The holiday season is not just about celebrating, but it's also about reflection, redemption and finding purpose. In this episode we visit with our very own, Chef Sean Hall. Hear how he found his true calling at TRM, about his difficult journey to get here, and the important reminder that no matter our past, there's always hope for a brighter future through Christ.
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
The holiday season is not just about celebrating, but it's also about reflection, redemption and finding purpose. In this episode we visit with our very own, Chef Sean Hall. Hear how he found his true calling at TRM, about his difficult journey to get here, and the important reminder that no matter our past, there's always hope for a brighter future through Christ.
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Generally, father, we thank you, lord, for this day and your blessings and provisions. God, thank you for what we're going to celebrate tomorrow. Lord, thank you for Thanksgiving and just all that we have to be thankful for. Lord, pray your blessing over this time, this conversation, and, lord, that years that would hear it would be blessed and encouraged today. Lord, we love you and we praise your name, amen. Hello everybody.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Our Community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission here on Wednesday, November 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving of 2023, Episode 199. This is your host, Barry Fiecker. Good morning, Mary and Crabel.
Speaker 3:Good morning, how are you? I'm good Thanksgiving, I know, I know I can't wait.
Speaker 2:You can't no why.
Speaker 3:Because Thanksgiving is like one of my favorite holidays. Why? Because there's not as much pressure. Christmas is beautiful and wonderful and it's very meaningful, obviously, but there's always like craziness at Christmas. You know You're running here, you're running there, you're trying to figure out gifts for people and you just kind of lose what's going on. But that's not the case with Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:So obviously you're not cooking for 20 people tomorrow, right?
Speaker 3:Oh, even if I was.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, still laid back.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely, and I probably will be cooking, maybe not for 20, but yeah, no me either.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's looking for those TV dinners if I have to do something.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah. Well, don't you like know somebody that could not have a TV dinner for you? Yes, okay, well, good.
Speaker 2:In fact, I know somebody that's in our studio today. Well, that's kind of what I was imploring, yeah so I was a little sympathy there, but we'll get to that in a minute. So, maryam, yes, thanksgiving also represents that time where we are right around the corner from Christmas, which you already talked about. How much you appreciate that experience. So what do we need to know about Christmas? It's right around the corner. How are things going with adoptions, with preparation, with the different things that we?
Speaker 3:need. You know, everything is actually going very well in terms of the adoptions and we've received our families from the Christmas Bureau and are making calls to set things up. Christmas planning is in full swing and so in that way, it's wonderful. Now we're still needing Christmas gifts for the folks that we've adopted and the people that stay with us here at the Mission, as well as folks living outside. So we are in need of Christmas gifts of all types for everybody, and people can find those on our needs list on our website at trmonlineorg trmonlineorg. We also continue to need volunteers to help us with Christmas, whether it's still with decorating, whether it's with putting gift bags together, whether it's putting food bags together. There is never not a need during this time of year for folks to be able to really engage and give back and just be part of what really is an incredible blessing, even if it makes us a little nuts.
Speaker 2:Mary, a few years ago you came to the rescue mission, having previously been the director of the United Way.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you started out in your first experience with the peak of rescue mission on staff was Christmas coordinator. Yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, I don't think I'm as bitter as I used to be toward you about that, because you know it was a bait and switch, mary.
Speaker 2:Well, of course, yeah, we don't keep Christmas coordinators very long.
Speaker 3:No, and you made it sound so much like it was just so much fun it was To see you do it. Uh-huh, and it's not fun, but it is an incredible blessing.
Speaker 2:Well, talk about that piece. I think people you know, we hear about how you can help, how you can give. Yeah, it's hard, it really is. It's in addition to everything else that happens to be the rescue missions. It's a lot of work, sure, but what's the blessings of it?
