Christmas time is here!
Listen in as we visit with Holton Witman, Director of Distribution Services, and Mike Schoettle, Assistant Director of Distribution Services, about all the amazing things going on at the Distribution Center during this special time of year. From preparing and delivering gifts to trusting God to provide in amazing ways.
Through your support, we're able to bless those in need in very special ways.
Grab a special gift off our Amazon Wish Lists for a specific person!
Guests: https://a.co/g0lmLZs
Unsheltered Neighbors: https://a.co/dau509L
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Christmas time is here!
Listen in as we visit with Holton Witman, Director of Distribution Services, and Mike Schoettle, Assistant Director of Distribution Services, about all the amazing things going on at the Distribution Center during this special time of year. From preparing and delivering gifts to trusting God to provide in amazing ways.
Through your support, we're able to bless those in need in very special ways.
Grab a special gift off our Amazon Wish Lists for a specific person!
Guests: https://a.co/g0lmLZs
Unsheltered Neighbors: https://a.co/dau509L
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and your blessings and provisions. God, thank you for this time and this podcast, and Lord, thank you as we enter this holiday season and celebrate Christmas and the birth of your son. Lord, we just thank you for this time and Lord, just pray that this podcast would be a blessing to those who hear a Lord in your holy name. We pray, amen, and.
Speaker 3:Hello everybody. You're listening to our community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka rescue mission with brand new music for the holiday season. This is Barry Fieker, your host. This is Wednesday, december 6, 2023, episode 201. Mariam Amanda, that's some pretty jazzy music there. It is, it is, it's special. Yeah, I mean it just kind of go ahead out of your depressed spirit since Kansas City Chiefs lost to the green hog packers.
Speaker 2:And so, and it was a pathetic game, pathetic game, pathetic game. So this is my little bit.
Speaker 3:We have a. We have a green hog packer with us here today, and yeah, we do, and so we'll talk to him in a little bit and but anyway, so we're, we're, we're rocking and rolling here in this beautiful time of year Christmas season and so we're gonna do our traditional things here, and then we're gonna get into talking a little bit about more Christmas at the mission. But first of all, Wednesday December 6th is what kind of national day?
Speaker 2:Amanda, you're on.
Speaker 4:It is scientists calculated that for Santa to deliver presents for every time.
Speaker 3:It's also Something else day, it's kind of oven day, microwave. Did you know there's a national Micro? Okay, one last thing here, and the man I know this is something especially for you. These are not on the list. It's national. It's national, something that you need help with every day. It's national I need help with. Yeah don't you, I do it just fine.
Speaker 4:Thank you, sir. Are you sure? Let's talk about you putting on your boots.
Speaker 3:My boots is easy, it's not no. Put on your own shoes day, oh, your own shoes day, yes. So some interesting facts to in regards to the Christmas season is Scientists have calculated for Santa to deliver the presents to every home in the world, he would have to travel at the speed of speed of how many miles per hour?
Speaker 2:Millions millions?
Speaker 3:No, no, it is four thousand nine hundred twenty no four million. Four million nine hundred twenty one thousand two hundred miles per hour. Yeah, that's fast. I wasn't good at math.
Speaker 4:Okay, and I'm not. I think we have embarrassed Josh. It's probably good. It's a podcast.
Speaker 3:He came up with this stuff. Josh, you make this stuff up. Is this really true?
Speaker 2:It's good. Oh well, that makes it true.
Speaker 3:All right, in the 12 days of Christmas, all gifts. Mission within the song. Add up to how many gifts 12 days of Christmas. You know they repeat those gifts over and over and over again. So how many total gifts are in the 12 days of Christmas in the song?
Speaker 2:I have to actually do the math 364, it's a rip-off Is it, yeah, one day's gone.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 4:I really did remember that as a kid I didn't know, that.
Speaker 2:I was gonna have to add 11 plus 10 plus 9.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we should have. We don't have that much time.
Speaker 2:Thank you for so.
Speaker 3:Christmas cards are still a thing. Yes, yeah, believe it or not, and people still get Christmas cards. Oh, sometimes you get stuff from people that you don't ever remember. Yes, but you still get them. And in the US, there are how many Christmas cards sold annually?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna say millions wrong.
Speaker 3:I.
Speaker 4:Am gonna say billions.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh, yes, how many billion. You know, to 10 billion. Uh-huh, some billions, yep, some billions three billion Christmas cards are sold annually in the United States only. Yeah, and you, when you think about email and you think about Facebook, and you think about X and you think about all those things, still still three billion Christmas cards sold, yeah it's sold and I wonder so it's?
