This milestone episode, our 200th broadcast, coincides beautifully with the spirit of Giving Tuesday! Listen as explore the multiple ways you, our listeners, can play an instrumental role, and also hear from some of our amazing staff and hear the "Why?" behind their work and impact here at TRM. We are so thankful for them and we are thankful for you!
To support TRM, you can shop our fun "online store" to donate, givingtuesdaytopeka.com
Or visit trmonline.org and click Give Now!
This milestone episode, our 200th broadcast, coincides beautifully with the spirit of Giving Tuesday! Listen as explore the multiple ways you, our listeners, can play an instrumental role, and also hear from some of our amazing staff and hear the "Why?" behind their work and impact here at TRM. We are so thankful for them and we are thankful for you!
To support TRM, you can shop our fun "online store" to donate, givingtuesdaytopeka.com
Or visit trmonline.org and click Give Now!
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and your blessings and provisions. God, thank you for this time and this podcast. Lord, thank you for all our listeners who have been been listening to this podcast and we just pray your blessing over them. Or do we pray for this special day of giving Lord, that you would open hearts, lord, and that you would just bless this conversation? Father, we love you and we praise your name, amen.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, you're listening to our community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka rescue mission On a very historical day. For the podcast of Talk about that in a minute. That's gonna be part of the test. Okay on Tuesday. November 28th 2023. Let me say that again Tuesday, november 28th 2023. Um, what is the special day? Lamanne broils, maryon kraybull about today's podcast? Two things.
Speaker 4:You can say it, maryon, can I say it?
Speaker 3:It is our. Now the drumroll oh, 200th episode. Yeah, please don't hang up on it.
Speaker 4:I've been working on that all day.
Speaker 2:This is you have you know you jump the gut a little bit, okay, well, thank you for that, but anyway, yeah, it is the 200 podcasts now that have been done. And, and just early is sitting down here at the end. He is the guy who has orchestrated every single one of this and he does not have a mic in front of him, so, but anyway, josh, shout out something. Thank you for listening. He says no, josh. Thank you for putting all these together, the equipment, Getting them out. Every week, we I don't think we've missed too many weeks and in 200 episodes Pandemic, we were trying to thin.
Speaker 2:I remember one of those where I was at home very sick and we still did one, didn't we? And so, um, but josh, thank you for that. And so 200 times it's, it's monumental it is bridged across.
Speaker 2:It's wonderful. Also, today is special. We've had black friday, we had cyber monday and today is giving Tuesday. Yeah, I've heard of that before. Yes, we're going to talk a little bit about that, but more about the why Of to peek a rescue mission and why people might want to consider giving so with that. Before we get that. Mariam, those were our two tests today, so you got oh well, those are pretty easy.
Speaker 3:So the other tests?
Speaker 2:are you going to survive making it between now and christmas?
Speaker 3:Thanks, I'm going to okay. I'm not sure everybody else will, but I am going to survive now it's christmas time at the mission, so it's a wonderful time.
Speaker 3:It's an incredibly busy time because it is that time of you know we work really hard to bless people all year long, but we go above and beyond when it comes to this time of year, really trying to help people feel special and loved and cared for. And it just takes incredible coordination From our distribution center because of all of the families that we adopt through christmas bureau and making sure we've Contacted them and get the gifts that they want for themselves, for their families. It's about making sure that we're doing what we need to for our guests, for our neighbors. It's just a really, really special time that requires a lot of coordination.
Speaker 2:It does. And so what? What do we expect this year?
Speaker 3:Uh, how many people are we expecting? Many people.
Speaker 2:What are we doing? Oh gosh, well, so I know that we've.
Speaker 3:You know, the game plan is kind of a moving object because, um, we say one thing in the beginning and then we can never say no, going forward, right. So limit and then we break it every time, but right now we've adopted 150 families just from the christmas bureau, which will be hundreds of people hundreds of families, and families can be one or more people, absolutely and then you know we're.
Speaker 3:We've got probably about 240 people in the shelters, yes, and we will serve all of them as well men, women and children and then there are probably at least 200 people on the street that we will serve. Um, and so, and the thing buried, that we're doing a little different this year than we have in the past is Normally we Discontinue our food distribution during this time of year because there's just so much that goes into christmas and planning for that. But I'll tell you what. The needs in the community are, so significant as it relates to access to food that we're not stopping that this year. We're still continuing to distribute food every tuesday, um, all the way, all the way through so this team is working double duty.
Speaker 3:They're working double duty and so they're doing a lot, and what we need from folks is we need them to volunteer. We need them to bring brand new christmas gifts, and they can find that on our website at trm online dot org trm online dot org under our needs list section, and they'll see the new gifts that we need. We need food to be donated and, of course, finances are always helpful as well.
Speaker 3:Uh, this is the end of the year for us and so you know, we have a Healthy amount that we still need to raise before the end of the year. So there's just all different kinds of ways for people to engage, and we know they will, because every year god provides, and he provides through the people that are listening, people that aren't listening. It's just amazing churches, businesses Everyone steps up to help.
