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Episode 34 with the Calhouns
March 26, 2026 · 51 min
Ben Calhoun of Citizen Way and family sit down with host Lem Malabuyo in this episode of From The Hangar. During their conversation, Ben shares how he decided to pursue music, meeting his wife, and why Mission Aviation Fellowship holds a special place in his heart.
Series From the Hangar
Bringing help, hope and healing through aviation so that isolated people can experience Jesus's love.
March 26, 2026 · 51 min · From the Hangar
Ben Calhoun of Citizen Way and family sit down with host Lem Malabuyo in this episode of From The Hangar. During their conversation, Ben shares how he decided to pursue music, meeting his wife, and why Mission Aviation Fellowship holds a special place in his heart. ...more Show the full description Show less Ben Calhoun of Citizen Way and family sit down with host Lem Malabuyo in this episode of From The Hangar. During their conversation, Ben shares how he decided to pursue music, meeting his wife, and why Mission Aviation Fellowship holds a special place in his heart.
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In this video 0:00 Family Intros and From Stage to Home17:02 Cherishing Family: Kids' Stories and Discipleship27:21 MAF Tour Highlights and Wave Walker Worship
Family Intros and From Stage to Home 0:13 Hey, everybody. Welcome to From the Hanger podcast. I'm your host, Lem Malibuya, and we have a full a full crew of guests in in this episode. And I'm just really excited. This is gonna this is the0:25 first time we've had, like, a family on here. And, it's the first time for all sorts of different ways. So Yeah. I'm just gonna get right into it. Have you guys just introduce yourselves? Because it's it's gonna be a a0:37 full show. So, yeah, why don't you guys just start?0:41 Hello. I I don't know what to do with my hands. My name is Ben my name is Ben Calhoun, and, I'm the lead singer and founder of a band0:53 called Citizen Way.0:55 Yes.0:55 And I'm here today with my family to honor and lift up the name of Jesus by promoting Mission Aviation Fellowship, which I think is an amazing organization. And we took the tour this1:07 morning and it was so cool. But let's have my family introduce themselves. Who are you? What's your name? Who is? Wait. I can't hear you.1:16 You guys speak into the mic? I'm speaking to the mic.1:18 Liv.1:20 And what do you do for a living?1:24 I make people's day, good. And
1:29 You know, that's the
1:30 thing. Is, my family, wants to help people know Jesus.
1:40 Mhmm. My good job.
1:41 Well, that was the interview, folks. That was so sweet.
1:44 Bless
1:44 you. I'll see you next time.
1:45 I will say, though, that you do make people's day good, and you made my day good already. So well done. You do a good job.
1:52 I hope you do. High 5. It's like you put it too close to their face, and, like, I don't
1:56 know what to do with this.
1:58 It's gonna be a funny podcast. Everybody will laugh. Really hot.
2:04 We're already doing that. I love it. I love
2:06 it. Making it good. Amy. My name is Savannah, and I'm just a part of
2:13 the family. Way to go. And I'm Allison, mother of the family.
2:19 And we're missing 1, our daughter, Ava Yeah. Who's at Summit Ministry School in Colorado. Yeah. She's 18, and she'd be here. Right?
2:27 Ava is too good for us, I guess. Yeah. That's too bad. Yeah.
2:31 Guess so.
2:32 Well, that's awesome. Okay. So, I mean, then you you mentioned that you were a part of a band called Citizen Way. Are currently. Oh, you are currently.
2:42 For me right now, it's just me. Yeah. But I actually use my band as or my family as my family.
2:46 Okay.
2:47 But, watch for the future. Things will happen.
2:49 I love it.
2:50 Yeah. I've been putting out songs ever since. So the story is we we basically disbanded in 20 19, and that was right after Liv was born. And I said, you know what? This
3:02 is a really good opportunity for me just to go home. Mhmm. And, you know, we need to raise our family. And those years are too precious not to focus on. Yeah. So that's what we did.