Speaker 2:it would be curious how much of the post office budget it's based on the holidays, and on Christmas in particular, because of those three billion sold annually in the US, some are probably getting sent in July. That Does it get her on time.
Speaker 3:I'm in so trouble with my post office.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say you're never getting any mail ever.
Speaker 3:All right, two more. The average Christmas tree before its sale will grow for how many years the average Christmas tree before it. So this is a real one, not the ones that you get out of Walmart, but the average tree will grow how many years before it's sold. I looked yes.
Speaker 4:Do you still want me to say it? I'm trying to be honest. Do you believe it? This is Google. Josh would not lie to us. All right, 15 years, 15 years, 15 years.
Speaker 3:Makes sense, yeah, and then you go cut it down.
Speaker 4:I know.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I've got a fake tree. I've had one for 40 years, so all right. Last one, all right. Now, this is a biggie here. Everybody knows what Legos are, right Legos, yes we do know what Legos are Legos. It's how we built to be a rescue mission with Legos. It's the the next expansion project for the homeless Legos because they hold up. I'm just kidding everybody during the holiday period around, how many sets of Legos were sold per second? During the holiday period, lego sets were sold how many per second?
Speaker 2:yet that this is an amazing number. I wouldn't have ever known this. Yeah, I wouldn't have ever known. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah no, you want to tell us take a wild guess per second, how many sets are sold per second during the holiday? Per second, per second 10?. Yeah, no, it's 28. 28 sets are sold per second and they're not cheap. And why did not we get into the greeting card business?
Speaker 2:I know Exactly, I'm serious we would have.
Speaker 3:we'd be able to hire somebody to do this podcast. Yes, we would.
Speaker 2:They wouldn't do it as well, yeah.
Speaker 3:So anyway, so those are interesting facts. Mary, you're in giving yeah, update on that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know we are so blessed that we have generous donors that give us throughout the year.
Speaker 2:Some people give monthly to us, some people give quarterly, some people give annually, some people give more than more than monthly.
Speaker 2:I think when Josh and I are opening stuff every now and then we see people that give to us weekly and but at the end of the year we're always really looking toward being able to meet our budget and to also keep our budget really healthy so that we can start the next year on a strong footing for all of the people that we have to serve. So we just really would like to encourage people that if they are able to give just a little bit more to the mission between now and the end of the year to be able to help us meet the ever increasing needs. You know we're seeing more people who are experiencing homelessness. We're seeing more people who are needing access to food because hunger is an issue. They're having a difficult time making ends meet and so the mission can really step up and help them by helping them with food. So if folks can just prayerfully consider giving to TRM maybe a special end of your gift, we would so appreciate it.
Speaker 6:And how can people do?
Speaker 2:that they can give online at trmonlineorg and just click the donate now button. They can send in a check to our PO box. At PO box, oh goodness, a three, five zero. I'm like, oh, that's worse than those questions you ask. So again, they can mail it into PO box. A three, five zero to Pika Kansas six, six, six, zero eight.
Speaker 2:Or they can drop it off to us. There's so many different ways. They can give gifts of stock and just talk with their advisor and their advisor will send us a check, so there's all different kinds of ways that people can give.
Speaker 3:You know what I've been amazed at in the 70 year history of Tipeka rescue mission. People have been very generous.
Speaker 3:Of course, and it's not a questionable organization in regards to its impact and it's not a questionable community in regards to this generosity. You bring those two together. It represents tangible hope to people. Costs have gone up as, as Amanda has unpacked Maybe you've unpacked as well is a year ago, case or a palette of peanut butter was a thousand dollars and it's 2000 now. All of these costs have come up and so and so, as well as the donors, their costs have gone up with everything as well, I'm singing.
Speaker 3:It's Christmas and the snows come in.
Speaker 2:I'm Christmas and I'm singing. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 4:Merry Christmas, happy New Year. What in the world it's Christmas, I've heard a term.
Speaker 3:Every circus has to have clowns and we have our own clowns at the rescue.
Speaker 4:We do, and it's those two, those two.
Speaker 3:So thanks guys for interrupting very serious statement that I was making.
Speaker 5:But I was just wanting somebody else to make sure that it was OK.
Speaker 3:Anyway, we have Holton Whitman here and Mike Shottle. They've been on our community or mission way too many times. So one more time yeah, that song was that. One more time I'm here again, but anyway, guys, thanks for showing up and joining our community or mission at this Christmas season. Holton, you're the director of distribution services, mike Shottle has been your assistant director and he's moving into a new position of director of spiritual wellness and discipleship. That's a pretty cool deal, so we're going to focus on and also Depends on perspective.