Speaker 2:The topeka rescue mission yeah, and this is a day, nationally, that we tend to think about giving. We call it giving tuesday. People have kind of indulged in the black friday and then the cyber monday. Maybe they've indulged, maybe they haven't, um and uh, but now is the time to think about generosity. Not just today, though. Um. There is a little less than 30 days to christmas, yes, and a lot of needs, and a little over 30 days to the end of 2023, and so to peak rescue mission, like a lot of organizations, needs to finish strong financially in order plan for the multiplicity of needs for 2024, sure, and so this is a great time of year tax deduction time, whatever the case might be, that's available to some people that give a certain amount, but more than that, impact, yeah, on people's lives that are really, really need to know that they matter.
Speaker 3:They need to know they matter, they need to, they need to feel the joy of the season, just like everyone else does, right, and when people are struggling and Wondering how they're going to provide, especially for their children, um, that's a really heavy time for them, and so, because of people's generosity and our ability to help with that, we get to see the joy in people's faces, the gratitude that I can't even put words to, um, what, how grateful people are for the simplest things, and we get to see children's eyes light up. It's, it's a beautiful, beautiful time from a receiving end for us In terms of what we get to see because of how generous our community is and sometimes because we've experienced this over and over again, that one time may be a transformational time that lasts a lifetime.
Speaker 2:It absolutely is not a one gift, it's not a one day, it's not a one smile. It is a building block to a transformation for a lifetime. We've seen so many people come back and say I remember that time, that Christmas or that, whatever day it was that somebody said something to me that changed my life and, um, we're in there in their, in their lives and, uh, you get to be a part of, if you're listening to our community, our mission on this giving Tuesday, yes, of 2023. So, as mariam said, you can go to the website of trm online or g Trm online or g that you can hit the give now button. So you can do that today. You can do it after you're done listening to this, or, if you're not listening to this, on november 28th of 2023, you can still do it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, the time never runs out.
Speaker 2:It's, it's it's whenever it's good for you. So we're going to kind of switch from that to kind of tie into giving Tuesday a little bit and that's more the why. Um, to pick a rescue mission. Lamanda has been in operation for 70 years now Next april to be 71 years, and so it's continuing to move on and the needs have never been any greater than they are now, especially in the homeless issue and the hunger issue in america, the kind of loss of hope in so many people's lives today, the questioning how are we going to make ends meet the economy, post pandemic, I mean, the list goes on and on, and on, and on, and on, and on on, and people are truly asking for help and hope.
Speaker 2:So what's the why? And I know that you have invited part of your team here today, so we're going to have to a little navigation here about some people that you've invited. But, lamana, talk about your why and then introduce the next people you want to talk, who they are, what they're doing, and then I'll let you ask the questions. So what's your why?
Speaker 4:Well, that wasn't part of this, Barry.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's why you have selected me to be the host, aren't you?
Speaker 4:retired or something I am, and so you just can't answer that one. No, bring me the tissues. What the heck.
Speaker 2:So, why.
Speaker 4:You know, I think that it's not just. I think it's important that we talk about not just why we come to the rescue mission, but it's important that we talk about why we stay. And so a lot of people know my why of coming. You know that I was on the board of directors as a volunteer, that I was a school principal Many people know you and I had sat down in a board meeting and felt the Lord very strongly. Let us know differently. We didn't know. I didn't know you were getting the same feeling. You didn't know that I was getting the feeling that I was to come to the rescue mission. And a couple of days passed and I brought that up to you and just there was confirmation after confirmation from the Lord that I was to leave my position as a principal with 501 to come to the rescue mission. And we didn't know what that looked like. And so my why for coming here is pretty easy. God told me to Pretty clear what.
Speaker 4:Yes, and he told you as well, and so I think that that is important and that is something that I will cherish forever, and that there is just so much gratitude that I have that God wouldn't trust me to be a part of this team, and that's just incredible.
Speaker 4:But I think what really matters is the why of why we stay. We can look at the things that it's not. It's not because of excellent pay. It's not because it's the most popular job. It's not because of all the things that we get right.
Speaker 4:It is because we have this touching in our hearts and in our minds where, when we see people hurting whether that's because of food insecurity or maybe addiction or maybe violence or anything like that God gives us the ability to see them as ourselves, but, more importantly, to see them as someone that's in his image. And so every time there are complaints, every time the concept of homelessness becomes political, every time something happens because we're running 24, seven, seven days a week operations, my why remains strong, and it's not that there hasn't been turbulence, but the why is the people and that God didn't call me to do something and just do it at a time that was convenient for me. He has called me here to be long suffering, to be steadfast and hopefully to follow in your footsteps, to do decades of this, to not only say why and yes once, but to continually do that, because the people that are out here are worth it, even if they feel like they're not.
