Napa Eats, Birthday Celebrations and Church Confrontations

Praise breaks are not excuses for bad preaching. Right. Like or quiet prophetic hands. No, no, no, no. You didn't say anything. You didn't, you didn't say anything and you did not earn that moment.

Yeah.

In the spirit realm or in the physical realm.

Yeah.

Like God is like, I turned my back on this a long time ago.

Yeah.

And you trying to force it. Hey everybody, it's Justin and Courtney and we welcome you guys to welcome from home. And we're so glad you guys are here with us today. I know you guys are getting this on a Tuesday today, but we've been, we've been kind of busy.

May has been so exhausting. Like I'm losing my voice. It's been exhausting. It's been a busy month, but it's been a good month. It's been full of life.

Yeah. You know, and I think this is different. So I don't know if it's. I've been so. I. One thing about me. So I guess I'll start with like life updates is I. I have been off from preaching for a month, which has been a big deal for me because I normally don't take off.

You don't take off ever.

Yeah.

And so ever. I took off and it was cool. We went to in the midst of that when we started there. So in the midst of that, there's a lot of things I've been like saying. So even you mentioned busy. It's like, you know, I think I've been trying to name busyness. Right. And so like there's busyness in a bad way. But then I think there's like engagement. Right. And so we've been engaging with life and that's. We're in DC, Cam's birthday. What else are we engaging? Your mom, mom coming to town, my.

Sister coming to town, family coming to town.

Pentecost, Sunday. Yes.

A lot of places to go. All great things like celebratory, amazing, celebrating life. They were all life giving. Nothing was like crazy. But like you're saying like all business isn't bad busyness.

Yeah.

It's just things that are happening in a good way.

Yeah. And you know, you. I realize this too. It's just a minute. So like even like, oh, I have a lot of meetings. It's just a bunch of 45 minute sections of your day.

And it's just a day.

It's just a day and you have another day coming. And so. Yeah. So that's been fruitful in the midst of that too. Those of you. So here's my. Here's my ad for the day. So if you're on here. So we saw someone comment on our last podcast and that was about. We talked about artificial intelligence a little bit, which is kind of area I've been running. I went to a really cool conference picture coming up, Generative AI Conference, which is super cool down in Silicon Valley. And there's so much coming down pipe pipeline there. You can. So if you want to. My website is jr Lester.com and you can find my book on artificial intelligence. I have a master class on artificial intelligence. Shout out to all of my. All of my partners and I do consultations and all of that when it comes to AI and how it can assist your organization. And it's so cool to talk to all these. I love talking to entrepreneurs.

Yeah. Just overhearing like your conversations or seeing you talk, it's just, it's really good stuff that you get. I'm not sure if you probably had a lot of clickbait of other things probably out there on the Internet how to do this, how to do that, but you get really no information on how to do any of this. Just your initial consultation. You get so much. And that's just the initial consultation. And it's not this like crazy like, do I have to like have a robot come into my life? It's just like, no. How to use the artificial intelligence that we have integrated into our life already. How you make it even better and make it work for you so that you can be able to do the things that you want to do.

Yeah. And that's the goal. And so I enjoy it.

Yeah.

And so that's my shameless folk jl so on there you see a couple things. I have a free ebook which gives you my top hundreds of AI tools out there. And I'm updating it weekly. And so I just updated it with some more stuff that's really cool.

Every entrepreneur should absolutely take his master class, get the book to really help to understand on how to really get your. Your business out there without having to like, you're essentially duplicating yourself without duplicating yourself. And why not use the power of technology to do so? So if you have a business out there or you want to thing or you just want to be better personally within your own job. I love that you say that AI does not replace workers. I know we're like looking at it as the enemy right now, but it's not because we think it's taking jobs, but it does replace people who Use it versus who do use it. Who don't use it versus those who do. And so that to just dibble and dabble in it.

So that's my app for the day. Shop jr Lester.com and you'll get taken to all my AI things. And so my, I said my ebook, my masterclass, as well as I have another webinar coming up next month where we'll do a webinar on artificial intelligence. And the cool thing for me, on a personal note, I've been invited to some conferences.

Yeah.

And so I'm gonna put the status up here. I'm gonna put this up because I don't know if you remember this, but In April of 2022, I put up, before I retire, I'm going to speak at Hampton. Right? That was it. And Terrence Chandler Harrison, shout out one of my best friends, Terrence Harrison, TedX. And you're gonna know all these other things. So you'll start there, but a little further. And so time went by. I talked to people I knew at Hampton, I talked to people I knew connected to Hampton, and nothing had happened. And then literally, I was calling back from the Enterprise AI Conference and got a text message. And so Hampton's doing these cohorts, these smaller cohorts. It'll be announced at the Hampton Conference next week, but like these smaller cohorts. And so I'll be doing a bunch of Hampton work to talk to preachers and pastors. It was really exciting for me. And then some other opportunities it's opening, but it's really cool. So this AI stuff is here to stay. I'm all in on it. And so if you want to learn more about it, go there. And I'd love to talk to you or your business, whomever that is. AI. So that's my ad for the day. We got books and all that type of stuff. Well. As well. So what's been going with us? I told you, we've been out. It's been a month. I know. We our podcast almost every other week. This one's going to be two weeks. Because honestly, we did not have a time for us to sit down for an hour without falling asleep.

I know. We're like senior parents now.

No, seriously.

So tired all the time. But because it's been busy, we just celebrated this past weekend Cam's birthday. He just turned 7 years old.

My best friend.

I know. My best friend. Okay. He just turned 7 years old. And so one of the things we've tried to do, so every year since he Was like, since up until the point he was five, I used to do a birthday party every year for him. And that just got exhausting. Right? Like having to entertain people. And I also think that birthday parties run very inefficiently. It's like a lot of sitting around and just like kids running around and that just is like, what are you gonna do? Let's do something. Let's do something. Let's do something. So I'm just like, I'm tired. So I told Cam when he turned five, like, hey, let's let that be our last birthday party and let's pivot to do more experiences. Right. Like, let's do something that you really want to do and let's really build those core memories and let's experience something centered around your birthday instead of. Because birthday parties, there are a lot of just giving other people things rather than really celebrating what you want to do.

