Mail Call Podcast Episode #4: Praying for Your Family || Victory Church

Hello, Pando friends, good to see you guys today. Stephen Hathaway here. Glad that you were able to join in along with us. And I am joined along with a friend of mine you haven't had a chance to meet yet, named James. James, tell everybody what you do here at Victory and a little bit about why you're a part of it today. Yeah, so been at Victory for three years now and I'm actually the campus pastor at our North Cobb campus out there in Ackworth, Georgia. But we're here to share some love with you guys today and excited just to talk about anything and everything that we're gonna talk about. That you've been sending letters in. We're getting, I think like maybe 15 to 20 letters a week. I think maybe, I'm looking off camera to try to verify that. Yeah, yeah, I just got a thumbs up. We love that you guys are sending us these letters. We read over them, we pray for the things that you ask us to pray for. And there's a couple of them that as we're able to, we'd like to read and actually respond based upon some of the questions that you send our way. So one of them, actually both of them this week are tied into some content that we just uploaded not too long ago for you guys that were some comedy specials. So I have some friends of mine that do comedy around in the Atlanta area

and I thought what if we filmed some of their sets and posted them on Pando so that all of you would have a chance to get some laughter and joy and fun your way. I love comedy. It's one of my favorite things that has ever existed and it's something that I wanted to bring to you guys as well. And James was kind enough. He actually said to me, hey, we're thinking about having a young adults comedy night, Steven. I know you do comedy. Do you think that you might be able to bring some people out? And it kind of morphed into, especially once you became the campus pastor of what if we filmed like three or four sets and one young adult night. Fill the room with a bunch of people, make them laugh and then send it to our friends in Pando. Thank you for being so gracious with us that night. We had a great time. Yeah, man. No, I appreciate you guys. And I'm not sure if you want the world to know this but Pastor Steven's actually a comedian himself. So we love it. That's why we laugh all the time around here. But what's cool is, yeah, we had this comedy night and people are like, a comedy night in church?

Yes, in church. We love to laugh and have fun and we did. We actually had an incredible night. I will tell you this though, sitting at the front row, everybody's watching. If the pastor's laughing, then I can laugh. And so I'll just be honest. I laughed the entire night. It was just an incredible time. So I appreciate y'all. Thank y'all. Glad to do it. In fact, you guys can look at some of those videos and you'll see him and his wife right on the front having a great time. You'll see the people in the audience cracking up as well. And yes, I love, in fact, I got, I'm gonna be in downtown Atlanta tonight. At a place called The Laughin' Skull, trying out some new material in their open mic night. It's always fun to get out there. It's a great way to try to take and put some light out all around the Atlanta area. And so that's, I know of some friends of mine that I've done some shows with, whether it was Cyrus Steele or Ed Wiley. And I thought, I bet they would love to come out and produce some content. And you guys have been watching it. We love that you have been really enjoying it.

That's the whole reason why we made that content, was to bless all of you. And here's one of them that I really love. So it's from Lee. And he said, I wanna start out by saying thank you for the amazing content. I never laughed so much in this trying time in my life. Mr. Cyrus Steele is indeed a blessing. Bring him back, please, which is great. I'm sure Cyrus has a lot of content. And we'll probably end up filming some more stuff for you guys again in the future. And what I love about Lee, he started to actually write down Cyrus's jokes. And here's, I love it when he said this, I love it when he said this, which is, I really know you watched it and laughed because you were reciting the material. And then he put down, listen, I'd never heard this before. So I'm 46 years old. And people are like, oh, you don't look like you're 46. I did not know that. You look good. Well, I'm covering my lack of hair with my cap. That's why, if I had my hat off, you'd be like 50, 54, easy. But anyway, so we have something he had in here about my name, I never realized before. He said, thank you so much. Hope you read this whole letter, Stephen Hathaway,

and not just ha-ta-way. Ha ha ha, happy New Year's. I never realized that ha is in my last name. Come on, man, that's why you're a comedian, bro. It was the grace of God. I never knew this. Come on, making people laugh. Is this and my traumatic childhood that really helped me to be in comedy now, right? Thank God. Thank God for that. So Lee, I'm using that in the future. The fact that I never saw that ha is in my last name. You blessed me, my friend. Also, this next letter that was written in is something that I'm very excited to read because you just didn't say thank you for the content, which was awesome, but you also had a prayer request. And just a reminder, we love when you guys have a chance to send us your prayer request. We definitely pray over those. And, oh, you know what, before I read this though, would you like kind of speak into like something that I learned afterwards about how cool it is that our content is involved in Pando that's actually kind of personal for you as well? For sure, yeah. Yeah, so, you know, not many people knew this about me or about my family until this experience of Pando app, of releasing content to those that are unable to watch

