If you’re a fan of Mike Rowe’s television show Dirty Jobs, then I think you’re going to like today’s episode. 

While working on telephone poles isn’t exactly a dirty job, it is a high-risk, challenging, and technical one and today’s guests are going to tell us all about it. David Powell and PJ Nardy own and operate the Southeastern Lineman Training Center where they lead the premier training school for apprentice lineworker training. 
Their job is so interesting and unique that it has its own show on Amazon Prime called Woodwalkers, but before you set down this episode and tune into their show, you’ll want to hear their story for yourself...

Episode Transcript

*Some listeners have found it helpful to have a transcription of the podcast. Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it. The FDE movement is a volunteer-led movement, and if you’d like to contribute by editing future transcripts, please email us.

David Powell: Never compromising because you go out on line crew and you become a journeyman, maybe you've been doing it for 10, 20 years and you've been doing a certain way and you've been very comfortable, that can be a lot of times the biggest danger is getting too comfortable and you skip steps. There's enough safety involved right now currently that individuals can have a very long career in those 30 years, four years to doing this type of work. But you cannot overlook the safety. You cannot take shortcuts. So that's one of the things that we, again, try to drill into the students is don't get too comfortable because it can only take one mistake. Cost your life.

Henry Kaestner: David, PJI said to have you both on the show, thank you for joining us.

Glad to be here. Thanks for having us.

Henry Kaestner: So before we get in the Southeast Lineman Training Center, would walkers and everything in between love to get an overview of your personal stories? Let's start with you. What led you to do the job you've got now? And where did your faith kind of come alongside in this story?

PJ Nardy: Sure. I guess I'd like to say my faith started as coming from a big Italian Catholic family. Didn't really know what my faith was, but I knew the reverence. I understood reverence and the blood sacrifice. And so that had always been in the back of my mind as I grew and kind of thought my way going into college and so forth. And Tom from college one weekend and was invited to a church at my sister had been attending my mother and went over the weekend. And the first time I ever heard the message part in a verse by verse, scripture by scripture manner. And it absolutely made me realize that it could be applied to everyday life. And soon after I accepted the Lord and unfortunately didn't have a real strong group around me. So it was a number of years that I ended up trying to figure out what the walk look like. And I got brought into a small church under a pastor who was at the next stage of life of myself and spent a lot of time with me and his family. And that was really, I'd like to say, were my true faith began. That's probably around 2000. I had traveled a bit after college and ended up back in South Florida, where I grew up and started a sales company in the Gulf industry, started that in about 2002. And soon after I met my wife in 2003, things were going great. It was a prospering time and everybody was playing golf and were selling a ton of equipment, all the private clubs and the big stores and so forth. And we got a little ahead of ourselves and ended up buying a restaurant and say, that was my MBA because it's easy to run and manage your business when things are good. But when you purchased the business in July of twenty seven and you ride it through two eight with thirty one employees and one of the biggest downturns we've ever seen in our economy, it's not how well you can run a business and things are good with how well you can keep people employed and keep your doors open when things are bad. And if God was with us that whole time, we managed to sell the restaurant and not too long after that had the opportunity to relocate the family to just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to become a part of what is Southeast lineman training.

Henry Kaestner: Sir, thank you for P.J. David tells the same. Take us through the same type of journey for you that brought you to Scelzi.

David Powell: Yeah, OK, so. Church was really a part of my life growing up, my family, I wouldn't consider I mean, it was just kind of part of what you did and I guess growing up in the south as you go to church and so having an understanding of God and who he was and Jesus. And it was obviously a foundation part of my life. But I didn't understand what a personal relationship was with Christ. It wasn't around middle school. I attended a camp, Shockoe Springs in Alabama and went forward and accepted the Lord was baptized, but also still did not understand really what it meant to walk with Christ every day. You can have a model for me, what discipleship look like or anything like that. So I went off to college in my college thing. I would attend church in college, but just never really fully committed. It was in ninety eight. I was home for the summer between my junior and senior year and I started going to the small country church that I was attending. And actually Orvil, Alabama, you have to look at the map Orvil Alabama and recommitted my life to Christ. I was going into my senior year. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I walked on and played all of them for a couple of years and decided I was not going to do that. My senior year was going to focus on school, but I just didn't have a path.

Henry Kaestner: Did you say that you walked on at Auburn to play football? I did this a big deal. That's a big deal. No wonder William didn't jump in before when you said you're from Orvil, Alabama, usually he's all over the whole Alabama thing. But I now know that you played at Auburn and and that just disqualified you apparently near the back story. I'll be silent.

