The League of Angels | Tanner Kim and Sean Croker

Episode Topics:

• Discover how two college students turned divine inspiration into a nonprofit serving nearly 900 people.
• Learn how to balance uncertainty about your future with taking bold action today.
• Hear heartwarming stories of kids with special needs experiencing the joy of baseball for the first time.
• Get practical insights on starting and growing a nonprofit organization from scratch.
• Find encouragement for following your calling even when you don’t have all the answers.

 

Rick Jordan  

What’s shaken Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. All right? I’m pumped. I’m super pumped because we met at an event. You know? What’s crazy, guys, I don’t even remember what event it was, you know, I think which one was it?

 

Sean Croker  

World Sports philanthropy network, that’s how that’s it,

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, because, uh, let’s introduce you guys first, right? We’ve got Tanner, Kim, and Sean, is it? “Croaker” “Kroger”, like, nice. That’s awesome. Cool guys. So what attracted me to you guys? I remember this, you know, I think you grabbed me. And you’re like, Hey, can you do some content real quick, a video, whatever? But you told me about really, what you guys are doing, you know? And you’re still in school, right? You’re in college. Yes, sir, yeah, sure. What year like is it? Sophomore, junior, seniors, seniors, really, no, no kidding. That’s awesome. What are you doing next year? Because, I mean, you’re like, almost through everything, they always say school. We’re saying College, obviously,

 

Sean Croker  

yeah, we’re still figuring that out. But yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

Guys, I was on a show the other day. Can we talk about this a little bit, please? What types of pressure Are you under right now to, like, figure all your shit out?

 

Tanner Kim  

I mean, I guess you could call it pressure. I’ve got a job lined up in sales afterward. But again, League of Angels, yeah, you never know what the League of Angels could turn into. It’s been a lot more fruitful than we were expecting. So I think, in a perfect world, you know, the League of Angels is a full-time thing, and we start traveling to whether it’s speak or just at different conferences to promote the League of Angels and have these awesome events on the weekends. But, man, it’s just we’re super on the Lord’s timing right now. So I wouldn’t say that pressure is the right word for it, but we’re dead stuff. We are still up in the air. Yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

I mean, typically, I mean Tanner, I want to hear your perspective on this too, and I’ll give you mine first, if that’s okay, I remember, I mean, I’m 45 now, right? I try to, I try to stay looking young, hopefully. You know, somebody told me, like, two years ago that I looked like a solid 34 I was like, great. But I think guys, in the last two years, I got a lot more white in my beard in just two years, thinking a company public will do that, right? Yeah, oh yeah, it’ll turn you turn your stuff white. But yeah, I remember guys like, when I was, you know, 1819, and I didn’t, I didn’t go to college. Well, I shouldn’t say that I went to college for two weeks, you know, and it was just, just a local Joliet Junior College, is what it was around Chicago. And with that, I still went to school, like in the high school I just graduated from, you know, so it was weird, like it didn’t feel any different, you know what? I mean, maybe that was part of it. But at the same time I was like, I just want to get out there. And I was in sales, dude, yeah, I just want to get out there. I want to sell, and I want to make some money. And that’s exactly what I did. But then, obviously, it worked out well for me, but at the same time, I had so many people around me who were like my elders, so to speak, right? They were like, What are you going to do with your life? Where are you going to go to school? You know, what’s your what’s your job situation going to look like? How’s your life going to look like? What’s the career you want to pick for the next 30 years? I’m like, whoa, whoa, bro. No pressure. Yeah, I know exactly, but that’s a you know. So it’s like, my heart has always been in that age group that you guys are in right now, like 18 to 25 because it’s like you’re expected to have so much figured out in such a short period of time, you know? So that was Sean. That was, like, the basis of my question. I still want to hear from you, dude. It’s like, what? What are you feeling right now?

