CEP SEASON THREE EP: 20 - WITH GUEST PETR BUZYAN

Jun 8

By Dave Mckeown and Nathan Benger

In this episode of the Church Explained podcast, I chat with Petr Buzyan, campus pastor at Elevation Church in Orlando, Florida. He shares his faith story and his family's journey from Ukraine to the United States on a religious refugee visa due to persecution for their faith. Petr talks about the qualities he has seen in his family, including an unshakable faith and prioritising God, which helps in his leadership role.

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David Mckeown 0:00

Hey, welcome to the church explained podcast a conversation to grow your leadership and build your Church. I'm so pleased today we've got an amazing guest or hallway from Orlando and Florida, or Florida, Alonso whatever we're writing that is. Peter. How does that sound? Peterborough sounds that sound?

Petr Buzyan 0:23

I gotta say you gave it a good go. And it sounds good. Dave,

David Mckeown 0:26

give it a good go. Hey, Peter, great to have you with us on the show today.

Petr Buzyan 0:32

Man, it's a pleasure, Dave, honestly, just hear what you and the team and just as a Church, what you guys are doing is incredible. So truly an honour to be on here. Thank you for having me.

David Mckeown 0:45

Portland, Portland. Hey, let me just share with our guests and our listeners a little bit about you. And then we'll dig in a bit deeper, just to find out a bit more about your details and background. But you've sat through a little short bio, which is brilliant. Because sometimes when people send these through when we say short, actually, they're short, but you're pretty good today. So we'll find out actually, you are married to Jess and you'll be married for almost seven years. You've got an eight month your old son called Emerson. And fantastic. And you've described her in that little fee is where lots of snuggles, but lack of sleep, but you're looking okay today, so

Petr Buzyan 1:24

yeah, well, that's true.

David Mckeown 1:26

It's got to be done. There's got to be done. So you're involved. You're part of the Elevation Church and part of launching the location in Orlando, the 20th. Elevation, location, which is pretty amazing, actually. So yeah, great to see what God's doing there. He said, God's really work is planted, sort of at 2020. God has been working on that we want to find out a bit more about all the stuff that's happening there in Orlando, besides the amazing weather, for those who are in more darker climates. Really great to have you with us on the show.

Petr Buzyan 2:02

It really is day, honestly, I'm excited. Excited to hear. I mean, I think what you're doing with this podcast and giving the not just leaders a chance to grow, but also leaders the chance to grow in the churches are involved, you know, if God's given us a local Church, and the goal is that we steward it well, and healthy churches grow. And so you want to be healthy. You want to be healthy as a leader in the fact that you create a resource in a space like this for people. Just show us how much you care about the local Church. So monitor be here.

David Mckeown 2:33

Brilliant. Yeah. So unless we want to take a bit of a dive and find a little bit of IQ. So I wonder if you'd be willing just to share a little bit about your faith story and your ministry journey. And then we'll break that down and found out a little bit more about your family, and what you do for fun. So why don't we kick off with that? Tell us a little bit about your faith story. And your ministry journey so far.