Absolutely.

Right. And people that you see every day. Because all he was going to do is invite his school friends that he sees every single day here it becomes.

More, in my opinion, a parent competition of like, I would have had the best food, but like a parent competition of who has a better food.

Yeah.

How. What does her house look like?

Yeah.

How's the relationship?

Yeah.

Right. And so you never really gotta there, like, oh, this is a great experience. It was like, who has more money and who has a better relationship? And so it's not really about the kid as much. And that might be my own judgment because I do judge, like under the sky zone.

You are very judgmental.

I'm just like, sky zone. Or it's another.

Oh, it's the sky zone parties. I think we've been to the mall.

Yeah.

We've been to a number of things and we enjoy. If you invite us to a birthday party, we're there. We're there. We love, we enjoy the birthday parties. We love them all. Well, me and camera there does it really go? So. But you know, since I'm a little bit extra of a mom, I still wanted Cam on his birthday and birthday weekend to feel extra special. Still, like, because as a seven year old, that's a concept that's kind of hard, right? Like, yes, I know I'm going to Disneyland. But it's still, still my birthday. Like today. I still want to do something today. So I kind of had a non birthday party party for him and what that included. We're gonna put some pictures up.

So what did you have?

So I'll start with. So his birthday was on well, let's start at school.

Start at school.

So every year for his birthday, his birthday fell on a Saturday, so we did a lot of stuff on Friday with his classmates and with his friends. Year, you dress up as Cam's favorite character, and you show up to the school and you pick Cam up in the favorite character. So you started with, like, what, Black Panther?

Yeah, it was Black Panther. No, I started with, oh, Black Panther. Then it was T. Rex.

Yes.

And then it was Legos. And this year was ninjas. He's all into ninja kids. Pause. Everybody help us. And I'm gonna put this everywhere. If you guys can tag ninja kids, please to have them say happy Birthday, Camden. So, ninjakids. I'm gonna swimming. I'll put in the comments here. But if everyone can help us tag ninja kids so that they can say.

Happy birthday, and it's ninja N I N I N J A K I.

D C. Ninja kids. And if you guys can help me tag ninja kids to get them to say happy birthday to Kempto, I think it would just make his day.

It'll make his world.

Everybody on our YouTube, everybody on Instagram, everybody on Facebook, everybody listening to us on Spotify or itunes, just please go on your Instagram, find the video on my page, and tag NINJAKIDS. Mr. J. Lester Brown Dad Boy Adventures. And on TikTok as well, please help us get ninja kids to say happy birthday. All right, go ahead.

Yes. Every year you dress up as something special. You dress up as a ninja this year, and it's really fun because it gets all the kids involved, and it gets. Everybody is super excited seeing Justin dressed up as whatever. And Cam just, like, feels so special. So that's. That's a tradition that we started, and so I thought it was cool. I keep seeing all over social media these, like, snackle boxes. So you take these, like, old school fishing tackle boxes, and instead of putting fishing bait in them, you put snacks in them. And so we saw these at Target, my favorite store. Shout out if you want to sponsor me.

Target.

I mean, we can do something. But I found these. They were in the dollar spot. They were just a dollar. So I'm like, oh, score. That's the deal. So we got them for his Hulk. We got one for each person. And I'm like, well. And he thought it would be cool if he could put his favorite, like, candies or snacks or toys in them. So we did. We put some of his favorite candy, like the chocolate. We put two chocolate candies in them. Two, like, sour tart candies in them and then little toys or trinkets that he really liked. One was like a ninja ninja star fidget spinner and the other was some erasers that he thought were so cute because they were food shaped. So we put those together of his favorite things. He's not really into, like, he likes the cupcakes and sweets, but how many cupcakes can you have, you know? So we did that. And so I'm like, well, we kind of gotta like, take it up a notch. We can't just. Just give them a box with snacks in them. You can. So then I got a cricut machine. Oh my gosh. My world has opened up in the crafting world. Like, there is no stopping me now. So I got a cricut machine and I was able to customize them and put them on the picture right here. I was able to customize them with each of the kids names with a little ninja kid, like ninja on there. And the kids absolutely love it. It's something that parents could keep forever stitchwasher safe, Something that they can always remember. And I know Cam really felt proud to give this to his friends and something that would have made it happy. So that was Friday, right? So we did that. We showed it to the school. We also had these like, inflatable swords. That was the bigger hit. These cheap inflata swords that I got off of Amazon. One of my big things is I love to be resourceful as much as possible. Get a lot of bang for my book. So I found these like $15 swords. They were 15 for 20 of them. And they were inflatable. And all the kids got one at his class and they just played swords for the rest of the day. They loved it so much and it was like quick and easy. So that was a win. So then on Saturday, the only thing that Cam asked for was a case. That's all he wanted was a really good cake. And so my dear sore Sora Samil, she made the most amazing black boy ninja cake. And so we had the whole setup. I found these black skin, like. Like brown skin ninja eyes off of Etsy that I put on balloons. And I took some 260 balloons and kind of made a ninja headband around them and to look and mimic like the ninjas. And I did some ninja star balloons and I kind of had that set up and just. That's really all he wanted. He didn't even ask for that. But I just the cake in and of itself. So when he got up in the morning, he came down and he saw it all set up and he was like so surprised. And he loved it all. And it was like just that little thing that we could celebrate as a family. We all like you barbecued. We were just able to just hang out and chill out as a family, Eat lunch together, have cake and ice cream together. And it didn't have to be over the top or extravagant. It was just. It was perfect.

Yeah. And it was, it was fun. It was a fun little weekend to honor him. And then we're going to Disneyland.

Yeah, that's so that's our experience this year. Big experience. And then church spoiled him too.

Yeah, the church spoiled him.

Sunday shout out to Charlie and friendship and Gia and Reverend Michelle, they absolutely spoiled Camden and they had a Mario themed children's church and where the kids got. They had pizza and they had great treats and everybody was just so kind and gracious for Cam's birthday. He felt so special on Sunday and he just, he felt honored. So I. He had a good weekend. And then we're going to Disneyland.

