Every movement is made up of people - and GYC is no different! Year after year thousands of young people come together to attend the GYC Conference but it’s behind the scenes where the action really takes place! The backbone of organizations like GYC is made up of volunteers. Without the quiet, unseen work of these volunteers throughout the year, the yearly conference would never happen. In this episode of the GYC Beyond Podcast Esther Louw interviews Carl Brugger, a long-term GYC volunteer with a passion for using his talents to serve Jesus.

<p>Every movement is made up of people - and GYC is no different! Year after year thousands of young people come together to attend the GYC Conference but it’s behind the scenes where the action really takes place! The backbone of organizations like GYC is made up of volunteers. Without the quiet, unseen work of these volunteers throughout the year, the yearly conference would never happen. In this episode of the GYC Beyond Podcast Esther Louw interviews Carl Brugger, a long-term GYC volunteer with a passion for using his talents to serve Jesus.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Shauna Chung

Lisa Topete

GYC Beyond

01- Incorporating Evangelism into Your Life

Mark Finley

02- How to Live a Consecrated Life

Sebastien Braxton

03- How to Navigate Past Brick Walls

Amy Sheppard

04- Leadership and Time Management

Gem Castor

05 - How to Have a Powerful Life of Prayer

Natasha Dysinger

Esther Louw

06 - How to Have a Vibrant Devotional Life

Justin Kim

07- How to Teach an Interesting Sabbath School Lesson

Adam Ramdin

08 - Discovering Our Christian Heritage

Anthony Bosman

09 - Why Christianity?

Moise Ratsara

10- Why You Should Be Involved in Your Local Church

Janet Page

Jerry Page

11- How to Experience Revival and Reformation

David Skau

12- How to Reach Out to Refugees and Immigrants

Neale Schofield

13- How to Use Media and Art for God

Tara Vang

14 - The Power of Sharing Your Faith

Lela Lewis

15 - How to Get Involved in Medical Missionary Work

Carl Brugger

16 - Why You Should Volunteer for GYC

Andy Im

17 - How to Overcome Temptation

Michelle Doucoumes

18 - The Heart of Ministry

Doug Batchelor

19 - How to Overcome an Ice Cream Addiction

Kyle Allen

20 - How to be a Part of Total Member Involvement

Nathaniel Justin Khoe

21 - How to Create a Social Media Ministry

Wayne Blakely

Michael Carducci

Danielle Harrison

Ronald Woolsey

22 - Coming Out Ministries: Sexual Identity & Adventism

Gary Blanchard

23 - How to Live Dangerously for God


Every movement is made up of people and GYC is no different. Year after year, thousands of young people come together to attend the GYC conference, but it's behind the scenes where the action really takes place. The backbone of organizations like GYC is made up of volunteers. Without the quiet unseen work of these volunteers throughout the year, the yearly conference would never happen. Hi, this is Esther Lo.

In this episode of the GYC Beyond podcast, I have a discussion with Carl Bruegger, a long-term GYC volunteer with a passion for using his talents to serve Jesus. Hi Carl, welcome to the GYC Beyond podcast. We're just really grateful to have you here. For those who don't know who you are, You are actually someone who is integral to GYC and you make everything that happens online, whether it's being able to put the podcast online or register for the GYC convention, you make all of that happen. So we wanted to talk to you today a little bit about what you do for GYC, what life looks like as a volunteer, and also about your own experience with serving God through programming and software engineering.

So to start off with, Can you share a little bit about your testimony and how you came to know Jesus? Yes. I was raised in Adventist family. My parents did a great job bringing my sister and myself up, learning the Bible and the doctrines of our church. It wasn't until I was about 16 years old or so that I started to learn, to gain the personal relationship with God.

Up until that point, I had a good understanding of the doctrines and a good knowledge of the church but I was lacking in the personal relationship. So in your teen years as you're just coming into making adult choices, you make 1 of the best choices you could have made really, and that is to have a personal experience with Jesus. Now at that point, was this about the same time that you were getting interested in computer programming? How did that interest take off in your life? No, it wasn't actually.

So at that time I had attended a family camp and I had listened to some messages that had prompted the thought process about the benefits of having a personal relationship. But I didn't really have an interest in programming or until I got into college actually. I've always had a technologically tracked mind. I'm a very mechanical minded type of person. I remember that from a very young age my father was overseas in the army and my mother would take VHS tapes of us kids and send them to my dad and she at times would have difficulty getting the system set up and running but it was something that even at an age of about 3 I was able to set it up and do the recordings and yes so I've always I've always had a knack for those sorts of things.

