[00:00:00] Speaker A: On the May episode of the Local Clique, we'll be visited by Michael Kilgore with the Lighthouse Christian Camp in Smithville. Plus, Justin is back with tech news and tech tips and we've also got a special guest for part of the show. I don't want to give that away just yet, but you'll have to stay tuned to find out who it is.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Learn more about fun local events and interesting people throughout the heart of Middle Tennessee. With a dash of everyday tech talk thrown in for good measure, the Local Click starts now.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Welcome to the Local Clique. The Local Clique is the technology based podcast brought to you by DTC Communications each and every month where we talk all things technology and local people. I'm Nick Noakes and my co host here, as always is Justin Malden. Justin, how's it going today?
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Listen, living the dream. Can't complain.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Living the dream. It's because I'm here, right?
[00:00:53] Speaker C: Pass.
Ouch. You want the real answer to that one? No, no, I'm kidding with you, Nick. It's always a pleasure to be in your presence and to be able to work with you each day.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: All right, I'll give you $5 later.
I hope you are doing well today. In all seriousness, I want to talk technology with you for just a moment and life in general, because I want to share a very proud moment in my technology life with you. Are you ready?
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Ready as I'll ever be.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Okay. After 11 wonderful years of a 55 inch Samsung television at home, today is the day it gets replaced with a new 65 inch Hisense 4K television. It's kind of a good tech day for me. You know, it finally gave up the ghost, the old Samsung, it had the white spot growing in the middle. It was almost to the point where I could take a hint it's time to move on. But it's a great technology day and I just wanted to share that with you and hope you can share in the excitement with me. Anytime you get a new TV at home, it's a great day.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Absolutely. Listen, the last time we bought one, okay. Because we went from a 50 inch TV to a 65 inch TV Hisense too as well.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Probably about a year and a half ago and it was going on a single wall and I told my wife, I was like, listen, this TV is not big enough for the wall. There's more wall than tv. And so I think we can go bigger. But I did not win that battle.
So funny thing that you say, you just upgraded your tv. My father Also just recently upgraded his TV at my parents house and he sent me a picture a couple days ago. He wanted me to see in all its glory his new TV mounted on the wall. And he put for reference their old TV sitting on the floor below it.
He went from a 43 inch TV to an 85 inch.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Oh my.
[00:02:50] Speaker C: He found the biggest TV that would literally fit on his wall.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Hey, much respect, much respect. If you're gonna go, go big, right?
[00:02:58] Speaker C: Yeah, he, he didn't like my joke too much though when I told him it wouldn't hear. Let him hear any better.
Ouch.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I bet that didn't do you a lot of favors. Yeah, yeah. You won't be able to ask him for any help with anything for a while.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: Yeah, so that's that. Yeah, that is exciting. And, and thankfully because of the advancements in technology, these TVs get thinner, that's lighter, they're a lot cheaper to manufacture than they used to be. Because you think of it was. I remember the first time I bought a TV, my own TV and it was a 40 inch TV and it was full high definition, 1080p and I thought it was the greatest thing ever.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: And you missed out on the days of buying televisions where they were like a 19 inch TV and it was a picture tube TV and it weighed about 85 pounds. And you thought, wow, that's a big television.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: You can't find those TVs 19 inches in size anymore. No, that, that's unheard of. To have a TV that small is unheard of.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah. There was a funny story. We bought a. I bought a television many many moons ago, went to the mall in Murfreesboro with some of my buddies and I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. So I went to go buy a television. Well, this was before the flat screen days. This is. Yes, I'm old, so. But so went to Electronic Express. I picked out this Zenith 19 inch TV, looked great. Color TV. Right. Was picture tube TV. It weighed a metric ton. And they always ask you, do you need any help getting that to the car? No, no, I've got it, I've got it. Here I was walking through the entire mall carrying this huge tv trying to get it to the truck and I was like, well that was not a great idea.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: Yeah, you got a good workout that day.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: I did get a good workout. I only did that once though.
[00:04:45] Speaker C: Yeah, didn't. Lived and learned, right?
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah. But the technology has changed a lot, in all seriousness. And today's televisions look so, so much better even than just those, you know, six or seven years ago.
[00:04:57] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I mean, color accuracy, clarity, brightness, you.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Know, with the tariff situation being what it is, I was kind of like, will the old TV last? Well, it would, but it had, you know, the little bright spot in it. But my biggest concern was I'm not sure what the prices of electronics may do in the next month or two. And I know I need a TV now, so I just went ahead and bit the bullet and, and bought it now.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: So, yeah, probably. Probably not a bad idea with any uncertainty that we have in the economic climate right now.
Yeah, probably not. I mean, it's anybody's guess what's going to happen over the next 30, 60.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: 90 days, but it's going to be a great show. We're going to have Michael Kilgore with the Lighthouse Christian Camp with us. In fact, they have so many great things going there at the camp. We're going to have Michael with us for both interview segments of this month's program, something I don't think we've done before, since the beginning of the program. And he's going to have a special guest for the second part of the interview. I don't want to give it away, but she's a very special person and I think everyone's going to enjoy getting to meet her. And she's got some great insights to things going on at the camp. They're doing great things there, but we won't make everyone wait any longer. We'll go right into the interview with Michael Kilgore at the Lighthouse Christian Camp.
We're very fortunate to have with us Mr. Michael Kilgore with Lighthouse Christian Camp in Smithville. Good morning. How are you?