Speaker 3:You know, the blessings are that we get to help people know that they are so worthy and that they matter to us and that there is something more than just the daily grind that they face. You know that we want them to be part of our family, we want them to realize that Christ loves them, that we love them, that there is more to life and more than just I think I would say the suffering that they tend to face every single day. And that's where the blessing comes in. People are incredibly grateful, grateful to the point of tears, for things that are so simple, barry, and it's just, it's a beautiful thing to watch, and it is incredibly humbling to be reminded that there are folks out there that have so little that the simple, just the simple act of making eye contact with them and knowing their name and wanting them to have a special day, it just means so much to them.
Speaker 2:Now, for a number of people that happens every day if they're involved with a rescue mission. So to notice them, to value them, to help them with their needs what's different about Christmas.
Speaker 3:Well, it's Christmas, for one thing right. And why is it different? I don't, barry, I don't know why it's different. Maybe it's just that it's more intense, intensified, everything is more right Because of the time, maybe reaching out to people that we normally wouldn't know.
Speaker 2:They're kind of Christmas Bureau adopt them. But the people staying in shelter, the people who are being reached with the unsheltered they make, or TR makes connection with them a lot.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Every day.
Speaker 3:But not always like this, Not where we're planning just joyful things for them. You know, we make sure that they are safe and that they are fed and that they are warm and that we have programming, but not necessarily just this joyful time and there's something about the day of Christmas, the season of Christmas, that, regardless of whether people are Christians or not, whether they believe in Jesus, the baby, the manger, it's just something very, very special in this culture about.
Speaker 3:Christmas, absolutely, and especially for all the children, right. We have a lot of kids staying with us, barry, and you know, while I can't even imagine what that would be like if we can make it just a little bit special for them, excuse me that will be wonderful. If we get to see their eyes glitter, if we get to see all those beautiful things that they go through… are just kind of indicative of normal life, then that makes it a blessing to all of us. And we get to see volunteers that we only see one time a year, right, because this is the time of year when they actually have the opportunity to come here and do different kinds of things. So it's a great time. It's a great time.
Speaker 2:It was a lady who volunteered here a few years ago and when we were doing the point in time count, and she wrote me a letter and she said hey, I really appreciate being able to do this. I work for XYZ Insurance Company in Topeka. And she said I wondered if I could come back and volunteer with my two daughters. And she said in her letter she said I want them to see where their mommy stayed when she was their age, so I'm going. Okay, I want to know more about this story. So I got ahold of her and I said hey, I got your letter. And she said, yes, and I said tell me about your experience when you were a child. And she said well, I don't remember a lot and it was a hard time. I had my sister with me and my mom and we were in this room and in what you call the main building now.
Speaker 2:And she said I don't remember much about it, other than it was really hard time, but everybody was smiling, everybody was happy and Santa Claus came by to visit us on Christmas that night. And you know that, just like okay, she's an adult, now she's successful and now she wants her children to experience where her mom is. But it was Christmas and the joy of Christmas.
Speaker 3:Isn't that beautiful it was.
Speaker 2:It was like, ooh, that's powerful.
Speaker 3:And you know, barry, there's all kinds of ways that we do try to do fun things, even for our donors and our volunteers. Like, we have a website set up called blackfridaytopecacom and it's a place where people can go to give to TRM but they kind of see what different types of things cost. So it looks like a retail store, but what they're really doing is making it possible for us to provide things for people.
Speaker 2:So somebody sees that and they say this could buy this if you donate this amount of money. Yeah, that's awesome, Exactly.
Speaker 3:So it gives people an idea of you know how much does it cost to do a meal at TRM, you know how much does it cost to provide a food bag at TRM, those kinds of things. So we've tried to make it fun for everybody to be able to really engage and participate with us.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah, well, we've kind of jumped ahead of what's tomorrow and that's Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So there's still some things happening with Topeka Rescue Mission, and when we think about Thanksgiving, we think about being thankful. We think about people in our lives family. You know it's the highest the day before Thanksgiving. Actually, today is the highest travel day, I think in the United States. We're going to set records and all that. But one of the things we also think about in addition to football is food, and so we do think about food a lot, and so speaking of food, we've got the food guru with us today.
Speaker 1:We do, don't we?
Speaker 2:And so we have the Director of Culinary Arts and Food Care. Yes, and so that is none other than Chef Sean Hall. Welcome to our community and our mission again.
