WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:14.000 What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. The new subtitle for this podcast is Pie in the Sky Bullshit. Did I tell you that yet, Dave? I didn't tell you that. 2 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 No, this is new. This is new to me. 3 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Somebody said this about us on the Internet. 4 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Oh, yeah, that's right. 5 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:32.000 This podcast is Pie in the Sky Bullshit. And I'm like, I was at home having lunch with my wife today, and she was like, that is a great subt. 6 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.000 Yes, 7 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:40.000 I would buy that T shirt. I mean, we'd have to, like, asterisk out the. You know, the expletive. 8 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.000 No, honestly, let's. Let's order some T shirts. 9 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:43.000 Let's order some T shirts. The 10 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:44.000 Parish Circuit. 11 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Pie in the Sky Bullshit, 12 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.000 Dude. I think. I think some. I think some of our faithful listeners would buy that shirt. 13 00:00:52.000 --> 00:02:04.000 I think they would buy that shirt. That's it. We're hitting the press. If you want one of those shirts, drop us in the comments and let us know. All right, here we go. We're jumping in to today. We're talking about downtown development. Our office is located in the heart of downtown Opelousas. We're invested here. I would love to buy real estate here in downtown. We've looked at properties here. I took my contracting friend, Buddy with me around to look at some buildings relatively recently, and he basically looked at them, and he told me, hey, this one you'd be getting in, you'd be over your skis. And I was like, okay, got it. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. So I love downtown. I think there's all kinds of fun things that could go on down here. I like the vibe of a thriving downtown having, you know, we were in. Been in Nashville relatively recently, and that was fun to go bustle around and be a part of it. It's a cool scene, you know, go get some food. Go maybe go see a show or listen to some music, play like. It's an enjoyable. Enjoyable kind of event, I suppose. I would love to see, like, a. Like a church in the middle of downtown. I would love to see. Boom. Like, let's put a. Let's put a church there. 14 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.000 Our church is in the middle of downtown, Stuart. 15 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:11.000 Oh, it is. That's true. Well, I kind of mean like a church proper. 16 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:12.000 Awesome church building. 17 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.000 Yeah, Sorry. Yeah, that's true. Our church is in the middle of downtown. You're right. 18 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:23.000 There was a time. Yeah. When. And there are some big Catholic churches in the area, but there was a time when 19 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:24.000 the church was. 20 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 The church was in the center 21 00:02:26.000 --> 00:03:48.000 Was the center of town. Yeah. So in the spirit of downtown, so I got invited to go to this thing. It was called Main Street, Opelousis, Main street kind of event. I can't remember exactly what they were calling it, but the general gist was, hey, come and let's talk about how to revitalize downtown. And so I was like, yeah, I mean, I'll go check that out. I don't mind. I mean, I'm on the team. Our office is down here. I care about this area. Let's go check it out. Let's see what happens. So I went over to the meeting, and it turned out what was going on is we were doing, like, it was almost like a strategic planning session. You ever been to one of those before where there's, like big note boards on the wall and people are writing down ideas and there's focus groups that talk about particular subjects? It was like that, but it was tight. It was like an hour long. So sometimes those strategic planning things go all day. This was real tight. Um, and I. I gotta tell you, I'm. While I am excited about the prospect of people paying attention to downtown, like, looking to do things, I think that philosophically, I'm just completely different than most of the people that are in the room. Whenever I walk in there, I'm. I'm like, yeah, what can we do? What can we change? How can we get businesses to move in? How can we. How can we improve things? How can we do it right? Like, we do it 22 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:49.000 right 23 00:03:48.000 --> 00:05:02.000 and more. What was happening is so the way that it worked. This group came in from Baton Rouge, so there's apparently, like a Main street board that has been in place in Opelousis for quite some time. Main street organizations, there's. I think there's like 20, 25 in the state of Louisiana, and they operate on the federal, state, and local levels. Okay, so there's like a federal organization on Main street, there's a state level organization, and there's the local Main street boards that I think are, you know, they're operating within cities. And what they do is they basically have these meetings and they. They talk about, like, planning sessions. They. They get together and they say, what are the things that we can do to improve downtown? And it looked like what I was stepping into in that time was kind of like right in the middle of their planning session. I think they said they had started back in 2024 for this particular session, and it was still kind of going through the next phases, whatever that means. And the Way that the organization works is they get together, they share ideas, they collect ideas, and then they convert those ideas into some type of a plan, like a document. Okay, 24 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:03.000 okay, 25 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:17.000 okay. And those documents, from what I can tell, it