So we're going to Disneyland. So you guys can follow us on Brown Dad Brown Boy Adventures to follow that experience on Disneyland. And then you'll get some stuff about what you call it. You'll see also up some of the things from the weekend, not only on the podcast, but Also on our YouTube and on tick Tock as well. Finally got back on Tick Tock. You know, we did. If you guys don't know, we did this fast a couple months ago where I just deleted all of them and I just never got back on Tick Tock.

This was the best time of my life.

Yeah.

And so you know what the crazy thing is? I started getting so many comments from old videos that I was like, let me get back on there. So, like, the algorithm of Tick Tock is so weird. I haven't figured it out. I finally figured out Instagram, so I haven't figured out Tick Tocks, but like, and youtubes. But like it. It started. We started getting all these comments and so that's why I even mentioned you mentioning this. I want to put this on our Brown Dad Boy Adventures page for the other moms out there who are trying to figure out like the Snackle boxes and all of that. Because it's really unique stuff that you do around here. You still have to put it up. Don't put a lot of stuff on social media.

But I, I need to. I really do. I need to bring your body.

Like there's not, there's not a lot There's a lot of black parents who don't know where to source or where to find a lot of these things for their black children.

Right.

And so you're able to, you know, make all this stuff to. To be encouraging and intentional for camp for parents who don't know how to do it. So, like, to be able to put that out there, even in the places where we already got thousands of people following us on TikTok. Shout out to our. Thousands of people following us on TikTok.

Right.

But to put that out there, I think it'd be really impactful for people to see and all of that. So that'd be really fun. So, yeah, that was awesome. Over the weekend. And we go to Disneyland.

We go to Disneyland in a little bit. We're getting ready to go to Nashville.

Going to Nashville. Shout out. Pastor Faison and Dr. Maya getting married.

Yeah.

Excited about their marriage.

This is like our all in one trip. So we're gonna go celebrate the fa. The Faisons coming together. And then we're also just. We never had an anniversary trip this year. We didn't do anything for my birthday this year. We did something for my birthday. But we normally literally went to Calistoga. We did. No, I'm saying we were gonna do a trip. We were gonna go to Los Angeles. We were gonna do something. We're gonna fly somewhere.

No, I know.

And we didn't. No. What I had on my birthday was 10 times better than Los Angeles.

We didn't do anything.

But. No, I didn't mean to say we didn't do anything. We didn't like. We didn't fly anywhere. We normally kind of go someplace.

Yeah.

But what we did here at my homebody, I loved what we did. Like my favorite part to Napa Valley. And we went to it. So it was enjoyable. And even our anniversary was amazing. But we normally fly or go someplace. And so this is our first trip by ourselves this year.

Going someplace. And I'm going to run back to for pickup time.

Right.

And so, yeah, we're going down to Nashville. Be fun, hang out. And the thing about it, didn't tell anyone besides Pastor Benny, but didn't tell anyone until Terrence do. But like just. I guess.

Oh, and I tell.

Yeah. No, but just to hang out because we haven't had that chance, you know, and to actually experience downtown Nashville experience. So you guys will see that log, too. I'll vlog all of that, too. Make sure you are liked and subscribed to the YouTube channel and all of that. So that's. That's what's been going on. So now looking forward and we'll cover more like other stuff because I like one thing I've been into a lot this year. She don't talk about this podcast is the WNBA right now. One thing about me is I worked. So what paid for college was women's college basketball. I'm a fan.

You definitely put me on some women's. My mom was a basketball coach, though, in high school, and she cut coach girls basketball. And I was telling that. But you really put me on to women's ball.

It's good ball.

Yeah.

They are basketball. And just because they're women and they can't get above a lot of them can't get above the rim. So the difference between men's ball and women's ball speed and getting above the rim. But you're starting to get some girls that can, which is amazing. But then you also have these like the Angel Reese's, the Caitlin Clarks, the Camila Cardos, the, you know, Rekia Jacksons, along with Asia Wilson. Shout out. Asia Wilson's getting a shoe.

I know she's a sir, too, so I'm excited.

I'm definitely buying that shoe. I didn't buy a suit. I don't care. I'm getting Asia Wilson.

Oh, oh, oh.

I'm a support. She's the. Did you know this? So we'll talk about this in the next podcast. But she is the first black woman to have a shoe since the early 2000s. Like Cheryl Swoop and Don Staley. Like, so you had Sabrina Esker's got a shoe shoe. She's not as good as an Asia Wilson. Caitlin Clark already has a shoe. Like, a lot of these white players have gotten shoes and they're trying to say he's on race. But the best players in WNBA for the past 20 years have been black.

Yeah.

And so I'm glad Asia Wilson's getting issues. So we'll talk about that in the next one because I'm. I've been into it this year. It's interesting to see the. The play out of it and how it goes. And then the NBA, which I'm just kind of disappointed in because, like, we don't know if it's going to be too sweet because his game is tonight, but oh, my God, this NBA, it's.

Gonna be uphill battle for Minnesota.

I mean, no team has ever come back from three. Now the only team. There's one team that's come back three. One. That was the there's no LeBron on this team. Three one, right? It was the LeBron led Cavaliers in the finals against the best team we've seen since the 98 bulls. It's 97 bulls, but golden State, right? Yeah.

And he, like, brought him back to a game.

7 3, 1. Yeah. Beat them on their own court. And that was after Draymond got suspended. Like, there's so much that happened in that. But this Minnesota team, up by 20, can't even keep a win. Same with Indiana, like, up by 20.

They should have won those first two. I don't know what it's. This is. It has been a wild playoff. I will say the sweeps are like, oh, I want more games. But it's been a while. It's been like, oh, my God. It's been coming down to the wire and it's like all the up and down and. And it's been crazy. So I think this is. This is. It has been a good series and it's gonna be the finals, I think so.