David Powell: So that recommitment really, really changed everything for me. I went back to Auburn. I remember there was this cute girl that I just thought she was just the most adorable thing ever. But I knew she was really sold out for Christ. And I knew that where I was and currently in a place in my relationship with him that I was with God that wasn't going to be attracted to her. It's kind of interesting. We went on like one day, I'll save you from the story. I'll share it maybe later. But when that recommitment process happened and I went back to college was like God was telling me, you know, I've put this person in your path that is like perfect for you. I mean, the first time I met Tammy was in the gym. We had a lot in common. We had a lot of classes and courses together. And so I got back and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to reach out to her so that, you know, obviously my relationship with my current bride that started. Then I started attending Campus Crusade for Christ, just known as crew now, and really got on fire. I mean, I remember specifically one time one in my house and I give my whole testimony with a bunch of guys in the fraternity house doing one of our meetings and just laid it out there. You I just felt obligated to do that. And so I graduated and again, just really allowing God to kind of lead me. I went to work for Alabama Power Company in Birmingham, Alabama, and it was just a God story in itself, just how I ended up there. But really, God just kind of laid out that path for me. We went to work there, Tammy, my wife, she she she actually worked for Southern Company, we were at the same corporate office. We got to see each other a lot, have lunch together, yada, yada. So at the time, the school was just a little bit of a fault. And my father in law and stepfather had started the school or just in the process of starting school. And so, yeah, I was working at Alabama Power and I would come up here and I would see the school and I saw the potential and I see the potential. We were in a trailer, a triple trailer in one full circle. But I realized working out power is not necessarily a country boy. Growing up in Alabama, it wasn't really the place I wanted to be. So just know conversations with George and feeling drawn to Chattanooga and drawn up here. He offered me a job to come up and go to work for him, and that was in November of 2000. So it'll be 20 years next month.

Henry Kaestner: Now to tell us what Southeast Lineman Training Center does. What is it you joined? What makes it so special that we've seen tons of things that are special that the company is this is a part of sovereign's portfolio, but there's something really special about what goes on there. So much so that they came up with a reality show. And I think that Rusty make it into that. But what is it that you all do?

David Powell: Yeah, so ultimately and I'll share in the shares well on this, but really the mission of what we do is we have two entry level programs. One is the electrical entry level program and one is a communications entry level program, one 15 week electrical program, 15 weeks, the communication seven, and really creating a pathway for individuals to enter trades. Know, when we first started, it was just the electrical line with the program. And this was really a kind of an original idea where not many opportunities for individuals to get into the trades. If you wanted to be a lineman, you typically had to go into the local co-op or know somebody in the trade. And so the industry as a whole was having a hard time filling these positions or they would hire somebody and they would quit because they're afraid of heights or didn't want to work in the elements or whatever. So that's kind of the the reason a lot of school existed was to create a pathway for individuals to get up to speed, really an intense program where they're here eight hours a day, four or five days a week, and equip them with all the skills they need to become apprentice line workers. So they're not journeyman, but it's equivalent to what it would take if a company hired somebody off the street about a year to get them to where they are in a 15 week period. So it's extremely intense. A lot of information that they're qualified to be out there and work alongside lineman. And the communications program, again, started a little bit later than that. It's about four years old with the same premise, with the same concept of equipping individuals with the necessary skills to work in this trade.

Rusty Rueff: So Henry teased us a little bit because we want to talk about wood walkers, the Amazon Prime TV show, I think some people might be surprised that you could make a television show about people who work on telephone and electric poles. But tell us about the Amazon Prime show, woodworkers, how it happen. And you know what gave you inspiration to go do it?

PJ Nardy: So we've always had the kind of market ourselves and find new ways of marketing power companies and so forth and contractors, they weren't able to fill the vacancies that are being left by those who have been in the trades for so long and retiring out. It's always been our job to fill our seats the best we could. And part of that was looking at marketing in different ways and different avenues. And we saw that, you know, there just was a big void in attracting people to the trade. And with that kind of as one thought in our mind, we were also seeing some expensive growth at the school. And David had reached out to a gentleman who had filmed one of our rodeos, which is kind of a competition at the end of our graduation, and asked him to come in and see if he would just film one of our classes to see kind of what we're doing, where the school is at the snapshot in time. And we started filming really just kind of little excerpts. And the students were asking for an opportunity to see what we were filming. And we decided on Sundays we'd put out a little five minute segment and we named it elevated the story of the wood walkers.