Speaker 4:Thank you for having me. Welcome back, merry Christmas and happy Thanksgiving. And happy Thanksgiving to you.
Speaker 2:So, chef, you came to Topeka. You and I had gotten to know each other before you actually started working at Topeka Rescue Mission and we sat down at different times. Matter of fact, you were on a. We had a YouTube thing called In Darkness, the Light Still Shines. You were on that one time.
Speaker 4:Oh, my God, yes.
Speaker 2:And then, unfortunately, due to COVID, we lost our food service director.
Speaker 1:Mike.
Speaker 2:Schenkel and he was just an awesome man, a wonderful man, and we had a gap here, and so you and I talked and, after Mike had passed, you came along in 21,. Right, 2021.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I didn't plan on crying today.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, All right. Well, we won't go there any further.
Speaker 1:The first box Kleenex always is.
Speaker 2:We always have Kleenex, but anyway, you came at a very critical time to help us and you had credentials. You had done stuff in the community you had the culinary arts and so on and so forth. And you came and said here I am, I'll do what I can do. Yes, sir, and I'm thankful for you Coming at that very critical time. Brother, it was not easy for all of us because we love Mike, love what he did here, but things have happened in the last three years.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, a lot of things With your presence here.
Speaker 2:You just didn't come in to be food service director. You say you care for food.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So do I.
Speaker 2:We're glad you care for the food that we eat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But, chef, tell us a little bit about your background and then tell us about what when this opportunity came open for TRM, and we'll get into some vision and some different programs and those kind of things. But tell us a little bit about your professional experience and then why TRM?
Speaker 4:Well, you know my professional experience. I'm really French trained. I've been under the toolage of famous chefs and worked in a high-paced and high-volume food service industry in Las Vegas, nevada, where I was the executive chef for a culinary program for about 13, 14 years at one location. But I did work in hotels and buffets and I've been working at Mandalay Bay Resorts and feeding 9,000 people for breakfast and 9,000 for lunch, and then we'd flip it for dinner to do another 12,000. And I did that for about three or four years and just always Feeding an army. Oh yeah, well, it seems like it, but it's really strategic A lot of numbers, it's a lot of math and science more than the food and the cooking process when you're cooking in volume like that but also a lot of catering and high-end events and just always been in the food industry and training. I got like over 30-something years of experience in food service. So the logistics and things like that I was already prepared for coming here.
Speaker 2:So let me pause there for a minute. Why would somebody like to work with food that much to have that kind of pressure? What is it about? I mean, you know it's one thing to you know, get your crock pot out, create a new recipe, you know, and try this new thing. But cooking for those kind of level, they expect good product. Oh yeah, not only the taste, but also the presentation. Right Taste presentation.
Speaker 4:You know it has to be cost effective, but at that time it was about the money. You make a lot of money cooking. You know I came from a not so average home, you know, full of chaos and things like that, and cooking didn't discriminate against me you know my background and things like that, because I was in trouble with youth as well, you know, and cooking freed me and gave me an opportunity to put my heart on a plate, and so it just like God just wrapped that around me and that was one of the talents that he gave me and I just, you know I don't know why it happened, but it did and that's where I learned how to really first love on people is through the plate.
Speaker 2:Did you ever dream, as you were building up your career and doing all these amazing things, that one day you would be serving food in homeless shelter?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I dreamed about that every day.
Speaker 2:He's just trying to stay out of the homeless shelter, I'm sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was trying to stay out of the homeless shelter. You know we talked briefly about that lady and you know I remember us staying in a shelter when I was younger and my dad couldn't stay in there. We were in San Diego and they would only take women and children and I remember we were out in the park and my mom had got a bag of Cheetos and I spilled them. You know the ducks came and ate them all up. That was all we had to eat, you know, and that was my memory of staying in the shelter and then us going back to the shelter and my dad being outside hungry.