3:14 And, you know, so since Liv was born, most of my mornings, especially when she was little, you know, in those couple years afterwards, it was hard for me. You know, frankly, it was a little depressing too. I was I was
3:24 just like, well, what do I do? But I know my first call was not to, you know, being on stage playing songs on my guitar, even though that's good lifting up the name of Jesus, which was my calling. Since I was a kid going
3:36 to see Petra and Carmen and Jeff more in the distance, right? I knew what I was called to, but my first priority was to my wife and our children, the family unit. And so to me it was a no brainer
3:47 and I was glad to do it. I needed a little break anyway, but it was the little 1, Liv, that helped me really go, you know, I don't want I don't wanna miss these
3:59 years. And you can't get them back, and so you never regret time with your family. My wife would tell me Yeah. Years ago, and so that's what we did.
4:06 Yeah. Well, let me let me ask, like, Allison
4:10 Mhmm.
4:11 Like, how did you guys how did you 2 meet? Did you guys meet, like, before you you formed the band? Was it yeah. What tell me that story.
4:19 Well, I okay. So I didn't go to college for I I basically graduated high school, went into the trades, and then 4 years later, I became a believer. And I ended up getting involved, at a private
4:31 Christian school my brother was working at, and I was like, oh, I don't wanna go back. Back home was Illinois. And so went back home after a year of
4:39 because the Lord really called you there?
4:41 He called me there. And the first day of school I mean, at this point, I'm a 22 year old freshman. And so I'm not going to college to meet a husband.
4:51 And I'm a 20 year old senior. Yeah. I was 20 years old.
4:54 And we met in the upper commons. And
4:57 I asked her for a pencil. He did. He did.
4:59 It's like, excuse me. Dude, that was slick. Yeah.
5:01 Do you have a pencil?
5:02 Yeah. And so I gave him did I have
5:04 I worked on that line, like, for months. Months. It was a good 1. She was my first girlfriend. Real girlfriend. Yeah. It's true. Oh, boy.
5:17 Seventh grade, fifth grade.
5:18 Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't it doesn't count. It doesn't.
5:20 My youth pastor challenged me 1 summer at camp in seventh grade to read god's word every day and to not have a girlfriend. It didn't matter what I read or how much I read, I had to read something in the
5:32 Bible every day of that year and I really took that challenge to heart and that was the year that changed my life in a new way because I became disciplined and I really saw the value of God's word. It
5:43 had just jumped off the page to me. I remember the first verse I ever memorized on my own accord was my blue NIV Kids Study Bible. I still have it. It's in my studio. It's Proverbs 14 23. All hard
5:55 work brings a profit, but mere talk leads to poverty. So that's why I sing. You know? But I remember, 7 years later, my reward, it was very obvious. She walked through the upper commons.
6:07 I was like, well, I'm done. Not dating.
6:11 Oh, I was gonna say that wasn't a reward. That was that she walked down this the stairs, and then you broke your discipline of reading the Bible.
6:18 Well, really what happened was the roof opened up and the angel sank next. Oh. She descended on a cloud. And no actually that just before that, and I'm pretty sure this is actually
6:30 mostly true, but see I was on a soccer team and I had chosen that year I really I was touring in a band and I felt the Lord really put it on my heart, you need to clear your schedule. I'm gonna do something new, and you
6:41 just you gotta have some more time. I was real busy in college and very active, and so I decided not to play on the team. And we were national champions that year.
6:49 Wow.
6:50 National champions. We went to the tournament every year. We're an amazing team, amazing coach. I have quite fond memories of it to this day. And, I just told my coach, you know, I've decided to really focus on
7:02 the ministry aspects. I'm in I'm in a band touring, and I wanna go into music and ministry. And that means I need to clear out some schedule. And he's a great man. He said, well, we're gonna miss you. I hope you come to
7:11 some games. Are you sure? And I said, yes, sir. And he's like, well, God bless you. I'll see you I'll see you around. And I'm still we're still friends to this day. He's, we we've supported him as a missionary. I went
7:22 upstairs and met my wife. There it is. And we were married in less than a year.
7:27 Wow. When I first saw Ben, he okay. So to all the ladies out there, don't write off the nerd. Yeah. Because I he wasn't what I was physically I was
7:36 a banged man.
7:37 Yeah. He had purple glasses. I guess he didn't realize they were purple.
7:41 They were purple. He
7:41 had tarantula bangs, and he had, like, a turtleneck on. Our first date, he wore a a turtleneck with a sweatshirt that had his name on it, tapered ankle sweatpants, and a fanny pack.
7:52 I was looking good.
7:53 And I was like, oh.