Speaker 2:Doesn't it help? It does it really does you guys?
Speaker 3:are the court gestures at the peak of rescue mission, but also you get some work done, and so this is a time of year to really get work done, and thank you for interjecting yourself in here with your beautiful voices.
Speaker 6:Probably should just say go, pack go. That's probably what I said.
Speaker 3:This is our green bay meat packers fan over here and so and they did happen to pull off a thing because they played in Green Bay and all the rest were from. Green Bay so anyway, yeah, so, but Holton Whitman, he for all of you, if you would like his address and what kind of car he drives. He loves color red, so just help him out. Anyway, Holton, Mike, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2:Sort of Thank you.
Speaker 3:And so how's it going in regards to getting ready for this big distribution?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's going. It's going really well. You know, I just kind of personally. Last year was my first Christmas at TRM. I mean I started with my first Christmas on the street reach, but I got here in November and I had no idea what was going on or really what was all involved in this. And the last year was my really my first Christmas as the director of distribution services and I have learned so much and so things are going a lot better because I know more now and it's just able to plan ahead a little bit better. But it's not just the planning. Christmas is going well because our community is so generous and we have just seen outpourings of blessings, material in material goods and donations of toys and gifts for teens and all of that stuff. But also financially it's just been, it's just been really awesome and so we're off to a good start, believe it or not. I mean, we're December 6th today and Christmas has been going on for months at this point, just because it's such a big undertaking.
Speaker 3:But so things are well under. You're in the position of directing these distribution. So you receive donated items, you also distribute them. You do that all year long. Christmas is just a little extra ordinary in regards to the number of people, the way you distribute all new gifts, food baskets, everything we adopt from Christmas Bureau. We have people staying at the rescue mission, we have individuals who are the unsheltered, and so all of that's going to flow through you guys. Is that a bit of a heavy responsibility?
Speaker 6:It is, it's, it's a lot of work. And not only is it just a lot of work, but it's also it is there's a lot of responsibility there too, because you're in charge of really providing a lot of hope and a lot of joy for folks who might not have it otherwise.
Speaker 3:Have you ever had a moment, since you took this job of distribution especially this year with Christmas and so forth being in in charge of that unit A little bit of worry or doubt?
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, I cry all the time. I panicked cry.
Speaker 4:I was going to say I'm going to stand at him to make sure that he's being honest with you, Barry.
Speaker 3:They were getting ready to pounce on you if you were lying, so so so it's a faith ministry, faith with its sleeves rolled up, and we've seen God supply over and over and over again. And when we say God supply, we don't normally see man drop from heaven, but we see God, god touch hearts of people. So then bring in the man, so to speak, to bless. And so it's kind of a really cool partnership of to pick a rescue mission, be in the conduit, people listening to the Lord, being motivated and moved by what they know to do, and then they come and drop it in on you.
Speaker 6:However, it's not a guarantee, is it? It's not, and we do so much planning ahead of time without having any of the stuff that we need to make those plans come to fruition. And then the Lord just shows up over and over and over again, and I see it in individuals who just say you know, I just had really had this laid on my heart this year and I want to donate toys, or, you know, this is really something that's on my mind and I really would like to give, you know, flashlights for the folks that are on the streets. And it's just, it never fails. What we need and what we're banking on just happens to come through that door.
Speaker 6:And it's just it's nothing short of miraculous.
Speaker 3:So you don't wait till the last minute to decide how many you're going to take care of. You decide ahead of time how many you believe you're supposed to take care of. No-transcript, you hope. Pray and cry a little bit, did it's gonna make it, yeah, yeah. So what's the biggest lesson you've learned?
Speaker 6:Oh, it's hard to boil it down to a singular lesson, but I think that one of the things and I it's a lesson I learn over and over and over and over again is don't get ahead of God and trust his generosity, because he has such a generous heart and Sometimes it's it's tempting in our humanness to want to plan and take control over things, and that's just not the way God operates.
Speaker 6:He's got his own time and his own schedule for things and he wants to partner with us in that. So it's not that he's not asking us to plan. He wants us to be good stewards with what we have, with our time, with our resources, with our volunteers. He wants us to do all of that, but he also wants to join us on that journey, and so much of the time it's what he does on that path and on that journey. It's not necessarily you know the end result, and so if we Get ahead of him, we just miss out on some of the blessing. And so trust God's generosity and don't get ahead of him, you know that's. Those are some constant reminders for me.