Speaker 4:And you know, those are the things that are planted in us and maybe that's the reason we do what we do. But no, I never dreamed about coming here. It took a nightmare to get me here to the mission, but it is where I'm supposed to be and it was God's perfect timing. Everything that I've been through from the dropping of the Cheetos to going and getting federally indicted for human trafficking and all of it's been part of my plight and my path to get here and being here. I know this is where God sent me.
Speaker 2:So you were kind of the top of the mountain in your industry, oh yeah, and you made some unwise decisions, lots, lots of unwise decisions, and you ended up pretty much being broke and a place to go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no place to go, Not just financially broken, but spiritually broken and had no idea. I was even broken spiritually because I didn't have a relationship with God, I didn't have a foundation of faith, I didn't have hope, I was hopeless. And so, in that, you don't think about the long run, the eternal life, you're thinking about just right now. And what do I need right now to facilitate my needs? And so, in that thinking, yeah, I was desperate, I was ready to commit suicide at that time and I was just so empty and lost that I had gave up hope, I was hopeless. And how did that turn around? Man, god, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know. So I'm 45 at the time, sitting in jail just and been indicted and I go. I've been to jail before though you know that's what people don't understand Like this jail thing that I did the last time. I've been to jail probably 20 times prior to that. Growing up, you know, we grew up in a Crip neighborhood with gang banged, we served dope, we did a whole bunch of things, you know, and so going to jail wasn't abnormal for me. I got a brother, you know I'm thankful he just got out. I got a sister that I'd been to the print to the pen. I got a. I got another sister that borderline walks to you know some lines sometimes, but it was nothing abnormal for that, you know.
Speaker 4:So you know, in all those times I went to jail I never turned to God, because you see that all the time you see people go to jail and then they meet Lord and then they get out and then they write back doing what they was doing. And I seen it now Some in me I was, I was, I was one of them people saying I don't want to go to church because I want to be like the hypocrite not knowing any better, you know. And so now I know churches where the hypocrites need to be, you know that's where they need to be. But it was such a turn off at the time because I felt like people were looking down their nose, they weren't relatable, they didn't understand me. You know the church folk and so you know that's why I church. I church differently, I do. You know. I've been here three years. I've been more spiritually grounded in my life now than I've ever been and I think I've been able to relate to people more now so than ever.
Speaker 4:And when I first came to Christ, I was, I was in church and I was putting on a suit and tie and trying to find some matching shoes and and and all that foolishness, you know, and not for people that do it, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful for those that do that but it didn't work for me.
Speaker 4:I couldn't come in and work, because I've worked in the fields of sin, in the casinos, I worked in the sin in these streets trying to get money. And so when I came to the kingdom and I'm working, I'm like this is not the outfit for me to work, because if I come to somebody outside this mission in a suit in a tie and some shoes, they're not going to relate to me and so I just, I just, you know, I just really focused on him and not the outside, and the inside is more important than than the outside for me. And God changed my inside and transformed me and then redeemed me and and just done so many things like I shouldn't be here. I know that and I am here and I'm thankful for that and I just know it's all because of Christ and I take a bear where I go. You and I had an opportunity to present at an.
Speaker 2:AFL CIO meeting before we met each other and I was a speaker before you were, and there was all 150 people in that statewide annual meeting at that conference center and on the way out as I was leaving, you said hey, you got a few minutes, stay for the first five minutes of my talking and you hadn't planned on talking about what you would end up talking about, but you talk about how Christ had transformed your life from where you were. I mean, this wasn't church, this was. You actually were in your chef's uniform. I remember they. I was like who is that guy?
Speaker 2:and you know I spoke for an hour and got an applause at the end you spoke for five minutes, got staying ovation, yeah, and I said I got to know that guy that's when we first started connecting and, and, and the Lord had really done some amazing things in your life and and you were in a secular audience and you said this is what I used to be, this is who I was.