Petr Buzyan 2:55

You know, I grew up in a Church, my whole life, you know, my family, prioritise Church to be in the house of God, every single Sunday, I'm talking fever, no fever, you showed up to Church, and why wouldn't you show up with the fever to Church, you might get a healing, you know, it was one of those like, there's every reason you should go, you know, to feed us know, hey, I know, everyone else is cancelling Church, but we're going to Church. And that was just the way I grew up. So you know, faith was important to us and my mom and dad and had an older and our younger brother. And so growing into the Church was was absolutely something familiar to me. But of course, you know, it's one thing to come to Church and attend every single week. It's another thing to actually have a personal relationship with Jesus. And so I want to say as I grew up as a kid into my early teenage and adult life, I believed there was a God, but I just said, you know, what, I'm young, I want to live life. And, and so I did, I was young, and I lived life. And I went to Church on a Sunday here. And so I grew up love sports, and athletics. I played soccer my whole life. And my goal was to become a soccer player, professional soccer player. And so I ended up you know, going to college, and and so like I said, I grew up in the Church. And so to kind of give you the background, my faith stories, whenever Sunday, but then when I went to college, got a scholarship to playing on this team. And I said, You know what, freedom now. Now, I'm not I don't have to go to Church, I don't live with my parents anymore. I can do whatever I want. And for the first year, I did whatever I wanted. And what was so interesting is that you on the outside would assume Hey, you got a scholarship to play soccer. You're living now by yourself. You know, you're you've got friends, you've got influence on the campus, the College campus. At the university, I was at why why wouldn't you be enjoying your life, but something after that year doing whatever I wanted to do, I felt empty. And I felt like God started to stir up something in my heart and just remind me that what my parents had and what I grew up with was real, and it was tangible. And so I found myself starting to kind of feel that loneliness. that that level of like just unsettled like something you at that time, I probably wouldn't have articulated like this, but something internally in your soul was longing for something real, because it saw at once on the outside, and now it was ready to receive. And so I had a friend at that time who just gave his life to Jesus was a phenomenal soccer player. And he was a few years older than me. And he said, You know, I just gave my life to Christ. And of course, I kind of gave the half go to Church, but they could see that on a Sunday. It wasn't. And he was like, Well, you know what, I just gave my life to Jesus this past summer, and I want to go to Church, you want to come with me. And that began a journey of God calling me and not only home. But a few months after coming to Church, I gave my life to Jesus. It was one of those radical transformations. I don't know about you, but like sometimes whenever you experience God, aw, Tozer kind of calls it like, he's a radical transformation. And then he calls it like overtime transformation. And for me, it was as if like, something flipped the next day, I was deleting numbers in my phone number that I didn't need to have. I was I was like, thinking about what I shouldn't shouldn't say, you know, like, it just felt like, wow, something just shifted, I could sense something shifted. And I remember being that night, the day I gave my life to Jesus, for some reason, my mom was in town, and college and she said, hey, something's different about you. And of course, that night, I was able to share with her Hey, today, actually, in the morning, I made a personal decision to follow Jesus. And it felt like just something internally shifted. And so and so from that point on, I just found myself desiring not only to be in the house of God, but also to be a part of the local Church and to serve it. And so kind of the rest of that is history. And you know, what an amazing like God has done.

David Mckeown 6:46

Yeah, I'm brilliant. Um, where were you living at that point? We're in Florida, or somewhere else?

Petr Buzyan 6:51

So So I was living so you know, kind of, maybe I'll just dive in kind of the family and origins. But yeah, that's kind of Yeah, so So I was born in Ukraine. And, and born in Ukraine and moved here when I was a little kid. I was a few years old, an older brother, younger brother, we moved to Seattle, and lived there for about 10 years almost. And then we moved to North Carolina. So it's like West Coast of the US all the way to the other coast. As, as people in the US would say the best coast is the east coast. And so and so we moved to the east coast to North Carolina, Asheville is a little mountain town. And, and so that's where I was at currently before went off to college is that's where I grew up. I actually grew up in a Ukrainian Church. So up until about I went to college. I grew up in a Ukrainian Church. They spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Slavic people. That was the Church of Slavik Church and and and so when I went off to college, I went to Tennessee actually Tennessee University out there. And and that's where I graduated from.

David Mckeown 7:53

Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll find out a little bit more about your family in a moment. So obviously you play soccer and you were hoping to do that as well as part of your career will not dig into it too much but hey, have Nathan had been on with his Nathan normally on the show with me, and he's really into football, as we call it, Nathan was I was like, Well, yeah, yeah. Well, he had a few things on so he does send us apologetic because really he was the person to talk to you about the football side of the soccer like that from a gentleman and so yeah, I just have to send the apologies or you can DM him personally and find out well but all things football because he loves it you know he's still playing and all that sort of stuff. But find find out about him so so obviously you probably do some sports What else do you do for fun Come on our listeners love to find out about the guests are on and what do you do for fun?

