and Stewardship
• 35:43 Three Takeaways and Closing Prayer
• 43:11 Subscribe and Contact Details

Transcript

Grantley Martelly: 0:09

Welcome to Above the Noise, a podcast at the intersection of faith, race, and reconciliation. And I'm your host, Grantley Martelly. Welcome back to Above the Noise. It's my great privilege today to have a friend, Jeff Reynolds, and we're just going to be having a conversation about his life and about where he's been, where God has taken him, what he's doing now, the exciting things that he's doing. I'm sure that you're going to enjoy hearing from him as much as I'm looking forward to this conversation. So welcome to the show, Jeff.

Jeff Reynolds: 0:46

Thank you, Grantley.

Grantley Martelly: 0:47

Let's begin, Jeff, by telling our audience about you. Introduce yourself, your family, where you live, what you do, anything you think that the would introduce you to our audience.

Jeff Reynolds: 0:57

Certainly, yeah. So my name is Jeff Reynolds. I graduated from culinary school back in 1998 and been in the food and beverage industry uh ever since. Currently working through a ministry call and course of study, Port Ordination. And I live in Kent, Washington, or Des Moines, Washington, I should say, more appropriately. I've got a wife and a son and cats, dog, that kind of stuff. I grew up in Washington. I was originally born in California, but I was less than a year old when we moved up here. My wife is born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and loves to remind me that I am a California transplant. Um Yeah, that's a big thing up here. It is. It's a funny thing that happens, but yeah, she loves to point that out once in a while. Um just to rouse me. So but yeah, that's kind of you know, I grew up in Washington and still here.

Grantley Martelly: 1:48

Well that's a good introduction to our audience. And we're gonna get into more of your history and things that you do. You said you went to culinary school. Tell us a little bit about that part of your life.

Jeff Reynolds: 2:02

Uh, so yeah, I would say post-high school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do in life. I played football, American football all through junior high and high school. And that's really like kind of like what my life was at that time, and I didn't know what else to do besides I wanted to keep playing ball. And so I went to Walla Walla Community College on the eastern side of the state. It was a good experience, uh, but I realized like six months in that I this isn't where I wanted to be, and came back home. It was a couple years before I ended up going to culinary school. Uh at that time in my life, I was in my late teens. Life became about the party. That caught up with me heavily at that time, and I needed a space to try and figure out how to get back from that. And uh through grace and some doors opening in culinary school. I have a passion for cooking. I was probably second grade, summer school, I was I'm dyslexic, and so I went to summer school in elementary, and you got to take a scholastic and an elective, and the elective I took was a cooking class because my mom's had me in the kitchen since I was a little kid. And so I was like, oh, I like to cook, I'll do that. And that was like the beginning of that journey. I took cooking classes through elementary school, junior high, high school, ultimately graduated from culinary school. So it's just something that, you know, there's those things that you have in your life that you can just do, and they help you relax and you don't have to think about them. Cooking has been one of those things for me for a long time where I can just walk into the kitchen, I'm comfortable, I know what to do and how to do it. There's also the artistic side. I took plenty of sculpting and painting and art stuff in school and the realities of culinary arts and the refinement that came with that and the focus that it brought. So it just became something that really helped uh form me as a young person and ultimately led to where I am today.

Grantley Martelly: 3:50

So what did you when you went to put culinary school, did you have a particular area you wanted to focus in, or you just wanted to learn everything the best you can?

Jeff Reynolds: 4:00

At the time, it was really about just learning the best I could out of everything, techniques, ingredients, all that kind of stuff. So it was really that focused. In culinary school, I realized my understanding in baking and pastry specifically, uh, instead of strengthening what I already knew cooking on the line. I actually went into baking and pastry. I am still not a great baker, but I do understand the principles and the foundations of that world a lot better than I did before. So it helped me round out as a better show.

Grantley Martelly: 4:32

Well, if you ever want to practice on your bacon and pastry and you need a quality control person, just give me a call. Be happy to come and help you improve your skills.