Speaker 4:Here I am today because of God yeah, and I and I you know I was big in the union, so you know the culinary union in Nevada has over 500 and some thousand members. I was responsible for all the training front of the house. Back in the house sauciers, commerce days, all these different titles and then a union proud by American cars kick china. You know all these things. And then I meet you and I've been watching you fighting human trafficking on the news. You know, and I've been through this, this indictment of human trafficking, and every time I see you in the news I mean my heart just sucks, you know, like more of shame than anything you know and like how did I even get tied up into this? But I need to meet that man and I wasn't going to pass up the whole of the Holy Spirit and the opportunity to share that testimony. I mean, it was hard, I was. You know that was my first time really publicly speaking about that.
Speaker 2:You didn't pull any punches that day, yeah, yeah, you could have heard a feather floating with. Sean, you know I just spoken on human trafficking and I didn't know we're going to go here today so that's all you out there.
Speaker 1:You know it's a.
Speaker 2:I just spoken on human trafficking and it's a was a real eye opener. A lot of people and and people were really engaged and and I laid it all out there based upon what I knew, and I got done and and again I'm walking out and Sean says, hey, if you got five minutes, can you stay and I go, okay? So I sat down in the back of that room and he, he got up there and he said what Barry just said about human trafficking, because 100% true. And he said the reason.
Speaker 2:I know I'm a former human trafficker and I'm going and I had never met anybody who was willing to take that risk and I never will forget you just saying but that's who I was and here's who I am today because of Jesus Christ, and literally got a standing ovation, felt like we were revival in church, yeah, and I had to go and I just said to the person there that was coordination, I need his number and that's how we started getting together. That's how we started getting. You really helped me and our team to combat human trafficking because of the intel that you gave us. Yeah, what goes on this area, and then that's that's where you got. But anyway, one day fast-forwarding on that we interviewed you on. In darkness, the light still shines, what we call those things.
Speaker 4:They're not podcast, but it was a it was a podcast podcast video podcast okay, well, I was not terribly off and so but I remember you getting pretty emotional as we talked and at the end when we were done, you said I feel like God's gonna have me here someday yeah, this was before a pandemic, oh yeah this is before all the things that transpired and you just really believe God was gonna have you here and, sure enough, yeah, he brought in and that was my first time meeting Miriam and she would message me on Facebook prior to that and just give me encouragement and words and man, it's just a spirit at that opportunity come in. And then I met Hal Smith and I just said I'm gonna be at the mission, you know, you need to let me know. And then he gave me opportunities to come in and speak on during chapel services and whatnot. And then we got to the pandemic and we're passing our food and I was like thank you, lord.
Speaker 4:You know, thinking that was how I was gonna be here, because I didn't care in what position or title, or no title at all. I just wanted to be involved with what the mission does because I've seen firsthand experience as a child. But I've also seen the impact that the mission had prior to me even being here and having an opportunity to be part of this. The impact with fighting human trafficking and feeding folks and and making safe space for men and women and being like the only real, true advocates in the community for that at the time, you know. And so it was just like read the Bible, do what the Bible say. So I need to be at the mission.
Speaker 2:Mary, you know, of course, Sean and I talked about this off and on, but at one time we were on two separate sides of the tracks in regards to this issue of human trafficking, and had we met in a different circumstance I'd probably try to get him locked up, yeah trying to get me killed. What do you see this today? And you know how, what a beautiful brother this is.
Speaker 2:And, oh, what do you say to people that they say say how can that be, how can you, how can you have that, that such division in the way people are looking at life? And now this one my best friends, hmm, it's only God.
Speaker 3:Hmm, I mean, that's it there. There is no other logical reason why it would come together this way. There is no other logical reason why Sean would have come to TRM and that the two of you would get along. Even Even Even if Sean had claimed to change having claimed to have changed his life, kind of thing. Right, you could have still been skeptical, but I just think about how the Lord worked out that one encounter, that one encounter. You're talking about something, sean's not there to talk about that, and yet, and yet right, and God just works it out and then just keeps it going like he knew. And and to me that you cannot look at this situation or 100 other kinds of situations at the mission and not just go. It's all orchestrated by the.
Speaker 2:Lord, all orchestrated because of his incredible love and forgiveness. Yeah right, his whole thing about Reconciling us to himself absolutely when we were reconciling means that we had a thing, we lost a thing, and now we're getting a thing back, and that's can only be done through Jesus Christ. Right but you had to step out on the water. That day, I had to step on the water.