7:54 Picture now. Okay.
7:55 So that was our
7:56 first Skolgy. He put stuff in it. You know? Yeah. He was a
7:59 little, yeah, he was a little bit nerdy, but but his character stood out to me. He had a great reputation. And
8:06 That's cool.
8:07 Yeah. That's awesome. Thousand 2 was the only 1.
8:09 And so you were you were touring, in a band already?
8:12 I had spent 3 years, 3 summers in a touring band across the country.
8:16 Yeah. So, Allison, how did the what were your thoughts on something like that? That's dating someone
8:22 She didn't even know I was a musician.
8:24 Yeah. He I didn't that wasn't, you know, what got me.
8:28 Knew.
8:28 Yeah. That wasn't what got me. But when he he was actually when we were newly married doing administrative work, and he would be, he'd come home and just you could just tell it was sucking the life out of him.
8:40 Sweet and tired. He
8:42 had a boss say, hey. Can I take you out to lunch? I just wanna discuss some things with you. And so Ben came home. We set up they took me out for ice cream to basically give me business etiquette 1 0 1 because they
8:54 said I can't in the office. I can't, like, beat on my desk.
8:58 I can't
8:58 You know?
8:59 Yawn during meetings and lean back in my chair. I'm like, you were not made for this. Like, you're you're basically a square peg in a round hole here. Like, you need to just take the leap of faith and do what
9:11 God has called you to do. So that's when we he started giving guitar lessons and doing something at least in the, you know, realm of music. Yeah.
9:19 Yep. And I forced myself to not go back. She gave me the green light the that the Lord called us to, and she was supportive, obviously. And, I just never looked back, and I just found a
9:31 way. Yeah. I found a way. You just it's kinda like I I look at the the hand carved runways on the sides of mountains for MAF, and you just you find a way. You you dig it with
9:42 rocks, you do
9:43 with your
9:43 hands, your fingernails, you claw it into existence. Yeah. And that's kinda what I did.
9:48 Nice. Way. Nice tie
9:50 in. Yeah.
9:50 I love it. I love it.
9:51 Maybe. It's a thing.
9:54 So, I mean, you so at the beginning, you kinda you didn't gloss over, but you you you, like, abbreviated a lot of the story, about kind of, like, you you and citizen wave forming and
10:06 taking that break. I wanted to ask, you know, as as your family started to grow and you started having children and and all that stuff. Yeah, kinda like talk about
10:18 going on tour and and maybe, like, what what was it that really started to, kinda pull on your heart that you needed to be home?
10:30 Well, I I just remember that there's a few times in my life where I can really honestly say the Lord really tugged in my heart. The first 1 was when I was 9 years old, and I gave my life to my savior.
10:43 And I asked my parents to pray with me that sinner's prayer. Lord, I recognize I'm a sinner. I repent. I realize you are my savior. I confess it with my mouth. I believe you raised from the dead just like Romans ten:nine
10:53 said. And I remember that tug. It didn't go away. It just directed me to the next tug. And, you know, it's the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says, if I be lifted up, I will
11:05 draw men into me. You know, I can't save anybody, but the gifts God's given me, like the parable of the talents, they multiply when you give them back to him, right? So for me, it was very
11:17 obvious from the time I was a kid. I just had lunch with Jeff Moore, 1 of my heroes, a few months ago and said thank you for being my first concert that I remember and I remember going home from that saying that's what I
11:28 want to do. You know, but unless you put it on the altar to the 1 who gave it to you in the first place, it just gets wasted. Yeah. You know, or mishandled or you know,
11:40 you just don't get to realize the things that God has according to His perfect will. So to me, I knew that my first calling was not to be on stage. My first calling was to raise disciples
11:52 and we are that's our our commandment from Jesus, you know, go make disciples. The best way to do that is through the family. That is the best way to do it. So if unless it's a heck,
12:04 yeah, it's a no. Right? And so a no for me in that moment was no to touring and and being gone hundreds of days of year. Doing good work, but
12:17 at home that would have crumbled, you know. And I was I was I think I was good at handling both. Mhmm. You you you know better, but
12:24 Yeah.
12:26 At some point, you you cannot do amazing things in multiple disciplines. You just have to stick to 1. And that was my 1.
