Martin: Let's do a quick experiment. Think about the number of Instagram followers that you have. Now, add that number to Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter followers that you have as well. It might seem like a lot of connections with a lot of different people, right? But how many of those connections are actual friendships? And does that even matter? What is a friend these days? And where do you find them? Let's have a Heart and Soul conversation.



[Show open]



Martin: You're listening to Heart & Soul, a podcast with the Iglesia Ni Cristo, Church of Christ. I'm your host, Martin Zerrudo, and I'll be interviewing young adults from across the world who are living Christian lives, who are also dealing with real world problems. This is Heart and Soul.



Martin: Welcome to Heart & Soul. Our guests today are Amanda Santiago and Vince Cadigal. Amanda is a nurse here in Toronto, Canada, and Vince is an analyst for the Navy, based in Washington, DC. How's it going, guys? 



Amanda: Hey, Martin.



Vince: Good. How's it going? 



Martin: Going well. Excited for this topic. Now, we also have joining us today Brother Bob, ordained Minister of the Gospel and host of That's in the Bible. He is a husband and granddad to five, former Air Force and forever Buffalo Bills fan. Hello, Brother Bob, How are you?



Brother Bob: Hello to Brother Martin, Amanda, Vince. Greetings to all.



Martin: We're so very happy that everyone can join us today. And to our listeners, thank you so much for listening to Episode Two of our podcast. The topic of our lesson today is A Friend In Need, why we need less connections and more friendships. Our first question goes out to Amanda and Vince. When we reached out to you, we let you know that the topic of our conversation is being able to find the right kind of friends that you need in your life. What prompted you? What gave you that courage to say, “you know what, I'm going to be on the show and talk about what I’m going through.”



Amanda: For me, I think that it's from my past experiences. I thought it would be a great idea to share and talk about it in hopes that other brethren out there can learn from my experiences.



Martin: And Vince? 



Vince: I was reached out to by one of my friends out in California, and he thought that my story would be able to do the same thing that Amanda has mentioned before.



Martin: Right on, right on. Was there any hesitation?



Vince: Not really, I'm more of a public speaker. If someone wanted to hear my story, then I'll gladly tell it.



Martin: Awesome. For you, Amanda?



Amanda: There is a bit of hesitation just because I'm not much of a public speaker as Vince, but my experience, I thought it would be a great idea. So I just went for it.



Martin: Definitely. And I've known Amanda for a long time. This is a part of her story that I did not know about. So myself, I'm also super eager to hear about it. So, we'll get right to our first source. It was from Forbes and it was an article about how connections are easy, but friendships are hard. And we'll start off our discussion by reading an excerpt from that article. And it says, “What about real friends? What about people to watch a movie or go for a walk or talk about what's new, what's upsetting us make us laugh? Where are the people we can tangibly embrace?