Two things we're adding to our podcast occasionally, not all the time, but wanted to do reactions. And then I just thought about this top five, and we started doing this before this or that. But to put you on the spot. Yes. So I see you have model bakery right there. So because we're in Napa Valley, Courtney, what are your top five places to. Oh, my gosh. Eat or get something to drink in Napa Valley.

Oh, my gosh, that's so hard. Since my mom's been here, we be like frolicking throughout Napa.

We know Courtney said she's gonna get home in a half hour after Kim dropped off. And then she texts me an hour later like, oh, we're going to Bottle Bakery. Well, I'll start. So my number, my number one, State line, State Line Barbecue. We went to Oxbow and Stateline was gone. And I was really frustrated about it. Stateline has one of the best brisket sandwiches I've ever had. And it's a black owned Kansas City inspired barbecue. Great barbecue. So Stateline barbecue number two would be Grace's table.

Yeah, you love it.

Three star Michelin rated restaurant. I don't care how expensive it is. But Grace's table number three. Let's see. I'm going down First Street. I'm gonna go Brown Valley's wine tasting room just for something to drink there.

Okay.

Here we're number three. I don't even know the name of it, but I think it's the market across the street has one of the best pinos ever tasted in my entire life. I could wine, I got the market. No, I forgot the name of the place, but it's across the street from Brown Valley's Brown Estates tasting room on downtown up on first street.

Oh look, we were trying to go.

Best pinot I've ever had. Small single barrel winery, amazing space. Number four for me would be Q. Yeah, cuz I like barbecue. If you guys can tell be Q. I like Q. And then number five. I'm struggling with number five cuz number five I have to say like you know there's. There's Napa Sport because we go there all the time and they're like somewhat decently priced. There's Ford Pizza, cuz we go there all the time and they're somewhat decently priced. But if I were to say my number five place, I'm gonna throw it out there.

What?

Mustards?

Oh yeah. I'm surprised you said that. I thought you were just at Napa Sport.

Heck no.

I don't actually like you like you go there all the time cuz it's.

Convenient and it's off the beaten path. But if I'm going someplace place I want to go eat. Like there's so much stuff up in like St. Helena that we haven't like experienced and stuff. But number one is state line. And then I got put the tasting room in there. Brown Valley's tasting room is fine. I gotta put Hall's tasting room someplace too. Like hall is a phenomenal tasting room but in random. Last time was a hall. Did you know this? That Hall's starting to grow weed?

They are?

Yeah, they said like the same. Not that I drink, but like smoking but like the same terrain you need for. So like they said that the water that comes down off the mountain from all the rain at the top and all the snow is. Gives it this like this crest at the foothills of the mountain. And it's the best places to grow weed. Which is why there's so much weed for Napa Valley growing in Silver Valley. I don't know, they're starting to grow weed. Won't be for sale for like a year. But they said they're starting to grow weed and they said that like a lot of wineries are applying for licenses for weed now. Because the same terrain you need for wine and drain you for weed. So. Wow. Yeah, State line. So shout out. Stateline. They open officially in June, their main location. But when it was at Oxbow I was like almost cried man. I went in there, they were Trying to offer me some dim sum or something. And I was like, I want a brisket sandwich. So those are my top five in Napa Valley. What are your top five?

Oh, so mine are not going to be in order in terms of like best lease, but my top five. So I definitely move like a local Napa. Did you know that they call the residents of Napa napkins? That's the.

Oh, that's where napkins came from.

Napkins came from. And I was like, I heard somebody say like, I'm officially a napkin. And I was like, napa napkins. Got it, Got it. But yeah, so I kind of move like a napkin locally. But I also like tourist based things.

So.

I love Sunshine Cafe for breakfast. That's definitely a local spot. Sunshine Cafe is really good just for like, just general breakfast vibes. It's nothing like extraordinary, but it's just like good breakfast. You can get a solid breakfast. It's in the cut. Cool. I definitely like. I like mini model. I like mini models.

Really? Because you didn't make it at first. Open Yonka. Okay.

Not the one. Because the girl, she has an attitude every time.

No, I didn't like the one in Napa. Now. The one now. The one in Calisto. No, St. Helena.

St. Helena, yes. But they're so busy all the time. They're so busy all the time. Mini model. They have everything that the other model bakeries actually have more than one in Napa. And. But they're mini and it's quick and you can go to it. It's in Yacht Bill. You, you can sit in the park. It's beautiful. So I like the Mini model bakery in Yountville, also in Yountville. You know, so you know my. This is. Okay. Restoration Hardware. I. I love a good quick little lunch there. I love the ambiance. I love how it is now.

There's only three of these restaurants in the country.

No, there's one in Nashville. There's one. There's one in major city.

Okay.

So they're New York.

When I first looked it up a couple ways when we first got here.

Yeah.

So we went to the one.

They're not a lot though.

We went to the one in Yonville. Yeah, the ambient, I mean, just all the fresh greenery.

Fresh greenery. I love how they mix like the textiles with the bling. It's a mix with it and I'm not a blinger, but they, they do it right. And so I think I know you're one place and it's not a Napa.

Oh, it's not a Napa. Never mind.

But you know what? I was about to say hello, kitchen. They disappointed me last time though.

Like, the bread.

He loved the noodles.

He loved the noodles.

The garlic noodles. Bungalow. Honorary mention. Because in terms of ambiance and views, I like sky and vine at the top of the arch of the rooftop.

I forgot about Sky, Vine.

Sky and Vine. Like, the food was okay. Like, it's like they have a good wide menu. You can get whatever. It's just general, basic food. But the views and the ambiance and just like the vibe of it is really good place to just like be. You know what I thought you were gonna say.

No, don't say it because I only want to know about it.

Okay.

Yeah. There's one place that's probably my favorite place every single Sunday that I want to promote them, but I don't want anybody else to be there with. With us because it's like we've only taken a couple of people bare. Cuz it is like, so maybe, hey, listen, if we get a thousand views on this podcast, maybe we'll. And if we get. So I'll put this on YouTube.

People don't know, but it's like, I don't. But if we get hidden in the middle of the busiest street, it's so amazing.