looks like they largely are coming through this organization in Baton Rouge called cpex, the center for Planning Excellence. Okay. That seems to be where most of it is coming from. 26 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:27.000 So whatever the main street, these planning sessions or whatever, strategizing sessions, whatever they put together, they send off to cpex, and then CPEX puts it together into a plan. 27 00:05:27.000 --> 00:06:22.000 Yeah, they like. They like. So I think these. They come together, they do these little strategic planning sessions. They're trying to say, what's the things that we should focus on in our downtown corridor to really make things go very, very well. That's kind of the gist of here. And so they send this stuff off to cpex. CPEX is a nonprofit. They write up a plan, they ship it back, and they showed a few of the plans on the screen while I was there that they've done in the past. So apparently, like, there's lots of plans. You see where I'm going with this? We have a lot of plans. And I'm looking around, and I'm like, okay, I got it. I mean, I like to have a plan, don't get me wrong. But I'm also looking around the room, and truth be told, there's some movers and shakers present in the room. Like, there's business owners, there's CEOs, there's people who could affect change, right? 28 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Yeah. 29 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:34.000 And when I see us all sitting down to work on this plan, I almost am like, I think this is just hamstringing us, guys. I think that we might. There's more that we could do. 30 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:42.000 What in particular is hamstringing? The getting this. This kind of plan from some outside nonprofit agency. That's. That. That part of it. 31 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:48.000 Okay, so there is the doing of something, right? 32 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:49.000 Yep. 33 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:56.000 And then there is the thinking about doing it. And it looks like everybody is thinking about doing something. 34 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Right. 35 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:58.000 And they're stuck. 36 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:59.000 Well, you might. 37 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:00.000 They're stuck right there. 38 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:16.000 You might be getting here, but obviously, what's. It seems to me, having not gone to this meeting, but hearing you talk about it, what's happening is there's strategizing, there's planning, and then they are waiting for the magical lightning bolt of lots of federal funding, 39 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:53.000 I think. So. Right. Like, we're like. And then where. Here's the plan, guys. Which, you know, question number one is, where does the Money for the plan come from? Because these guys at CPACS ain't writing this for free. It might be a nonprofit, but they make money. So there's something going on there. And then also, how are we going to pay for it? This is the question that I just keep coming back to. The election season just keeps bringing it up over and over and over again. It was like, everybody has ideas, big visions, big hopes. But the point is, like, how are we going to pay for any of this? Where does the money come from? The magical money tree where more money just falls off and people just have stuff to do 40 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:55.000 it. It's called the federal government. 41 00:07:55.000 --> 00:09:38.000 Yeah, it's. See, this is part of what I'm getting to here. It's a. It's another manifest of statism. We're waiting for the planners from on high to come down and tell us how we can save Opelousas, how we can save St Landry Parish. And I gotta tell you, I'm done with it. Like, I'm just done with it, man. The stuff that could be done, we don't need. It was really, like, funny. Like, we would sit there and we would go around the table and people were like, what are things that matter? And it was the same things that everybody knew already. Water, electrical and sidewalks done. Roads. Yeah. Okay. We listed our four things and everybody kind of sat there and looked around and then everybody started talking about things that they were imagining and thinking maybe this could happen and what about this in the future? And it really was fascinating to see this. The beholden to the outside statist, the federal government, the state level bureaucracies, you know, whatever it was and the lockup that that was causing to actually get things accomplished. I gotta tell you, if I had $5 million, I know how I would deploy it pretty quickly. I think I made a list the other day with somebody. I can't remember who that was with, but I was like, this is what I would do If I had $5 million. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And some of it would be in downtown and some of it would be out of town. And I've got the list made. I'm trying to figure out, where are the other people who think like me? Where are we? Where are we? 42 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:48.000 I was thinking we've said this a lot on the show, but obviously there's a history of the federal government kind of 43 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:49.000 coming in. 44 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:58.000 Coming in. Well, yeah, extending more and more of an influence on more and more of society. And so we've been trained to simply look to the federal government to solve all of our problems. But 45 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:10.000 it really was like that in the room. Like, we were. We were waiting for the, you know, the people who were running the sessions to kind of steer us. Like, there was a lot of that in the room, you know. 46 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:24.000 Yes. And the gods of statism are fickle. Right. I mean, you might get the favor from on high, but you might not. You just got to pray to this. No, I'm just kidding. I hope nobody's praying to the state, 47 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:25.000 but I think people do. 48 