[00:06:26] Speaker D: Good morning. Doing wonderful. How are you today?
[00:06:28] Speaker A: I'm doing great. Thanks so much for coming to see us today. And I know how busy you are. So for you to take the time out of your busy day to come speak with us, I know it's an honor and a privilege, so.
[00:06:38] Speaker D: Well, thank you. We are so glad to be with you and to try to get information out there about what I've been told is the best kept secret in DeKalb County.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Well, maybe after this podcast it won't be quite so well kept of a secret. Amen.
[00:06:53] Speaker D: That's right. That's our hope.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: So, Michael, tell us before we get into the camp and all the amazing things you guys are doing over there, which, I mean, we could probably do two or three podcasts if we really wanted to talk about everything you guys do, but tell us more about you personally and your family and that sort of thing.
[00:07:10] Speaker D: Sure. So I'm married to a wonderful wife, Kelly, and we have five children and five grandchildren.
And it's really. It's so interconnected. My life would have been. I would have been one of the children that would have attended Lighthouse Christian Camp had it been in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And that was the thing that really drew me to Lighthouse Christian Camp because as a child and as a teenager, I was a thief. I was a juvenile delinquent, certainly had been raised by a single mom, four kids, and she just didn't have the resources to be able to care for me. And so because of that, I ended up getting in so much trouble and disappointing so many people later on. So when I heard about Lighthouse Christian Camp in the beginning back in 2003 and first went out and visited it, man, it was like, this is unbelievable. If I had had something like a Lighthouse Christian Camp in my life, I felt like my life would have been so much different. So from that point on, I was full throttle, just asking God what he wanted me to do.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: So you kind of had a unique connection already with the camp because you'd come almost lift some of the things in life that some of the campers themselves.
[00:08:31] Speaker D: Yes, absolutely.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Well, speaking of the camp, I know it's a Christian camp and what is your primary role there at the camp and kind of what led you there? I know you kind of hinted on that just a minute ago, but as far as it's one thing to visit a camp, it's another thing to be there every day with your sleeves rolled up and getting the work done. So.
[00:08:51] Speaker D: That's right.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Talk about kind of what you do there and that's. And what led you there.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: So.
[00:08:55] Speaker D: So I serve as executive director, which the camp is. Is like a big community or a farm. And you know, on the farm, everybody does everything you don have housework and yard work. Everybody, you know, mom's out milking and doing.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: All of everyone pitches in. Right.
[00:09:11] Speaker D: So. So I may be out on the bulldozer one moment or a zero turn or weed eating and. Or doing payroll or contacting churches or groups about speaking in front of them.
But Lighthouse Christian camp was founded 1982 by Brother Ben Chapman and his wife Ermita. And he worked for. Well, actually they both worked for the U.S. army Corps of Engineers. And that's how he sort of ended over on Hurricane Ridge Road.
And so he bought a farm over There. And later on when he was miraculously saved at the age of 37. And later God said, I want you to give this farm now right here on the lake, surrounded by three sides, I want you to give it to me. And we're going to start a ministry here. So brother Ben has been our founder and our president for all of these years. This is now our 44th year. And I was with Lighthouse from 2005 until 2000 or 2006 to 2012. And he asked me to come back in 2019 and said, Michael, it's. It's time for me to step back a little bit and. And God has said that you are the person to. To come in and to lead us. And.
And although I didn't really want to do that, I. I was living my perfect little life with Miss Kelly over in Cookville. But God had other plans. So in 2019, brother Ben handed over the reins to me and said, I'm here if you need me. And so he has been just the perfect mentor and counselor for me. He still is there and still the president, still our founder. He and Mr. Meadow work every single day, but he's handed the day to day operations over to me.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: What a great honor. I mean, because you know what this camp means to him and the importance it plays in his life and his heart and his spiritual walk. So for him to entrust that in you, that had to make you feel good.
[00:11:07] Speaker D: You know, it's a. It is. But it's also so very intimidating.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Oh, I bet.
[00:11:13] Speaker D: Just knowing. Because there's so many stories over the years that. Because, you know, Lighthouse Christian Camp, if you go Today, there's a 10,000 square foot dining hall. There's two children's homes that are, you know, 5,000 square feet. There's three widows homes that are 2,800 square feet. We have never borrowed money at all to build anything. And we get no money from the government. We get very little money from organized churches. God has provided that through his people in dekalb and all around the states, the state of Tennessee and all around the world, really, to provide and to build. So brother Ben, over the years has told so many stories of how God has told him to do something and then God has provided for it. So in these, especially in these last five years, I've been able to see that so much of that firsthand, where God has done the same thing with me and said, this is the direction I want you to take. And trust me, I'm going to provide.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Right. And he does.
[00:12:14] Speaker D: He does every single time.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Every single time, that's right. Well, talk about, you kind of mentioned a few things, but talk about some of the main aspects of the camp for those that don't really know anything about it.
[00:12:25] Speaker D: So Lighthouse Christian camp is, is unique in that most Christian camps that you think of is like a Bible camp. And we have several of those around. We have Short Mountain Bible Camp and we have, there's, there's Cedar Lake Camp and, and several others on the plateau and in Cumberland county and Overton county.
And those are awesome and wonderful camps. But camp is really more of a tool for us than it is a service. It is a tool to attract unchurched, under resourced children to want to come out to our property where we have two swimming pools and we have horses and we have hiking and kayaks and we have a cove right on the lake. They get to go canoeing.