If we get 10,000 views on YouTube. No, sorry. 10,000 views on this post I put up on Instagram. And 10,000 views on Facebook. Facebook and 10,000 views on YouTube shorts. Then we'll tell you the best place to go eat.

So I'm gonna.

Cost effective. No, it's cost effective. It is. It is in the cut. It is in Napa Valley.

Yeah.

And it is.

It's definitely a local.

Some of the nicest people that you'll think about ever want to go to that kind. They remember what you want to eat. The food is given to you in a good space and it's just the best views that we've seen.

Okay. And lastly, let me round it out. Was that five? Did I say five already?

No, I think it was four.

My last. The best cafe in Napa Valley in St. Helena. Is it Mount or St. Helena. Noma.

Yeah, I'm about to say no more.

Noah has the best latte. Like, I don't need any type of syrup, some type of nothing. They make a good latte. The overall vibe. So number is a cafe slash like store like. Like store of different things. And the overall vibe of Noma, it's just like peaceful. A lot of Indoor outdoor type of cafe. It's almost like you're like a French, I don't know, bakery or something. Somewhere. Yeah. Somewhere otherworldly, like other country. And it's. I love Noma. That's where, like, honestly, that's where I'd be at. So you have to be committed to go there, though. It's like, it's kind of far.

And the thing about it. So Napa Valley is a nature preserve. And so there's no highway. And so to get to it, unless, like, you know, Sacramento and all, you got to go. You're on a freeway to get to St. Helena and like Napa Valley, Napa Valley, you're on a two lane highway for most of the time and on stoplights. And so good luck.

I have one that we can say collectively that I think we collectively, like, it's. It's my Napa Valley hack. This is a hack. Okay. It's this restaurant called Charlie's. Do you remember Charlie's? You might. There is a restaurant. Oh, is it Helena?

Yeah. So, yeah. Because the head chef at Charlie's used to be at French Laundry.

First of all, if you look up, just look up right now. French Laundry. French Laundry. Okay.

People, you can't get in for like.

Two months, if not years. Yeah, it's like year waiting line. And then once you get in, you're not coming. It's like 900 a person.

Yeah. But Charlie's, you have the chef who used to be there who's making all the stuff. And that was some of the best pork. That was the best pork chop I ever had. And they changed the menu weekly. And so it's constantly evolving, revolving the. It's a great space. So check it out.

So, yeah, that's the hack. So if you want to experience French Laundry, like quality food and ambiance, don't want to pay that you. I mean, it's still like an Apple Valley restaurant, but you're not gonna pay 900 a person.

That's it.

It'll probably play what ours is like. Like probably 100 for two people. Right? Go there, Charlize. That's it.

So lastly, what we're gonna do. And so that was our top five. And so we'll do that occasionally. And we'd love to hear what yours are or if you're coming to Napa looking to be a part of Napa, that's our top five. So let us know if you visit or you're coming in Napa, you're looking for a place to go. You heard Kroni's top five. You heard my top five. Go check them out. Enjoy it and let us know what you think about it after you come. And be sure to like and subscribe and follow along for more. More. So last thing before we go today is reactions. So there's been a lot going on in the church world. And really, you know, here's the thing with church.

Always the black church. Oh, and the white church world, too.

Like Courtney Mark Driscoll, you know, this pastor got cussed out while he was preaching. This guy came up and got cussed out while he's preaching. Yeah. Like, it's just. Guy got punched in the face. Like, it's just a lot. My predecessor. It's just a lot that's been happening, but in the black church, because black church stuff is just crazy. Kian Henderson, formerly known as Kian Henderson, now, he's just. Shaq.

Don't say that.

He's doing amazing work in Houston. Amazing.

He's been doing amazing work even before.

So the thing about it is, it's not that this is new. It's just. It's been recorded.

That's it.

So.

And now that it's just been recorded, now that more and more people know him from outside the church world, that's it.

And so. And he's popular. And, you know, all this stuff and all these things are going out around there. So we're gonna play the video, and we're gonna react to the video.

I'm sure you've probably seen this.

You've probably seen it, but we're gonna play it just in case you haven't seen it. Stop her. Hush, hush. From my understanding, from my sources.

From your sources.

So black future world is so small. So somebody knows somebody who went to somebody's school. From my understanding is that woman came to the church, said that God told her she was gonna be Kian Henderson's wife. She sings in the praise team or the choir, whatever they have there, and constantly is trying to take over worship with the screaming. Like, this is constant. So, like, they've done the. And he said on Tamron Hall's show that, like, they've done the Escort her out. They've done the usher, they've done the mother, they've done the security, they've done the meeting, they've done the counseling, They've done all of it. And she just continues to try to hijack worship it. There's so much here.

I think there's so many different perspectives here in different things. So you and I We have grown up in the black church our whole entire lives. We have seen so much happen. We have seen. I don't think anything will surprise us in the black. We have seen people run. We have. We have seen wigs fall off. We have seen people scream. We have seen backstories. We have seen fights. We have seen.

Seen. Police called.

Police called. We have seen it all. There is nothing that has happened in the black church that we have not seen, Right? So I think our perspective as people who have grown up in the church and have seen and know, like, oh, that's that she's crazy. Or like.

Like, there's a woman in our church who used to come in every Sunday and come to the altar. Still does it still does. Anytime she wants. But one of the services, I literally had to do something very similar. Stop. Go to the side. Like, I had to be. Same thing. Stop it. Move. This has happened before. Not in, like, this space, but I've seen it in other churches. Like doctor Neighbors at Community had somebody who would scream all the time in worship and literally said, get her out. Because it's a distraction to the worship experience.

What I think. And we have a different perspective as leaders in the church. And you, especially as a pastor, when you know that a pastor is the shepherd over the flock. And when a sheep is out of line, no matter what, you take your rod out. Hey, get back in line. Hey, what are you doing? Hey. You are disrupting. And I think the discernment and what. One of the things that we're trying to. That. That we kind of forget. And I hear a lot of the commentary, it's not from the people that are inside the pews, right? Because people inside the pews, it's like your family, right? Like, you all know that one person, right? You don't have to say nothing. But you know, in 3, 2, 1, that person's about to start running. In 3, 2, 1, that Person's about to start screaming.