Speaker 2:Talk about the turbulence. You know, if somebody is drowning in the ocean, best way to save them is getting the ocean with them and pull them to safety. And that's turbulence, you know. It's not safely standing back and hoping that somebody's gonna make their way to the boat, but getting in the water. And that's what the team of Topeka Rescue Mission does every single day, whether they're back office or front lines in the streets, or shelters or food lines or whatever is. They're getting involved in the turbulence of life, and there's a lot of it out there, and people without somebody jumping in the water with them will drown. And so to get to be a part of that and that, why, well, amanda? Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4:So now Barry.
Speaker 2:I'm being corrected.
Speaker 4:What is your why?
Speaker 2:What is my?
Speaker 4:why? What is your why? What was your why for 36 years? What is your why to continue to take on me as a mentee?
Speaker 2:Oh no, that's a bigger why.
Speaker 4:Because you have to, and how you-? Because I told him. That's right, mariam said somebody has to. But what is your continued why that, now that you can have the ability to be retired and could do really what you want, that you still say so invested not only in myself, the TRM team, trm as a whole, but homelessness in general? How do you hang onto that? Why?
Speaker 2:Two answers to that. One is didn't fix the homeless problem, so I think it's still be involved with that to do whatever we can on that. So that's just kind of more of the practical. There's still people in need and you know, my joy is to be a part of people who are trying to make a difference.
Speaker 2:So, personally, more than just that kind of academic piece of this. I don't want to miss what the Lord's doing, and I have seen for so many years the hand of God in the midst of so many things that people would say there's no God to see. Yeah, there is, and to see people have that revelation, to get to be a little bit part of that, whether it's the miraculous prevention, last minute Christmas things coming in, or that meal that we didn't have enough to serve for the evening meal and all of a sudden, at the back door, there's a knock on the door and here's this food. I remember one time when the cooks were no, the guests were asking man, we haven't had fried chicken for a long time.
Speaker 2:We didn't have any fried chicken and a knock on the door and there was a pastor standing at the back door with buckets full of fried chicken. So we had a dinner got canceled and we could use some fried chicken. I mean that kind of stuff. I just am so blessed to be a part of. How then that not only minister to people that wanted fried chicken but they go wow, there is a God and to be a part of that. So that's my personal why.
Speaker 4:What if someone is listening right now and they feel like they don't have a why?
Speaker 2:I suppose there's a lot of people today that don't feel like they have a why, and I would just encourage you if you're hearing this, whether it's on this November 28th of 2023 or it's anytime down the road, there's a why you turned this on. There's a why that you're listening to this and there is something that God is speaking to you, and sometimes we will not see what we're not looking for. So I'd encourage you to look for him, because he's looking for you and he's looking for everybody in the whole wide world. He loves everybody. You know this.
Speaker 2:This Advent, this Christmas season, is this opportunity for us to realize how incredibly crazy the creator of the universe is about us, and we're his why, we are his why. He's made everything, but yet we are the main why that he made us were his why, and so he's gonna go the distance for us so he can spend eternity with us, and that is the person who's listening. Today. You may not feel like anybody cares for you, that there's no hope in life, that there's no purpose. Things have happened, boy, do things happen in life, but that does not erase your value before God, and so just know, as you're asking your why, god's already got his why with you.
Speaker 4:Yes, I love that, so Amanda you've got some some people that are gonna have some.
Speaker 3:Why here?
Speaker 2:that are in this room. We call the studio Just a room with some microphones, but who would you like to introduce to ask them yes?
Speaker 4:You know, when we were thinking about this podcast and wanting to do something special for the 200th podcast, but then, with it also falling on Giving Tuesday, I kind of looked at it from a different lens and I first looked at our first flock, which is our staff. And our staff give and they give and they give and they give and they give when it's hard, they give when it's tiring, they just continue to give. And so just a couple of nights ago, you know, I'm praying for TRM, I'm sitting in my bed and then I get this idea of that's gotta be the 200th. So we changed the plans. Josh is incredible. He's used to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's riding the Lomanda roller coaster.
Speaker 4:But I said that's what we need to do. We need to. Yes, it's Giving Tuesday. Yes, you know, we hope that we get donors and we hope that we give people that will give their time and volunteer for us.
Speaker 4:But I also think that the listeners need to hear the heart of our staff, of what their why is and why do they give, and when it is hard and it's not easy. And so our first person to talk about his why is Marcus. Marcus is our director of facilities and maintenance and and and so he is definitely our guru of keeping six facilities up and going. He has an incredible team and so he can multitask and do the job of seven or eight people, and and I know our staff appreciate that, but I also know Miriam as his, as his supervisor myself and the team appreciate his loyalty, his friendship, his humor and just his overall character, and so I'm so excited to have him on here. And, Marcus, if you can just start off with maybe just a little bit about why you are at TRM and then maybe why TRM matters to you, Okay, do you need a?
Speaker 4:tissue, because you're my crybaby too. There it is, go right ahead, yep.
Speaker 7:Why I'm at TRM is to actually be the example that Lord has asked every single one of us to be, and that's that's him, through us, for others to see, and that's why I do the things that I do for this ministry. I love the feeling of serving other folks. I it fulfills me so much better than to serve myself.