Petr Buzyan 8:47

You know what I still love to play so I still like to play I don't play enough ya know when you when you become you when you get married you have kids and then you you lead that lead a Church that's not a lot of time for it. And I got an eight month old as our first kid so my hobbies right now are changing diapers and hanging out Emerson but when I don't do that or before he showed up I'd play a little golf I love some golf and love I love playing some some football soccer as we would say here in the US and the rest of the world you know has it right for some reason the US we say soccer you know we don't we don't need to spend time on this podcast asking those questions right now. Yeah, that's another one also, I just generally love to go with my wife to on a on a day off just to go to a couple of coffee shops you know and coffee I love coffee her and I love to explore new places with some coffee shop. So those are the few things I love to go to the gym when i Whenever I feel motivated enough to go actually do go and I just didn't go nearly enough. I'll be honest, not in the best best rhythm right now. This eight month old has changed things in my life.

David Mckeown 9:49

Listen their seasons for everything. And you never know by the end of this podcast. We could make it the new rhythm who knows what can happen either podcast Get the big players.

Petr Buzyan 10:01

But listen, you're about to make me do some jumping jacks though. You're saying jump Jack

David Mckeown 10:05

press ups and maybe a handstand. You never know. When you're having fun with the new the newborn, your son Emerson, great, what a great name that is as well. And changing diapers, as you call them in America. We call them nappies. So like, you know that Yeah, every everything,

Petr Buzyan 10:25

you know, so many days. Go ahead. I know that because I had a roommate for three years of my time he was Leicester, Leicester, England. Yeah.

David Mckeown 10:36

And of course, you know, well,

Petr Buzyan 10:38

good man.

David Mckeown 10:39

Well, we don't know him, but I'm sure. Wherever he is today, hey, let's dig in a little bit about your family. Because obviously, you've mentioned born in Ukraine, coming across. And I know when we were chatting offline, just thinking about the podcast recording, you were sharing a little bit about your story and your parents and grandparents. Hey, I wonder if you could share a little bit about that just a journey from where they were to where you ended up?

Petr Buzyan 11:10

Absolutely. So my family in the mid 90s, moved from Ukraine, to Seattle, Washington, as I mentioned earlier, and they moved on a religious refugee visa. So my, my, my parents, my mom and dad, my great grandparents were all persecuted for their faith. And so think, you know, this is before the communist regime fell apart and USSR and all the Eastern European countries bordering Russia. Today, we're all part of this communist regime, and demobilised and forced to be part of this regime. And so I remember, my parents my whole life, really sharing a lot of the stories. But specifically, the reason we moved was because my, even my great grandfather, who was a preacher spent 10 years in prison for preaching the gospel. Wow. And, you know, my, my parents could not make anything above a D in school because they were Christians. You know, and even later on when, when some towns and municipalities started to kind of, you know, always try to make money or a buck or two here off of Christian, some would allow, my mom wouldn't, she had to go to Church, somewhere in the woods, and somewhere hiding out because the KGB agents would be looking for looking for people, anyone who's practising their faith openly, a lot of this was to oppress and avoid any type of revolt, and the fear of that. And so it's very fear driven. And, but my dad who grew up more closer to Poland, started towards that later on, you know, kind of, as he's later in his teen years into his adult years. My dad's father actually was the one that would be like working between the municipality and the Church that they tried to house. So they had a little bit more of a formal gathering, but they had to pay a temple tax. Basically, for every person that went to Church. For every member, they had to pay a tax in order for the municipality, the government not to shut the Church down. So basically, that was his experience. Now, it wasn't always like that his similar experience to my mom growing up, there wasn't a place to gather at all, you'd have to hide. But my mom lived kind of towards the Capitol. So key if, yeah, but my dad lived more out in the countryside before they met each other, of course. And so I say this to say they experienced persecution, their whole life up, up and up until about 88 to 91. So I was born in 91. My older brothers weren't born in 88, when the communist regime fell apart. And so, you know, this experience of my parents had really shaped the rest of my life, if I'm honest. And so because you got to think about the reason they transition or the reason they wanted to move wasn't because they hated their country. They hated their nationality, hated where they were from, it was just simply, hey, we want a better opportunity for our kids. We want our kids to grow up in a in a in a in a country, where they experienced freedom to practice their religion. Their faith, ultimately was their faith. And so my parents not only wanted to see that for us, but of course wanted a better opportunity. Sure. And so, you know, I think about it, we moved, like I said, in the mid 90s, to Seattle, with my parents moved with just a couple of suitcases didn't know the language. And ultimately, what that kind of followed was, my mom and dad had a few uncles that moved, and my mom's mom and dad moved. My whole dad's side is still in the Ukraine. I even today, still today, still today. So it's just my mom's side that end up moving my dad's side kind of felt like they didn't want to stay home where they were kind of in the countryside on the west side of Ukraine. So, you know, I share this kind of background because it really shaped my life and my faith, and I believe where I stand today. I'm sure we'll chat a little bit more about that. But you know, I think I look back at that and think I still sometimes have to remind myself that I'm standing on my on generation, really generations of faith that really fought and their faith was tested in So anything that I feel like I'm stepping into, I'm stepping into it. Because there's people that have gone before me, my family have gone before me, they've had to slay some giants in order for us to experience the the grace that I've experienced in my life and the freedom that I've experienced my life and honestly, a lot of the wisdom and knowledge of biblical foundation that I'm standing on values that I think are just unshakable, and I'm like, how do I, why don't make sense. I'm not saying I'm getting it right. I'm making plenty of mistakes in my life and still do today. You know, but the reality is, there's something that my heart was going back to even when I was in college, that I just heard just these incredible miracles that you're like, This is not real. This can't be real stories. I've heard about it. But this is my family, you know, so that was just that kind of faith.