I know who's gonna shout on for Sunday. I know, I know, I know. I know who's gonna shout out for Sunday. I know who's gonna try to hijack worship every Sunday. Every first Sunday at our church. I know who's gonna shout and who going to try to hijack worship. I know who's going to try to do it on Thursday.

And you can discern when it's real, when it's authentically coming from an overflow. Because the word says, like, out of the abundance of our heart flows out of our mouths. You can tell you can tell authentically. And that's the power of the Holy Spirit that gives you the ability to discern when it's, wow, I just want someone to look at me versus, like, wow, this person is crying out over the abundance and the overflow of whatever is happening in their life out of gratitude, out of worship, out of whatever agony, whatever it is.

Absolutely.

You can absolutely tell that. Because in that posture of worship, it's less about them and more about, like.

The release doing for me. And you know. And other people know as well. Right. But when it isn't, you know as well.

And that's the dangerous thing about onlookers. Right? That's the dangerous thing about onlookers. And I did not one time see somebody have a commentary for someone that was inside the pews or inside their spaces. Right. As key, I understand, as the shepherd of the house, he knows his sheep.

That's it.

And he had to take that moment of being Holy Spirit led. And I believe he is to be able to discern whether that was a real moment or a fake moment. And there seems to be so much history there that we can't begin to understand. But they understand it and they know it for a fact. That's. That's why it's so dangerous, even from the outside looking, even at other people and other people's churches and other people's walks and judging. Because you literally do not know. Right. Like when God assigned you a pastor, God gives that pastor the knowledge, the discernment, everything that this pastor needs for you to grow spiritually in the word.

Right.

Whether that's correction, whether that's encouragement, leadership, whatever that looks like, comfort, whatever that you need. God gives the man of God, the pastor of that house, the ability to know and to effectively walk through it. And then, of course, us on the outside, not knowing or not seeing or not being a part of that context. Yeah, it looks crazy like. But we have no clue. Just like he could not comment on anything happening in any other churches because we have no clue.

And that's the thing, even for me, where there have been meetings I've had privately or even stuff that's happened publicly. We're like, I'm just not as popular.

Yeah.

And that's not slightly myself. It's just like, I'm just not as popular.

But we're all one video away looking crazy.

That's what I'm saying. We're all. You take an isolated moment out of any of my. Like, I've literally said, back it up and dump it in so sermon, right? And it's like, you take one thing from a sermon or a moment in worship and it looks like I'm the biggest narcissist there is.

Narcissist.

But then what we don't also get from Keanu Anderson's church is you guys did not see the 280 something odd people they baptize. The thousands of dollars they give away weekly to the community, the millions of dollars have given away to the local community. That's not publicized, but. But this man gets his house in order, right? And you know, and so it's like that's where I struggle to personally, like, I struggle with the balance of correction and criticism and like all of that, like just when to correct. And I've been at that space recently where I've been doing a little bit more correction, because if not, let me tell you what's gonna happen. She's gonna think she can hijack worship at any given moment and it's gonna get worse.

And imagine he seemed like he was like in a really sacred moment, in a really private moment where God was speaking to him, right? And he was getting ready to say something. It seemed like a really, like, he's about to preach.

Like he's about to preach.

They do teach moment.

And he's about to preach.

And who knows now that he had something specific for the people sitting in that spot that could cause ultimate freedom for the people sitting in that spot. And now he's deterred, distracted, and not delayed because of egotism or someone trying to make the moment about themselves.

It's the same thing to pivot with that. It's the same thing with our doggone convention, right? And I know I'm in the part of the national convention. I'm tired of the national convention. And we're in the midst of a presidential race and the four candidates, and I know one, I know two of them, the four candidates that are. That are running for it. And this fight we now have over constitutional bylaws, and I'm not going to get too deep in that, but the Keon Henderson, this one in the next video we're going to go to. What I'm seeing here, Court, is when the world jump, when we begin to govern God's church like the world governs their businesses. There's a book by Jim Collins. Jim Collins, he did an anthology to good to Great, one of the best 75 pages ever written. And it was applying good to great to social sectors. And he said, you cannot apply all of the business principles to social sectors, politics, nonprofits, churches, without taking a look at their value system. You judge businesses based upon the return on investment money. Right. So like, are we good? How much money to be raised? Non profits is impact. What's happening with social media is we are judging like churches and nonprofits and politics based upon the level of non communicated virtue ethics for our personal stuff, our coaching businesses. And the thing is, everybody's an expert. For example, I don't know if you heard this, but I was listening to something, this podcast this morning and they were talking about how, you know, 63% of Americans believe that the economy is at an all time low, where it's like, no, the truth is it's at an all time high. But if you look at your algorithm, it's based upon your algorithm, like 70% of Americans can't believe that unemployment's at an all time high. And it's like, no, it's actually at an all time low. 4%. I think the same thing for our churches. When we govern God's kingdom by the world rules now, everything is terrible. So now can't handle a narcissist, because if your boss said that's you at work, you call him a narcissist and you report them right in a meeting. Hush. Shut up. Well, dang. But the world's rules, yes, the kingdom, you're out of line. Yeah, right. The same thing when it comes to our national convention. So it's like, are we being governed by the spirit? Absolutely not. It's our bylaws. Yeah. And now you're mad about bylaws. Bylaws, Constitution and bylaws. And now the national Republican convention is about to go down the same road as Jackson and Martin Luther King. And I swear to God, if we have a fight on the floor in Memphis, I'm a leave. Like, it's just, it's, I'm. It's frustrating. And the thing is, that's what we're talking about, right? That's not our sermon clips. Not. It's bylaws. Bylaws.

And that's what Jesus said he came for, right?

He came for bylaws.

He came for. No, but he did. Like, that's literally he came for.

He came and turned tables over for the.

Because of the bylaws, right? Because it was saying, like, no, this law that we created, that Jesus, you can wait healing can wait healing. Don't do it. Because this law that we created says you can't do it on the side.

We're about to have a split in.

