Conversation with Darrel Frater - Faith-Based Entrepreneurship and Tulsa Collaborations

Summary

On May 16, 2025, Gary Sheng spoke with Darrel Frater, a Christian entrepreneur based in Tulsa, before Gary's White House meeting with Paula White. The conversation established a foundation for future collaboration, particularly around hosting the proposed God Wave Festival in Tulsa and potentially expanding Alpha Schools with faith-based components. Darrel shared insights about his Ephesians 2:10 entrepreneurship initiative, offered spiritual counsel about patience, and provided prayer support for Gary's White House meeting. The discussion revealed multiple overlapping interests around faith, education, entrepreneurship, and community building.

Key Discussion Points

Alpha Schools Model & Educational Vision

Gary shared details about Alpha Schools' innovative approach:

• Core Learning Model: "The school day is eight hours, let's say, two hours is we only dedicate two hours a day for the common core... stuff, you get that through with AI, gamified learning that drills you in an adaptive way to your current level, and it drills you until you get better and better, helps kids that are behind catch up really quick, helps kids that are... median get top one to 2 percent."

• Beyond Traditional Education: "The whole rest of the day... we're like Montessori 2.0 where you write an album, where you... do user research or... in one case, like a recent high school graduate of our program... raised like $3 million to build a bike park in Austin."

• Physical vs. Digital Balance: "We're brick and mortar... it's really important to us because we believe that people are missing the point about technology in its relationship to humanity... for actually understanding real life and building life skills and understanding how to interact with other human beings and getting support that you need to... do something new in the world, you need really good guides."

• Current Footprint: "All of our flagships are in Austin, but we've... expanded around the country. We're starting to, at least... we'll start with sixth grade and see how seventh grade goes the next year."

• Dr. Alexander's Potential Role: "Dr. Alexander, who I mentioned earlier... I believe there's no one more capable of creating like an MIT for middle school up or... fourth grade up. And I'm committed to... doing up the first one either in Austin area or Tulsa."

• Faith-Based Education: "I'm really interested in creating the best faith-based schools in the world as well. And one pastor that I started to work with, his name is Torren Wells, who's also a gospel singer... has a really awesome church called Whitestone... I just followed the Holy Spirit and I think if kids had like six hours a day during the school week to... be future ministers or... write songs about their relationship to God or whatever else they want to do really."

God Wave Festival Concept

Gary outlined his vision for a faith-based music festival:

• Description: "Paula White, who's Trump's... top spiritual advisor, is interested in this intention I have to create the largest, most tech-advanced and effective and well-documented revivalist festival, music festival, ever. And we're calling it the God Wave Festival."

• Potential Location: "My initial thought was actually doing it in Tulsa... because I think there's a lot of land and I think Tulsa is one of the most underrated places in the world."

• Timeline: "I received the message that this festival should happen sometime in 2026."

• Technical Advantages: "If it's in Tulsa, then Dr. Alexander... could literally do all the... he could create custom speakers and ticketing software and devices, and security hardware and software and speakers and staging stuff. And he could literally build the whole festival with him and his team."

• Potential ORU Partnership: Darrel responded enthusiastically: "We'd love to have that there and we can get you connected to ORU... Oral Roberts... they'll have support that."

Ephesians 2:10 Initiative

Darrel shared his entrepreneurship concept:

• Core Concept: "About two months ago is a new concept that will catalyze entrepreneurship with Christian foundations... it's called Ephesians 2:10 based on Ephesians 2:10... 'we are God's handiwork, created for good works, which is Christ Jesus.'"

• Mission: "The goal is to really catalyze marketplace ministry to where we're empowering entrepreneurs to start businesses that are successful and done with excellence, but really understanding how by running a successful business, it's a great vehicle for the gospel to be spread."

• Philosophical Foundation: "I believe that we're called to minister beyond the church walls."

• Implementation: "We're going to have incubators to help create net new entrepreneurs."

Tulsa Connections & Visit Planning

• Darrel's Offer: "I definitely can connect you to some of the mayor's office that are interested in initiatives like this."

• Visit Timing: Darrel noted, "I have a second daughter or child who will be here June 7th, so July or after usually works best... anytime after July, mid-July."

• Purpose of Visit: To connect with Dr. Alexander, meet with Tulsa leadership, and explore God Wave Festival location possibilities.

Spiritual Guidance & Prayer

Darrel offered substantial spiritual counsel and prayer:

On Patience & Divine Timing

• Core Wisdom: "God's timing is perfect and as believers we should desire God's will over our own and we need... peace in that patience becomes one of the fruits of the spirit that is shown through that."

• Living in God's Timing: "Continue to just lean into God's will, allow our own will to die and not exist and just really tap into the will of the Lord and... in God's timing he'll make sure everything that he set out [is accomplished]."

• Faith in Divine Purpose: "If he wouldn't have given it to you if it wasn't something that he desired. So being patient, like his time is the right time."

• Spiritual Growth: "As you just get a strong understanding of God's nature and the way he thinks... it's like your earthly father, like, you know him so well, you know how he thinks, I know what he wants from me and I trust him... that helps subside, you know, lack of patience."

On Relationships & Future Marriage

• Divine Importance: "Your spouse and your partner in life will be very important to your kingdom purpose."

• Biblical Perspective: "I'm reading the business Bible right now... one of the earliest things that it's talking about in the book is just the four institutions that are part of God's plan and the family is one of them, the church is another, and business is another as well."

• Counsel for Discernment: "If you think she's beautiful and you think that she's aligned with what God's put in your heart... be open for it not being her, but be open for it being her as well. And be patient."

• Priority: "That's honestly more important than this meeting. Being patient about your spouse is probably even more important... that partner is gonna be life changing for your kingdom purpose."

Prayer for Gary's White House Meeting

Darrel offered a heartfelt prayer that included:

"Heavenly Father we... thank you for this divine connection, Lord. I know you're doing a mighty thing on this earth, Lord, and we just want to be a part of your plan. So God, please use us as vessels as humble servants to your agenda... I pray for my brother, Gary, to allow him to have the utterance in the right time as he meets at the White House the high authority in America Lord, we just ask that you allow him to have wisdom in conversation, obedience in his words and steps in decision making, Lord, that you put aside any desires that he has for his own and just fully embrace the desire that you have for his life."

Observations on Relationship Building

• Age Connection: Both Gary and Darrel are 32 years old, creating an immediate peer connection.

• Mutual Network: Beef Jones connects them, though Darrel noted: "Just like on Twitter and LinkedIn, but I'm gonna tap in with him and learn more about his story and get more connected to him... I haven't really gotten like a one-on-one with him."

• Faith Alignment: Both demonstrated strong faith foundations that easily facilitated connection and trust.

• Complementary Expertise: Gary's technology/education focus complements Darrel's entrepreneurship/ministry focus.

• Geographic Alignment: Both have significant interests in Tulsa (Gary through Dr. Alexander, Darrel as a resident).

Next Steps

1. Schedule a Tulsa visit after mid-July 2025 (after the birth of Darrel's second child)
2. Connect with Tulsa mayor's office through Darrel
3. Explore partnership with Oral Roberts University for God Wave Festival
4. Investigate alignment between Alpha Schools and Ephesians 2:10 initiative
5. Continue spiritual conversation around patience and divine timing