 

Sean Croker  

Yeah, well, I’m about half in and half out of school. I’m taking like, two online courses right now. So trying to, I think a lot of the stress is self imposed, you know, like, as as Tanner said, Ron the Lord’s timing right now. And really learned that over the last year, you know, I didn’t know leave angels was going to be something, yeah, that’d be a part of my life, you know. So I’m really just trying to float through and see what doors open up, you know, make some calls, some interviews here and there for for local jobs. But we’re really trying to see where this organization goes. So I’m not in too much of a hurry top into that corporate rat race just yet. But it is. It is something looming and something I’m working on in the background. Yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

I feel you, because, I mean, you want to make the right choices, right? It’s a I do feel for you, because there’s a couple things. One, and this is why I’m so drawn to guys like you who are still in school, right? Because of everything that’s shaken down in this time period of your life, and there’s so much to think about, because you got all these really, really cool things that are happening, like with League of angels, which we will talk about, for sure, because I want to, that’s what I love, what you guys are doing. But then you have all these other responsibilities that are kind of like looming, you know. And then I’m sure you get the questions too, you know? I’m sure both of you are moms, right? Yeah, it’s like, cool. Did you find a girl, you know? What’s that looking like? You know? And. If you have a girl right now, you know, then it’d be more like, Okay, well, is it serious? You know, you’ve been with her, what, six months? I think something should come out of this. What are you thinking for about that? For like, like, whoa. I’m just trying to enjoy life. Yeah, seriously, you know,

 

Tanner Kim  

what’s that? No, for sure, yeah, it’s Yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

right on. Everybody feels that way, and I don’t understand why, guys, I don’t get it because I, I love this, because I normally, I don’t talk this much when I have guests on, I talk a lot all the time. But seriously, it’s like, you guys grabbed my heart when we met in person, seriously, and I hope that some of this can actually help you just kind of be, like, taking a it’s okay to take a breath, you know, because it I hope that at some point, if League of angels is really something really cool, and I want to hear two things like, of course, the whole story behind League of angels, but there’s something you mentioned, and it makes sense to me. It might not make sense to everybody that’s listening that I want you to go into. Both of you said the phrase, it’s all the Lord’s timing right now. Now, what does that mean to you?

 

Tanner Kim  

Man? We could go down a whole rabbit hole with that question. To put it in brief terms, the League of angels. I should say God used the League of angels to really be a catalyst to bring me deeper in my faith. And so our whole goal with this thing is, how can we, you be a catalyst for other people’s faith? How can we bring God to other people? Baseball is a great sport, but how can we really, truly bring this love to other people through this game? And so with that, it wasn’t really something that was something that me and Sean both grew up even having a heart for to be honest with you, you know, the Lord dropped it on our heart. We’re like, Okay, well, it’s definitely not our idea. So then we’re going to be on your timing with this thing. And man, he’s just, he’s just paved the path and carved and opened and closed doors that we wouldn’t have expected, definitely. So, yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

so you said you didn’t expect and Sean, I want to hear your take on the same phrase, right? Lord Stein, would you said you didn’t expect it. Now, what does that mean? Like, you didn’t expect to be involved in baseball. You didn’t expect it to actually reach the people you’re trying to reach. What do you mean by that? Tanner, we

 

Tanner Kim  

didn’t expect to start this, nonprofit. So I mean, I was a baseball guy my whole life, yeah, but I was never a peer tutor in high school. I was never involved in that community. I know nothing about the specialties community. I do nothing about business. Like, I tell people all the time, I’m like, I was just swinging a stick, and I got the opportunity to play for a long time. And so when I came home and was just thinking, I’m just No, I’m gonna go to school, hang out, have a blast, probably somewhere.

 

Rick Jordan  

So my mom stopped pressuring me right there you go,

 

Tanner Kim  

come home and God drops in my heart to to start this thing. And I’m like, shoot, I don’t know how to even do this. And then, of course, I run into Sean, and he’s like, I’m a lacrosse guy. I’m like, Okay, well, let’s try to take this thing to the moon.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s cool. Yeah, I know you’re a lacrosse dude. Sean, oh yeah, for a little bit, yeah, that’s cool. I want to come back to that, Tanner, because you said some more stuff, right? It’s a, you guys obviously go to a Christian school. We talked about that too, right? It’s a, I can’t remember, was it Belmont?