Speaker 7:And and the other question was that's why I do the things I do for TRM. Why am I at TRM? The reason why I'm at TRM is actually. It was actually because TRM didn't only save my life, but created a new life in me, and I can only speak to that on my self. As an individual. I was facing the wrong way and y'all turned me around. Now the sun shone and brightened my face.
Speaker 7:And I can see where the Lord's leading me. Though it may be narrow and hard and tough at times, it's where I'm heading, is where he wants me to be.
Speaker 4:So if there's someone that is feeling in the dark right now whether it's because of addiction, substance abuse, divorce, financial strain, maybe church hurt, you name it Can that darkness be turned to light for them, like it was you.
Speaker 7:It can be turned. It's called repentance. It can be turned around and you can walk away from that life. And it's so easy, so easy to do just ask for you can receive salvation so easy and it does turn you around, it creates a new being, and that dark disparity will be no longer if we just do it.
Speaker 4:Every day you have endless tasks and then tasks that pop up and then they replace other tasks and then you're having to prioritize and all of this it's also fast pace and maintenance issues emergencies never fails. That's going to happen at one o'clock in the morning or Saturday night at 10 o'clock, when we can't get anybody those kinds of things. And so you deal with a lot of what could be perceived as just frustrating things, overwhelming things, fires constantly. Yet we always see you playing jokes on people laughing, taking the time to hug somebody in the hallway You've done that to me where I've tried to give you just that when you said, how are you doing? Oh, I'm okay, and you knew instantly no, you're not, come here.
Speaker 4:Why do you love your job so much? It's a joy that just radiates from you. And yet I look at what your load is and I think he has every right to be this grouchy man just walking around here mad when you're not. You just exuberate this joy from you. I mean, how is that and why do you love your job like that?
Speaker 7:Like I said, that serving other people does fulfill me with joy. It doesn't matter, I can do labor, you know. It don't matter. I try to abide in righteousness, peace and joy, and those are the three staples that I've been taught. It's unfathomable, I don't understand it, but that's what I do and I can't answer that why I do that. It's the Lord through me, that doesn't. I swear it is. Yeah, I could be a grumpy pants, but um but.
Speaker 2:We love your honest purpose. I could be, but I'm not.
Speaker 7:And I want that example, that sort of the earth thing, that lie of the world thing, to be shown to other people so they can feel the same way or something like that. I'm going to get me ranting and I don't know. No, you're doing great, I'm not good at it. No, you're doing really good at ranting, I just want people to have what I have.
Speaker 4:I'm going to press you one more time. Okay, I push back, I know you do.
Speaker 4:Because we've talked about this before, so I don't think I'll be in too much trouble. You sometimes have a hard time accepting how much you are loved and sometimes you have a hard time accepting that you are so worthy, right? We tell you, um, just how incredible you are and how much you matter to us. You are really good at giving that out, but I've talked to you about how you're not so good at receiving it. What if someone is listening to this and they have that struggle where there are people around them or maybe they're not, but either way they don't. They don't feel loved, they feel lost, they feel like they're too far gone, they feel like they can't fix some of the mistakes they've made because you've been there and sometimes still struggle with worth. When we all see in you and we adore you, what would you say to that person?
Speaker 7:That's your, that's your maiden, the image of God and your child of God, and you are worth something to that man. That is your father, right? He's our father, he's our father, god, and and you are worth something to him. That's and to be. It's all about support and that's what this place supports people, and if we get around these folks and support them, they are going to not just talking but acting. If we get around them and support them in that way, they will know they're loved, even though they don't know yet, they will soon know that they're loved and then, over time, start to believe it, and then they might be loving other people.
Speaker 7:So it's all a domino effect. You love people, right? Well, thank you, you love people they love people, then people, they love other people, and it's all about love. I think that that was all you need is love. Yes, it's all about love, and we love you. Yes, we do Very much. So Okay, well, since I'm not sure if you're going, to be able to tell us about it. I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 4:I love you.
Speaker 7:Okay.
Speaker 4:Well, since I'm kind of a basket case, miriam, do you want to introduce our other sweet guest, sure Absolutely, and give her some questions and then she can go into it.
Speaker 3:Well, either I'll ask her questions or very well, but I'd be happy to introduce her. So our next person has been at TRM for three years, three and a half, three and a half years. See, I'm really pretty happy. I was that close.
Speaker 5:That was impressive.
Speaker 3:And Ms Cody Bloom, and that's a new name for her. Yes, it is. That's a wonderful new name for her. Thank you. Cody has been just an amazing asset to one of the teams that used to be under me, which was our trauma education team, but really came to TRM long before that and not even as a staff person, you know. So when I think about the why for Cody, it has to be pretty interesting because it really started long before you were on staff with us and then just stayed until she found that right position that fed her and where she could just shine and bloom.
Speaker 3:But I'm glad those were the two like quarries the way I did that, I'm honored today, and so to me it's my pleasure to introduce Cody Bloom to our listening audience and everything like that. So I'll start asking the questions. All righty, what brought you to TRM?