And when I started college, I wanted to do something engineering related. And I started pursuing mechanical engineering and looking into the draft team. But those degrees weren't offered at Indiana University. And it was kind of a family tradition for us to for my family to attend Indiana University. We were third generation graduates from the school and so while I was at Indiana University I entered into the computer science program and I took a few classes and I really enjoyed what I was doing.

So I continued with that with that tract and started working for the school newspaper and met a friend there who spent a lot of time helping me gain my skills in web development and in just web development in general. That's where a lot of my interest came from for web development. That's really cool. So, you know, a lot of people I know who do web development and computer programming, it was like a passion since they were like 11 or 12. But for you, it was a later choice that came into your life right at that key moment and became what you shaped your life around.

You've got this relationship with Jesus and you're studying computer programming. How did you start volunteering for GYC? When I lived in Colorado, I had a good friend, Brandon Schrader. At that time in my life, he was the VP of communications for GYC. And he knew that I was studying web development and asked me if I could take on some small projects for him.

I don't remember exactly what they were. I think it had to do with some cutting PDF files up and making them into HTML pages. So I did some of those and at that time I hadn't attended a GYC. I didn't attend my first GYC to attend GYC 2009 in Louisville. Did you attend because you were volunteering?

No I didn't. I had desired to attend GYC. I for the last 3 years the 3 years prior to that I had listened to all the GYC meetings that were broadcasted online. That were broadcasted online. And that created a burning desire for me to go to GYC.

I firmly believed in the GYC mission and message and I wanted to experience it myself in person. So you've already kind of started doing little things and then you go to GYC. What was your impression of GYC when you came? It was amazing. That was the, probably the first and last year that I actually attended all the meetings, but I was thoroughly blessed by them.

All right, so you mentioned that was the last year that you attended all the meetings. What happened from there? Yeah, from there. So at that point, Brandon asked me to do some more web work for him. And I got a lot more involved in the communications department in the website capacity.

The following year I started volunteering with the registration team as a registration assistant. You know, the guys that you, the first people you see when you walk into the convention center. And I got a taste for the registration system and the registration process and really enjoyed that. And that was also the same year that GYC was building a new website. And so GYC 2010, I was backstage of the meeting hall, transferring all the audio files.

I can't remember how many of them there were. Myself and Aiko were transferring the audio files to the new website. So there's a lot of hours spent backstage listening to snippets of the message while we're busy working because we wanted to launch this at the end of GYC. Oh wow. I mean why does GYC have volunteers?

Doesn't an organization like that have enough people that can get things going? I mean we see the VPs on stage every single year and they obviously doing a great job. Why did you need to volunteer for GYC? You wouldn't believe the amount of work it takes to put on a convention of that size. There are probably hundreds of volunteers who put in thousands of hours of time preparing for the convention to actually take place.

Take the time that's spent before the conference, preparing the schedule and the programming and putting together contracts for the logistical aspects of it and even down to the registration part of it. Preparing for the preparing to build the system that's going to to allow you to register for the event and then answering all of your phone calls and emails and everything that comes in in the meantime as you're trying to go through that process. So it takes a lot of work to put on a conference like this. I remember my first time at GYC, to me it just looked like everything was just going smoothly. It wasn't a problem in the world.

But you're talking about a lot of little details here. Like sometimes you're just writing up PDF documents. Other times you're working on registration system or answering phone calls. Did anything ever go wrong? Oh goodness, yes, many times.

We have a lot of stories of the hiccups that have happened backstage and off-site and stuff that We do our best to smooth it over and make things continue as they should, but we've had some interesting stories. I remember 1 year in Houston, a few years ago, we had an issue with the registration system where it was not allowing us to print the name badges that you pick up when you come to the desk. And it was a bit of a stressful time for the registration volunteers, trying to get, waiting for the IT guys to get it all set up and working. And then also hoping that the people who are, the attendees that are going to come in, that they aren't going to be too stressed out about it. And it was probably about a 2 to 3 hour wait before we were able to open registration.

But as the people, as you guys were lining up outside the registration booth, they were singing hymns. And that just, that it was an inspiring moment for me to see the difference of a secular environment to a Christian Adventist environment because a lot of people when they're waiting for something to happen, something they've paid for, they aren't going to be very happy about it. But seeing that you could go through a hardship, and it's not a big hardship, but it's a hardship like that, and still have a smile on your face and a song in your heart Was was encouraging. Mm-hmm. Why do you do this?