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.000 But maybe functionally, that's what's going on. I 49 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:33.000 think that's what's like. But think about it like you're. You're putting. We're literally writing our wishes down 50 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:34.000 in grants 51 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:41.000 on these pieces of paper in this room, and we're sending them off, you know, that they may come back and bless us with, 52 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:42.000 like, letters to Santa, 53 00:10:42.000 --> 00:11:00.000 a plan. But this is kind of what's happening. And all this stuff's getting paid for. Like, so this is being paid for by Louisiana tax dollars, federal tax dollars. It's getting paid for by the odd funds, that extra sales tax that's leveraged here. 54 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:17.000 So the sales tax that is keeping business from coming here and charging, making us poorer as people that live in Opelousis is being what's being done with it. 55 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:18.000 I love where you're headed. 56 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:23.000 It's being sent off to CPACs. They don't mind. Look, they've written five plans. 57 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.000 We're enriching those plans. They'll write 58 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:26.000 five more. 59 00:11:26.000 --> 00:12:15.000 They're happy to write the plans. That's right. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing, man. I just. Somebody commented this the other day. I can't remember who. It was one of our social feeds, but they were like, but what are you gonna do? Right. And that reminded me of our episode that we've talked about before. What are you going to do any different? How are you going to enact change? And I'm like, well, first I'm going to put my feet on the floor. I'm going to love the Lord, my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I'm going to love my neighbor as myself. I'm going to take care of my family. And then out of that comes everything else. It flows outward. Right. The things that we have already done in the community that we talked about on other episodes have spilled out of those. Right. Priorities. 60 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Yeah. So it reminds me of the passage that tells the church to care first for basically the person within the church, and then to the outsiders. The image that's being kind of portrayed is when people in the church are cared for and the things are in order there, it will overflow into the community around it. 61 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:38.000 Yes. 62 00:12:38.000 --> 00:13:05.000 I think the same thing is true of the family. The same thing is true in our own lives. If we have things in order, properly ordered, the way God would have us live, it will overflow and bless the people around us. But it does instead, though, we. We skip all that. We skip getting our own personal lives in order. We skip getting our families in order. We skip getting our neighborhoods in order. We skip getting our churches in order. And we go right to the federal government, our new. Go 63 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:06.000 right to the state. 64 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:11.000 New little G. God. And we. Or the state. Or. Or the state government, but. Yeah, the state. Meaning. 65 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:14.000 Yeah. Right, right. And we look for them to solve our problems. 66 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:25.000 Yep. So there was a time in history when towns existed. Stuart. Cities existed even without, like, millions of dollars of federal grant money. 67 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:26.000 Yeah. Yeah, 68 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:30.000 I. You know, it did happen. 69 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.000 Yeah. 70 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.000 Interesting. 71 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:57.000 I just found out something kind of sad. I don't know that I want to say it on here, because it might. It might trigger some more black pillars. Listen, guys, don't. Black pill. Don't do it. Don't take the black pill. Resist. But I just found the data on, like, the most recent plan that actually completed. I think it was started in 2020, wrapped up in 2022. Total cost looks like it was like $200,000, 72 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:03.000 200K. Was this, like, a part. Was this one of the. Was it the parking plan or the. 73 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:23.000 I don't know. I don't know what it says. It's. It's. I can't tell you. I can't tell you exactly which specific piece it was, but something that. A plan that started in 2020 and wrapped up in 2022. Total spend was $200,000 of consulting fees. 74 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Gotcha. And we're. And we're not talking about. Are we talking about. 75 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.000 This is specifically paid out from Appaloosa's downtown development district. 76 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:33.000 Got it. Okay, so this is the odd. 77 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:41.000 This is. This is what Odds paying out. I don't even know what the rest of the total cost was for the plan, but this is what we paid out. This is what we paid out with that tax. 78 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.000 Yeah, I paid for that. 79 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:44.000 You paid for that? 80 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:45.000 Yeah. 81 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 We've lived here since 2020. We've all paid for that. 82 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:49.000 Yeah. 83 00:14:49.000 --> 00:15:52.000 Yeah. So we run to the state to solve all of our problems because we don't really believe in the sovereignty of God. We're instead believing in the sovereignty of the state. We don't really trust God's promises. We trust the promises of the state though, guys, if we just write this plan, things will get better. Guys, if we just, you know, but what we're advocating for here is not just a simple, well, let Jesus take the wheel. You know, like, it's not like that. What we're actually saying is that the universe is made to work in a particular order in a particular way. And if you trust the Lord your God and obey him, he actually does bless you. It's real, it's tangible, it does happen. But yeah, these downtown development plans, man, you got to watch out because it sounds like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna help downtown get better. But it really, it seems to be more of like a distraction almost. 