David Powell: So, T.J., in the conversation we had is that the students that were coming here, some amazing stories to come out of these students come from the students. And as we mentioned, the growth in the school. And we really originally were like we wanted to document some of these stories because they were amazing. I mean, you know, we've had everything from Mexicans to pro baseball players, motocross riders. I mean, it just really a unique you just never know who's going to come walk these doors and come to school. And we also exchange stories of individuals that had sold vehicles, sold homes, slept in their cars. We didn't find out until later on the program. We're like, we're going to put you up in housing. But they're sleeping in their vehicles to pay to be able to come to school here. We wanted to document that and catalog that because we wanted to save it initially was for us. And then when we got into it, as PJ mentioned, it really turned into a much more than that.

PJ Nardy: So we put these segments up and within about four weeks we noticed we had fifty thousand views on YouTube. So we realized that, OK, there's an interest here. So we sat down with that individual and we started talking about what's the bigger picture for this? And as we were discussing the opportunity to make this into a television show or a Web series, we should say, and we were looking at funding and we went to our manufacturers that we purchased from and asked them if they'd be interested in sponsoring this new concept. And I think cautiously, they all said yes, because they don't want to risk not getting orders from us anymore. But it actually turned out to be a benefit to them as well. And I guess having that entrepreneurial mindset, we looked on and said, well, you know, this looks like a whole new business venture. So we founded a company at that moment called Supercheap. It was a spinoff of our entire marketing department. And Super chief's responsibility was all the marketing for the school, as well as shooting this show that would become wood walkers. And in turn, we started handling a lot of the social media for these companies that were sponsoring the show. So would Walkers took about a year to film, edit and to produce and then to shop to some of the networks. It was originally launched on American Heroes Channel to the Discovery Network. And then we migrated over to Amazon and launched our second season just recently. And Season three is in production right now. So it's been an interesting journey. If companies were formed out of it, we were able to employ more people and elevated the story of the wood walkers, some from one of our other companies, elevated gear, which is our retail, kind of a glorified bookstore. We also do some retail in the industry. The tools and equipment elevated, meaning obviously of the nodular and also the heights that these mine workers are working at.

Rusty Rueff: That's very cool. So you mentioned a couple of those stories. Can you give us a couple that just stand out for both of you or maybe your favorite parts of an episode that we want to make sure that our listeners tune in and watch?

David Powell: Yes. On season one, one of the stories that really stuck out to me was Michael Robertson. Michael was a local individual who lived really not too far from the school, and he was actually renting a place from a friend of ours. And really looking to start his life over, I mean, he had given his life to Christ at a young family and two kids and a life and just were looking for a new pathway. And so he reached out to us and said, hey, you know, do you have any open slots? I'm looking to sponsor Michael. And we were able to get him into the program. And so, you know, you get to see his story and his story and testimonies are powerful. Just again, him come to Christ and redemption for him and his family. And it's just amazing. And he ended up graduating and going to work for a local utility, FDE in Chattanooga. It's done extremely well. So that was one from the season one. And then season two. Dustin Fritze grew up in foster care. I think his mother had said he was playing 17 different times in foster care, just a lot of challenges that he faced. And he ended up doing so well here that he won our most outstanding award, Amen. We call it the William Webster Slam Award. So not a movie about the industry. Slim to watch in that time. But yeah, just the fact that he was the best of the best, despite all the challenges he faces, really was just a powerful story.

Henry Kaestner: That's great. Talk to us a little bit about I mean, I think we take it for granted, right, that these guys, you know, shimmy up these polls and then they do, you know, that work up there. I mean, this is not easy work by any means. And it's dangerous, right?

PJ Nardy: Well, it is dangerous. And I mean, that's the business is danger mitigation. It's what we teach. But you're absolutely right. It is the first responder position generally. You know, our department on call for a house fire business. They're not going to start until the power's been disconnected. And if there's an accident and somebody hit the pole and it goes down, they won't start to treat or tend to those individuals until the area is secure. And then, of course, you look at the storms that, you know, this year, the Gulf Coast has just gotten hammered, Louisiana has gotten hammered, and we've seen a lot of our graduates making multiple trips down to those areas. So, yes, especially when you go into these storm situations and wires are down and poles are down and everything is a potential hazard, teaching them what to look for, what to avoid, and the steps to take to make sure that they don't enjoy themselves or somebody else is what we teach all day long. It is not a job for everybody like David spoke about. You know, we've got a couple of aspects to overcome. You've got the height climbing at heights.