Speaker 2:and why it's a real peaceful time, wasn't it, Cody?
Speaker 5:Super peaceful it was spring of 2020, if anybody can recall around that time of year, wonderful year. So I was actually a full-time student at Washburn University and I was not intending to come to TRM, let alone stay as long as I did. I'm pretty sure that's a lot of our staff stories, and God is just good like that.
Speaker 5:Yep, and so I actually had plans to go work for an organization out in Denver, colorado, working with middle and high school students, bringing them in for a week for inner city missions from across the country.
Speaker 5:And you know that time of year spring 2020, cross-country travel wasn't really promoted well, and so we canceled all of our trips for that summer, and so I was bound in Topeka for the summer, and so I was a full-time college student, who is now jobless, and so I think that Amanda made a good point that it's, yes, why we came, but more so the reason why we stay at TRM, because I came for a summer job.
Speaker 5:And here I am, three and a half years later, and so, yes, I started volunteering that summer for the distribution center they were packing food bags, and so I brought myself a couple of roommates and some friends from Christian Challenge at Washburn University and we did various things, and then, once I realized I needed a, I should get a paying job, I reached out to our women in Family Shelter and started working there Over the summer, thought that I'd stay until I graduated which was one more semester and just really enjoyed it. Enjoyed the people, loved the people that I was serving that I was working with and, like Miriam mentioned, my journey covered a few different positions, but now I've been in trauma education for about a year or so.
Speaker 2:So, cody, when you came to Hope Center, you actually happened to be a teacher yourself and help those kids and their families as we were navigating through some of those home school things because kids were out of school.
Speaker 5:Yes, yeah. So a few from our group were in that 501 classroom at the Hope Center helping children do their homework, doing activities with them, keeping them busy, their little busy bodies entertained, and helping them through that season. So yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you went to work with kids, but it wasn't Denver, it was here, so yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So then, where did things go from there?
Speaker 5:From there. I graduated Washburn and had a couple different ideas in my head of what I was going to do, not all of them involving TRM. But God spoke very clearly to me that I was supposed to stay at TRM. I at the time didn't really know why it wasn't what I envisioned for myself long term. I knew that I wanted to be in ministry and working with the homeless population specifically, so I don't know why I wasn't thinking TRM was the obvious choice. But God spoke very clearly and kept me at the Hope Center for about a year. And then I took a position at reception front desk here at the palace for a few months and very quickly felt that I was missing the people aspect.
Speaker 5:That I had so much at the Hope Center. Those short couple of months I got to volunteer at our mobile access partnership helping with the mobile showers and loved that. And then the trauma education department was born last October and so I have been doing that Recently, was promoted to director of the department as my boss, courtney Barr, was promoted, and so I have just really been loving that and love. I do a guest class once a week on Thursdays and then do staff trainings on Tuesdays and I truly just love getting to work with the people, and anytime it feels tedious or like I'm not getting through to people, there's that one person that says, oh, that makes sense, or I get that, or I've been there and it's. Those are a large part of my why.
Speaker 3:So I'm so curious. You've used that word love multiple times. What does that mean? What does that look like? What do you love? I mean, what do you love about? The people that we serve.
Speaker 5:Oh goodness, I think for me, part of it is just it's so biblical that we are to love the least of these. God says we are to love everyone, but there's a specific emphasis on loving the least of these, and I have just heard stories from our people of how they have not felt loved before, they have not felt supported. They have felt turned away and stepped over and ignored, and it just has always broken my heart. And so getting to come alongside them, sit across from somebody and hear their story or tell them that they are loved, that they do have worth, that is everything that is worth it for me. I think I see it as a huge, just blessing to be able to say that this is what I do for a job, that I get to love on people and tell those who don't have a support system that they are supported, that they are loved, and see the growth that couldn't come from that.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure, absolutely, and I think what I hear you saying too is and I heard Mark is saying it too it's not so much what we get to do as what we get to receive because of the people that we're working with.
Speaker 5:There was one woman in particular who the guest classes that I teach.
Speaker 5:It's an eight-week curriculum and our very first round of doing it there were three individuals who attended all eight and so we celebrated them a little bit, we took pictures, we had certificates at the end and one woman who had actually been a guest when I was working at the shelter was back and she had gone through those classes and she got her certificate and her joy when she came up to myself and Courtney and she said I thought that it was too late for me.
Speaker 5:She said that I thought I was beyond healing. I didn't know that I was able to change. I didn't know that I was able to get better. She said she knew that those classes weren't enough for complete healing, which I love to hear because they are a good start. But just to hear that from her and know that I don't know how many others have had that perspective and just didn't voice it that they thought that it was too late for them, I'm sure anybody who has seen Kenny's story shared on our Facebook or through our Night of Praise 43 years of addiction and God turned his life around, and there are so many stories like that and I think that that is another huge part of my why with TRM is that it's never too late for anybody.