84 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.000 Yeah. Look, and I, I, and 85 00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:00.000 I think that all the people here are good intentioned. Right, Stress that again. But I'm just arguing that I think there's a better way. 86 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:01.000 Yeah. 87 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:07.000 Take personal responsibility for what's right in front of you. Do the work. 88 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:22.000 Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And I don't. I'll look, I'll look into the odd more. But to me it seems like this is a place where there could be more accountability considering that there's tax money going, going to it. 89 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:26.000 Well, see, but that's part of the cloudy part. So odd is 90 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.000 they're unelect. They're not elected. 91 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:29.000 They're not elected. They're 92 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:30.000 appointed. 93 00:16:29.000 --> 00:17:05.000 They're appointed. Yeah, that's right. And the tax is passed by this appointed board. So there. It's not really a tax that you have a say over. This was part of the drama with the football field and the community center and all that is, it's this. It's this. They call it a quasi government entity. It's not. They're not elected, they're appointed. And then they have this authority to levy this particular type of tax. Now I think it's restricted to a certain amount of money. I don't think they can just leverage whatever tax they want to. Now fact check me on that. I'm not sure, but it becomes this very different thing, so. 94 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.000 Reminds me of the tea party in 1773. Stuart, 95 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:54.000 we about to go throw some tea. We're about to go do something. Yeah. So, and realistically, like this type of stuff, the Main street program, there is no public facing data that verifies that this works. Okay. Like there's just not. If you do a deep dive, you can get some documentation that business numbers have increased, but that's a Net increase that they self report. Okay, so it's not like a third party measuring system and it's also just a net increase of the cities businesses as a whole. Does that make sense? 96 00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:00.000 Yes, yes it does. So the city could have just been headed that direction, generally speaking, 97 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:01.000 anyway. 98 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.000 Anyway. But yeah, they'll count it as a win for the. 99 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:05.000 Right, that's right. 100 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:07.000 Main street organization or whatever. 101 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:11.000 Yeah, you can't, you can't actually connect these things directly to each other. 102 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:50.000 Reminds me, I think it was actually Gates foundation study a while back that this is a comparison of what we're talking about here that showed that like high school, middle school, K12 teachers who got their master's degree. It didn't show, it didn't result in any increase in student performance. But the states and the federal government have spent billions of dollars on getting teachers their master's degrees and I'm sure the teachers feel smarter. That's where this comparison comes in. 103 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:52.000 Yeah, well, and they definitely got 104 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:53.000 teachers feel smarter, 105 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:55.000 they definitely got indoctrinated more. 106 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:16.000 And yes, they got some good secular liberal indoctrination on the road, but there's been no measurable increase in student performance as a result of it. But do you think that's going to keep them from spending that money, to spend that money? 107 00:19:16.000 --> 00:20:22.000 It's the same problem that we continuously have. Like let's keep dumping money into this and eventually surely things will get better. Like money's not gonna save you. Mammon is a terrible God. The state is a terrible God. God is a good God if you would instead serve him, obey him, trust him. The Bible actually says that he'll bless you. Malachi, chapter three, specifically with regards to the tithe. Obey me in this, trust me in this, and see if I don't open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until there is no more need. God literally promises that man there are blessings and curses of being connected covenantally to God. If you obey, you get blessings. If you disobey, you get curses. There's a way forward here, man, and we can move directions together. I would say to my friends who are listening to this, to my friends in Appaloosas, hey, let's head this direction. Let's walk this way. Let's build something great together. Find ways to invest, really invest in downtown. What's the best way to do that? Start a business. 108 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Yeah, 109 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:36.000 start a business. Park that bad boy in downtown. I would love one day. I'm Pastor Christ Church Opelousis. I would love one day for the downtown District to just be peppered with Christchurch buildings. Boom, boom, boom, boom. 110 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.000 You mean like owned by Christchurch members? 