We take them out on our pontoon boats. So there are all these things kids love and those things are there to attract those kids. And our goal though is to get them there so that we can tell them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And for those most. And we don't think about it in DeKalb County, Cannon county is one of our counties. And we don't think, we think, well, all kids go to church. You know, we're in the Bible Belt. All kids go to church.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: It's not necessarily that way.
[00:13:44] Speaker D: No, it's not. If you ask them, they'll say, well, yeah, I go to the church. And you'll say, well, which church do you go to? And they're like the white one. I go with my granny. But it's amazing how many kids are living not only in poverty, but are living in really terrible situations within middle Tennessee here. And they don't know. They don't have any hope.
And they don't have any hope at home. And they don't have any hope of Jesus because they've really don't know who Jesus is. And they're looking for that authentic way to happiness. And I think that's what Lighthouse does, is we introduce them to that.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Well, talk about where you're located and also kind of talk about the sheer number of children that attend the camp on a yearly basis.
[00:14:32] Speaker D: Sure. So what we do is we are located over on Hurricane Ridge Road. If you turn, turn there at Burke driver nursery, we're 3.8 miles on the left. We've got about 400 acres surrounded by Center Hill Lake and Hidden Harbor Marina. And what we do is, is we we go into 14 counties throughout Middle Tennessee. We go through the schools when we can, through the guidance counselors because they're the ones that know, know the best. You mentioned when we were speaking earlier that you went to West School and your principal over there was one of the greatest that he would call and he'd say, I've got. That's really struggling at home and he could really benefit from your camp. So we try to find those children who are living in situations where a single mom or a relative caregiver, which we're seeing more and more these days, where grandma is taking care of kids, but where they are taking care of them and they could not afford to send them to a camp that would be 300 or 400 or $500 to go for a week. So again, 44 years ago, God spoke to brother Ben and he said, I want you to bring these kids, but I want you to bring them for free.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: And that's amazing. So the kids that attend the camp, there's no out of pocket cost for them.
[00:15:51] Speaker D: None whatsoever.
It costs us about $250 or more per week to bring a child by the time we. Because we feed them and we feed them very, very well. We again, two swimming pools and we just bought the chemicals to open our pools and it was almost 3,000 doll before yesterday.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: And I bet they eat very well after swimming all day too. I bet the food bill alone would surprise a lot of people.
[00:16:17] Speaker D: You would be surprised. That's right. And so we want that to be. And most will tell you that Lighthouse is their safe place.
And so we go into these 14 different counties, the guidance counselors, we work through the schools. We go to check cashing places and put up posters that say free summer camp. We go to laundromats. We sometimes will go door to door. Man, I can remember going, there's a few brick houses over there. And I would reach over. We go to the. I grew up in a trailer park, so that was, you know, that's what I was used to. And so we go into those places where families may be a little more under resourced. And we knock on the doors and we say, hey, we've got this free summer camp. It's a week long and you can bring your child. And now after 44 years, we've got the reputation and so many people have heard of us and know that we are a safe place. We're going to take care of your children. God is going to honor that and he's going to take care of us. So you can bring them and not worry, not worry about what they're doing while they're there.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: How long do most of the campers stay when they show up?
[00:17:24] Speaker D: So they come on Monday and they are there until Friday. And so that is what a week of camp looks like. And a week of camp starts with a 9 to 11 year old. We want them to be old enough to understand the gospel as we, as we explain, we give them a Bible and we begin to teach them verses. And they get points and they get rewarded for doing those kinds of things. And our goal is that by the end of the week that they understand that they have a firm foundation. Once a child comes to camp as a 9, 10, 11 year old, those children will continue to come year after year after year to camps.
And again, those are free summer camps all the way up until they're 17, 18 years old.
But it doesn't just stop with summer camp because years ago God said, that's not enough. You've got to do more. You've got to disciple these children. You've got to be involved in their lives year round. So that's what we do. Now every Tuesday, as a matter of fact, we have a big 90 passenger lighthouse bus and one of our vans is loaded right now with DeKalb county kids from West School, from, from the middle school and the high school. And they are on their way to a what we call our after school club field trip. And this is a celebration day for them. They have been this entire school semester coming out every Tuesday, our buses go out, pick them up at their schools, bring them back, help them with their homework, feed them a hot meal, and sometimes it might be the last hot meal that they get for the day. We have a time of Bible study and interacting and fellowship and worship and then some, you know, we'll play dodgeball or we'll let them swim in the pools or go hiking or something. And that's every Tuesday that school is in. Every other weekend we have what we call a weekend retreat, which is a little mini camp from Friday night until Saturday. And again that's every other weekend. We do a big Christmas party in December where we'll have over 1,000 kids come to this Christmas party. And we take donations year long or year round and then we set it up like a big Walmart and we give the kids play months and let them come and shop for their family members. So we are not just trying to be somebody that is in this child's life for one week.
You are part of the lighthouse Family and we minister. It is a year round ministry. We joke because people say, what do you guys do when summer's over for the rest of the year, what do you do? We are in ministry.
We are providing food. We want to be involved with the parents. When the schools say junior's in trouble, we are over there on the school side saying, junior, you are going to straighten up or you are not going to be allowed to come back to camp.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: You know, speaking of all the things that you're doing, it must take a lot of volunteers, a lot of help to run an operation of this size and magnitude.