Speaker 3:And we get to see God work.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 3:Right, we get to see God work. It's so fun, yeah, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2:Amanda Merriam, a lot of folks probably don't realize that Tipeka Rescue Mission is beyond three hots in a cot and we have individuals like Cody who are here that specifically are certified and trained to dig into the trauma that people have experienced and to help them know right where they are to be able to go to that next place in life. And that's pretty powerful. That Tipeka Rescue Mission is invested in the why that people come to the rescue mission yes, and they're broken to intervene.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and I don't know, and I think it's so amazing, like just with what Cody is saying or what Marcus, we continue to feel it right. The longer we're here, the more we feel that too. It's not like it stops or like we were just on a honeymoon phase. It like it just continues.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. It's not a kind of cool thing to do.
Speaker 3:No, it's a necessary thing to do, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, another part of the why, amanda, you've invited another person to share on your team here.
Speaker 4:We're playing like musical chairs right now.
Speaker 2:We are. We don't have that many mics, I know, so you hear a little noise in the background. That's what's going on.
Speaker 4:They're just shuffling around. Next up we have Haley Hipscher, who is our director of Street Outreach and is so excited about speaking in a microphone, Right.
Speaker 8:That's correct.
Speaker 4:No, haley has been an outreach advocate for two and a half years and has really just served and served and served and served, and I have seen her do everything from Dr Woonz physically to Dr Woonz emotionally and internally, and the reason we have incredible relationships right now with people that are unsheltered and that are hurting and in our city, on our streets, is primarily because of Haley's heart, and so I would say that I invited her to this. But I think we're going to have to say like volent old, I think I remember Pretty much Right.
Speaker 2:She walked through the room and you put a rope around her and pulled her into the room.
Speaker 4:I'm pretty sure I did. That's how I did it. She said she was headed to the streets and you said not yet. And I said not yet because she's one that I can't give her a lot of heads up because then she might try to run away from me. But, haley, anybody that knows you either knows you for taking selfies because of how you document memories or how you love on them, and so talk to us real quick about why are the people that you serve worthy of the love that you give?
Speaker 8:Oh goodness. Well, thank you for having me, amanda. Yes, barry, you're correct, I was getting on the street. You know, a lot of times you'll hear homeless people. Might as well call them other people. Yes, for me, we in our TRM, we call them our people, our neighbors, and you know, whenever I came to TRM I thought I was going to be helping and.
Speaker 8:I didn't realize how much TRM would help me, and that's a whole nother story. But you know, I know what it's like to not have a lot of people around me close to my corner and of course I've had good people all my life, but to really have those core people, I didn't know what that was like. And then God said I'm going to bless you with this, and he did that so that I would understand the power of relationship. And so, you know, when I see people, I just imagine, well, I know, I know somewhat of what they're going through, because the relationship piece I think we can all relate to of unless I'm crazy, I think we all long to have close relationships with one another to be told, hey, you matter, you are loved and you might be at rock bottom, but you're not going to be there alone. And so, you know, I don't know. When I see somebody, I just think, man, god has allowed me a spot right next to them and I'm going to be there through it all, lord willing.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, and so impressed. Somehow the unsheltered neighbors trust Haley and they admire her and she just has that aura about her of you matter. She also advocates very well for them and she's an analyst and she designed stuff to make this thing better and that's what. It's just a few of the cool things about her.
Speaker 4:I agree, haley. You not only have to balance. You know safety of going out in encampments and equipment and resources and things like that, but there's also this emotional connection that you make to people, and with emotional connection also comes emotional weight. And so why do you continue to say yes when it is so hard? You know you might engage with someone for a year and they're still not ready for healing yet. How are you able to maintain your why and your why so intense? Like you, you don't love a little, you love big. And how are you able to do that when it's so difficult?
Speaker 8:You know, I've learned that anybody can do this job, maybe for a week a month, but the true test is staying long term and to be able to say that I've been here almost three years, it's only because of God. Many times I've told him the Lord, I'm quitting, and he said you can say what you want, I'll see you in the morning.
Speaker 8:And that's just me being real. It is such a hard job because there is so much weight and just so much brokenness and hurt. But at the same time the Lord says I'm going to give you what you need for today. And I will tell you this job. It's been hard, it's taught me a lot, but, goodness, if it's taught me anything, it's how much the Lord loves these people, and yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm going to push you a little. You're used to that. What keeps you awake at night?
Speaker 8:The misunderstanding around our people and they choose to be here. They're lazy, you know just what's easy to believe, especially when your arm length away. But once you're brave enough to step foot closer and you say, hey, I want to know your name and I want to know your story, it'll break your heart. Every time. I would love to be able to say there's one person that I could think of that oh, maybe it was just them choosing. But that's not the reality. And yeah, that message needs to change that these people are desperate for help and, of course, resources are limited in Topeka, but if we show them the route, a majority of them will take it. They just they don't know where to go and so for now, they're relying on TRM, vallejo, tpd, folks that are doing outreach and saying, hey, we're going to be with you. If we can help you, we're going to do it, but you're not alone. And that's just the message that we try to communicate.