111 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:58.000 Yeah, running businesses out of them. Running restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream shops. Pick your thing, man. Like barbershops. Oh, man, I need a barber in Appaloosas so bad. That would be amazing. If we had a barber in downtown Opelousas. Don't tease me. It'd be amazing. 112 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:00.000 I bet you somebody's gonna comment. 113 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:10.000 We do have barbers. We do have barbers in downtown Appaloosas. I know, I know. But the problem is that I'm a white guy. 114 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:11.000 That's right. 115 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:16.000 Yeah. I mean, come on. They know. Everybody knows. Like, 116 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:52.000 there you go. Oh, man. There was something else I was gonna say. Well, how about this? Maybe wrap up. What are some other, like, okay, we need to pray. Trust God, not the government. Money is a bad God. God is a good God. Got it. Luther said something like, if you wait for the roast chicken to land in your mouth, you're going to starve. So while we trust in God's providence and his blessing, while we are faithful. What does that look like? Maybe practically, if someone can't start a business, let's say so there's Someone could start a business. That's one option. 117 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:53.000 Everybody can. 118 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Everybody can. Okay. 119 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.000 Everybody can. You can start a business tomorrow. Every single person. Okay, 120 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:06.000 I agree. Maybe not. Maybe not everyone could start a business in a physical location downtown tomorrow. 121 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.000 No, 122 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:10.000 but some people can. And then. But everyone could start a business. 123 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.000 Yeah. Yeah. And there are places to sublet offices downtown right now. 124 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:15.000 Yeah. 125 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Like you could, you could have a business in downtown that required an office that sublet from. There's like at least one building right now that sublets offices that I know of. And I'm sure there's more of them. Like there's opportunity here. Right here, right now. But like I say, everybody can start a business. I think that the path to true freedom is through economic, True economics, true economic development, which is Christians getting up and creating institutions, building institutions that serve other people. Right. I think that's really what we're going after long term. And a service oriented business you could start tomorrow with very little money. 126 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:53.000 Yep. 127 00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:04.000 Like you could if you're. I don't know, I know somebody who cleans houses for a living. They literally just decided, I'm gonna start cleaning houses for a living. 128 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:05.000 Yep. 129 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:06.000 And then they did. 130 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:10.000 And they've done. Well, turns out lots of people wanna pay people to clean their house. 131 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:17.000 That's right. I was recommending a pool cleaning business to somebody the other day it was like, hey, you could clean pools professionally, 132 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:18.000 man. Yeah, 133 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:26.000 because there's no. As far as I know, there's no licensing or certification that's required for that. You just get on the horn, you find people and you go get to work. 134 00:23:26.000 --> 00:24:00.000 No, I've heard of, actually several really cool, kind of low barrier to entry types of businesses recently. There's a. There's a friend of mine started a company where they rent those big boxes, the totes, but for when people are moving, basically just rent all these totes and they don't have to worry about finding cardboard boxes and all that stuff. They just, you know, pay some small fee. They rent all the totes they could possibly need and they just give them back when they're done. And there's a. There's a business right there. There's. Cleaning out garages is apparently a business that can be very successful. 135 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:01.000 I believe it. 136 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:02.000 Yeah. 137 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:12.000 Yeah. There's. The barrier to entry with things like pest control is also very low. There is a test you have to take. But there's, like, one. 138 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.000 Sure. Pressure washing is even lower. 139 00:24:14.000 --> 00:25:11.000 Yeah. Like, there's opportunity out there. I would love to see folks who just kind of put their heads down and said, what can I do to bless the people around me and build from there? There's, I think, real economic development, real freedom for people is going to be connected to us chasing opportunities to serve others. That's going to be a huge part of it, and it's going to be a stop. We're going to have to stop looking towards the state to solve all of our problems. We got to run from that. That's not what we're chasing. We're chasing real provision by a good God, and therefore we want to obey his commandments, which is love him with our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, Take care of our families, put our feet down, work hard. Boom. Let's go. Stop looking at the state to solve all your problems. Look to the Lord, obey him, trust him, get to work. It'll be good. Thanks, guys, for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. We'll see you next time.