Jeff Reynolds: 4:42

Sure. We can make some stuff.

Grantley Martelly: 4:45

You also said that the partying became a part of your life. Was that mixed up with culinary school or after culinary school? Let's talk a little bit about the partying part.

Jeff Reynolds: 4:55

I have two older brothers, and so growing up, both of them went that direction during high school. And so, like honestly, the first time I ever smoked marijuana, I was in seventh grade. Uh, not like 12, that's not a great place for a young person to be. But my older brothers thought it was funny, and you know, and me and I look my little skater buddies in junior high, and uh that just kind of was the beginning of that life. Yeah, I grew up in the church. I I mean I was I'm I'm dedicated and baptized and married in the Nazarene church, which is funny. But the reality was that that that wasn't the focus. That that was just like that was my parents' religion, not mine at the time. And so life was about what was happening with my friends and things and stuff like that. So by the time I was a senior in high school, you could say I was a full-blown stoner. And that's when, you know, going to play football, same just kept going, came back from that experience. And at this point, we're all out of high school, and my friends while I was in college and walla walla were continuing to ramp up. And so when I got back, things were a lot heavier and deeper than they were when we were younger, and had found myself heavily into a fairly bad space when I was around 19. Me and one of my best friends since junior high growing up together. At this point, we were injecting methamphetamines into our veins. And I knew it was a while, not a full year, but there was a while into this life where I was like, this is bad. This is really bad, and I'm gonna die. Times I should have. And by the grace of God didn't. And so that was caught up me needing to get my life together. I was going back to church and going to culinary school and getting that under wraps. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in between there. Post-culinary school, ended up joining a band, and the same life came right back. Again, I didn't know. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that, the music part of your life. Tell us a bit about the band life, the road life, loving it out. I was 15 years old when I first band I was ever in. It was actually a bunch of buddies from youth group at church. We were, you know, this is like the 90s grunge era, so we were just kind of a noisy bunch of kids getting in trouble for jamming in the youth room, you know, stuff like that. So then I ended up in another band my senior year in high school, and then ultimately the band that I played in for over a decade was a band called Killing Roots. I met my bass player at a pizza restaurant. This is after culinary school when I was working, and we met at a pizza restaurant and bonded, and the band that I was in at that time was breaking up. They needed a singer. So we started hanging out, and the drummer, he is still one of my best friends to this day. His daughter is my goddaughter, and so that just formulated that relationship at that time, and it kindered, and we played for over a decade. We didn't really tour too much. We played up and down the I-5, if you will, through Washington. But we got to a place where we were signed by an independent label, put out a full-length album. We were opening for a lot of nationally touring acts that were coming through town. Uh, we were writing what we called second album material. It was very much a moment where we thought this was actually probably going to happen. Um And then unfortunately, because of the lifestyle that we lived in, my bass player that I originally met, thank God he's sober now, but also found himself in a deep place with meth and needles. I mean, it was not a good thing. And ultimately we had to ask him to leave the band because we knew it wasn't healthy for the rest of us and we wanted to keep pursuing. Um unfortunately, it was hard to get the wheels back on the bus with different bass players after playing together for a decade. And at that time, life was happening. I was getting married, my buddies were having kids, and it just kind of pitered out.

Grantley Martelly: 8:42

Yeah, like most bands, right? Eventually it they peter out. Many bands, you have your life cycle like everything else, and people's life go on. And if you're not willing to make a commitment to that, then it will peter out. Yeah. Tell us about your conversion experience, about your faith journey.