 

Sean Croker  

No. University of Tennessee,

 

Rick Jordan  

University of Tennessee, okay, oh, it’s not a great, yeah, it’s a state school. Okay, I thought, somehow, I thought it was Belmont. Maybe I was just connecting that with Tennessee. I don’t know. You know that that could be, but that’s interesting, because there’s other stuff I want to come back, because you’re using some some phrasing, right? This show goes global, right? It’s everybody, all walks of life, and there’s certain phrasing you’re using, like the Lord’s timing, you know, God dropped it on my heart. I totally get that. You know, I help plant three churches. I understand how that goes. You know, in addition to all the corporate stuff, it’s like I’ve got a strong foundation in faith too. But Sean, you said the same thing, man, you said, you know, whatever God’s timing is, you know. So what does that mean to you?

 

Sean Croker  

I’m a big planner and organizer, and hate when things don’t go the way I want them to. You know, didn’t think I’d be going to Tennessee. It was just kind of a safety school, I guess, graduating from high school and toward toward there, and fell in love with it. And, you know, I’ve got plans to originally do architecture switch over to finance a year later. Oh, cool. You know, I wanted to go back to Nashville and praying about it. Lord, I think, said to stay in Knoxville for numerous reasons, you know, campus ministry, things, League of angels. And I’ve learned to just kind of, you know, walk forward with a loose plan, you know. But God will really just throw things and people in your paths. You know, I met Tanner at church a year ago, and he just said, Hey, there’s this baseball thing I’m working on. Heard your finance guy, let’s, let’s get some coffee and talk. And that conversation was ended up being three and a half hours long. And now here we are, then we’re going to Chicago together. So it’s definitely. You know. And I love that. I couldn’t imagine the last couple of months being any different, you know. I couldn’t imagined it up to be what it was, but I wouldn’t change it for anything that’s

 

Rick Jordan  

cool, that’s so cool. And in the days when I was a pastor in the church, you know, I was ordained, I helped plant three churches and everything. I’ve got a single share from Disney up on my wall. It’s like, my favorite quote in the whole entire world from Walt Disney, is at some point you have to stop planning and start doing, you know. And it’s, it’s so important, because when you say things like, oh, it’s in God’s timing, guys, I don’t get it, but there is just something in the Christian community that they’re like, that means just wait and sit on your ass and do nothing, you know. And like, you’ve probably run into this too, but like, for for a dude like you Sean, where you’re like, oh, man, I’m planning stuff. It’s like, I’m itching to do things, you know, or Tanner, it’s like, you know, I’ve got all this cool stuff right in front of me, but I’m still waiting on, quote, unquote, God’s timing. But that doesn’t mean I’ve never found it to mean sit there and stay still, you know. So it’s like, how do you guys balance that to where it’s like, it’s the faith, right? Sean, I think you mentioned it, dude, because you’re like, I’m a planner, right? Yeah, you know, Timothy planning. It’s like, if I can’t go to step two, you know, from step one, what’s going on, and how do I also, quote, unquote, wait on God, right to speak in that time period. What does that mean? How do you guys reconcile that?

 