Just keeping up with a single child as a parent, as you know, is hard enough sometimes. So I can only imagine what the sheer quantity of campers, you're showing up and you're trying to be there for them and show each one the certain amount of attention they need. So talk about the, the amount of staff, the amount of volunteers it takes and are you always looking for more help?
[00:20:34] Speaker D: We are. We are always looking for those that have again, a strong Christian walk to come and to help us out. And you know, sometimes I had a call from a person yesterday and they're like, I really want to come and help. You know, I'm a great babysitter and I'm this, that and the other. And as I spoke and said, well, you know, how is your wife? Because that's really what we're about. It's not about just watching a kid while they go swimming. We want to be able to sit with that child and talk about what's going on in their life. And at first they're very, very guarded. And someone like you can come along and they're like, wow, he's not old. And he can talk about God and he's a man and he can talk about God because most of these kids have never heard a man talk about a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So we always need volunteers during June and July. That's when our camps are going on. We need help in the kitchen, serving.
We're doing, you figure, 200 meals a day, three times a day. So 600 meals a day, Monday through Friday, for eight weeks straight.
And we need counselors. What we need more than anything are those volunteers that will come and say, I will go into a cabin with kids and I will be there with them the entire week. And we have trained staff that we train and there are do's and don'ts. You know, if you're a volunteer, you don't shower where the kids do. And Things like that. But you do sleep there. But the great thing is you get to watch these kids that come in and they're angry because of the things that have happened in their life. And, you know, they're in poverty, they're in abusive situations. And where normally if you go on a mission trip, you might have an encounter with one person for just a few minutes, and that's it. When you come to Lighthouse Christian Camp as a local mission, then you get to a whole week with that same group of kids, and you get to see them transition from being really mad and angry to a little bit mad and angry to breaking just a little bit more, because you're showing more and more of the love of Christ in their lives, all the way to hopefully making a transformation through Jesus Christ. And we never have enough. We never have enough volunteers. We don't have the money now for summer camp again, you figure last year we brought 753 children to a free week of summer camp.
So our goal is to have. We've got 120 beds. So our goal is to have 120 kids every week for eight weeks straight. So you're talking about close to 900, a little over 900 kids. So $250,000 is basically what it would cost. Now, again, that's just for two months of operating our camp.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: $250,000 to have two more months of the year of activities.
[00:23:28] Speaker D: That's what you're doing. That's exactly right. So we do. We try to go into churches and we get people to sponsor a child to come to camp. We use the slogan of 180 for 180. $180 to turn a child's life around 180 degrees. And so people can sponsor a child for $180. And then while they're here at camp, we ask each child to write a sponsor letter. They understand that someone paid, although it was free for them. Nothing in life is free except for the blood of Jesus Christ. And that costs somebody something. It cost God something. And the same thing with summer camp. Somebody is giving up something for them to go. So they write a sponsor letter. Dear sponsor, thank you for sending me to camp. And in their own words and in their own handwriting, what they experienced at camp. So it's a wonderful opportunity to have a direct impact on children in your neighborhood and in your county by supporting them to be able to come to camp.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: I love that. I love that. And we're kind of a technology based podcast in what we do. I know And I know we can't leave this interview without at least touching on a few of the ways that you guys probably use technology to help, you know, spread the word about needs or to get, you know, connected with up and coming campers that are trying to learn about it or, you know, you're trying to just, I don't know whether it be marketing reasons or just functional day to day reasons. How do you guys embrace technology or use it just to kind of make things run a little smoother?
[00:25:00] Speaker D: Well, I've got to tell you, it's, you know, brother Ben is 88. He's our founder. He and Mr. Meada, 81. And for years he did the checkbooks on a ledger, you know, and that's just the way that they did things. And we never had any kind of an online presence.
All donations came, you know, people wrote checks. And I can remember us having the conversation a while back, I say a while back, several years ago, about do we need to have a social media page, do we need to have an Internet presence, do we need to take online donations even? And it's amazing now how many people give through online donations the QR codes that nobody had ever seen before or wondered, what are those? Those are used for everything. If you go to our website, we have a QR code for signing up as a volunteer. We have a QR code for donating to Lighthouse Christian Camp in our newsletters the same way. So technology has played a major part. It allows us to do things like this to let people know that there is a Lighthouse Christian Camp. I'm very firm believer that many of your audience did not know about Lighthouse before seeing this podcast. So from that all the way down to our own marketing, trying to get the word out, trying to get in front of people that we normally would not be able to get in front of, we're able to reach out to people all across the world that can see this and know what's going on at Lighthouse Christian Campus.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: It sounds like you guys are not afraid to adapt to the times and use these things to your advantage, correct?
[00:26:48] Speaker D: That's exactly right.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: And that's what keeps you relevant and growing.
[00:26:51] Speaker D: I will say just the opposite of that is with our children though. One of the first things that we do when a child arrives at camp is they're told to not even bring their cell phone, but they don't bring any electronics. Can you imagine telling a 9 through 17 year old that you can't have your cell phone for a whole week?
[00:27:10] Speaker A: I can imagine that can be A hard sell at the beginning.
[00:27:12] Speaker D: It is, it is. But we get so dependent on those things that we lose that communication with one another. And not only with one another, but with the Lord. And so by doing away with all that and taking away all the distractions, it may be the best week of your life if you come as a counselor, because you can do without your cell phone.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: You know what? I think all of us could probably, regardless of camp, could probably set our devices down every now and then. Don't you think so? And get away from it. Sometimes technology is great, but sometimes, you know, can be overwhelming, too. Well, we're going to take a break here in just a moment, but before we do, I know a camp like this is all about changing lives. And are there any impactful stories of those that have attended your camp? Maybe a story of one of the children or something that you might could tell us before we take a break that just kind of help emphasize your mission and what you're trying to do?