You've also got, you know, working inclement weather. You've got working with energized power lines, which we'll get into in the third and fourth year. And then from then on. And, you know, like we say, the power doesn't go out when it's seventy two and Sunny goes out when the weather's increment. And those are the conditions that these men and women are working in.

David Powell: This career is not one that you can make mistakes. Sometimes you can only make one mistake, which is safety is critical. And one of the challenges that what we're trying to do to here is instill in the students that never compromising because we go out on line crew and you become a journeyman. Maybe you've been doing it for ten, twenty years. You've been doing a certain way and you've been very comfortable. That can be a lot of times the biggest danger is getting too comfortable and you skip steps. There's enough safety involved right now currently that individuals can have a very long career in those 30 years, for years to doing this type of work. But you cannot overlook the safety. You cannot take shortcuts. So that's one of the things that we, again, try to drill into the students is don't get too comfortable because it can only take one mistake cost your life.

William Norvell: David APJ William here. So good to be with you guys. I think I'm the only one I've just had the fortunate experience to come on site. And for those that maybe can't see it, I know we're going to link to some of your amazing videos, but you drive in to Trenton, Georgia, and then all of a sudden rising out of the horizon, you see three, 400 giant poles sticking out of the ground and you see these people climbing up and down and just this flurry of activity and it's just breathtaking. And then, you know, the rodeo you mentioned, I got to come to one of those and to paint the scene of that, that's the graduation where they show off the skills they've learned over 16 weeks and family members and friends fly in from all over the place to come to this. Thousands of people sitting there watching these young men and women show off their new skills, their new life, everything that S.A.C. provides for them. And the most outstanding award, probably one of my favorites, watching the graduation where they all come out to DC Glaring, which is pretty awesome. And I have a short video that that I'm happy to share with everybody and the energy in the room of people getting a new life, a new outlook on the world that they did not have just six weeks ago. And you come out with no college debt. You pay it off very quickly. It's one of the rarest moments of my life.

I'm just thankful that you guys did to do this. I got to sit back and see lives change. Hundreds of lives change in an instant. And so I'm. He's grateful for the work you do, and I know the young men and women are, and it's funny as I watch what walkers, I'm sure you've probably gotten this a lot.

It's got some semblance of Migros dirty jobs. Of course, that's a different show. But the big thing it does is it shine the light on the dignity of the work of people that are often overlooked and who often may go without that from the human race. Maybe God sees that in them and they have to find that power a little more than some other people. But could you talk about how giving that dignity and respect to people, how that sort of motivates you to keep building the business because the growth's amazing you now how you said one pole circle over David, now you have 20 and it's just growing and just impacting more lives.

Could you maybe walk us through a little bit of how that motivates you all to keep driving towards the next goals?

David Powell: So everybody wants purpose, right? I mean, we look for that purpose in life. I'm not a lineman, PGA tour lineman, but we absolutely love the stories we love to see. And again, it's kind of what would walkers it's what gets us up every single day and drives us. We want to be here because exactly what you said, we see the lives that are changed. We're giving an individuals some of the stories, some of the stories that have come to us. I mean, this is their songs, their last chance, and sometimes it's the first chance. Sometimes they're just graduating high school and they've never been away from home. And we have such an opportunity to make a lasting impact on their lives and giving them a skill set that, yes, what won't go overseas? It's always something that they have. And it's a trade. It's in demand they can provide for their families. It is so fulfilling. And we get those emails and we send those out to staff, the staff. That's our paycheck. I mean, that truly is what drives us, is to see the results that come from, you know, what we do day in, day out. And here's the thing to like I think what makes it even more gratifying is like we're not just equipping them with skills like our ultimate purpose and goal is to give them true life skills, to truly impact them in every possible way that we can. And I would say family fitness and finance. Right. So we really want to make sure that they leave here. And yeah, they can do the work that's got to happen. But how are they and employees, how are they as fathers or mothers? How are they as sons and daughters? You know, what are they going to do? I mean, after about five years and this is just rough estimation, but probably 50 percent of our students might be doing some other type of career path, might not be in line with. So the 15 weeks that they're here, how did we impact them? And so it never gets old every graduation, every rodeo, every story, and never gets old. It's given us purpose. It gives us feel like we focus on the whole person, not just the career path, but individual from even our curriculum.