David Mckeown 15:42

Yeah, I mean, thank thanks for sharing some of those details. I mean, Ron, the persecution. And, you know, a lot of times you've mentioned, you know, Hi, this has shaped your life. I wonder if we could just dig in to that little bit and tell us, how has it shaped your life? And, and also, what are the qualities that you've seen in your parents grandparents, that you're thinking, hey, you know, I've got to take those into my life, that's going to be part of my legacy going forward.

Petr Buzyan 16:10

You know, I think a big part of the qualities that helped shape me from my great grandparents, my grandparents and my parents, would be, would be this unshakable faith, just the belief that God can do something. If if I, if I saw, even to bring it to our context in the US, you know, not just this Ukraine and, and something that may be even more relatable to us is that even my parents, who moved here with just a couple of suitcases had a lot of challenges, whether it be financial challenges, language, you know, barriers, getting assimilated into a community that doesn't necessarily know you very well, and you don't know them very well. Yeah. And I saw, I saw parents who would do anything to prioritise God and their life. I would say, from my, from my parents, most of the least from ever since I can remember, I guess you would say, whether it was in Seattle, Washington, or in Asheville, North Carolina, or even still today, my parents will do anything to prioritise to get to the house of God. There was something about saying Sunday morning was a priority to us. And a lot of the Sunday morning is prior to us came from Monday through Saturday, I don't remember a time that my wouldn't wake up, my dad would be the first one to wake up very early 6am on a quite honestly, if I would be real. It was, it was it was I hated it, because he would be so early. And he would be singing every him he would just if I knew all the hymns, and we'd be singing, they're all in Ukrainian. And he'd be just walking around the house. And you would think he's having the happiest day. But I also knew some circumstances we're going through as a family and it didn't add up. We my dad was out of work during the recession of 2006, seven and eight in the US. And, and for a couple of years just barely have any work. We were barely paying bills. I mean, we're almost out in the street. But I haven't paid the mortgage in months. And here is my dad walking around. Let's see if Life's good singing songs. And and then I'll or I'll see him reading the Bible in the same place at the kitchen table or at sea. My mom's sitting the same table. Reading the Bible individually, not not one or the other. They both be reading at the same time. Or hearing my mom pray when I'd get off the bus. I'm talking eighth grade ninth grade 10th grade 50 about 50 yards from my house maybe even more seven yards from my house. I could hear my mom praying as I get off the bus to be praying about my older brother's name me my younger but especially me, she's like, this boy really needs prayer. My younger brother and I'm walking in and it wasn't one of those things. I don't remember my parents ever feeling like Man, my wife, my parents praying it sometimes it was like, Man, my mom's really praying like is there not something else that can be doing. But then there's also something internally me that had a lot of respect for my parents for having a faith. That was real. And my parents would say they made plenty of mistakes, whether it be how they parent us and they apologised to me about those some of those as we entered our college years. But I say that to say a lot of the qualities that I learned is that my my great grandfather was willing to die to preach the gospel. He went to prison for 10 years. This is just like some story you read. It's my, my heritage. My family just a few generations ago where he was willing to die had eight kids at home and a wife that he left at a time where you couldn't have a job. And a time it was very impossible for a female to work with eight kids, how are you going to feed him? And the crazy story about that is whenever he he was bargaining, not bargaining, but kind of having this conversation with others. My great grandfather, his name was head Austin. And he he was hey, how can I keep preaching? I'm worried that who's going to take care of my family and God told him Hey, if you take care of my Church, I'll take care of your family. So he kept preaching the gospel. So when he went to prison for 10 years, there was someone that kept leaving milk and bread at his doorstep, where his wife and kids were, every single morning, my parents or my parents were telling me that as they heard this story, they said to this day, they had no idea who were leaving every single, every single morning, when they wake up, there was bread and milk for the kids and the wife. Amazing. And so that kind of faith as I heard these stories, it just your as a kid growing up thinking, Well, God is real. Yeah, my parents wouldn't be making up these stories. And so I think it transferred something I can articulate on one and then on the other, I cannot articulate I can just experience.