[00:28:04] Speaker D: You know, just. Just recently. And again, as I said, God continues to just open and say, michael, here's another. Here's another one. And I was. I was speaking to. To one of our local bankers right over in Smithville, and I spoke to this young lady, and she said, well, I'm going to be out there tomorrow.
And she works in customer service there. And I said, really? What are you coming out to camp for? And she said, I'm coming out there with a work crew, and we're going to be with our church, with Elizabeth Chapel Baptist Church. And Ms. Autumn said, I came to Lighthouse Christian Camp as a child, and as I began speaking with her, and I went, and we've got every application of every child that's ever been to camp all the way back. So I went and pulled her file, and we've got a picture of Autumn when she was just a child. And when she came to camp and she was telling me the things that she remembered about camp. She remembered trying to win cabin inspection so that they would be able to be first in the lunch line and in the breakfast line the next day because food.
And she said she remembered, you know, it wasn't that she was in a terrible home, but they just didn't go to church. Church wasn't an important thing for them. And so when they came to Lighthouse and she began to hear those things and learn those things, but one of the things that she said, she said, the counselors made such a difference in my life.
We give every child an award at the end of the week and the counselors will write a little note on it and they'll decorate that award. And she said, I was so impressed with my counselor because they signed my award and it was like art, the signature. And she said I ended up naming my first child after that counselor.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: Now the thing is that she didn't even realize was that later on she was actually attending the same church as that counselor who was a school principal here in DeKalb and is now back over in Putnam. But, but it has made such a change in lives over and over and over again. So we are just God. God honors us by letting us see those results.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you guys are doing so much. In fact, you're doing so many great things. We're going to bring you back for the next segment of the program here in just a moment. And I think you may even have a special guest that's going to be joining you that will talk about something else you guys are helping with.
[00:30:26] Speaker D: You probably need to put some filters on when we bring our guest. Yes.
[00:30:30] Speaker E: So.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Well, I'm looking forward to it. Thanks, Michael, for being with us and stay with us and everyone watching and listening. You stay with us as well. We'll be back with more of the program here in just a moment.
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[00:32:30] Speaker A: And welcome back to the program. It's time now to hand the microphone over to Justin Malden as we do each and every month for his part of the program we like to call Justin's Tech tips.
[00:32:42] Speaker C: We have so many devices nowadays that have batteries in them. Batteries are in so many things, but it's one of those things that I think we take for granted, among other things, that it's, it's within the hardware, but it's one of those things we don't think about very much.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: You know, it's part of our phone. We think of all the other things that we do with the phone, but we probably don't think about are we taking care of the battery as much as we should. And, you know, the thing with batteries is if they're taken care of properly, you can extend the life of them. It can save you money as well, because you're not overcharging your device when you don't need to.
And, you know, in the long run, it'll make your device more efficient over time. And so, you know, phone batteries specifically is kind of what I'm going to focus on, since that's a little bit more what we pay more attention to. But most of your devices now have lithium ion batteries. You have a phone, you have a laptop. Probably the two most prevalent things that have lithium ion batteries on them.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Tablets.
[00:33:40] Speaker C: Yeah, tablets, yeah. If you got a tablet, you've got an iPad, an Android tablet, whatever it may be. They all, all of these devices have lithium ion batteries in them. And lithium ion batteries today, depending upon the quality, are usually good for 3 to 500 cycles before you start seeing a significant degradation in their performance. And what I mean by that is the heat over time, charging it up and down over time, it causes wear and tear. And no matter what we talk about today, wear and tear is a normal part of battery life. It's going to happen, but you can decrease it by, by being proactive with it. And so what's going to happen over time, your battery is going to have less and less and less of a charge. And that's just natural. You know, they're not designed. The, the day that you get it, once you charge and discharge at one time, it's never going to reach that full capacity again. It's just a little, little, little, little, little bit.
But it will never reach that capacity ever again. And some of the things that we do that are really bad for batteries is we overcharge them. It's the thing of, oh, I need my battery to be charged. I'm looking. It's got to, it's got to be up at 80, 90, 100%.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: All the time. That is not good for batteries, for them to have that full charge. All the time. Even if you're regularly using it.
If you're storing it especially do not store it more than 50% charged. Leave it about half charged is what the recommendation is because you, you that it's stored capacity. What does that energy want to do? It wants to go somewhere and it doesn't have the ability to do it. And so from the, the chemistry and the electronics in that battery, it, it causes that stored energy that has nowhere to go. It, it causes again degradation with it. Make sure that you're using proper charging devices as well.
It's very easy to get a hold of cheap electronics. It's very easy when you go, when you go, when you stop in at that convenience store and they have that $99 charger to be like, oh, I need a charger. Let me just grab, grab this.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:35:47] Speaker C: Those aren't necessarily A, built with the highest quality materials, but B, they also may not be supplying the required voltage to your device. Yeah, you're not getting the proper amperage to it so that it's not charging the device correctly. And then also the inverse can be true as well. It could also be overcharging it and you don't realize it. And fast charging, fast charging is built in now that's still not the best for the device. So use the correct charger limit fast charging too, if you can. Sometimes. Yes. Not saying don't ever use it because.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: It'S not like every single. It is convenient charge your device.