PJ Nardy: You know, we do a basic finance course for them based on biblical principles. We do a career planning and strategies course for them, showing them different paths they can go to within or without the utility industry, their focus. We do certain certifications that will allow them to utilize those in a variety of skill sets or career paths outside of the industry if they choose to do that. So David's point, it's focusing on the whole person. We know that God's entrusted us with a lot of influence over a whole lot of young men and women, and we just want to be faithful and responsible with those opportunities. We've got an extremely intentional all of our staff are, I wouldn't say bought in, but they truly believe in the transformation that they're seeing before their eyes. And these individuals as well, either from the parents that I dropped off my son 15 weeks ago and gave me back a man or the individual said this was my last opportunity. I didn't know what I was going to do if this didn't work out and to come alongside them and to hear those stories either at graduation or to get an email of thanks and gratitude, we bought our first house. I'm now married, expecting our first child, like David said. I mean, that's the reward. That's what we are all getting up every morning to come and be recharged by again, just finding, again, value in the whole person we have.

David Powell: The chaplain is part of the school who has married students is a baptisms and as Peter mentioned, elevated. We just recently are working on a curriculum called Elevated Life. And today our director of Elevated Life started to be a full time. He's going to be full time in this ministry. And that's why I guess we can explain it is young life meets the trades. And again, that's our way of really trying to make the biggest impact we can in the time that we have.

William Norvell: Oh, that's awesome, thank you for walking through that. And, you know, as we come nearer to a close, I've got one more question I really want to dig into a little bit and we'll get a bunch of entrepreneurs listen to the show. I think, obviously, a lot of them focus on technology and things like that. And I don't mean to say you guys aren't one of the most high tech campuses I've ever been to. And some of the forward looking things you're looking at, virtual reality and things like that are quite staggering. But the core of your business is still around mechanical and trades, maybe things that a lot of people wouldn't think about if they were thinking about starting a company, if they were thinking about, you know, going off on an entrepreneurial journey. What's a few things you might encourage our listeners to think about the industry a little bit different, maybe as people that have been in it for 10 or 20 years and lived these stories of lives, changed of critical infrastructure, maintained forgotten jobs that change your everyday world. What might be some encouragements or some ways you would help people think about the sector, maybe a little different than they did before they started. Listen to this podcast.

PJ Nardy: There's plenty of entrepreneurs within the space. You hit on it right there. You somebody who's in 20 years with an investor owned utility or municipality, they're actually at a point where they could retire out with a pension and go ahead and start something different. Go ahead and do something, you know, they've always dreamt of doing. We see a lot of our graduates, I'd say primarily on the communications side right now, because there seems to be a ton of movement and a kind of urgency in that area that will, you know, after 18 months, two years, they start a company. You know, they've got an understanding of the trade. They've got an understanding of the responsibility it takes to show up every day and to do what you say you're going to do, what you're being paid to do. And they'll take that chance and they'll start their own company either for a long term, you know, growth and expand or be disruptive and, you know, to sell to a larger company at some point.

That's just a couple of the examples. I'd say, you know, from an entrepreneurial mindset how you can look into these individuals in the trade.

David Powell: That's the model that we have here, is just a working model. I mean, it works. And so we take something like a seven week program for the communications, you know, the program that we have, the electrical 15 weeks and in a short compressed period of time, we really can get someone the proper skills they need to be efficient, be productive on our crew and a trade. How many more areas can that be done as well?

How much time is spent wasted? Maybe we're in a more compressed and compact and similar type environment. Can we train up students? I mean, we're facing this right now in alignment because you can't replace a 20 year lineman with a new one. It's impossible to do that. So there's I'm sure and a lot of industries you're seeing like this, how do you get that same amount of experience? And so figuring out how you can kind of compress that amount of time and intensify it and get an individual training and using technology is one of the ways that we're looking at is using technology to equip our students and the line professionals in a way that we can educate them faster.