Sean Croker  

Well, that’s that’s been, you know, the last, as I mentioned, I’m on one foot in school two classes right now, so looking for work, work. And speaking of one of my mentors, I’m like, Man, I’m just, you know, waiting for the cliche doors to open or the doors to close to see what the heck I’m supposed to do, whether I go corporate or hang out with a nonprofit longer, or what have you. And he said, My mentor goes, you know, sometimes the Lord leaves two doors open for you, and he’s like, both are okay, you know, like, I don’t have to so I’m trying to find the balance between moving forward, but also just waiting to make sure I do the right thing. Because my plans last year have just been a complete disarray, and they’ve all gotten better than I had drawn up. So, you know, just kind of leaning into more, so just taking Jesus with you. Oh, he’s, we call him the wizard, you know, he’s, he’s a smart guy, but, you know, I moving forward, you know, I’m like, Well, I’m in Columbus right now, and it was kind of on a whim ministry related thing. And I said, You know what? I don’t know if there’s a clear answer whether to go here or not, but I’m taking you with me. So, you know, just help and anoint my steps ahead of me, and just just be with me, because I want to do this with you and not apart from me.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s cool. Tanner, I want to give you a concept and giving your thoughts on this here, you know, going off of what Sean said a little bit, because that, like I said, your mentor, dude, he’s awesome. Sean, you know, saying, like, when there’s multiple doors open, it’s like, there’s not really a wrong choice. I once had a mentor when I was younger. Talk about, like, the one right from a spiritual perspective, like the person you’re meant to find and meant to marry, you know, and then it’s like, how does that reconcile with free will? And it’s like, well, what does God want? Who did God, you know, set you up for your life. And it’s like, if you’ve got eight women in front of you, right? They all look really good. You know, you’re, you’re attracted to all of them. All of them will support you in what you want to do. All of them match you in personalities. It’s like, then, I think, to your point, Sean, it’s like, just freaking pick one, you know, like, right then and there you probably one that you’re going to be drawn to. But so many got hung up on this, like, I need to find the one, right? Or I need to get the job. I need to figure out what I’m going to do, the one thing I’m going to do after I’m out of college. And it’s like, no, there’s so many opportunities. There’s so much that’s there, and you’ve got these choices, so maybe just hop back and forth between two for the time being. You know, what do you think? Tanner,

 

Tanner Kim  

no, I definitely agree. I mean, the whole, the whole origin of the League of angels is, you know, I was playing baseball at Kentucky, and came home and it got put on my heart so and again. I don’t think that if I would, I think if I would have decided to keep playing after that, I don’t think that. I think the Lord would have definitely still used and brought me in my faith somehow or another. I’m very thankful, you know, to have started the eras and have that be the catalyst. But no, I hate the the idea that, you know, it’s just the passive thinking, you know, and passive faith is one way to word it. And, man, I’m just, I’m just one of those guys that’s like, I’m either gonna go under pretend 10% in or I’m just not gonna do it at all, because it used to be a waste of time if I do, yeah, when I when I felt like the League of angels was put on my heart, I’m like, We’re either gonna do this thing or we’re not gonna do this thing, you know?

 

Rick Jordan  

Well, that’s a good point, too, bro. Seriously, because it’s like, on this conversation, which I love, where this is going today, because it’s such a it’s always been a big part of my heart, guys, is everyone’s so worried about, like, what’s the right thing for me for five years from now? Well, what’s the right. Thing right now, like, today, what is it? Because that means that I can maybe find out what’s right for tomorrow. Now everyone’s so worried about, like, throwing themselves in the future. It’s like, I hate that question. I mean, you’re going on job interviews all the time, probably not, right? It’s like that question, like, what’s your five year plan in life? I’m, like, Are you kidding me? It’s like, I’m Senior right now, right? I want to marry when I get through school. I got this cool thing going on called League of angels, you know, I don’t know where that’s going to go. You know, at the same time, I got to make some money, because I got to put food on my own table, find a place to live. It’s like, that’s right, like, right now, five years from now, is something that I was like, Well, okay, I’ll address that when I get there. Seriously, yeah, but that’s, that’s cool. So League of angels, guys, baseball, I love it. Played it for nine years, absolutely enjoyed the game tremendously, but now you’re doing it for special needs kids, right? Sir. It’s incredible, right? So to tell me you said that it was dropped on your hearts. How, how did you get it going? You know, what does it mean to the people that are involved into you?