[00:36:26] Speaker C: Yes, you probably don't want to. Which. Our devices have gotten better, they've gotten smarter. It doesn't matter if you have an Android device or you have an iOS device within the software of all of those, unless you've got one that is six, seven, eight, nine years old that hasn't been updated in a while. It will regulate charging and it will pop up and even tell you, hey, this is optimized battery charging. You got to make sure you have that feature turned on in those. In those devices, you can go into battery. You can see they will report how many cycles your battery has went through. It will tell you what the capacity is of your battery. And it will oftentimes have the option to optimize charging. And what that'll do is, you know, overnight we throw our, we throw our phones on the charger instead of it going, oh, I'm just gonna charge this thing all the way to 100%. It will learn and understand. Okay, you don't really get up until 5:00am so there's no point in charging it to 100%. We won't get it to 100% until 4:00am. That way, you know, from maybe 11:11pm to 4:00am it's not sitting there with a full battery.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: I've actually seen that on my phone before. When I plug it in, it'll charge like that.
[00:37:38] Speaker C: It'll charge it up. If it's an iOS device or I think Android's the same percentage, It'll go to 80%. It will wait and then it will charge. It's saving your battery long term. The thing is about batteries and devices nowadays, if you want to change the battery in your iPhone, that's a difficult job to do. It is not considered usable, user replaceable. Most laptop batteries now are not considered user replaceable. That's something that is different now. The batteries last a lot longer.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:10] Speaker C: The capacities are great but they're not user serviceable.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: So we need to make them last.
[00:38:16] Speaker C: Yeah, so yeah, yeah, you, you want to make them last. And when it does come time, I'll use my father in law as an illustration here.
A few weeks ago he said, hey, I need to get a new phone. My phone is just not. The battery just will not stay charged. Right. It's depleting and I check it and can see, yeah, you need a new battery. You know, you definitely need to do that. My recommendation to him was don't get rid of the whole phone. Don't go buy a new device. You can spend $69 plus tax. Go to an authorized service provider. And I'm going to say something here that may upset some people. Be careful who you have fix your phones or replace your batteries. If you were getting service done. If you have a third party touch your device, depending upon the manufacturer, a lot of times if there's a warranty, avoids it. And also it may prevent them from doing other service in the future. If you're using an unauthorized third party, like with my father in law, if your device is just not holding a charge, maybe you simply need a new battery.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: You may not have to throw the entire device out.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Yeah, and that was my recommendation for him because I know him, I know his uses.
He's not looking for the latest and greatest in phone technology. He doesn't need the newest camera and the newest features. That's not his use case.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: He just needs a phone that works.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: He just needs a phone that works. He can message and he can call and that's about all that he's going to do. And so it's a lot more economical to replace that Battery. This applies all of this that we've talked about to your phone, to your laptop. Maybe you have a wearable watch, maybe you have a tablet, whatever it may be, you know, apply these things. Charge when needed, avoid fast charging unless you do need it again. Sometimes it works.
Only charge that device when you need to as well. And you can built into devices. I know sometimes you may think, well, I need to charge it because I'm down to 30%. Your device has a battery save mode on it.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:40:22] Speaker C: It will disable certain features. You can toggle that on and it will disable certain features. And also. So not a bad idea to recommend to people. Check the things that are running on your device because the more background activities that you have going on, the higher your CPU is working.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: That's true, too.
[00:40:37] Speaker C: The more power that it's drawing. Turn those things off. We're so used to, especially on our device. Oh, it pops. Oh, this needs access to this. Sure. This would like to run in the background. Sure. Well, the next thing you know, you look, why do I have 50 things running in the background that I'm not. I used this one time.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: No wonder the battery is wearing down. Yeah.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: Thanks, Justin. Some very powerful tips from you today.
Like I kind of hinted at earlier in the show when I was talking to Michael, we've got a special guest that he's brought with him for this part of the program, and that would be Ms. Patty Jackson. Hello. How are you today?
[00:41:12] Speaker E: I am very well, thank you.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Thank you so much for joining us and gracing us with your presence. As a matter of fact, you kind of make us look better on the program. I'm glad you're here.
[00:41:23] Speaker E: Thank you.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: So we're going to kind of talk more about Lighthouse Christian Camp and the different types of ministries there. But specifically, we want to kind of touch on something we haven't spoken about yet in the program. And it's something I know that's very near and dear to your heart and your mission. And that's the widow's homes that you have there on location and kind of talk about what that is. It has a certain name, right, that you.
[00:41:49] Speaker D: Yes, it's called Sing for Joy Widows Homes. And you know, there's a scripture that says pure religion undefiled is to minister to widows and the orphans and the fatherless. So years ago, God spoke to our founder, brother Ben, and Ms. Amita, and said, what are you going to do for the widows? And every. Everything that was done was really God led. And God gave Him the vision of this is what I want these homes to look like, homes for widows. And so a lot of people would think so they just live in one big dormitory or something like that. It really is not.
The vision and purpose of Sing for Joy was to provide safe and secure homes and housing for those widows, for those Christian widows that wanted to continue to serve the Lord in their later years, who had served beside their husbands, alongside their husbands for years as Sunday school teachers, as pastors wives, or just regular people that attended church. But later, after their husbands passed away, they felt like they just had no purpose in life. And so that was the goal of Sing for Joy is to provide purpose.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Well, Ms. Patty, kind of talk about that. I know you're a resident there and you're enjoying being a part of the team, really is what it is, right? So talk about when you went there and what made you interested in being a part of the program.