William Norvell: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's awesome. And when I hear your story, I just think it's such an amazing example of how stories told creatively can build a business. You know, you talked about how you put it on YouTube and 50000 views. And I've seen, you know, wood walkers and I've seen other things you have put out that tell the story of what the job is. And I've heard David, I've heard you talk before. How you intentionally try to tell the story is one that's gritty and dirty and difficult to attract the right people, because you obviously don't want people coming to Trenton, Georgia, and then dropping out of the program when they realize they have to climb a 30 foot pole to be successful there. And you've just done it so well. I want to wrap up for entrepreneurs is the business model is so amazing what you've built that on average, you know, a seven week program can result in a 50, 60 thousand dollar a year job that a 16 week program can convert into a 75 to 100 thousand dollar job is just really remarkable in today's age. And just something for so many people to aspire to and just grateful for you all, grateful for the stories that you continue to build every day. And as we come to a close, one of the things we love to do is to see how God's work continues to live and breathe today. And so we love to see how God's word can transcend between our guest and our listeners. And so we invite you now to share with us, you know, where God may have you could be in the season, could be one verse, could be a story from the Bible, could be something you read today that had an impact on your heart today. But if you wouldn't mind letting us in on, that would be a real gift.

David Powell: Yeah. So my life verse is Proverbs 3:5-6. I trust the Lord with all your heart and understanding in all your ways, knowledge, and we will make your path straight. And that I felt like that life verse was given to me in college and God just continued to show it to me, so I kind of held on to that. And the big thing there is trusting in him. This is a fairly recently, but I read a book by Mark Batterson "In a Put with a Lion on a Snowy Day" and just confronting the challenges and confronting my fears and uncertainty. And it just brought me back to that burst of trusting in him because nobody knows what's going to happen. Nobody knows what's around the corner. But ultimately, if I submit to the Lord and let him lead and guide, then it's going to work out. And it's not up to me, right? It's up to him. So I think I've just I've just found a lot of peace, a lot of peace in that.

PJ Nardy: You know, God's at work as you're saying it, because I'm looking at some things that I just jotted down, put my thoughts toward them and right here says "trust him". And it's not just about trusting him with everything but submitting to him, you know, David and I are in a we're getting into a unique position as the business scales because we weren't mine workers. We're hiring subject matter experts that know more about the trade than we do. So it's a matter of stewardship now and trusting him and seeking his wisdom to keep your path and make your path straight. For me, it's kind of a parable that I've looked at a hundred times, but my eyes were open to it just this year. And it's the parable of the mustard seed that we've seen in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Jesus talks about if you have the face of a mustard seed, how small it is, we always focus on you and say to this mountain, you know, move from here to there. You can accomplish these things. And the uncertainty that we've seen with the pandemic this year and just your own personal life. You know, my marriage submitting to him and having faith and trusting him and that and trusting in God's provision for my boys and just me as a leader, both at home and here, kept looking at that faith of a mustard seed. And it was only this year that I realized that. You know, we look at how little faith we need to please God, and in actuality, the mustard seed is the fastest-growing of all the seeds. So if you put your faith in him, instantly, you'll see that return. And that was one of the most eye-opening things for me this year. You know, you don't have to just put your faith in him in a way, but he makes that promise that your faith can do great things. But his promise is even quicker than our ask. So I really say that again, trusting him, like David said, and the fact that the moment we put our faith in him, he's taking care of the details and he's at work.

David Powell: One of the things that I want to leave everybody with is P.J. and I both, number one: We're running a business built as a team. I mean, we have to rely on our team to make this work. And so, you know, there's a lot of trust and there's a lot of faith that comes for us running a business that's not necessarily our background. Number two is both of us have a daily habit of closing our door, spending time in the Words being time and prayer. Every day we come into the office and we have it marked off on our calendars and our staff knows what we're doing. And we've shared with them that the praying for you guys, we're praying for students for this company. We're praying for our hearts in our direction and where we're going. And I think we've made that just a routine. It's the standard. So I think just showing our team and our staff and it just reminds us of how much we do need God.

William Norvell: Amen Amen can never in a better way than saying how much do we need.

Henry Kaestner: Got a man indeed. Thank you for taking us there. Thank you for sharing the story. A thank you for the work you guys wake up and do every day. I encourage everyone to go check out what walkers. I encourage everyone to check out some videos we'll link to in the podcast. I personally found it eye opening and just a window into a world that I didn't know existed. And that is so important in the world. And so I just encourage everyone to take some time to do that for themselves.

Henry Kaestner: My big lesson from this is the care and the love that you've shown in coming alongside a group of young people and showing them their dignity and giving them increased reason for the hope that they've got and been able to have a winsome witness and be able to show them how to be excellent and to do it in community and to love them. And just to hear some of the stories of some of the backgrounds, just the way that you've been able to come alongside them and then celebrate the major achievements in their life, that those types of stories and that type of commitment create a culture that is winsome and everybody wants to be a part of it. And so thanks for sharing the story. Grateful for you guys for having us.

David Powell: Thank you very much for your time for having a fun.