Our convention, this is gonna wait. And Jesus would come and be like, what is happening? And Jesus would. Jesus would correct all the time. Like, wait, no, you come here, you stop, you do this, you do that. And he was misinterpreted, too. And I'm not comparing like that to say that it's apples to apples, because it's certainly not. I just think that there's a lot of context that we have no clue about, and it's dangerous to comment on other things and that. That happens in our own lives right when we start to begin to believe and look at other places, to begin to judge other people saying, oh, well, I would. My pastor would never do that. Or personally, I would never do that, or I'm better than this, or I understand this. Like, we can't even begin to fathom somebody else's situation. I think in the next. Next video you're about to play.

Yeah.

It'S like something similar, but this one gives me. This one's a little.

This one gives me narcissism vibes.

This gives me. It's a little different.

So here. And we would love to hear you guys opinion and reaction to this video.

Lift your hands right here. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. Listen. All over this building, all over this building. If you have hands, lift your hands. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. All over this building. Lift your hands. I need us all on one accord right now. All on one accord. All on the court. Everybody lift your hands. Baby, can you do me a favor? Lift your hands or get out. Could you choose one? Lift your hands to get out. Could you lift your hands or get out? Choose one. Choose one. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. I'm not scared of nobody. I mean, what. I mean, I'm here to protect you, and anything that is in violation of it has got to go.

Yeah. So that's more narcissism.

That. See that and see. Yeah, that's different. There's so many ways, if someone is not disrupting your service, if someone is not that. To force something when you literally have no clue. A person probably can't even lift their hands over their head or probably can't even. Like, there's so much stuff to that where it's probably not even defiant.

So I had an experience similar to that. We had a healing service at my former church, and there was a woman who literally. We had a healing night, and she was physically, literally so sick, running so sick that Katrina had to yell and be like, she can't lift her hands.

Yeah.

And I Was like, it was the first time in my life where I was like, whoa. I was like, lift your hands. Everybody lift your hands. And she was trying. Someone was trying because she just wanted the spiritual healing in her life and literally had a doctor yell out, she can't lift her hands.

Yeah.

Not saying that. You know, it's particular, not universal. But I agree with you absolutely that you can't. And one. And then I went and listened. Part of the service. I don't know the guy. I'm not trying to start no war with you, but he ain't say nothing. Right. And it's just like, he ain't say nothing. And it was just, it was just. Let me, let me say this. Praise breaks are not excuses for bad preaching. Right.

Like, or quiet prophetic.

No, no, no, no. You didn't say anything. You didn't, you didn't say anything. And you did not earn that moment.

Yeah.

In the spirit realm or in the physical realm.

Yeah.

Like, God is like, I turned my back on this a long time ago. Yeah. And you trying to force it. And not just. But then thirdly, it's completely black in there. So I mean, it don't really matter if it's in the hands of nine. Just keep going because you're there for the one. Like, it's the whole principle of the one. Are we here for the many? Are we here for the one? And if we're here for the one, hopefully many get it. But we're here for the one.

Yeah.

And when you know your assignment, you don't stop for the one person not lifting their hands. Like, can you imagine if Jesus would have stopped teaching his disciples because 1. One leper came back?

Yeah.

Like, where are the other? Like if you imagine if he stopped his whole movement because only one came back. Well, forget. I'm not going to teach you guys. I give up because where are the other nine? No great. I'm going to give you favor disciples. This is what ministry looks like. You're going to do ministry to 10 people. One's going to get it. Are you going to show up for the one? Are you going to lose your mind over the nine?

Yeah, it's that difference. They say a lot of times we're kids can tell when some someone is like, no nonsense but loves them versus someone that's like genuinely like mean. Right. I think this is a situation between like the Keon Henderson situation where it's like that moment he was no nonsense, but you can tell the love of his church. Right. The love that he had of his church. Church that was not done in love. Because even if someone. There's so many reasons why someone be a brand new visitor. It could be someone that's just, you.

Know, they don't know.

They don't know the Lord. They don't know what you're saying. They don't know what they're receiving. They don't know. What do you mean?

Or along with that. There have been so many services that we've been a part of where something gets like that and you know it's fake.

Yeah.

You know it's manufactured. Like when you. Like when you know how the sausage is made for some of these guys. I don't.

Or it could not have been a person at all. And it could have been clickbait because it's just like, you know what?

That's. I never thought about that. That's so sad. That's a possibility.

It could have been clickbait.

There was one time at a service in Nashville, a service in Nashville. It was at abc. I did the travel and I think you were there. This guy got up. I won't say his name. This guy got up and it was maybe 12, 15 people in the room. You were there. We're all saved because we're all preachers, all salvage. He got up. It was like the doors of the church open, Right. I see you coming. And we're all looking around like, bro, there's like 12 of us in here. We're all preaching.

Who coming?

I see you coming. Come on, right now. Come on, give it up. They're coming. And we're looking like. Like nobody's coming. But to your point.

I really. I really do. And I think he probably wasn't talking to anybody, but maybe as a way to even threaten other people. Like, remember that one time, that prophetic message? And he was like, if you don't give $200. Uhhuh. I hear you, Susan back there. You're about to lose your job on Monday. We of fear, out of fear. Like, okay, give the $200. But we don't know if there was a real Susan or not. It was just.

