(electronic beat)
- Well, welcome.
Hello? Yep, there we are.
We are live with this
conversation we're about to have
with these three
incredible Switch students.
Right next to me is Miss
Lissi from Stillwater,
our Switch out there,
then we've got Cameron
right next to her from Shawnee,
and on the end there, we have Carsten.
He's out of Mustang.
He just came out of football practice.
Drove across town to be here for you.
He specifically requested though,
that you would throw a honey badger emoji
in the chat for him.
So go ahead and find the honey
badger emoji. It's there.
He showed us that it exists.
Throw that in the chat for him.
He specifically requested it.
And what that's going to let us do
is make sure that we're
all in the right mentality
as we're about to go into this interview.
And because it's live,
that also means that if
they say something crazy,
we can't edit it out.
Like it's there. They gotta live with it.
At one point, Carsten said,
"Hey, the last time I
sat in a chair like this,
I got a cramp.
I fell out of my chair
and started crying."
And so what I told him is, "Hey man,
if that happens, just roll with it.
Like literally roll across the stage,
get out of the camera shot,
and we'll just keep on going."
Everybody feel good?
We're all ready for this?
Okay, so here's what I wanna do.
I want to hear from you a
question that we can give
to them to kind of get
things started, right?
So give them an easy question
just to break the ice
so they can feel a little
bit more comfortable.
So chat, drop down a question below.
While you're doing that, they're
gonna introduce themselves,
kind of tell you just
a little bit about 'em,
and then once we get through that,
I will ask your question to them.
So! Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- All right, tell us your
name, favorite color,
what grade you're in, and something else.
Oh, dang, look at all
these honey badger emojis.
All right. Sorry. Go ahead, Lissi.
- Okay, so my name is Lissi.
I am 17 years old.
I'm currently a senior at
Stillwater High School.
My favorite color is blue.
What was the last question?
- [Host] That's it. That's perfect.
- There we go.
- Hey, y'all better just show
some appreciation for Lissi
because apparently she didn't know
that this was going to be
live until like 30 minutes ago
and she about like freaked
out when she found that out.
And I was like, "Wait,
Cameron and Carsten,
you guys knew this was live, right?"
And both of them said,
"Yeah. Yeah, we knew."
So, all right, go ahead,
Cameron. Take it away.
- My name is Cameron and I'm 17.
I'm currently a senior and
my favorite color is blue.
- Wonderful. Carsten?
- My name is Carsten. I'm 17.
I'm a junior and my
favorite color is yellow.
- (chuckles) All right,
so we've gotten, like,
so many good questions,
but it's hard to actually read them
because of all the honey
badgers in the chat.
So Carsten, they did it.
They came through for you.
So here's what we'll do.
We got the, oh gosh, the chat
is literally going so fast.
I just lost it.
All right, here's what we're going to do.
I'm going to do this one that I just saw.
Star Wars or Star Trek?
- [Cameron] Star Wars.
- Why?
- I've never seen a Star Trek movie.
- That's embarrassing.
- I've never seen either.
- [Host] Okay.
(laughing)
- I'm with Lissi on that
one. I've never seen either.
( laughing)
- All right, cool.
Well, see you next week. I'm out.
I'm just kidding. Okay.
I'm like a super big nerd, so
I love all things Star Wars.
Star Trek is good, but not great,
but here's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna actually get started now,
now that we're all comfortable,
we've gotten a little
bit of the giggles out,
because again, y'all,
this is literally live.
Like, it's live right
now. This is terrifying.
If you're not scared,
you probably should be.
Because of all the people judging you,
Carsten, how does that make you feel?
- [Carsten] I'm here.
(laughing)
- He said, "I'm here."
All right, so here's the deal.
Our theme for Switch this year
is from God: Hope and Power.
Because what we know is that our faith
is so much more than wishful thinking.
We know that because of Jesus,
because of what he's done,
that we can have hope that our future
will be brighter and better than our past,
and we have a part to play in
making that future a reality.
And so what we're going to
do is we're going to hear
from Lissi, from Cameron, and
from Carsten different ways
that they are choosing to
use the power they have
from God, for the good of others,
how they're choosing to have hope
and to bring hope to the
people in their lives.