Jeff Reynolds: 9:00

Yeah, so like I said, I I did grow up in the church, so there's always been a foundation of understanding. But the reality of like when did it penetrate my heart and make that change? It was really COVID. It really was. There was a moment of that it was this open, this thing that just happened, and nobody knew what was going on. And at this time, we didn't know if it was, you know, how to get it, what was happening. I remember I was pumping gas and reaching into the little thing to pull my debit card back out and thinking to myself, should I have even touched this thing? You know, like rubbing sanitizer on my hands. And I remember I got home and I'm just, you know, what l my wife Lori hadn't gotten home yet. So I was at home just dwelling on all this stuff, and I've got the news on. I was I was a news junkie at that time. Like my morning routine was to get up, get a cup of coffee, flip on the local news, and then I would spend an hour throughout the morning just like you know, getting all those stories filled in. And so that at that time, it's like all that going on, and so she came home and was like, you know, and I'm clearly distraught. And she's like, Are you okay? And I the the exact words were no, I'm not okay, I'm not effing okay. And and I'm in tears, and she's just like, What is happening? She made me sit down, we started talking over stuff, and this is before even her, you know, she did not grow up in the church. And so there's this moment that we both have looked back on and recognized that this is the love of God coming through her to me at that time when I needed it more than I ever really realized. And I just remember as we watched this, we like documentaries, so there's this one that she wanted to watch, and it happened to be she has a passion for anti-sex trafficking. And so it was this documentary about this. And one of the things that it was a faith-based documentary, and one of the things that they had at the bottom was um the Ephesians 6, 10 through 20, talking about the armor of God. And it was on the bottom of the screen the whole time through this documentary, and one of the things they kept saying, because they were implicating that this was a demonic and satanic agenda with all this trafficking and the line they kept saying in the documentary was even if you don't believe it, they do. And and so I looked at that armor of God passage and being readied and thinking to myself that even when I wasn't necessarily following at all, I knew somewhere in the back of my mind, in the back of my heart, that if there really was a God, and there really was something going on in the unseen realms, that Jesus was probably the guy. And and so I remember just breaking down that evening, and and I actually I went and had to dig out my Bible that my parents gave me when I was probably like 14. It's literally the junior adventure Bible, and I had to dust it off out of the old desk drawer and dug in and read that passage, and I remember really like I broke down in tears and cried out, God, I do believe in who you are, and I do want to serve you. I don't know what I'm doing with my life. And that was that beginning moment of him hearing, listening, and starting moving me forward to where I am today. Which is funny because in culinary school, when I was going to church and met my first wife, and that's when God actually called me to ministry, was in culinary school. And I remember thinking, why would I do that? I'm, you know, clearly I cook, I know how to cook, I'm in school for that. Like, why would I why would I do that? Like, it doesn't make any sense to me. And then ultimately after my divorce, I that's when I full on walked away from the church and joined the band at that time. And so it's it's been coming all the way back to where we are now. How many years was that in between? That was 20 years. Okay. Easily a 20-year wander in my own personal desert. And with that, because I wasn't grounded, the substance abuse patterns just continued from one thing or another. At one point, my wife and I found ourselves in a deep pit and needed to get out of uh as well. Long story short, I messed up my back and knee within a year of each other. This is back before they were regulating pain meds and they were handing out, you know, opiates like tic-tacks. Every appointment you went to they wanted to get in. Did you need a refill? Yeah. And so then the two of us just found ourselves in this pit of like, what are we doing? And and so, yeah, it was interesting.

Grantley Martelly: 13:24

So how did you get out? How did you get out of that pit to the point to where you felt stable, though you were ready to move on with your life, and that you'd be able to get to that point that God had been working on you for 20 years?

Jeff Reynolds: 15:25

At that time, and this wasn't a fate measure, it was a personal effort, uh, really is how that worked. At that time, there was uh a new it wasn't new, but it was technology made it advanced, and so they've been able to figure out how to extract THC from the actual plant fiber and create hash oils, which are like super high concentrated. And so we moved into smoking like extremely intense, like 80 to 90 percent THC oil, and that's how we got away from opiates, but now we found ourselves deeper in a in a pit of of smoking still. One addiction to the other. We just transferred one to the other, and it wasn't until actually returning to Christ to finding sobriety.

Grantley Martelly: 16:09

Like returning to Christ. Let's go on that journey.

Jeff Reynolds: 16:13

Yeah.

Grantley Martelly: 16:14

How did you get back to that point to where you realized that you won't be able to do it by yourself?