I would challenge all of you. So I'm talking about this in my church on this Sunday. So tune in if you want to at the 8 o', clock, 11 o', clock. Talk about something different. But 8 o', clock, I'm talking about this. And we'll get ready to go, so. Well, we're long today, but we missed you guys. It's one thing to talk to God. It's another thing to sit and listen. And what's happened is we've gotten so consumed with our will and not God's will. Your prayer time, Paul talks about this in Colossians 4, is you're living prayerfully. Every word that comes out of you is living prayerfully. You're speaking prayerfully. You're speaking like you're praying to God and you're listening constantly for the voice of, of God. One of the areas I feel that we've missed it in our faith walk and in our faith journey is that we've made everything about like us, us, us, and we're not spending time to listen to his will. So if we were to ask you the question, what is the will of God for your life? You don't know. What is God calling you to do? You don't know. But you can tell me what everyone thinks about you. You can tell them what everything you've done wrong. You can tell what everyone's opinions are about you. You can tell me the top five trending topics on YouTube. But what is God calling you to do? You have no clue. That's not because you don't know Jesus, is that we're more in tune with the wrong frequency. So in this case, for this preacher, for Kion, for the national convention, for your life, the challenge I would give you spiritually would be make sure you are in tune with the will of God for your life. So that's one thing I've been personally practicing and I'm gonna talk about this on Sunday, but I'm praising God for it because there was something the Lord shared with me the day before I took off, right? So that Tuesday, I remember waking up telling you, like, where God took me to 1st Kings 18, blah, blah, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, four. I emailed my teams, hey, this is what God is telling me to do. This is what we're going to do. I'm not questioning it. This is exactly what God told us to do. And then, you know what? I get back, had a meeting the other day, and literally the time frame of this one thing that needs to happen is exactly what God told me was going to happen.

That's it.

And so to me, what would happen if you were in tune with God, Hear me and trust to him when he told you to do it the first time, right? So if he tells you to do xyz, do it the first time. If he tells you to go to this place, do it the first time. If he tells you to try him, do it. The first time. And then here's why. Because I used to have this prayer. The prayer was, God, surprise me. And then I realized how insulting and faithless that is to God. God reveals to us his will. He reveals to us the future. I no longer want God to surprise me. I pray that what happens is something he's already shared with me. Right. Too often we get surprised by God. The reason you get surprised by God is because you're trusting your will more than his. Fall in love with his will and you'll be able to discern. So there's services. Like, I joke about all the time I've gone to, man. Lord, I hear. I've been on my phone. I'd be texting Court. I'd be literally on Instagram, Put my AirPods in. Courtney knows this. I'd be sitting at services like, lord, and not here. And I. I never want to be someplace God isn't. And so I'm like, I'm supporting a friend, but I'm like, this is deader than, like a doornail. Yeah. Right. And so. But you just. Your discernment is there. And then there are times I walk into a place, you say, wow, God is here because the hearts. And it's not. Here's the thing. It's not that God isn't there. And we'll talk about this another time. It's that the hearts of the people are open to God. God being there. Yeah. And because their hearts are open. But, like, I'm tired of having church.

Yeah.

And that guy was having church, and so I don't know him. If you find this. If someone sends us to you, what's up? God bless you on your journey. But I'm tired of having church, man. And that's open rebuke to whoever that person is. Like, that was out of line. That was out of order. Keon was not. That was out of line. That was out of order. I don't even know the full story. You don't tell someone before the benediction to get a out. Nah. We depart when the benediction is given so we can help the spirit. Then we send them. That was out of line. Out of order. So, anyway, that was our thing today. We went over.

We went over a lot. But we do have a couple of updates. So we have a relationship. We have a couple of relationship conferences coming up here in the Bay area. Coming up, June 7th through the 8th, Friday and Saturday, we have a great mixer party. There's food, breakfast and lunch, heavy refreshments on that Friday or Just different things. If you row remixes for those that are single, divorced, widowed, or just those that are interested, I feel like Romix would really be good for couples to come to as well. Right. To divorce, proof your marriage and to see for people who have gone through the process of that and how can you be better and so. And if you're a fan of our podcast, guess what? We are going to be doing a live recording of it on 8th at 3 o'. Clock. So come on out that Saturday on June 8th. It's a part of the Royal Remix where we'll be recording our podcast live and you'll see some people in our live audience.

Yeah, this would be fun and it'll be really good. So that's the one in the way Roll Con coming up at the end of the month. We'll tell you guys more about that as we get closer as well. That's, that's coming along. I'm doing a book signing as well as a book Talk back on June 19 at the church as well. But if you're in the bay, we'd love for you to come on out. It'll be live streamed as well. For those of you who follow us online, we'll do a live book talk back where. You know, Court, this is the first time I am talking about necessary endings.

I can't. This is a Assyrian Niece is absolutely my favorite book and I know I am extremely biased, but when I say this book, even if you're like people who even struggle to read, like struggle to read books or just struggle to finish, if you want to feel like accomplished and like wow and learn something, read this book. It's just a good book that you don't want to put down. It's a page turner and it's really, it's hard to get self improvement books like that. And you found a way to do that and so it's necessary. And these is available on your website and online on Amazon.

You know, it's a book that I wrote from a time I didn't want to think about. And so I'm finally getting to a place in my personal journey. This time away has helped me where I'm open to seeing myself differently. And I've done podcasts about it, I've spoken to other people about. I've never done in my own home turf. I never saw myself well. So like people would have read it and like have notes and highlights and book talks and book clubs and I'm like over this book, right? It was just like, it was just my reflections, I never saw myself someone. And one thing I'll say, like when you begin to see yourself a little bit better, I'm finally open to talking about it and engaging it. And so that's coming up on the 19th. There's a bunch of other things that we're doing in our lives. So please be sure to follow us on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, all the areas Brown Dead Brown Boy adventures. Courtney's at Courtney Marie lester. I'm @Mr. Underscore J. Lester and also LinkedIn. LinkedIn Instagram is for show. LinkedIn is for dough. So please be sure. LinkedIn as well. So thank you guys for joining us today. Any unpaid advertisement you have today?

No. These flowers, I got some fresh cut flowers on Sunday and they're absolutely beautiful and they just brighten up our whole day. Every time I look at them. I'm looking at them right now. So fresh cut flowers.

My unpaid advertisement would be for a good piece of fried chicken. We went to Napa Sport. I've been to Popeyes. There's just people who know how to cook a good piece of fried chicken. That's my advertisement. Go get yourself a clogged artery. Have an amazing day. And we'll see you guys not next week, but the week after as we get ready for and oh, that'll be. Actually, you guys will see the recording of the live podcast, so be sure that you're tuned into our YouTube page that you'll see the live recording of our podcast. So that'll be live on June 8th, right? June 8th at 3:00 clock Pacific Time, 6:00 clock Eastern Time. And that'll be the podcast for that week. So look forward to seeing you guys then. God bless you.