 

Tanner Kim  

Man, so about a year and a half ago, last two Julys ago, I lost baseball. Was thinking about, you know, what school am I going to go to? Just feeling really lost in life, and I was sitting in a church service at a church here called City hills, and the pastor was given a message about a sword. So like you dropped your sword, and the idea behind it was that you had maybe dropped the gift that God’s given you, it is time to pick it up and use it for something else and use it for him. And in that moment, like I just heard the voice of the Lord that was like, you’re going to start a baseball foundation for kids with special needs. And it was like some audible, deep, scary voice. It was just like, I have to do this, and I don’t know why. So I sat on it for about a week, and I came downstairs, my parents were just as confused as I was, because, again, I have no affiliation with that community. I really didn’t have a heart for it, until God put it on my heart. And so I was like, All right, let’s do it. So I remember talking to my dad and that same little voice that you recall the League of angels. And I’m like, All right, let’s do this thing. So I remember, you know, just setting up a couple meetings around Knoxville and just, again, knocking on doors, being curious, trying to do some research on my own with how nonprofits even work. And then once we decided to dive in, we’re like, okay, we thought it was going to be a little 30 person, you know, event on the weekend. That’s why I ran into Sean on at City hills as well. And so I’m like, okay, you know, we’ll just help each other out, and we’ll just do some small events on the weekends that ended up blowing up. This past year, we served around 900 people, and now we’re starting a college tour this year as well. So we’re like, we didn’t think it was going to turn into this, but it’s pretty awesome. 900

 

Rick Jordan  

folks do it. That’s insane, like, incredibly, amazingly, wonderfully insane. That is just, I’m really blown away. It’s a, you know, things come together. And you said, like, you looked into how a nonprofit works, right? It works a lot like a business, doesn’t it? Yeah, it is. Yeah. So Sean, you’re the finance guy, right? It enlighten us a little bit. How’s this, how’s this look from the numbers perspective, so far? Well, it’s

 

Sean Croker  

been real interesting. You know, the biggest difference is just raising money, you know, like, we’re not a for profit, so if you were to take a salary, which we’re not right now, trying to reinvest back into it, running off a couple grand a month, like a startup, seriously, exactly. And we’re trying to find that balance, and say, you know, if and when there is a, you know, salary in the long term, what does that look like? We have to bring people in to work with us as contractors. There’s different forms you got to fill out. Then there’s the taxes in the IRS, which is, you know, a lot to to learn. You know, it’s like drink it through a fire hose. But the other thing is, you know, how do we ask people for money? Because typically, you’d sell something, or, you know, you’d offer a service, and we are offering a service, but, you know, there’s a lot of fulfillment that we get to do that for free. And, yeah, the biggest thing is, you know, we’re not getting paid to do any of this. So how do we ask people for money? Because that’s so out of our wheelhouse, and it’s almost uncomfortable to a sense, but the phrase that we’ve been saying lately is You have not because you ask, not so, you know, we just had to learn to embolden ourselves and just say, this is really something the Lord wants to do in our lives and through us. Then he will, you know, he’ll provide ways for us to get to Chicago, to meet people like yourself, and to get to DC three weeks later and what have you. So we’ve learned it, you know, be bold and just kind of trust the process. That’s

 