Jeff Reynolds: 16:19

Oh, again, that was the COVID story. Um that I just found myself in that place.

Grantley Martelly: 16:24

And so with that I So when you did the COVID story and you were you were crying and you she breaks down and she you said, she said, What's wrong with you? Yeah. That was the conversion point to where you began to walk away. Yeah. Okay, I didn't make the connection. I thought they were happening simultaneously.

Jeff Reynolds: 16:42

No, no, no. And that was just a lot of three. I reached out to my brother. Again, both my brothers did walk away from the church in their young years, and so I followed suit with them. Ultimately, both of them have returned to Christ and raised their families and all that. And so I remember reaching out, my my I've got two older brothers, the one of them is only two years older than me. So he and I like we've always known it's our lives have always had each other in them, as far as our our recollection goes, right? So we're just very we used people used to think we're twins when we were younger. It was funny. So I just reached out to him one day and was like, hey, I'm this is what I'm where I'm at and what I'm going through. He was one of those people that was when I was, you know, trying to get off math. He so he's an amazing man, a great sounding board. And so it's just one of those things where I reached out to him and it's like, hey, I'm getting back into the word and I don't know where to start. So to he's like, okay, start with John. Like that was kind of like his direction. Start with John, work through the gospels. And I kept asking him questions as I'm reading, like, what does this mean? What does Jesus say when he says this? And why would he call the woman a dog? And he's like, it gets to a point where he's like, hey, you're asking some real deep questions now. Stuff I don't feel capable of answering. So he introduced me to his pastor, Craig Laughlin, up in Marysville at Generations Church. So that was the beginning of me really seeking out. So Craig and I got together when they first opened restaurants again. Uh he and I got together and had lunch in what was supposed to be an hour meeting turned into a four-hour conversation. Oh. And I remember saying, I you know, the one of the things when I really reached back into the word and started reading again was that there was that tap on my shoulder one day where the Lord said, Remember when I called you to ministry in culinary school? Yeah, I was serious about that. I still want you to do that. And that was a big mind blow. You know, like what you want me to what? And so I remembered saying to Craig, I don't know what being a pastor is, but I think I'm supposed to do that. And so that was kind of six months or so of viewing their services online through YouTube, you know, and just really doing church in our living room. Okay. And so Lori's Lori's conversion story is me reading through scripture and and uh telling her about it all the time. And then one day she's like, I want to read the Bible. And I'm I'm starting John, you know. I'm in Matthew, you can read it. Just repeat a process. And that's when I was like, oh, that's different. The fact that she wants her own. Like, we have one in the house, you can read it. She's like, no, no, I want mine. Yeah. And her story is more like we laughed. Like, and I got this was from I think Eugene Peterson said it. The message as far as some of us have the uh Damascus Road conversions and some of us have the Emmaus Road conversions. Hers was an Emmaus Road. As she first read through the Sermon on the Mount, she was like, I never knew that this is who Jesus was. And so that was kind of how the two of us start moving forward as a couple in faith. And then as I'm expressing these things where I think I'm supposed to be a pastor, and she's like, I don't know what that means. I don't even know what it means to be a pastor's wife. I think we're still searching that for both of us at times. But that was just through that process. And then at one point, Craig was really, really like, hey, you you guys should find a home church. I appreciate that you're watching online. I love that you're asking questions, but you need a faith community to be a part of. And then one day he was like, I don't know why I've never said this to you before. You should go check out Kent Hillside, they're not far from you. And so that's I remember sitting with Pastor Ev and saying the same thing. I think I'm supposed to be a pastor, and I don't know what that means.

Grantley Martelly: 20:18

Well, a lot of us have been to that lifestyle. You know, my call to ministry was about a 20-year journey as well. It wasn't drugs, stuff like that, but it was just not wanting to say yes. Not wanting to see, you know, I told the Lord, You got my two brothers, you don't need me. I'm happy to be a layer person, I'm happy to be a musician. Actually, I played I started playing in bands when I was 13 years old. And I've been playing music my whole life, and but I was playing in gospel bands.