maybe through on the outside world, I guess what you would call it. But I have a brother who has been in prison quite a few times over the last 20 years. He's actually my oldest brother. And, you know, I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be a part of this church. I'm blessed to be a part of an organization that really pours time and not just content, to the prison system, but actually cares about those that are in the prison system. So that's why I speak so much to me because it's not easy, man. It's not easy on both sides. I would say, of course, you know, if you are incarcerated, one, yeah, it's definitely not easy. But a lot of times people don't think about family or those on the outside of those walls. And I've seen it firsthand on what it can do to family. The conversation that families have every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, every holiday. And it does definitely make an impact, man. It's an experience that, you know, I'm gonna use the word unfortunate, but we know that there's good in all of this and that God can do some great things. But yeah, so over the past 20 years, dealing with this firsthand, I'm gonna speak to my brother right now, is that cool? Yeah, absolutely.

So I have a brother that's incarcerated right now and he knows I love him. But what's crazy is over the last 20 years, I haven't had much conversation or even personal time. Of course, you know, we live hours and hours away. And a lot of emotions can be sparked up because it feels like nobody cares, right? Like maybe because of life goes on and family's out here and work schedules and, you know, the allowance or the opportunity to even take a phone call, things like that. There's a lot of emotions that come about of maybe family doesn't care or maybe that person that's incarcerated doesn't care about their family. But I know that that's not true because I experienced this. So what I'm trying to say is, you know, I have a brother that's in prison. And I've said this since I was a little kid because I remember the moments that I had with him. That I will always look up to him, man. He's my older brother. And I've said that to him many times. And I'll say it again. I look up to you and I love you. And despite the distance, how long we've been separated, I truly care. And so, you know, it's those conversations that are outside that we have with our family have always been around like the what ifs.

Like what if, you know, we were together or how would it look like? How would our family look different if we were together today? But I do know that God has a plan. And, you know, we have a lot of prayers, man. We have a lot of prayers. And my mom has a lot of prayers of being united together one day. And I'm about to get super spiritual. And don't mean to, but I'm about to get super spiritual. You know, in this life, we have consequences. And sometimes if those consequences bring out the opportunity where we're not together, we may never get to see each other physically again. I do know this, that if we have an eternal relationship with our God, that we will be able to be united after this life, you know? And unfortunately, like with the prison system, you know, that's a place where somebody will spend for the rest of their life. I find a lot of hope that, yeah, this life is mortal, but after this, there can be something great if we have a relationship with God. That's great. And so, you know, I just, walking through these situations, walking through this life journey of having somebody that's incarcerated, Not an easy life, but the Bible talks about that.

You know, the Bible talks about caring for those that are in jail. And so, you know, I'm grateful for what we do here as a church to care for those and bless those because it's more than content, and I'm just being honest. It's about a life transformation that can take place even in a room that may feel like will never change. So I'm just blessed by you, man, and the opportunity that we have to do this. Yeah, when you shared that story with me, and I said, would you be able to be a part of one of our mail calls? You were like, I would love that. I pray you invite me back again. I'm sure that we will, and James's brother, now you know that he loves you and he's gonna put money in your books, right? Hey, listen, that's true. Come on, he wants some Cheetos. He wants to, come on, take care of the guy. Give him some Oreos. I got you, bro, I got you. He'll make me pay for that later, maybe. No, we'll get it, we'll get it, we got you. Transparency, man. My brother wrote me two months ago. I spoke with him during Thanksgiving, and it is my honest desire to be on the phone call list and also to create an account so that we can bless you, bro, for real, I'm being serious.