Rick Jordan  

cool. It’s a different process than what you I mean, because you guys are our church dudes, right? The same thing growing up, since I was young. It’s very different there. You know, when they’re asking for money, you know, at least in my, in my experience growing up, it was a lot more of like a like, a guilt trip, in some ways. Yes, right? You know, I’ve had conversations with us about people who have done, like, documentaries exposing the church. I’ll send it to you, because it’s incredible, you know, like, all the money, like, even at Lakewood Church, how they found 600 grand, like, stored in the drywall of the church, you know, from people tucking it away. You know, the it’s crazy, crazy, crazy stories. But I remember my youth pastor, he was going through, like, a rough time. His brother had just died. His brother played baseball. His brother was actually on the minor league team for the Minnesota Twins, you know, ready to, ready to move up shortly. And he died from testicular cancer when he was just, like, 26 years old. And it was, it was rough for him. I saw him go through the grief, and I had lost my dad when I was just 16, like a year prior to that. So it’s like I knew what he was going through. And I remember it was the Assemblies of God called him, because with that, everybody knows the tithe right? 10% of what you have is supposed to be giving back to God. It’s already his, at least, that’s how it’s taught from him. It was the pastor’s tithe didn’t go to the church they were pastoring. It went to the denomination, like the infrastructure, the hierarchy. So he had just forgotten for a couple months. His brother died, right? And they called him up. And I was sitting in his office when it happened be like, his name was Tim. It’s like, Hey, Tim, you know you haven’t sending your tithe for a couple months. What’s going on? He’s like, Oh, man, I forgot. I’m sorry. You know, it’s just this is what’s been going on my life. Hey, could you help me with a praying for me and all that, and I’ll never forget, like, the response on the other side, because he had it on speaker phone, and this is when he took it off. He said, Well, tell you what, Tim, I understand all that, but did you pay your light bill? Did you pay your mortgage? And this was like from one pastor to another, you know, it almost like turned into like a collection agency call in the middle of that, you know so well, yeah, you have not because you asked not. You know, there’s also it’s like, maybe you have not because you’re demanding from other people. That’s just my way of looking at it. But truthfully, though, the way I think the churches should be doing it is being just like a non profit, like you guys like, Hey, here’s the vision, just like a startup, right? Here’s the vision. Here’s how we want to help some people. Can you help us? Help some people? These are our finances. It’s transparent. You know, this is what we feel. Our mission is, at least right now, right? Maybe not five years from now, but at least right now. We’ve got these kids that we’re helping with baseball. Can you help us? Because, and they’ll see the passion in your eyes. You know, as you’ve seen so far, like you’re starting to get money, you be transparent with people and show your heart. It’s the same with like, raising company for raising capital for a public cyber security company like this is where I’m going. I’m sure I’m going to mess up along the way. There’s going to be some great returns, right in in the spiritual sense, right? There’s going to be some great returns for something like this. It’s like, you can’t even fathom. I’ve seen that my own life, too. Rather than being like, Oh, I think you should just give because, you know what God demands it of you. You know it’s, it’s, that’s not how it works. Yeah, bad way to go about it, for sure. But I feel you, but you know, so I love this, because I want to help you guys totally, and I hope that helps too, because coming from a church setting, it’s a very different way that church people tend to ask for money, almost like it becomes an obligation, versus like, you know, what is it? It’s a it’s a cheerful giver, which brings somebody that gives it their own free will that wants to, because it’s something they want to support 100% and

 

Tanner Kim  

I mean, it goes to the people that are on our team as well that help out here. You know, they know they’re not doing it for money, like, how much do you truly have to go out and serve the community? We’re not forcing anybody that’s on our team to be on it. I mean, me and Sean included, you know, it’s, you know, we want to be obedient to what God’s called us to, but we’re not going to force people to be a part of it. We’re not going to force people to show up. Our motto is like, if one angel shows up, we’re going to throw an absolute blast for him and throw a party for him. We don’t try to think about the numbers or the demands too much. We just try to, you know, be as Obed as we can. That

 

Rick Jordan  

stuff fills in. But I mean, how do you guys feel now? I mean, going from 30 people to 900 people in just a short period of time is incredible. I mean to me, if you’re ever looking for a sign, you know, like that’s something that should be, should be taken care of, right, as long as you’re still having fun with it, I think it’s a good thing for you guys to continue to go down that path and just see where it ends at the same time, I think that the income and stuff like that will will take care of itself, and I believe that you should absolutely continue to ask for dollars to help support what’s going on, unashamed, seriously, because you need it, right? It’s like, well, we have these bills. Here’s how much it’s going to cost to cost to do our thing. Can you help us? You know, it’s, it’s that it’s that easy, and then people will, they’ll come out of the woodwork, guys, but 30 to 900 seriously, I want to ask you, in that time span, what has been your absolute favorite thing that you’ve seen happen? Pick like one, one instance. From both you. I want to hear from both of

 