You've been here now. He said since 2009 Volunteering for GYC. I mean this is coming up to like 8 9 years that you've been volunteering Why do you keep doing it? I do it because of those first few years that I listened to GYC online and that first year I got to attend the meetings in person. I remember the blessing that it was to me and the way that it encouraged me and challenged me to become an involved member of my church and in my community And how it inspired me to have a personal relationship with God and to work on building that relationship continually.

And so I do it because I remember what it did for me And I want to provide an opportunity for other people to experience that as well. Giving back. Right. That's a beautiful idea. I think that's what pretty much everyone who volunteers with GYC is doing.

We've talked about the reason why GYC needs volunteers is because this is so much going on at a conference and so much planning that goes behind the scenes. It's not natural sometimes to want to do something that doesn't get recognized. How has volunteering for GYC ultimately enriched your spiritual life? And what advice would you give to somebody who's thinking about getting involved in a ministry near them to give back? GYC definitely has enriched my spiritual life by volunteering.

And I think a lot of that is happened because of the experience of giving to something sacrificially in the sense that I haven't been able to listen to and attend the conference as a traditional attendee. Being able to sacrificially give of my time and talents in those areas has, I think that that type of experience just draws you closer to God. Because God, Jesus, when he was on this earth, that's what he did. He gave of his time and of his divine healing powers and all to bless the people that were around him. Ultimately I hear you saying you're blessed by following Christ's footsteps of service and doing those small things that need to be done to make an internal impact in someone's life.

That's really powerful. And just to wrap up, this is just a short interview to find out, you know, what does it look like to be a GYC volunteer? And for you, you're a programmer. I am. And so you are using your talents and what God's given you to do that.

And everyone has their own unique gifts. What do you ultimately think someone should do who's sitting where you were maybe back in 2009 what steps should they take if they want to get more involved in either GYC or some other ministry where they can utilize their talents for God? Be willing like I said it takes a lot of people to put together a conference like this. And a lot of the people who volunteer, myself included, started volunteering by volunteering to volunteer. Taking initiative?

By taking initiative, yes. And like I said, Brandon knew me, but I went out on my own and volunteered to be part of the registration team. Connect with the volunteer team at GYC. Talk to, we have a, usually we have a booth that says volunteer on it, go up there and put your name on the list, your name, your contact information. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

What your passions are, what talents you have. We do have needs in web development and programming and in many other areas. And you may think that you don't have anything in particular that is of use, but there's a lot of just brute force or blunt hard work that just needs to be done. And it doesn't take a skilled person necessarily to sit at a desk and greet people with a smile and check them in and print off a badge and give it to them. So there's a lot of ways to serve, but yeah, to do it, just get out there and volunteer.

If you can't find the booth that says volunteers or maybe you want to prepare ahead of time, how can someone sign up to volunteer during the GYC conference? When you register for GYC, after you've completed your payment, you get to your profile page, there is a button on there to apply as a volunteer. There'll be a form that shows you all the different opportunities that you can volunteer for, whether you want to be a greeter or on the registration team, and just fill out what you're interested in. And if it's not on that list, still contact us because there are other opportunities that we could... How can they contact us?

Yes, you can contact us at volunteers at GYCweb.org. Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing with us about all the things that you've done over the years behind the scenes that often goes unnoticed. I just hope that this inspires other people like yourself, like myself, who want to give back to just go out there and take initiative. Thank you for taking part in this interview.

Thank you, Esther. A special word of thanks to Karl Bruegger and to all the GYC volunteers who give their time for a cause close to their hearts. May you

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GYC Beyond

16 - Why You Should Volunteer for GYC

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Other Teachings in Series

01- Incorporating Evangelism into Your Life

02- How to Live a Consecrated Life

03- How to Navigate Past Brick Walls

04- Leadership and Time Management

05 - How to Have a Powerful Life of Prayer

06 - How to Have a Vibrant Devotional Life

1 more

07- How to Teach an Interesting Sabbath School Lesson

1 more

08 - Discovering Our Christian Heritage

09 - Why Christianity?

10- Why You Should Be Involved in Your Local Church

11- How to Experience Revival and Reformation

12- How to Reach Out to Refugees and Immigrants

13- How to Use Media and Art for God

14 - The Power of Sharing Your Faith

15 - How to Get Involved in Medical Missionary Work

16 - Why You Should Volunteer for GYC

17 - How to Overcome Temptation

18 - The Heart of Ministry

19 - How to Overcome an Ice Cream Addiction

20 - How to be a Part of Total Member Involvement

21 - How to Create a Social Media Ministry

22 - Coming Out Ministries: Sexual Identity & Adventism

3 more

23 - How to Live Dangerously for God

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