So, question number one:
tell us about the first time you realized
that you had the power
to make a difference.
Cameron, you're looking at me intently.
I think you're ready for this question.
So, Cameron, tell us about the first time
you realized you had the
power to make a difference.
- Okay. So the first time I
realized that I had the power
to make a difference was
my eighth grade year.
I had two really close friends
and they'd actually come
to a church camp with me.
And neither of them had grown up in church
or really had a relationship with God.
They knew about him, but
they didn't know him.
And throughout our friendship,
they eventually sat down with me
and they were like, "Cameron,
we've seen the way you love Jesus
and try to live like Jesus
and we want to have that
type of relationship."
And so at the end of the day,
they ended up choosing to follow Christ
and giving their life to Christ
and I just realized that
if I can make that much
of an impact with just a friendship,
when I really set my mind to it,
there's so much more I can do.
- Can we, like, drop-the-mic emoji?
Is that a thing?
(Cameron laughing)
Because what you just
said there was fantastic.
Double praise hands in the chat!
Come on, Cameron! You
said you were what grade?
- I think eighth grade.
- Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool.
Yep, I was just playing Call
of Duty in the eighth grade.
So that is wonderful. I love it.
Lissi, what about you?
Tell us about the first time you realized
you had the power to make a difference.
- So, I think the first time I realized
I had the power to make a
difference was actually last year,
the end of last year, I had realized
that the best place to make a
difference was in my church,
so I decided I wanted to make a difference
by inviting, inviting, inviting.
So I just began to invite
people all the time
to come serve along with
me on the hospitality team.
And so the more and more people
that began to serve with me,
the more I saw a change in my community.
And I was like, "If a simple
invite can do this much
and has this much movement
in my small community,
then I can do so many more things."
- Come on, somebody! Let's go!
How many people did you
invite to serve with you?
- I think close to 10
within a couple months.
- So within a couple of months,
you invited 10 different people
to come and serve with you at church.
Like, it's one thing to invite somebody
to come to church and,
like, attend a service.
It's another thing
entirely to invite somebody
to start serving and using
their gifts in the church.
Like, that is a big deal.
And you're how old, you said? 17?
- 17.
(laughing)
- Come on. All right, Carsten.
We're going on to question
number two for you.
Are you ready?
- I'm ready. I'm here.
- All right. Good man, good man.
Make sure to keep that mic up here.
All right, so first week of Switch Online,
here's what we did.
We talked about the
importance of being committed
to seeking God and learning the truth
when it comes to us playing our part
in bringing hope to others,
because we know that in order
for us to do what's right,
we have to know what's right.
So here's my question for you:
what are some practices or habits
that you've developed, personally,
to help you learn the truth
and stay rooted in God's word?
So what are some practices or
habits that you've developed
that help you learn the truth
and stay rooted in God's word?
- One thing that's helped
a lot is growing up
in a Christian family.
We've gone to church every Sunday,
attending those church services
and then serving on the weekends also.
Being involved in being
rooted into those classrooms,
it's helped me being able
to stay connected to God,
through everything that's going on.
And then my Switch group on Wednesdays,
being with them all the time,
communicating with them through
everything we go through,
just having them there for me,
it keeps me connected and
keeps me from straying
too far away from what I need to do.
- That's fantastic.
I think it's such an
important thing to even hear,
what he was talking about.
So much of what you said is based off
of having the right people around you,
because we know that we
become like the people
we spend time with.
So if we spend time with incredible people
with strong faith,
that's going to help us
have a stronger faith,
so I absolutely love that.
Cameron, what about you?
- So, for me, at the start of quarantine,
I was like super read my
Bible for 30 minutes every day
and I really made that time for God.
But now that school has started
back, I'm not going to lie,
life gets really hectic and really busy,
but some things I do to keep
myself on track is just start
and end my day with Jesus,
no matter what it looks like.
So in the morning, even if all I do
is read the verse of the day
and listen to worship music
in my car on the way to school,
then that's what I'm gonna to do.
And at night, I'll do maybe
more of an in depth plan
and try to spend some more time in prayer.
I just try to start my day on a good note
and end my day on a good note
because everything in-between
can get really crazy.