Tanner Kim  

you. Yeah, I already know mine for sure. I remember we had an event over a year ago, so not last October, but the last October before that, and it was our very first event ever, and we had 2030 volunteers. There, maybe 1013, angels show up. And I’ll never forget, I was like, I don’t know what this thing is gonna look like, but let’s just go in for it and see what it looks like. And you know, all my couple of my buddies were just the ones working the event. And I’ll never forget, we had an awesome event. It was a lot of fun. A lot of people’s eyes got open to the idea of it. And I remember walking up to an angel is like, especially individual there. And I just asked, I said, Hey, you know, how’d you what did you think of the event? Just trying to get some feedback. What’d you think? And is this guy just turned to me. He goes, Man, I just never thought that I would get to be a baseball player for a day. And it hit me in that moment. I’m like, Man, this is a little bit bigger than what I thought, and I’d taken so much for granted in my own life. I was like, Okay, well, what was your favorite part about being a baseball player? He said I never thought it would be physically able for myself to be able to hit a home run. And I was like, that’s what it had me hooked. You know, you lose perspective, and you take this that, you know, I’m like, I’ve been hitting bombs my whole life. And then, you know, you see, you know, someone who doesn’t normally get the opportunity to think they would never will have that opportunity until they actually get it. That’s

 

Rick Jordan  

so cool, man. I love that. As I was thinking about that, I didn’t mention it, but I was like, you know, like, tell me about the time some one of the angels hit a home run, you know, like, it’s

 

Sean Croker  

more often than you think, lightly, dude,

 

Rick Jordan  

how? How often do you smile when you see that? Seriously,

 

man, it’s, it’s unbelievable.

 

Sean Croker  

Yeah, I would say my favorite, you know, is it puts a smile on your face. 24/7 when you’re the entire time. And I think what’s real impactful, too, is in the community out there, you know, there’s one, one of our buddies came out little quiet and and timid, and by the end of the event, the the angel he was with would hit a bomb, and he’s running around with the angel, you know, and hair’s flying, a big smile on his face, and he comes back, and he’s say, I want to come back again, like, this was awesome, and we’ll meet with we met with one of the parents of an angel a couple weeks ago. We’re like, what does this mean to you? How can we be better? You know, in just serving Knoxville as a start, are there resource groups that we should be partnering with? And how can we make more of an impact than just a monthly events? And for her to talk about the impact that it’s had on her family and her son just coming to the events and she goes, he is just so happy and he’s so excited to get there. And, you know, he might not be his expression full in his daily life, or when he’s at a league of angels event, it is just a brand new experience each time. And he’s just smiling, and he walks home just, you know, not the same as when he got there. So I think, you know, as much of the impact is that we have on the angels, it impacts us, I think twice as much, especially some of the ambassadors will have come out who are playing, you know, professionally, and they come out and like, wow, it’s it like, this is the game I fell in love with. You know, it’s no no agents or media and all that. It’s just stripped down baseball, and it’s very joyful. 1%

 

Tanner Kim  

I want to add too, that it’s just, you know, we are serving this community who doesn’t normally get the opportunity to but I feel like I tell people all the time it’s almost more important for the volunteers. Like, yeah, yeah, a typical League of angels event is around 25 to 35 to 40 angels, right? Which is on awesome, but then you got a three to one ratio, and that’s 75 to 80 volunteers that get to see the game in a new lens, and get to hang out with this community, right? So whenever they come to an event and you see moms crying while they’re videoing their kid, you know, volunteers who, like Sean was saying, are in the MLB coming out to check out about what we are doing, and they are just blown away by, you know, seeing the game in a new lens, if you will, because they were surrounded by this pressure centered camera agent environment. And they just, you know, every hits a home run. These kids are just flying around having a blast, and it’s just a big party for them. It’s like, it opens a lot of people’s eyes.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s incredible, guys. All right, we’re gonna flip it as we start to wrap up here, but I’m also curious. Like, give me one moment you can recall. You know, I don’t know. Maybe it was like, the caterer didn’t show up, or something like that, right? Or whatever it is, that was just a real struggle in that moment, real talk. You know, it’s like, because it happens, like, even though everything’s been great that you’ve been talking about, it’s like, I’m sure sometimes it goes through it’s like, why am I doing this again?