Speaker 2:Amanda Haley's answer hit you to the core.
Speaker 4:You're not supposed to talk about that, because they can't see me.
Speaker 2:But I'm helping people to see verbally that Haley's answer hit you to the core.
Speaker 4:I think it hits me to a core because it's probably something that keeps a lot of us awake at night. We are in such a divisive time and there are so many opinions and there are so many ideas and stigmas and things surrounding homelessness. When we talk about the topic of homelessness, let's be real. It's the people experiencing homelessness. It's people I feel like.
Speaker 4:One of the things that is just a constant balancing act for myself is to get the word out there to our community that, as the executive director, I care about our businesses, I care about our nonprofits, I care about our business organizations that are out there and I care about our churches.
Speaker 4:I care about our neighborhoods and their concerns about homelessness and, because I'm a part of this community, but also balancing that with, I also care for the individuals who are on the streets because they are a part of our community and, while I don't want businesses damaged or I don't want people to be scared in their own homes because someone that's having a crisis, who could or could not be experiencing homelessness, I don't want that for them.
Speaker 4:But God has called me to be a bridge, to have a balance of compassion and strategy, have a balance of love and accountability, have a balance of logistics with strategy. We can do all of that. But right now I've got to be honest I feel like we're just losing a little bit of the humanity piece and we're making a lot of knee-jerk reactions nationwide and that has me concerned because that's not going to set well with the Lord. We're precious to him and he's coming for his people and we see that biblically and we see his relentless pursuit of people who other people had deemed unworthy. And ourselves in TRM will not do that same mistake. We will continue to pursue every person out there that we can.
Speaker 2:So that's part of the why of having Haley's out on the streets, to make sure that the folks that feel forgotten, that feel like no one cares or maybe isn't angry at them, that they do matter. And that's why you are bridging this, amanda, your why of being in the trench, of trying to help people, to see the needs on both sides of the coin, if that's the right way to put it, but that everybody matters, whether they are a citizen that has never experienced homelessness or somebody who has maybe been in the streets for years. That we are people and that's the why Absolutely Sorry to throw that one at you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just don't look at me anymore, Barry. What the heck.
Speaker 2:Well, I wasn't looking at you, I saw you. I know Reach for a Kleenex, so anyway, yeah, so you want?
Speaker 4:to introduce our next judge. Sorry, I will.
Speaker 3:You know, we are just so fortunate to just have so many wonderful people working with us, right? Some people that have been here for long periods of time and some people that have been here at short, for short time periods, but what's always so fascinating is that everybody who comes here just feels called, like this is where they're supposed to be, and that isn't anything that is unusual when it comes to our director of strategic development and communications and marketing, and that's Jesse Matthias. And so it's wonderful to have you here, and I know you haven't been on board.
Speaker 3:You've been on board how long now? Since June 19th, I know. In perspective, yeah, pretty short a period of time, true, yes? So share with us, jesse, about what you've learned since you've come here.
Speaker 6:Oh, my goodness, Do we have another hour? Yeah, I think. Yes, I've learned a lot about marketing and development and our donor base, because I also have a lot to do with that as well, but I think I've learned more about God and what his purpose is. Here at TRM, I have never been so surrounded by people that show Christ every day, and it's just been. And I hate to say that I'm here for like a selfish reason because I'm not, but I've seen God work more in this short amount of time than I think I have in my entire life.
Speaker 3:Talk more about that. What does that mean? To see God here?
Speaker 6:It means that the people that work here, the people that volunteer here, truly know what it means to walk like Christ did. And what I mean by that is when my opportunity, the one opportunity they had to go out with Haley for street reach and I'm just using this one example. There's many, but no one in outside of TRM and maybe they do think about these kinds of things. But when you drive by campsites and people panhandling on the streets, most people just drive right by and they think, oh well, that person's, whatever their thoughts are about that particular individual. No, not positive at all. That is not what we do here.
Speaker 6:We went down into the camp by the river and those people I've never seen such those people were so positive down there. And I think it's because Haley and Daniel, they know that they can count on them, they know that they're going to provide, they know that they're going to help and they know that they may not know that it's God that's moving us, but they are seeing God out there on the streets every day by the street reach team, our teams here at the actual shelters, just by being the hands and feet of Christ. And that comes through in so many different ways, but I am just so grateful to be here and to be a part of it. It's just truly been so eye-opening for me as an individual, sure.
Speaker 3:Sure, and I'm so grateful that you think about when you are asked why you stay, because we know, we know right, yeah, but all of us can go other places and potentially have a more significant financial gain. We know that we can go places where we don't necessarily come in contact with the day-to-day struggles that people have, the heartbreaking stuff that we get to see. So what do you tell people when they ask you why you're here?