12:34 My favorite say even when you were traveling, like, you made the time home matters. So I know that you can be you could be home a lot as a dad, nights, mornings, weekends, and not be present, but Ben was
12:46 very present when he was home. So yeah. Yeah.
12:49 How about yeah. So, Savannah Mhmm. I mean, how is she pretty? Was it was it 20 19?
12:55 I just look at him like, wow.
12:56 You embarrassed us?
12:57 Was it
12:57 it was 20 19, right, that you said that, like, you you took a break? Mhmm. And so that was Just
13:01 after she was born.
13:02 Yes. That was
13:03 several years ago. So, man, you were probably quite young at that point. So how did like, leading up to that decision, how were you feeling, like, seeing your dad not you know, he would be gone for long periods of time.
13:13 Like, how was that, like, seeing him leave and be gone?
13:17 You know? For sure. I mean, it was super hard because he, like, he was really good at multitasking, being a present dad, and then, you know, being on the road and engaging with the crowd and just, you know, living that
13:28 stage life. Mhmm. And so it was definitely hard to, like, say goodbye to him, and it almost like I was jealous too because, you know, you'd see pictures of him, like, playing with other little girls and just, like, all
13:38 that. So it was just like, I want my dad. You know? And so it was just heartbreaking, you know, growing up
13:43 and just like Wow.
13:45 Just, you know, like, seeing him out there and you're like, I want that. You know? But my mom did a good job, like, making sure we were, you know, FaceTiming him and, like like, whenever he'd come home, like, we'd, like,
13:56 throw like, draw pictures for him and all that. So it, like, just made it fun. Yeah. So she made it fun for sure. And it was just, like, fun, like, telling kids, like, yeah. My dad's, you know, playing on stage for a
14:06 bunch of people. And so that was always fun, but it's, you know, still hard, like, after a while. And And there's, like, videos of us, like, him leaving on the tour bus, and I was just, like, running after it. Mhmm. And
14:16 so no. For sure. It's hard, Neil. And that was just, you know, tough growing up with that. But, you know, like, it just, like, we cherished every moment, you know, he was with us. So it almost, like, we didn't
14:28 take it for advantage.
14:29 That makes sense. You know? That's cool.
14:30 Well, in Savannah too, the girls had all their friends. Their dads were also touring. So we kinda created a little bit of a community with, like, band moms and kids. You know? And we Yeah. We would hang out on the
14:42 weekends. So it was nice because the all the people in our community were like, yep. We understand this lifestyle. So
14:48 Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Thanks for sharing, Sue. Absolutely. And Liv, I mean, you you've all your life, you've known dad being home and, like, how how is how is mom and dad at home?
15:00 Are they are they awesome awesome people?
15:03 Yeah. They're awesome people, and I just like daddy being home. And
15:16 I hope that, my dad had a great day of his life. So yeah.
15:25 Hey, Liv.
15:26 What's a can I ask you a question? What's something that you really enjoy doing with dad?
15:31 I like enjoying going to the Davis and,
15:37 Tell them what the Davis is.
15:37 Yeah. I don't know what the Davis is.
15:39 So it's like this, it's kinda old, but
15:49 And their plane's flying right over.
15:52 It's a thing.
15:52 I just throw it. You get food there. Yeah.
15:56 And She has her own, item, the live special. Oh, really? Raised eggs. Oh, sorry.
16:04 So It's her turn. It's her turn.
16:06 So it's it's
16:09 like,
16:10 eggs with, bacon and then, like Honey. Honey. It's real
16:18 That sounds good.
16:19 So, like, you dip the bacon into the honey, and it's so good. Like, if it's, like, crispy, you should try
16:31 it so
16:31 good. Hey, hey, Shauna? Shauna, can we get some Liv Liv specials?
16:36 Wait. Times 5.
16:38 Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Appreciate that.
16:39 Yeah. We did our third birthday there too. Yeah. They came. The all the the girls on staff there, they which they give her princess outfit and everything.
16:46 That's
16:47 awesome. Wait. What princess was
16:49 I? I think Belle or Aurora.
16:50 No. I no. I was Aurora.
16:52 You are the princess, my little princess.
16:56 I'm the princess
16:59 Well, I will can I just say that, like, in the very short 45 minutes or so that I've known you, like, leading up to this episode, like, the dynamic the family dynamic between the 4 of you isShow more
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