Jeff Reynolds: 20:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Playing music beer.

Grantley Martelly: 20:50

But that whole pr process, you know, it took me many years to get to that point, answering that question as well. And one of the things that one of my mentors taught me is that God's call on you to ministry is not always to be a pastor. And sometimes if he calls you to be a pastor, it's not the pastor that you may have taught or you may have seen. He may have a different role for you, which is completely different because there are hundreds of ways to be a minister, hundreds of ways to be a pastor, hundred ways to be a leader, which has been very, very helpful for me to get away from thinking about that traditional role and trying to ask God, what do you really want me to do? So we get to this point in your life now, you've made a commitment, you're trying to find the journey to see where you're going. Where are you now? And uh what do you what are you doing now?

Jeff Reynolds: 21:44

So as I'm moving through some of these spaces and working in the beverage industry, I had been removed from cooking for quite a while at that point. I was in the beverage industry working in sales, and I remember one of the guys that I was training with as a sales guy said to me something about being a chef. And I was bitter and angry about never having actually followed through and pursuing the things. I pursued my band more than cooking at that time and ended up just taking a driving job to make the hours work for what I wanted to do. And I remember my buddy Larry said something about, you know, well, you know, you're a chef, and I was like, no, I and I just kind of barked at him, like, no, I'm not. You know, and so moving into where I am now, I work for uh organization called World Relief here in our Western Washington office. When I first started talking to Ev at Hillside, he says, Hey, we've got this kitchen thing that we're building. They're gonna need somebody to run their program. It's not my job to give you, but you know, talk to Tamina Martelli, you might know her, and apply when they're ready to hire. And so that's what I did. And by the grace of God, here I am at World Relief. So, what I am is the uh commercial learning kitchen coordinator, where World Relief is a refugee and immigrant services agency. And so through that, I work specifically in the resiliency uh department, where we are, you know, the federal government gave us 90 days worth of funding for resettlement as people come to the country. And as an organization, we believe that it takes a lot more than three months to get your life together from such a disruption. And so our resiliency program goes beyond that. And so, specifically in healing with trauma and working through place-based programming, we've got a community garden, a sewing studio, and our equity and sustainability internship program with immigrant refugee youth in our local Kent School districts. So that's kind of the stuff that we do as a whole as a program. I specifically am the kitchen coordinator. So this is a moment where it takes my skills as a chef and bring me into a faith-based organization to be able to work with a community that I would have never had any attachment to prior. And so it's been quite an amazing journey to get to this space. We're actually just entered our third cohort. We've actually graduated nine students already, and some of them have already started their own businesses. So it's been a pretty amazing program to be a part of.

Grantley Martelly: 24:17

Yeah, it sounds amazing to me that this is where your journey has led you. When you look back on how you got here, did you ever imagine that being a chef would be being the chef with people coming from all around the world, with all sorts of tears and all sorts of vision, also dealing with a whole bunch of trauma, a whole bunch of religious background. And now what does it mean to be a m pastor? I mean, I'll use the word minister. What does it mean to be a minister? How am I going to use my gifts? Did you ever imagine that they would be coming together in a way like this?

Jeff Reynolds: 24:53

Never. And so as a part of our program, as we built the curriculum, we've also aligned our competencies for the curriculum with the American Culinary Federation, which is one of the largest networks of professional chefs here in the States. And so they have kind of their own certification guidelines. And so we're training people toward some of that. The redemption factor of never thinking, like I said earlier, that I was a chef or going to be a chef by title has been redeemed. And that's been an amazing place to be in. I never thought I needed that blessing, but it was something that that the Lord really blessed me with and being able to be technically called chef now. But the funny thing is, the moment that I was like, I think I can retire here was the moment that the Lord really ripped the kitchen out of my hands and said, This is not yours. You're a steward right now. Uh, but until then, I do know that I am to be a good steward over the program that's been set before me.