[00:43:14] Speaker E: Well, I discovered that I am good at retiring.
I'm just not good at being retired.
I retired as a social worker. I retired as volunteer coordinator at the Minneapolis airport. I retired from Department of Public Health and Human services.
I was 85 shortly after Covid hit. So when we went back to work, I thought, I think I'm a little tired.
So I retired from that job. And then I discovered again, I was not good at being retired.
So I was at my daughter's, and my daughter contributes to the Lighthouse Christian Camp. I had never heard of it. She didn't say anything about it to me. And I didn't. I mean, didn't matter.
But she had the newsletter laying there, and I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself that I had nothing to do. And I said to God one day, I said, what am I going to do? Sit in my recliner and watch television the rest of my life?
He said, no.
He showed me this little blurb. 15 hours a week, they need me. Somebody needs me to do something for 15 hours a week.
I wrote down the phone number very quickly and went home as if it would disappear. Went very fast home and called Michael. He said, come out tomorrow. As I drove in, I saw the cabins, and I thought, oh, they're going to expect me to clean. I don't clean. So we were talking and I said, I need to tell you that I don't clean.
And he said, well, that's okay. He said, we have other things to do. And then I said, oh, and by the way, I don't like kids.
And he said, well, that could be a problem.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: That could be A problem at a Christian kids camp. Yeah.
[00:45:24] Speaker D: Yes. You know, and. And it's amazing because when Ms. Patty came out and she was so excited and so anxious to get to just have somewhere to serve. And so she comes out to us and she's looking for purpose.
And at first I really thought when she was answering these questions that she was just someone looking for a porch to sit on and a rock her years away until she died. And that's not at all what Sing for Joy is. Sing for Joy is a play place that you come to serve. So when she said, I don't clean and I don't like kids, I said, boy, I just don't know what we have. And I'm searching my brain and I said, well, we have lots of laundry from where the kids, you know, use towels and things and leave stuff here. And.
[00:46:13] Speaker E: And she said, I love to do laundry.
[00:46:17] Speaker A: Well, see, there you go.
[00:46:18] Speaker D: And then she said, I will be the most elegant laundry lady you have ever had.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: That's so awesome.
[00:46:25] Speaker D: And so she became our elegant laundry lady.
[00:46:29] Speaker E: So we were sending out birthday cards. Then the next job that I had was to call the parents to see if the kids were coming to the Christmas party. This mother said, what did you say your name was? I said, Ms. Patty. She said, he got the card and it made him smile. And I thought, oh, I made some little kids smile.
Well, after that, that was my mission.
That is the way I see living at Sing for Joy.
Their mission is the widows.
But the widows have a mission within that mission.
It's our mission to make the joy for the camp, to bring joy to these kids.
[00:47:20] Speaker D: Currently, we have five widows that live at Sing for Joy Widow's home.
It is for widows 62 and older. Ms. Patty is actually our eldest.
She is 90. I have permission to say that. Yeah.
And our younger one is actually 60, in her low 60s. Now they have about a 500 square foot efficiency apartment. It's like a big quadplex. In each corner of the home, there is your own apartment. And you've got an inner door that goes to a hallway. You've got an outer door that goes out to a carport. You've got your own kitchen, living room, dining room. You've got your own bedroom and bathroom. And if you want to just sneak out, like sometimes Ms. Patty does, to go right, you just go through the outer door. Or if you want to visit with the other widows that live in that home, you can go to the interior. There's a common area and they can get There's a living room and TV and a kitchen in there so they can get together and share meals or play cards or watch TV or do whatever they want to do. Each widow pays $130 a month. We take care of all the maintenance on the home. They pay their own utility bill for their apartment, which is normally about $30 a month. And then we ask them to serve for 15 hours a week in the ministries of lighthouse. And that may be in the ministry of washing clothes, writing birthday cards, serving meals, helping with homework, mentoring, something that you're serving.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: If someone wants to donate time or be a volunteer or donate money or they just want to help, what's the best way for them to learn more to do that?
[00:49:02] Speaker D: Wow. I would say go to our website, lighthousechristiancamp.com or to our Facebook page for Linhouse Christian Camp. So we now have room for 12 widows out there.
[00:49:12] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:49:13] Speaker D: So if, if someone's a widow or they know a widow that they think this would be a good fit for, they can call the office at 615-597-1264. If they want to donate specifically for the widow's home or for the children's homes, they can do that right on our website. We are a 501C3, so everything is tax deductible and we just again, they can be a part of God providing for these ministries that have been there for all of these years.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: Everyone stay tuned. We got more of the program coming up in just a moment. Gaming builds real skills for real careers in esports and beyond.
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[00:50:49] Speaker A: It's time to give Justin the mic again for this part of the show as he welcomes us with all the latest tech news and tech news Roundup.
[00:50:59] Speaker C: Yeah, we're out here, located in rural Middle Tennessee. And maybe sometimes we don't think about the technology aspect as much as we should, even though it's intertwined in everything we do. But recently, Middle Tennessee State University held a tech vision conference for the first time ever that they have have held this and it was a conference that was specifically focusing on AI and student innovation. And to no one's surprise, over half of the sessions that they held had AI in the title of the session.
[00:51:30] Speaker A: That's very surprising. Yes.