David Mckeown 20:43

Yeah. I mean, that's pretty amazing. And I guess good to have that perspective in there. Because that's one of the things you're highlighting. And I want to just, you know, what do you think about that sort of experience of background, having to deal with adversity challenges highest, that nice shaping you as a leader, and so you're you're in Elevation Church, or Lando, slightly different challenges, I would imagine they're in different ways. But there's gonna be stuff in you that says, hey, there's something about my leadership, that I actually because of my background, that causes me to live this way. I wonder if we could dig into that a little bit.

Petr Buzyan 21:26

Dave, I think about it all the time. I think about it today. I mean, this past Sunday, I was getting up and getting the opportunity at the end to facilitate and create a moment for people to accept Jesus for the first time on the phone. I said to myself, How am I doing this? And how did I get here? And, you know, I think, I think some of the things that I see myself doing like communicating in front of people, or preaching or teaching or leading or pastoring, I never thought I would be doing it. I never wanted to do it. My mom and dad would tell me I would be a Pastor and I just resisted it. And then here I am doing the very thing I resisted most of my life that I heard. Wow. And, and so I think the thing that was, I guess whether you'd call it infused in me or passed down generationally was, as simply as I could put it is just as unshakable faith, this belief, this, this ability, that I don't even understand myself when I do it, is just to communicate something that's in me, internally. And you know how Jeremiah says, it's like a fire shut up in my bones, the moment I gave my life to Jesus, I'll tell you this day, people don't believe me, I didn't like to communicate in front of people, I still technically don't like to communicate in front of people. I don't have this, like, oh, I want to get up in front of people and talk, it makes me think again, I do it a lot of times. And I say this to say, not like this false humility. I really just never wanted to be in front of people. I didn't like doing presentations, I would stumble. With my words, I just there are so many things about being in front of people that I would rather just be not called on. And maybe a lot of that stemmed from being a Ukrainian first learning language, and then having to learn English in a school that was like, well, you're just gonna be made fun of because you can't read properly, or talk properly, your grammar is off or whatever, maybe. So I tried to sit back most of my life in school. And when I gave my life to Jesus, it was as if everything in me unlocked. Wow. And I'm like, Where'd this come from? I never knew was inside of me. I not only wanted to share the gospel and get in front of people and share about who Jesus said what he did in my life. But when I was doing a presentation about law, because I was studying political science of pre law school, my teachers were like, hold on a second last semester, we couldn't get you to say anything. But all sudden, now you're. So my teacher would have asked me and I said, Well, crazy story. I gave my life to Jesus. And here's what happened, all of a sudden, I'm doing this. So now I'm sharing about my faith to the teachers because the teachers see this, this 180 shift in my life. I think my parents did the hard work then. And whether I knew this or not something about what your parents say, if I'm speaking to parents right now that you're doing is infusing into your child, the Bible, if you could see that Jesus, and the Old Testament, it showed that he's a generational God, he would put something in someone and that generational will be passed down. It doesn't always have to be a Pastor. It could be it could be a plumber, it could be a builder, it could be a communicator, or it can be a business leader. I don't know what it is. But God passes a dentist's and doctor it passes down because God's using that occupation or that gift or talent to be able to do something so yes, in my family, a family of preachers and and ministry and Church builders, it whether out resisted or run from it. It was in me, so I can't take credit for it. It's like yeah, if anything, my parents invested this into me, and I don't even want it. Yeah, yeah. So here Hey, I'm just gonna do it now. Yeah, so I guess I would say just the desire to build God's Church. Yeah. And the love for the local Church, no matter the hardship that's in front of us. Yeah, so I think that part of me that grit, that desire to build God's Church, which is passed down, and I'm just living in it.