Grantley Martelly: 25:45

So, Jeff, now you're working with people who you grew up in California, raised in Walla Walla. You talk about the life you had and the things that you've done, mostly very American-centric, Western-centric. And now you're working with people who come from all over the world, completely different backgrounds, different skin colors, different languages, different experiences, some of them very traumatic and they're recovering. How do you feel working in this space? Has it been challenging for you? What are some of your thoughts there?

Jeff Reynolds: 26:24

It has been one of the single greatest challenges of my food career because I've entered into territories of cuisines that I am completely unfamiliar with, spice palettes and ingredient lists that are like what? So learning how to just navigate shopping. If you go to your local grocery store, you're not going to find all the things you probably want to find if you're not from the States. And so now, just as an example, we put together a spice display for an event, and we're collecting different whole spices that were coming from around the world. I had to go to like six different stores to ultimately find everything that I needed and still couldn't find certain ingredients. That's a reality when you think about just coming to a new country and trying to find something that's like home and how difficult that actually is. My boss tells a story about her first year working in Greece and trying to do Thanksgiving with her family and how much of a challenge it was to pull off American Thanksgiving in Greece. And that's just a reality. And so, like you said, the different backgrounds that come into that kitchen have also so beyond just challenging me as a chef and ingredients and all those things, has now challenged me with my understandings of cultural norms and behaviors and respect levels and just little things. I'm the person that's going to rub your shoulder and say, How you doing, and get a hold of you and give you a high five or whatever. I have found out that culturally, like I went to shake an Afghan lady's hands and she froze. And my boss pulled me aside. He's like, Look, men never touch women in that culture unless you're married. So just don't do that. And that was like a I'm I'm just being friendly, you know, but that was a big thing. And a cultural intelligence journey. Yeah, it has. And then language is, you know, I I don't speak Dari, I don't speak French, I don't speak Spanish, all those things. And so having people in that are from Morocco, that are from the Congo, that are from Afghanistan, like you have these moments where you have to really humble yourself and like how do we move forward to communicate on a level where we can all understand? That has been another great challenge of my life. But it's opened doors to me with relationships with people that I've that now I call friends that have graduated from my program to challenge me as a person, like preconceived and in-rooted things you just didn't know were there that you hold toward other cultures or other people. And to really check those moments, to really search your heart and go, well, where's that from? And why would I have that attitude? Or and and is something that can be dismantled right now. And pretty much every time, yes, it is something that can be dismantled because the reality is that we stop, and I think the biggest thing that has hit me over the last few years is the reality of Imago Day, the reality of being image bearers of God, and the reality of that, yes, when we're adopted into the family, we are called sons and daughters, but we are built in with inherent dignity of God. And so that has transcended into my life in a way that I never thought would have happened five years ago, almost four years at World Lead. And that has been probably one of the deepest things that has affected me is to really look into, as Jesus said, the windows of the soul and understand that that's a person that was made and formulated and known before they ever took their first breath. And that's the God that knows me. And so that's a really cool thing to step into a space where it's like, you have changed me in such a way that even the quote unquote most vilest of act of humans, I still stop and I say that person needs Jesus more ever than ever.

Grantley Martelly: 30:02

Yeah, that's powerful coming to that point of realizing the image of God in all people.

Jeff Reynolds: 30:06

Yeah.

Grantley Martelly: 30:06

You know, we live in pretty tumultuous days today and a lot of things are going on in this country and around the world. So when you hear some of the things being said about immigrants and about people who are different, how does that make you feel? Or what comes to your mind as a believer in Christ who is now working in the space with people whose lives you see and being transformed? And they're not all Christian. Some of them are Muslims, some of them are Hindus, some of them are all faiths, some of them maybe no faith. How are you making that journey? And how do you put those two things together with what you might hear, with what you're actually seeing, and the work that you're doing and how it's transforming lives?