Speaker 3:Oh, uh-huh.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, yes.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah and not take my awful Christ, yeah, um, because if I do, then the waves of doubt and the waves of doubters Because there's always going to be people, even to this day, I don't care what it is or what we do in life, there's going to always be people that'll look up your past and say that you're not, uh, who you claim to be, and things like that. But if you pay attention to that, those are the waves, that's right that take you off course and fall and drown you. But if you stay focused on Christ, those things roll off of off your back, you know, and, um, um, you're, you're not even Having to go and wake up the Lord from his nap on that pillow, on that cushion, because you have faith. Your anchor in your faith, this ship is anchored. That's right. And no matter what the naysayers say or what they believe, I know and Christ knows. And so then he continues to Take those stones they throw at you and build castles.
Speaker 4:I call the mission the mansion. I don't call it, I don't look at it like like this is a place where homeless people is. This is the mansion. He said he was going to go build a mansion with many rooms. We have more rooms than I can count here at this ministry. We have, we have. Our cups are overflowing, we are Are engulfed in giving. There's so much life changing interaction with people that occurs here daily. So you know I get thrown off in the holidays because maybe I'm complacent, but we are doing this every day. Every day Is thanks, christmas jingle bells.
Speaker 3:Every day, you know, but you make it special.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you do, yeah you make it special, so much I mean because you make it special, so you may it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it probably feels like just a little bit more of the same old thing, but it doesn't come across that way because you try to do things.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we're always pushing, like I got I got a staff. Oh, my god, I got, I got a staff of people and uh, you know, you think you know you hear my testimony and like, wow, but I got a kitchen full of testimonies like that and people that were uh giving up on and had been homeless and uh had been overlooked and not seen or heard, that are impacting lives and changing uh people's perception and uh view of people daily, and they're and they're only doing it by the power of christ and faith and um redemption and and you know, I got prayer warriors in the kitchen. I got people that are faithful to the word and um challenge me to be better, and so, um, just that alone is is worth, uh, you know, everything that I've ever been through, just having the opportunity to be here and to be in the midst of uh such uh wonderful, uh godfaring, god-loving people, caring people, and um, it's just, it's just, uh, you know I should pay y'all to work here.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, you know, I was at a meeting last week and, uh, there was a lady there who was catering the event. Um, you had catered an event earlier that day and this lady was catering an event, but you trained her. Oh yeah you trained her and, uh, she's very successful. Matter of fact, she's buying a building.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh she's gonna have a defense center.
Speaker 2:And I said, I think, I think I said did chef hall training. She said oh yeah, yes, you know, you have, uh, you've taken what god had given you. Um, you got whittled down, you came to a place in Topeka, kansas, at a homeless shelter. But you were ready, yes, and god's given you In some ways more than you had.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, they never had they never had I.
Speaker 4:I used to make almost I used to make almost a hundred thousand dollars a year, legally, not including the things I was doing, you know, in in big industry like that, we were getting kickbacks from uh food companies and things like that every month for probably Eight, nine years. I'd get five thousand dollars in my mailbox every year from a food distributor Just for using their product. They sent me to Hawaii. I've been to Hawaii four or five times, uh, different things like that. I, you name it, I've done it. But, you know, I think I really had to go through all that to appreciate what I have now, and peace and joy Over that trumps it every time. You know, I would rather have peace and joy to net then to ever have seen any of that.
Speaker 4:And um, so, yeah, chef, harper silvery, harper, uh, she owned a restaurant prior to opening up this new building and so, um, you know, she went to a culinary program that I ran over at forest park for Three years for free. She, she came and she trained along with other people. We probably graduated maybe 42, uh the 50 students during that time uh, all of them for free. I worked with mike shinkle because I didn't have a box of celery to chop, but Mike, mike would give me product and we would go in there and then we work on it and then, uh, it would give us uh tools, you know, because no money, just just the faithful god. I closed the restaurant to go do that, and this is because listening to the lord and didn't know how I was going to do it. But, uh, I, I met mike Um through a brother that used to be here.