Speaker 6:Well, I truly believe that the Lord gave me a servant heart and that's what I get to do here every day. We get to serve people and that is the heart that I was given and I believe that's the heart of Jesus. And so, you know, just like Hailey said, sometimes I'll tell the Lord, you know, I'm just going to go somewhere else and I wake up every day and I come here and it's like the feeling that I get from coming here every day and being surrounded by the people that I not only get to work with I am kind of behind the scenes so I don't get to, you know, see a lot of the guests and stuff. But when I do and I have had, you know, had the opportunity to help a few times I realize why I'm here. It's a smile, it's a welcoming that these people don't often get to see, and I think that when they see that coming from someone and they see that love of Christ shining through, that's why we do what we do.
Speaker 3:And I think it's so interesting. I think all of us who don't have that day to day direct contact with folks, we crave it Right when we're doing the behind the scenes stuff. Those of us then that eventually you guys let us out from the cabinets that you've put us in.
Speaker 4:We let you run wild.
Speaker 3:That joy of being around the people that we serve and the reminder of how special people are comes through, and I think that's what I'm hearing Jesse say too. It's because we don't face it every day, I think it's even extra special. It is I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2:We've had a few staff here today who have shared their why about Tipeka Rescue Mission on this Giving Tuesday. There's a lot more staff that we could have had in here.
Speaker 2:There are volunteers, hundreds of them, that have a why. There are donors who have a why that they contribute financially to Tipeka Rescue Mission. There are prayer warriors that have their why. So God has created an army of why. People understand that the people are important, they're His why and all of us are important. And so, yeah, there was one more person that we didn't ask their why and that's Merriam. So, merriam, we've said this a number of times on our community, our mission, about your background, a couple of different United Ways Chamber of Commerce out in California, bakersfield, you know, director United Way, director United Way and Tipeka came to the Rescue Mission to help coordinate Christmas a few years ago.
Speaker 3:It was a great date.
Speaker 2:And so it was the big test to see if you were going to stay. Why have you stayed now, for how many years?
Speaker 3:You know well, first and foremost, I just don't think that there's any place else I'm supposed to be, but there is no place that I've ever been, and I was a nurse for quite a few years, right, and so I got to see people in difficult situations and know that I was making a difference for them you know, maybe not with making them feel 100% better right away, but I knew that I was helping them and that they appreciated that.
Speaker 3:But having been through the career path that I've been on and coming to the mission was the most humbling, transformational experience I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 3:To talk with the folks that we have the opportunity to serve is just more than what I can honestly put into words.
Speaker 3:Well, because in the other places that I've been and they were wonderful places to work you can't necessarily be very open about all of your hurts or all of your struggles or all of your wounds or the cruddy parts of your life.
Speaker 3:You just don't do that right, because you put on a face for whatever reason, and not that you're inauthentic, but you're just protective of those pieces of you.
Speaker 3:And then I come to the mission and there are people that just offer up themselves, whether it's staff or guests, that just give the gift of themselves without hesitation.
Speaker 3:They just are vulnerable and they trust you and they just give you all of those things that most of us don't want to give to other people. And that is life-changing and it's such a great reminder of the God we serve and how he wants us to come to him with all of our stuff, not like he doesn't know anyway, but to verbalize and give him all of our stuff and feel the compassion and peace then that comes with doing that and that's why I stay here, because I receive so much more than I ever will be able to give back, just because of this place and the role that God has for each of us in this place. This is his. Every, every bit of what we do is the Lord's and I want to be there. I want to be where the Lord wants all of us to be and I want to be where he wants me to be, and he has been faithful in letting that opportunity be here for me.
Speaker 2:Very well said, maryam. Thank you for sharing transparently. You know, I think, something that you just tapped in on. This is kind of an unusual place, isn't it, amanda, compared to a lot of other places, to where we help broken through brokenness, and our loving Savior, jesus Christ, identified with brokenness. He was broken for us so that we might one day not be broken anymore.
Speaker 2:But in the meantime, whether you're listening today, on November 28th of 2023, or you're listening sometime down, the future is that it's okay to be broken, because the Lord understands and you just might be the instrument in someone else's brokenness. Might be somebody to sit at the grocery store this afternoon, or maybe somebody that you have as a neighbor next door, maybe somebody in your own home, or maybe at your local homeless shelter, like the Topeka Rescue Mission, or out on the streets or whatever. Everybody's broken, and so the thing about the why of Topeka Rescue Mission is it recognizes that in everybody and that God is here to heal the broken and to love the broken. There's a scripture that says you have been, you have freely received, so freely give, and so we've received from the Lord and we want to give really back to the Lord, whether you're a donor today, on this Giving Tuesday. You're a prayer warrior, you're a volunteer, you're a staff member or just somebody who's interested in the issue of those who are broken?
Speaker 2:You can find information about TRM to pick a rescue mission on the website at trmonlineorg. That's trmonlineorg, and thank you for listening to this historical 200th podcast. And so, josh, are you ready for 200 more? He's got his thumbs up, so here we go and thank you for being a part of our community, our mission. If you'd like to help promote the podcast of our community, our mission, you can subscribe, rate or share. Thank you for joining us today on Giving Tuesday 2023, episode 200.