Jeff Reynolds: 30:50

I focus on the task at hand in front of me and really letting God work through me. As an organization, we don't proselytize, but we're not hiding our faith either. Everybody that comes through our doors knows that we're a Christian organization. I am honest with every one of my students. I'm a minister in this church. Our partnership with where the kitchen is built is at Hillside Church. It is a space where I am open with who I am and what I'm doing, which does allow to enter into some wonderful conversations engaged from student inquiry. The challenge has been to operate respectfully, but also operate it in truth and not to shy away from that.

Grantley Martelly: 31:31

As we turn the corner to come home on this topic, I really appreciate you sharing with us and sharing your story and sharing your journey. Uh two questions to bring it home. First one is if you had to look into the future, where do you see yourself and Laurie in the Next five, ten years?

Jeff Reynolds: 31:48

You know, as we've navigated through what it means to be called into ministry and what that looks like, the Lord has really opened our eyes into different avenues. I came into this with the preconceived notion of what a pastor is and does. And that was just from growing up and that view. It hasn't completely been dismantled. That is something that's still, you know, I've prayed diligently, and both Lori and I have, the people around me, about what is it that you want from my life, Lord, and where is it you want to take me. It really was over this last year that it really has set in, that I am still building that tool belt and toolbox, still really leaning into where he's taking me. He has called us to some form of international service that we felt in the past, but he's also redefined what that also means in the roles that my wife, she's not here anymore. She was unfortunately laid off earlier this year with a third of our organization after federal fundings were cut. But what it means to work in international communities and and that really, you know, as you and I have talked at one point in time too, the reality of the mission field in America is very right and needed to have people in it. Over this last year, as I've been praying about where where is it, it really settled in this last year that the Lord is calling me to shepherding a flock and that there is a place somewhere out there that He has for Lori and I to be that senior role. And so now knowing that, okay, this is where you're taking me, and this is not where I thought this was going. And what does that mean in all these other things you've told me? So there's still some stuff that we're navigating through and praying through. I know the one thing that my boss asked me the other day, you know, what is Jesus telling you right now? And it is to be a good steward over the things I have given you.

Grantley Martelly: 33:37

Master this, and we will move forward right now. Yeah. One of my friends who became a missionary, uh, I remember her saying this to me. Everything that we go through in life in our walk with Christ is boot camp for what he is preparing us for in the future.

Jeff Reynolds: 33:54

Yeah.

Grantley Martelly: 33:54

But you gotta go, you gotta go through boot camp before you can move on to being out in the field. So you're learning a lot, and I appreciate your honesty about that as well. And seeing you grow and seeing you minister and seeing you relate to people has been encouraging to watch your journey and to watch Lori's journey as well. So, as we close out this morning now, what are three things that you would like our audience to take away from this conversation, or three things that you would like to say to the person who may be saying, I thought my life was going in this direction, I went this way, and now I'm coming back this way, but I'm still not sure how do I get to that point to where I feel like I'm walking in the light that I've been given towards something that is purposeful.

Jeff Reynolds: 34:42

As I thought about that question, one of the things that I would please, please, please hear, if you have a prodigal in your life, don't stop praying. Don't stop praying. Never know when the Lord will tap that person on the shoulder again. I I sit here as a prodigal knowing for a fact that I had parents and grandparents and uncles, aunts, and brothers, sisters, people diligently, diligently praying over my life. That's my brother and I love to spread that message to folks. Like, don't stop praying because you don't know when that will happen. That is one thing I wanted to make sure people knew to walk away with this. Another one was that if you are in that place of call to ministry or where the Lord's leading you, be open. Uh, don't let it be a rigid set of what you think it's supposed to be, because the moment you grasp onto those things, the Lord's really good at dismantling those from your hands. So be open to the fact that he has a journey for you. The will of God is not a one single dot, not a one single point for you. It may be a series of dots and points that he's going to work you through. And that is what we just said about building that tool belt and your experiences. And so be be open to the fact that where you think you're supposed to be might not be where you're supposed to be. Now, discerning that, that's a whole different thing, and that comes with a lot of prayer and listening. But that would be like, I guess, my third thing, is find time every day for the Lord. Sometimes easier said than done. But I think one of the things that I have said to my son many times is that if you can spend an hour in the morning focusing and digging into devotional and prayer, that it grounds you in such a way, not only for the day, but just as a practice in life. And there's a huge benefit that comes from that. There are studies that show us the benefits of just reading scripture alone. Find time every day. And it doesn't have to be the morning, that just is my sweet spot because I love coffee and praying in the morning and being alone. But find that space if it's in the evening, if it's the middle of the day, because the reality is that when we don't, it can derail so fast. And so having a foundation of spending time alone with God. I mean, my dad said this to me one time in reference to reading through specifically, but also Luke, you see repeatedly that Jesus steps aside to be alone in prayer. If if the Son of God needed that, how much more than do we? And that's a reality. You've got to spend time alone with Jesus.