 

Tanner Kim  

Yeah, I remember one day we got we had a lot of angels sign up. So we had about 2530 angels sign up for an event. And, man, we had. Maybe three volunteers. It was like nobody was coming. And we’re like, we can’t serve this many people with this team we have here. We need more volunteers. And I remember just grinding all week, just getting more and more pissed off, like I’m just like, This is so frustrating, like nobody is going to come to this event. And I remember sitting in a public parking lot, and, you know, bringing it straight back to God, I was like, God, I’m I’m upset right now, like, you put this on my heart, nobody’s showing up. And it was almost like a reassurance, like, you haven’t even asked me, and I’m being so serious when I say I’m like, All right, Lord. Like, can we get some volunteers here? Like, almost in, like, come on, and my phone just starts blowing up. And within two minutes we had gotten 3540, then the 50 volunteers. It was insane. It was like, all within five minutes, and it was almost like a check that, like, something went, you know, I’m like, we’re gonna cancel this. I don’t even want to do it, because nobody’s showing up, and

 

Rick Jordan  

that’s the choice, right? It’s like, do I cancel or do I push through? Right? And

 

Tanner Kim  

I was like, All right, Laura, this is yours. You got to take care of this. You do this. And he always provides. So

 

Rick Jordan  

Sean, your WHAT THE HELL moment?

 

Sean Croker  

I’m trying to think, because, you know, we’ll get stressed out the week before, just about little things that aren’t coming together. You know, a venue we’re looking at, we partner with the local Dick’s Sporting Goods, and they’ve got an amazing outdoor facility. And the day of, it’s supposed to rain, so we’re getting tents set up, winds blowing everywhere. We’re trying to blow up balloons and like, it’s, you know, we got 45 minutes, so people start to show up, and, you know, then the sky kind of parted. And, you know, we just, we pray a lot, you know, we’re like, Lord, this is completely yours. And you know, if this, you know, we say is, you know, because light is burdens easy. I might have that backwards, but you know, if this is something of him, it’s not going to really be a challenge to push forward. And there will be challenges. But we know, we just turn around like, all right, Lord, if we’re supposed to have an event today, you know, you’ve allowed this partnership with dicks, and it’s supposed to rain, just clear it out for a little bit, you know, and it started raining as soon as the event was over. So, you know, there really haven’t been too many strenuous situations. And, you know, we just learned to kind of turn it back around. Like, if this is of you, and this is something you want to happen, then make it happen. You know,

 

Rick Jordan  

that’s cool. Guys. Remember that going forward, too. And this is where we’ll leave this for today, because you guys are awesome, you know, and everyone, it’s the the League of angels.org right? Is the site to go to to support these guys. I mean, Sean and Tanner, incredible. I met them at at the event, and now we’re having a great conversation, really, really picking apart their hearts, right today, guys. But as you keep going like you’re gonna have those moments, right? Because it’s a, I think you guys are really on to something, you know, you’ve got the full weight of my network to try to help you keep this thing going. And when you get to those moments, guys, you bet guys, when you get to those moments, I want to encourage you to to come back to those anchor parts, you know, because there’s going to be sometimes to where this is just how life is, you know. And they’re not tests, you know, by God or anything else. It’s just how life is, you know, because he’s not cruel to make you wait until you know, people say like the 11th hour, right? That phrase you know, which has happened, it sounds like a couple times, but there’s going to be a time, probably more than one, to where it’s like the 11th hour, 59th minute and 57th second, you know. And you’re gonna experience those over and over and over again, you know. But I’ve always seen seriously like in those moments myself, is when I start to recall those anchor points that you guys have had, like when the sky parted and the rain stopped right to where, all of a sudden, Tanner, your phone started ringing, like 50 volunteers, just like popped out of nowhere, like, those are gonna be the ones where it’s like, it’s happened before, he’s done it before, which means it’s gonna happen again. He’s gonna do it again. That’s it. You got the anchor points, guys, you’re amazing. Seriously, I appreciate you. I appreciate your hearts. Thanks for having a conversation with me today, thanks

 

Sean Croker  

for inviting us here. Yeah. Thank you.