Speaker 4:Uh, he's past carl uh brother car and um, mike was just instrumental in helping me with the success of that, and he would give me a case of bacon and a case of chicken and a Box of onions, and we learn how to use a knife and learn how to cut and Learn how to prep and all these other things and and I loved it and and just seeing people with the desire to want to learn culinary arts is just Comforting and and I find purpose in that and and so, yeah, chef Harper came and she, she trained, and another other couple, people that have businesses here in Topeka, but she's opening up a restaurant. We're working on her menu and it's gonna be a fantastic Tell me about number.
Speaker 4:Oh, my god, I have some of the best food in Topeka, kansas, and I promise you that she's doing things a lot differently. Her concepts are really refreshing and it's gonna give Topeka a new venue To not only come and enjoy meals, but she has an event space there as well.
Speaker 2:So you're a multi-layer guy Important to people here at the rest of us. You got a great team. They're serving people in shelter, mm-hmm. You also help oversee and and deploy people from to picker rescue missions. Food mobile food unit yes, it goes out for the mobile access partnership and other things you also have. Start Well, you've been doing it for a while is catering yes, and and and to pick a rescue mission yes, and staff are part of your catering program out in the community. Talk about who've you catered to? Oh?
Speaker 4:well, I Can't get on here and say that I have favorite customers, because you know all of them are my favorite but of course they are yes yes but I mean, some just stand out more than others and have just really given us the opportunity to work with products that we probably would never be able to touch and see, even in these times and when you say products, talking about food products, like normally.
Speaker 2:You don't have some of the things at the rescue mission that are donated as you may, right, catering job, right, yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, we get a lot of, we get a lot of leftovers from our events.
Speaker 4:A lot of people are gracious and when we cook and prepare these foods, they pay for the food, they pay for the labor and then we, we provide the service and then a lot of times they'll re Send that whatever is left over here and then we'll repurpose it or Reutilize it for different things.
Speaker 4:Like that. We did a group for sunflower religious, which is you know by far I they visit. They just have been supportive my god, I'm just gonna be crybaby but they have just been supportive of the program from day one and they've given us the opportunity to have a platform for expression of not only our, our talents but of our people, and given our people to come and and one thing that they always say the food is good, you know, but one thing they always say is that the service is above Measure and that how kind our servers are and how kind they were treated and and somebody did something above and beyond the call of duty for them during their event and they are just always pleased by that. And then that teamed up with the level of food that we prepare, which we probably are the best in in Topeka.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry but no, I'm not.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry, but we are and and, and only because we not only Take pride in food service. We have the Lord with us and with him with us. Who it can be against us? And so we do that on a whole nother level. We're catering on a whole nother level because we're we're spiritually feeding people and we're spiritually providing food for for people, with the purpose of it coming back home and facilitating the needs of our guests.
Speaker 2:So so you're taking what God gave you and put you in a rescue mission, and now you're training people, your people your people, people, people, people. Love your events. Nobody seen a presentation.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, the first time you did something I think it was for our operation food secure people, I remember over the great overlifthation, and then you had the table spread out there for 500 volunteers we had 500 that day was a bunch of them that came in and I'm looking at them going who did that? Yeah, chef Hall did that and you know, in the midst of all kinds of things that God has taken you through, I mean I want to fast forward here and jump on Thanksgiving. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What happens at Topeka rescue mission? What are we doing? What's different About tomorrow?
Speaker 4:so coming into the Topeka rescue mission, I came in during COVID so we opted to do the meals in-house and, like that's a chef's showtime, you know, that's when we get to come and pull out some of the family recipes and you know, and I got people from different nationalities in my kitchen so somebody's making tamales, somebody's making Some of the family favors green bean casserole, we're making dressing and stuffing and they're putting boiled eggs and stuff and all kind of craziness. But you know we're doing family traditions because we have so many different, diverse people that we feed here at the mission. So we want to try to tie all that again together for a time like this for the holiday season and Really let them know that you know you are loved and don't give up hope, and know that there's people that are out here that are providing these things for you and there's people that are caring for you, even in your condition, and You're supported. And so we. That's why we. That's why you know I'm changing my title to care instead of the food service director. You know I'm a food care doctor, doctor, food care or whatever, something like that.