That's great. You know what I love about that is that that's what Pando offers for a lot of people. You have a chance to watch some of the content outside of the prison systems because anybody can download the Pando app on the iPhone, Android device. So content that you guys are watching, you can share that with them. So if you wanted to say, hey, I watched Cyrus Steel and I was laughing like crazy, you have to download Pando and watch it with me. Or if it's a, hey, I watched this message and I would love for us to watch it together and then maybe write back and forth about it or talk about it on our next phone call. It's a great way to continue to stay connected with your loved ones outside that you're not able to see as much as you wish you could, which takes me right back to this letter. We have somebody, Nicholas, sent me a letter saying, again, how much he loves Cyrus's information. You probably wrote this right before we dropped Hank Denson's comedy special. Make sure you check his out as well. It's really good, and Ed Wiley's. And so he put something in here asking specifically for prayer. And we know a lot of people might see our content that are not sure where they are

in their relationship with God. But at the end of the video, we said, hey, if you want prayer, reach out to us and let us know. And you did just that, Nicholas. But what I love is you said, hey, I'm figuring out my own walk with God right now, but I want you to pray for my daughter because it's hard. Knowing that she doesn't have her dad in her life right now, wishing that I could be there, asking God to do a work in her life would make me so happy. So we heard you. We're definitely praying, but I wanna share an encouragement with you. Something that David wrote about, because David had a moment in his life where his parents had written him off as well. And as you read his story in 1 Samuel about how when the prophet was looking for all of David's dad's sons, the dad intentionally did not invite David, and just other things that make you go, man, he had a rough childhood. He wasn't really connected with his parents. And David wrote a worship song about it in Psalm 27 where he mentioned about how even when my mom and my dad were not there for me, the Lord himself took me in. So I wanna encourage you. From my own story, my parents went through a crazy divorce, ended up having to move into a shelter without my mom,

without my dad. My parents weren't around for a season, but God stepped in in that moment. And God took care of me even when my parents were not able to. And I wanna say, continue to pray for your sons, for your daughters. Maybe it's an aging parent that you wish you were able to be there for. Just know that as, even though you're not able to be there physically, your prayers are. Your prayers make a difference, and God can step in in your family's life. And I feel like even with your family, God's gonna continue to do that during the season. I'm grateful for moments like this where we can continue to connect, but let's take a moment to pray. Pray for them right now. In fact, would you just pray over Nicholas and just pray over anybody that's feeling that anxiety of, man, I'm not there. Just asking God to begin to intercede for their family. Yeah, let's pray. I just wanna throw this out there. Nicholas, we're standing with you, full of faith to a God that we serve, that we can testify about that is real

and that is there for those in need and those in trouble. And so, just standing with you and praying that maybe this will spark your faith about that. I'm not sure where I am with God, but knowing that, hey, we're here with you to stand in the gap and trust God that he will protect and guide your daughter even in these times. So, let us pray. God, we just thank you. today, Lord. We thank you for the opportunity that we get every single day, Lord. We thank you for the breath that is inside of our lungs. Lord, we thank you for this moment, this opportunity to just speak to those that are in need today, God. We thank you for the content, and we thank you for just the provision that you are providing for us, Lord. God, today we stand in the gap for those that have these prayer needs and prayer requests for family. God, we specifically pray right now for Nicholas's daughter. God, I pray right now, Lord, wherever she is at, God, I pray that your Holy Spirit just surround her, comfort her, and guide her because that's who you are, Lord. I pray for protection and provision, Lord. I pray for peace in this season, Lord. Maybe if there's a broken relationship between her and her father, one, that she can grasp and know that you are the ultimate good father, God, but that can transform her life, and then two, that there may be a rekindling, God, of a relationship with her physical dad, God. So, I pray right now, Lord, over her life. I pray for protection, God, wherever she may go, and peace, God. I pray for her family dynamic just as it is, but Lord, I pray also that there may be people that can come around her, Lord, who are walking this spiritual journey, God, that can help point her to you, that can help her, guide her in her relationship with you, God. I also pray for those also that are watching this that may have family members, Lord, that they feel disconnected to because of their incarceration, Lord. I pray for moms and dads who have a broken relationship with their children, Lord. I pray for the children who feel like maybe their parents, maybe their mom or dad, that are incarcerated, God, that don't care about them. I pray that today they just feel an overwhelming sense of peace, and Lord, I just pray

your blessing over everyone that is hearing my voice right now, God, that you continue to guide them, lead their steps, God, that whether they are in prison or not, God, that they can fulfill the purpose that you have for them today. So, Lord, I pray just a closeness and a nearness to you that we may all feel. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. I know that blessed a lot of you that were praying along with us, and maybe you were taking that prayer and applying it to your specific family situation. Well, we only know to pray because you guys are writing in, so continue reaching out to us, and thank you for hanging out with us today, James. Glad that you're here, and we're looking forward to getting some more letters and responding, making some more content your way real soon.