- (laughing) Yeah, I feel
like that's an understatement
that everything in-between
can get really crazy.
So, I know that I didn't tell you
that I was gonna ask you
this question beforehand,
but do you have, like,
a favorite Bible plan
or maybe something
you're reading right now
that if somebody else is
looking for a great to start,
that you would recommend?
- So my favorite Bible plan I've ever done
is called "It's Not
Supposed to Be This Way"
and I found it a long time ago,
but then whenever all the
Corona stuff started happening,
I was just, it really came back to me
because nothing was
supposed to be this way,
but it is and there's
nothing we can do about it.
So it really helped me
learn to accept everything.
- That's fantastic. So you heard it.
"It's Not Supposed to Be This Way."
Search that in YouVersion.
You can start that plan.
If you don't have the YouVersion
Bible app, come on people.
What are you waiting for? It's free.
You can download it.
Like 400 and, I think, 50 million people
have already done it.
So, like, you would fit in.
Like, you'd be cool if
you download YouVersion.
That's probably how we
should encourage people
to read the Bible is,
is peer pressure, right?
You think so, Lissi?
- Yep.
- Okay, cool.
(laughing)
All right, so here's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna move on to the next question
and Lissi, I'm gonna
have you answer this one.
So I want to know from
you, who is somebody
in your life that supports
you, that encourages you,
that challenges you to
be the best you can be?
- I would say someone that challenges me
to be the best I can be is
my Switch leader, Heather.
She's been my Switch
leader all of high school,
so four years now, but I think
she's a really good person
to go to when I feel, like, down
or I'm in a situation I'm not sure
how I should handle it properly
or how God would want me to handle it.
So she's just a good person to turn to
when I'm struggling and I
need somebody there for me.
- That's so good. Let me ask you this.
So what is it like if you
think about Heather, right?
What is, like, one specific quality
that you really appreciate about her?
- I love how she's a leader.
She's not a follower.
She's really always there to
tell you how it is straight up.
If I'm in the wrong,
she's going to be like,
"Hey, Lissi, I love you,
but you're on the wrong end.
This is what you need to do."
- (chuckles) Oh, that's so good.
Do you guys, this might just show like,
so back in the day, the show American Idol
had a guy on it named Simon Cowell.
Are you familiar with who he is?
He was like the really direct British guy.
So, he was incredible.
And it sounds like Heather
is your Simon Cowell.
- For sure.
- Fantastic.
If you don't have a Simon
Cowell, you need one.
If you've ever watched the
auditions for American Idol,
that's why all of us need a Simon Cowell.
You know, 'cause they all the bad singing?
All right, cool.
Just making sure we're
all on the same page.
All right, Cameron, what about you?
Tell us about somebody in
your life that supports you,
encourages you, and challenges you
to be the best that you can be.
- Okay, so the person in my life
who does this for me is
actually one of my friends
from Switch and his name is Connor.
And I only really knew my small group
and my small group leader at Switch
until we became friends.
But there's different types
of friendships you have
and some of them are
like more encouraging,
but the friendship I've had with him
has always been more of a
challenging type of friendship
because he's seen me
whenever I've been hurting.
He made me feel seen when
I had lost sight of myself.
Whenever he knew I was struggling,
he would make me talk about it with him,
but he wouldn't just say,
"Oh, okay. I see you're
going through that."
He would say, What are
you going to do about it?"
and he would hold me accountable to that,
which might not always
have been what I wanted,
but it was always what I needed.
So to have a friend like that,
without that, I wouldn't be anywhere near
to where I am spiritually.
- Come on, somebody!
It wasn't always what she wanted,
but it was exactly what she needed.
Quote her, put it in the
chat, Tweet it, Instagram,
do all of the things and
then make sure "Cameron."
Quote her, give her credit.
Don't rob that from her.
That's messed up. That's plagiarism.
(sighs)
You ready for the next question, Carsten?
- [Carsten] Let's hear it.
- You just gave me that
smile and I was like,
"Man, that's a gift right
there, ladies and gentlemen."
All right, let me reopen this,
'cause it closed on my phone.
Ah, okay. Yes, yes, yes.
This is the thing.
So, let me ask you this, Carsten.