Grantley Martelly: 37:24

Thank you, Jeff. That's a great point to end on. You know, if we call ourselves people of faith, we call ourselves followers of Christ, then we've got to spend time becoming acquainted, familiar. Yeah. Yeah. We've got to be finding our time becoming students of his word. What does the word actually say and how is it speaking to us? And time in prayer, following the model that he gave us. You know, I've been focusing really on this topic called intentional discipleship. And I'm working on some materials in that way, right? Being intentional about our faith journey. Because, like you said, if we're not intentional, it can so easily become derailed. And not because we intend to do that, but it's because life always has something that's gonna come in there before, right? There's always gonna be something to do, always gonna be some other thing to say, well, I can pray later, I can read later, I can study later. But like you said, when you say, I'm gonna get up in the morning and spend this hour doing this, then that intention helps you to get to that point to where it becomes a habit.

Jeff Reynolds: 38:33

Yeah.

Grantley Martelly: 38:34

And also your point about trying to put God in a box.

Jeff Reynolds: 38:38

Yeah.

Grantley Martelly: 38:39

He can lead us in many ways. And sure we have mentors and we have people around us that we look at and we say, you know, we see God working in their life, and that's good. However, God can work in your life, but your picture may look different to theirs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, when we first started out, we thought we had this one picture, and now it's turning out to be this different picture. Very different. But it's the same God, right? Or yeah, yeah. So I really appreciate you, and I appreciate the conversation that we've had, and for you taking the time here to come and share. And I know that this time will touch other people, other people are gonna listen to it, and it's gonna relate to them and help them in their journey. And I wish you all the best in your journey and your and Laurie's journey. Anything else you want to say before we go?

Jeff Reynolds: 39:26

I was just, you know, as I was thinking about it, something that literally happened just this week. The power of prayer. I love the guys that I played music with, like brothers. We spent a decade of our lives together, and I have diligently been praying over them. I've told them all, I've shared the gospel with them all, and I've said to them collectively and individually, I want you in eternity with me. All three of them are currently pursuing Christ. Amen. And it's been one of the greatest blessings. I just talked to my bass player, and he's like, I'm going to mass for the first time in twenty-something years. And when I talk to him afterwards, he's like, It was great. The pastor that helped me through hospice with my mom has invited me to his church. I'm going there next week. And we're gonna start an online Bible study together. I never thought I'd be in a place where my best friends would be.

Grantley Martelly: 40:19

God hears an answer to our prayers, and he heard your heart, and he he is answering your prayer. So I I just want to take a minute right now and just say, Lord, thank you for Jeff's consistency in praying for his friends, and thank you for how you have brought them to you. You you know where they are right now, reach them, continue to grow in their lives, and continue to grow in their journey together. And maybe this can be the beginning of a new journey for them together again. And the people who may be listening to this podcast episode right now, and who are wondering, should I give up or should I keep praying that they would keep praying? And if there were those who are wondering about how you're gonna use them in their lives, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, my friend. Thanks, brother. Have a great day. Remember to subscribe and leave us a rating. Written is very important to help in our podcast. Email us and comments at the party noise24 at email.com.com. Thank you for listening to Instagram.