Speaker 4:But we, we really Find the opportunity. Man, that's what Christ did. He came out and he, he took the bread and the fish and he fed the people and they follow them and I just think that is part of, I think that's the anchor of what we do, even though we have different departments that feel the same way, and we also feel like our departments are anchors of this ministry, and so we operate in that, we operate in that and we, we, we believe that in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:You know, chef, your your feeding bodies, You're caring for food. You're also feeding spirits and it's not traditional way like you said. Yeah, not a coat and a tie, and in church that there's nothing wrong with that, and but many of the people that you encounter here or out at a banquet somewhere, they need to hear about the relevance of the love of God in a different way. You get to do that.
Speaker 4:You know what burn bearing I used to be, so like Having this. You know, you gave me some great advice when I was first coming here and I'm getting in an interview With the media and I'm like, man, is this ever gonna, you know, they ever gonna leave me alone about this, you know? And you said, hey, you got to pick up that corpse and put them on your back and take them everywhere you go and then you throw him dead on the table and then you proclaim Christ and what he do it to remove you from that. And I just think of that. Yeah, and I take a mirror where I time on like a, like a sweater, you know, around my neck and I take this corpse of what I did.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this is what I used to do and this is who I used to be. But he's dead, yeah, he's gone. And now this is the new man in Christ and this new spirit and forgiven. Now you can continue to look at him. All you want to Be distracted, be distracted by him. And let me continue to do with God's plan me to do.
Speaker 2:That's right, that does just slow you down, and yeah, oh man and it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3:Beautiful.
Speaker 2:Well, chef, we could visit all day with you but you got to cook and, yeah, we want to eat, so you know. But you know, so grateful. I mean, I know some of the people work in the kitchen with you. I know some people have been touched in the community by you and and it's real testimony to people who know a little bit of background and then to see where you are today.
Speaker 2:Yes, what would you say to somebody who is listening right now that says there's no way that I can get over my past, there's no way that I will ever become anybody because of the mistakes I've made?
Speaker 4:I Would tell them. You're absolutely correct If you keep putting I in front of that, because there's no way that I could have did this and there's no way that I could have changed my life. There's no way I tried. That's how I got here. I was trying to change my life and I brought me with me and I ended up indicted. So once I put this man, this dead man, on the table and I trusted Christ and became Saved, then, and only then, was I able to Begin the transformation.
Speaker 4:Only God can transform us. I don't care what nobody else says. I can only speak on what I I've experienced in my life, and that is the transformation power of Christ. So my thing would be to Submit, submit to the Lord, trust him, give him an opportunity. Look how many times you fail. Give God a chance and and he will change your life. He's changed lives and you don't have to wait until the fire comes and you don't have to wait until you you stop smoking cigarettes and you stop Watching porn. You don't have to wait for those things. You God is immediately and he forgives immediately and especially with a repent of heart.
Speaker 2:If you have a repent of heart and A trust in the Lord, your life can be transformed and you can have a new life today If you just submit and give God a chance well said, brother, and you certainly have been demonstrating that here at To peak a rescue mission, throughout the community and about everybody that knows you is you don't leave your Jesus, no, you bring Jesus with. Yeah well, we're thankful for you, we're thankful for the Thanksgiving, we're thankful for our listeners, we're thankful for those people who support to peak a rescue mission and, most important, we're thankful to God that he has given us these opportunities. Thank you for listening to our community, our mission. You've listened to the chef, sean Hall. Some of you've heard a story before. It's an amazing story of God's unfailing love and purpose and plan for all of us. If you'd like more information about the to peek a rescue mission, you can go to TRM online or G. That's TRM online Online dot org. Thank you for listening to our community, our mission, and have a great Thanksgiving.