David Mckeown 25:06

And for you, then obviously, we've mentioned a few times, you're in a part of Elevation Church in Orlando, and the sunny spot of the world, not that we're jealous or anything by any means of the sunshine. But just tell us a little bit about that story. How did you how did you end up in that role? And I guess I want to find out what's been the highlight and what's been the challenges for you. You can't mention COVID. Okay, that sort of the, you gotta leave that somewhere. Because we're past that. But come on, let's think of your journey there your role, because, I mean, you've described there because of your family background, that sort of grit and determination within you fantastic lesson for lots of parents just to hear that, that we our lives, ship, those riders, I think that's a leadership gifting as well within us. But let's dig in a little bit more. Tell us about your journey to elevation, your role, some of the highlights and some of the challenges.

Petr Buzyan 26:03

Absolutely love that question. You know, similar similar to what I've been saying, you know, I kind of just woke up and here I am, I had, that if I do if I do go back and say, How did I get here? You know, I did my undergrad and political science and law, because I figured, you know, what if I'm pursuing this dream of becoming a soccer, soccer player, I also if I don't become that I need an education, volunteer. So I finished my undergrad. But in that process, like I said, I gave my life to Jesus. And a lot of that started to reshape values, beliefs, and desires. And so I started serve the local Church and in my undergrad, while I was in university. And about towards the end, I realised that I had a passion for the local Church. I didn't know I wanted to be on staff or a Pastor or anything like that. But as I was, I was studying, finishing up, I was a part of my Ukrainian Church. Okay, so I was coming out, still there. And I realised, hey, there's, there's everything's in Ukrainian. You know, I want to do something in English for people who are my age because I started to see the mass exodus, a mass exodus of young people from the Church. And so I was like, You know what, I'm going to do something. And that was kind of the starting point for me of getting involved in ministry. And as I was, I was doing that I was graduating my undergrad and I was like, You know what, I want to get equipped. I have a passion for ministry and the Bible and but you know, I just want to get equip. Next, I want to be a Pastor or an on staff of some sorts. I just want to know what I'm doing. And kind of solidify that with some biblical knowledge. And so I went in Bible college for two years. And there in Bible college, met the love of my life, Jess, we got married. And before I left, though, for Bible college, this would have been 2013. I ended up coming to Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, my younger brothers who brought me so we drove two hours from Asheville east to Charlotte. And the first day I got there, I was met was a first time guest turned our flashers on was met at the front we parked told us where to park because we're first time guests and the person that came out to meet me, incredible lady, I won't I won't ever forget her. name is Sharon and she and she said, Hey, welcome to LBC Church, so glad you're here. And she walked me in with my brother. We sat down and felt like God spoke to me through Pastor Steven, just in a way that you just knew, like God was doing something significant this place never did. I think I'd be part of the Church at that point. In 2013. A six months later, in 2014, I ended up going to college. Well, when I got married, Jess and I were like, Hey, we know we're going to be back home. We're going towards Asheville. My younger brother was actually starting what they called a watch party and Asheville. Kind of people would be tuning in online, in Asheville, there wasn't a physical location. I was like, You know what, Jess, and I were like, we feel called to this Church. Let's move there and help be a part of that. Well, when I did that, we were there for six months helping see God do incredible things in this small home from 40 people and grew to about 150 