[00:51:32] Speaker C: But it's interesting to see right here in our backyard in Rutherford county, you see MTSU embracing this idea and bringing some guests onto campus, but also utilizing it from their aspect of getting their students involved. Because student innovation was a part of this. And how is, as a student, how can we train you now and be focusing on these things that we know we see are occurring and are growing? And I appreciate the fact that MTSU is wanting to be on the forefront of this and wants to get in on this. And so that's interesting. I'm sure that they'll continue to do it. It was a two day conference that they held and they had some great speakers that came in as a part of it. So our local university, our local colleges, they're buying into this as well. We talk about artificial intelligence all the time, but even our educational institutions see the impact and how important it is nowadays.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: And I'm glad they are because, I mean, they're training people up for careers and this is changing so quick. These students need to have a dose of that because this is going to impact them for many years to come.
[00:52:42] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I mean, rapidly, rapidly going to answer. I mean, somebody who, you think somebody that graduated, if they went to college and they graduated five years ago, I mean, this wasn't even on anybody's radar at that point. You could have went through four years of school, got through this, and now it is so ingrained in a lot of things. Something else in the European Union that's interesting is they just levied some pretty hefty fines against both Apple and Meta. So the European Union and their structure is probably unfamiliar. We've heard of the eu, but the way that those countries are organized and they have agreed to operate under certain common laws and the EU has said that Meta and Apple has violated the Digital Markets act.
And they said basically that they're too powerful, they're too big, they're big tech. And so it is to prevent monopolies within the digital spectrum. And they're finding them and trying to curtail them so they can try to increase competition. And they're hoping that they increase competition, that more software and more hardware will be made available cheaper within the European Union.
You know, again, not taking a stand on that one way or the other. But when you start finding companies these hundreds of millions of dollars, as they've done, you know, there is the potential for it to trickle down and, you know, impact cost.
[00:54:13] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:54:14] Speaker C: Throughout, throughout the industry.
Sony is doing something, you know, because of AI. There's such a large demand for microchips. Okay. You know, all of these AI models and all these things that we have talked about require intense, intensive amounts of data processing. Well, because it requires intensive amounts of data processing, that means these microchips, which are already found in everything else under the sun, you know, they're found in, in appliances, in your home now they're found, they're prevalent in, in automobiles that are being manufactured. There's already a deep competition for them and AI has just accelerated the demand. Sony is actually looking at spinning off its own chip production company and making it its own entity so that it can focus on and try to leverage and become more of a manufacturer in this space of chip production. Now that's probably to benefit them as well because they manufacture a lot of devices that require chips, but also probably will help them become a vendor for other individuals as well. Because chip production still at this point is controlled really by a few companies. I mean, we're talking less than a handful of companies produce the majority of chips in the global economy. And that's a scary thing to think about that just a few people control such of that pipeline. So it's really. If Sony wants to jump in here, Sony wants to become a manufacturer and get into that game again. It's going to be more competition, it's going to be more availability in the supply chain that's pretty depleted. And still post Covid has not 100% recovered.
An additional thing talking about chips in video, they have decided that they are going to start building not a supercomputer, but supercomputers in the United States. They want to domestically produce supercomputers and they want to do it domestically. They want to do it within, in the US and the reason for that again goes back to international security concerns.
[00:56:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:56:28] Speaker C: They want to put them here where there's access here, and it will help the US in AI production and it'll help the US in analytics and you know, help potentially. I mean, I'm sure you just like, you know, there's, there's still the talk of the X AI supercomputer in the Memphis area where it will benefit and cause creation, economic stimulus through job creation as well. There are so many things happening so very fast. I think it's the speed at which we're getting hit at stuff. I think that that's probably what is amazing. You know, we think of, oh, well, the Jetsons. We'll never see anything like that happen. Or interstellar. We'll never see an autonomous tractor. And it's like it's not if at this point, when are we going to see things? Now, that's right.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: Right. All right, it's time now for the part of the show we like to call what's up dtc. This is where we talk about all the different places and exciting things that DTC will be involved with for the month of May. And we'll start out with on May 14, Older Americans Day, which will be held at the DeKalb Community Complex. So we hope, if that's something that interests you, that you can join us on that day on May 4th, 14th. And then as far as events in May goes, DTC3 is always involved with lots of high school graduations and this year is no exception. And we will be at 5 of our area high school graduations this month, filming those for playback later in the month of May on DTC3 on a DTC TV service. But also if you go to DTC3TV, you will be able to watch those online free of charge for a limited time, even if you aren't a DTC3 customer. So we hope that you'll take advantage of that as well. And as far as those dates of the graduations, Cannon, DeKalb and Smith county will be having their high school graduations on Friday, May 16 at 7pm followed by Gordonsville the very next day on on Saturday, May 17th at 10am and then that following week in Watertown on Thursday, May 22nd at 7pm and speaking of graduations, we're going to graduate out of this program and call it a wrap. Justin, thanks for being with me this month and thanks for always sharing the great tech news and other bits of information to us.
[00:58:58] Speaker C: It is always a pleasure to be.
[00:59:00] Speaker A: Here and we hope you've enjoyed the program. We want to thank Mike, Michael and Patty from Lighthouse Christian Camp and by the way, definitely keep up with them on their website on social media. They're doing some really, really, really good things there and I'm really happy that we have places like that in our service area helping others. So we hope you have a great rest of May and we'll join you next month for a brand new episode. Until then, we'll say so long.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: Learn more about the show by visiting us
[email protected] Also, be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast or video platform so you won't miss our next episode of the Local Click. See you next month.