So, we talked about how,
when it comes to hope, right?
It's this belief that the
future can be brighter
and better than the past,
and it's the understanding
that we have a part to
play in making that happen.
So let me hear from you.
What are some ways that
you have used your power,
your influence, to make a change,
maybe in your community,
maybe in your school,
or maybe in the life, of somebody else?
- One way I've used my
influence is my positivity.
A lot of people tell me I'm real social,
real positive, easy to get along with,
so I use that to kind of
uplift the energy in the room
because I know the world's
always tryin' to bring you down.
Growing up, my parents always
told me that life's hard.
You're not gonna get by easy,
but you've just gotta keep on goin'.
So feel like a lot of people need
to have a little bit of positivity
when they're surrounded
with nothing but negativity.
So bringing that into my
community and everyone I'm around,
it kind of helps break the ice almost.
- That's fantastic.
So, earlier, while we were
getting like all warmed up
and prepped, Carson
had a case of the burps
and he said, "Hey, man, if
I've gotta burp on stage,
like what do I do?"
And so Carsten, will you
show us what I taught you?
Well, hold on. You gotta wait
til the camera's on you, bro.
All right. Now it is. All right, go!
See, you just away from the microphone.
Mic goes one way, you go the other.
Come on, somebody.
That's what I like about you, Carsten.
You got a smile on your face,
you're humble, you're teachable.
All of those things.
If y'all live in the Mustang area,
you should be friends with this guy.
All right, pull it back up.
(laughing)
All right, let's have Cameron.
Same question to you.
What are some of the ways that you,
what are some of the ways
that you've used your power
to make a change in your community,
in your school, or in the
lives of other people?
- So I think for me,
it's more in the lives
of other people because intentionality
is something I really worked
on the last couple of years.
And last year at the start of Switch,
we had a girl come into our
small group, and it was Legacy,
and she's become one of my best friends.
But she came for the first time
and I wasn't for sure if
she was going to come back,
but I just fell in love with her.
And I would like text her
and make sure she was
coming back to Switch.
And I just always wanted her to come.
And I've been able to watch her grow
so much spiritually in the last year.
Like, I've watched her go from someone
who just came to church to go to church,
to grow into someone who
loves going to church
and wants to be there all the time.
Like, she's literally
there all of the time
and it's helped us.
Like, our friendship has grown so much
because we were growing together in Jesus.
And I think I was just
able to be what, for her,
what Connor was for me.
I feel like I've been able
to challenge her spiritually
and help her grow.
- That is so good, so good.
All right, last question.
Lissi, are you ready?
- [Lissi] Yep. I'm ready.
- What words of
encouragement would you share
with the students listening right now?
Like, right on the other
side of a computer screen,
a phone, a whatever, what words?
'Cause remember this is live.
- Yeah, still live.
- Okay, cool. Just make
sure we're still there.
(laughing)
So what words of encouragement
would you share with them?
Who, for them, maybe
they're hesitant or nervous
to step out and start
using their power for good.
What would you say to them?
- I think today it's really
easy to fall in the pattern
of what everybody else around us is doing,
but I think that it's
important to remember
that God made us different.
He set us apart from others and we are
to be leaders, not followers.
So when life is rough and
we're not sure what to do,
just remember that God has a plan
and everything will be okay.
- Come on, somebody!
Fire emojis in the chat!
Double praise hands! Clap!
Here's the deal.
These three students just came up
and said, "You know what?
We're gonna go out there.
We're gonna be real.
We're gonna be vulnerable.
We're gonna do it live,
so if we mess up, you can laugh at us."
All of those things and
I just want you to know
how thankful that I am for
your willingness to share,
to be vulnerable, to
be honest, to be real,
to be fun, to be all of those things.
It's seriously a gift to us.
And I think what you said about
the encouragement for them,
knowing that you are a leader,
you don't have to just be a follower.
God made you exactly how
you are for a reason.
And I'm thankful that the
way that God made you,
you have chosen to share with
us to be an example for us
of what it really looks like
practically as a teenager today
to use the power you have
for the good of others.
So without further ado, thank you so much!
Lissi, Cameron, and Carsten!
Put some claps in the chat!
Do all of the things! We
are so excited for ya!