people. And around that time, the Church approach Jess and I and said, Hey, would you ever consider coming on staff? I said, No, the first time because I just wasn't sure about vocational ministry. And then another person which you know, whose name was sweb gas with Steven Webb came up to me and he said, Hey, listen, and he said, he put it this way. He said, Listen, if you just keep playing around, we're just going to staff this campus, and we're just gonna move on. So if your God's calling you into ministry, you're gonna have to make a faith decision. And so I said to myself, you know, what, I probably should actually pray about this and do the swabs version of this is that I was working at a law firm at that time. Right. What story is that he got me fired. Okay. The reality is they overstaffed? And they had to lay people off, but I wasn't gonna make a decision. So got my version is I got laid off, which I ended up getting laid off because they overstaffed. And that was my decision. I basically ended up going to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2017 and came on at Charlotte for six months and they moved me to Melbourne, Florida, in 2017 to be Part of the campus there. And and then about 2019 Out of nowhere, they asked me, Jess and I, my wife and I, to come to Orlando to help launch Elevation Church in Orlando. And I was like, nope, anyone bought me there are 14 people right there that I think could do it. And God's like, no pizza. It's you. And and so they said, Nope, it's you. And so we said, you know, what we'll pray about it took us about two days, and and all the fear and all that. There's so many better people to do this. But we ended up praying and saying, Hey, if it's going to take a lot of faith to do that, it's probably something we should do. Because we want to grow. Yeah, so my wife and I said, Yes. And so that's how we ended up getting here. We ended up starting this location with 12 people in the living room. Yeah. And in 2019, and 21, we launched and you want to 20 launch the Church in February of 2020. And, and so kind of speaking to the highs and lows, you know, there's plenty of Dave plenty advocate. Hey,

David Mckeown 30:57

listen, it has been brilliant to have you on the show. And thanks for being with hey, if people want to connect with you, or find out more about you, where can they find you?

Petr Buzyan 31:07

I think the simplest way and I'll give one place is my my Instagram, I think it goes to their direct message me. My handles is p and then my last name is Busan, bu Z Wi Fi right there.

David Mckeown 31:21

And before you go then and the pronunciation and the spelling of your name is different. The reason I'm saying this is because I know when I put the script out there or the stuff either but the podcast, people will be thinking they've misspelt that so can you please explain how your name is spelt? And why is it spelled that way? So people don't come to me and say, Hey, Dave, what's happened to Duran? Yeah, what have you don't say what's happening?

Petr Buzyan 31:47

Are you losing it? It's spelled P E T are you say, Peter? Technically, you could say, well, technically it said it's Pastor or pure method, which is that you'd say, pure thin, pure there. But I go by Peter and it's spelled P TR. And the reason it's spelt Peachjar even when I moved to the US is that the embassy translated not named to name but letter for letter and my name is four letters and the Ukrainian language. So

David Mckeown 32:17

we've we've said that we we've nailed it. We're alright. Hey, listen, great to have you on the show. Thanks for bearing with us today. And thanks to all our listeners who've been listening to this, watching us. Wherever you're watching this from, we just want to say to people, thanks for connecting into the podcast, head on to the website, you can find out more resources, IKON dot Church forward slash open, lots of free resources there for Church leaders for people to dip into. So if you want to find out more about what we're doing as well head on over to the website, but you can find us and subscribe to us and all the major platforms. So thanks for being with us. And the church explained podcast

Transcribed by https://otter.ai