Speaker 3:So it's not the normal way doing stuff. You kind of look at your budget, see how much we're gonna have to spend. Then we decide how much we're gonna do for Christmas. Right, I mean, that's unless you got to be credit card and so the rescue mission doesn't have one of those. Maryam, you've been involved in this and the man, and now you have as well. How do you decide how many people are gonna try to take care of it Christmas? How do you make that decision? Because there's a lot of needs in the community. There's the Christmas Bureau, there's the unknown amount of guests that may stay at the rescue mission. We don't always know what the unchilder population is gonna look like. How do you pick that number out of the air and then say here's our target?
Speaker 2:We do it exactly like that. We pick a number out of the air, thinking, well, this sounds reasonable, and then we go from there and the Lord keeps bringing us extra families and extra family, and extra families, and then he blesses us with so many things that then we call united way and say, oh, by the way, we can take more. You know, I mean, there's just so many things, but honestly it's, it is looking for the spiritual application of the shuttle.
Speaker 3:Help us out here.
Speaker 2:It is not, but then the Lord just provides right, and then we, then we know why we're not meant to pick a number Right, because we won't ever be right.
Speaker 3:The Lord will always exceed what we think we can do so always, if you pick thousand people To try to take care of, you believe the Lord is gonna provide for a thousand people.
Speaker 2:He's gonna provide for probably 1200 people, right, because he always exceeds what we think we can do. He always, every year that I've been doing this, been here at the mission the couple of years when I did it. No one, because nobody can do it two years in a row and. I Seriously. He exceeds the expectation of what we think we can do every single time.
Speaker 3:Amanda's executive director, you Challenge your staff to believe, to move forward, to do things that a lot of other people would even consider doing. Mm-hmm. How do you keep your team motivated to keep moving forward in times when you know we never know when a sickness is gonna hit and it did here we can have two weeks ago, almost the whole distribution center was on the sideline because of illness, but yet you couldn't stop. How's, how does that rest with you to say the season isn't gonna stop, the needs not gonna stop the, the obligations that we have committed to aren't gonna stop. You still don't know how, when you're gonna, people gonna get it. Well, you don't know if the gifts are gonna come in. How do you stay motivated and how do you motivate your team?
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm. I think my biggest motivator is just knowing that we are on a mission for the Lord, and when you wake up every day with the outlook of Knowing the impact that you're gonna make on people, not because of anything we do, but because of the opportunities that God gives us from people that he sends our way or People that we meet along the way that are just in such dire need of Hope or struggle and and, and they just need physical things, and so I think that doesn't mean that I always have great and easy days, but it keeps me motivated when I realize this isn't about me. Like you, you put yourself last so that you can put others first, and so, knowing that I'm here on a mission and that our team is on a mission for the Lord, everything else just looks really superficial. Like we, we it's not just a choice to keep coming, it's, it's determination and it's passion.
Speaker 4:As far as, how do I keep the team motivated? I'm actually going to put that on Hulton. So, hulton, how would you say, as a supervisor of you and we just kind of walked through this the last couple of weeks what would you say? As far as my leadership, how does that keep you motivated. What have I done?
Speaker 3:Fear.
Speaker 6:Just terrified. That was very everyone.
Speaker 3:Mission cries a lot, so that's the only reason.
Speaker 6:I think there's a couple of things.
Speaker 6:The Amanda is extremely vulnerable and she's genuine, and so I know that it's okay that I can struggle with things, because I see her struggle with things and then just do it in the Lord.
Speaker 6:And so when I'm having a panic moment or whatever, I know that's okay because I've seen Amanda be genuine in those same type of situations, which is huge because it then gives me some peace because I'm like, okay, it's okay that I don't have it figured out right now, it's okay that I don't necessarily have a plan moving forward, because everything just fell apart. It'll be all right, because I've seen that modeled. And so then what that allows me to do is then take that and then model that from my team and say, hey, yeah, everything's kind of crazy because everybody got COVID and it's a little nuts right now, but it's okay. And then that just kind of keeps going on down and that keeps you motivated, because you also realize that it's like, whatever circumstance you're in, god's bigger than that circumstance and he's got that under control. And it's not about me and it's not about Amanda and it's not about Mike. It's about what the Lord's doing in Topeka to move in the hearts of people.
Speaker 4:And I would just say, in addition to that, the second thing for me that is motivating is my team. So they are depending on the Lord, like I just mentioned, but they're also depending on me every day to show up and to be what they need, and so I try really hard to stay close and connected to as many TRM family members that's what we call each other as possible. But when you build those relationships in the rapport, then when you have those panic moments, like we did in the last two weeks, we had sickness and COVID and all of this where really operations needed to stop, but it didn't happen. And it didn't happen because I went to Holton and Holton could trust me when I said, holton, if you don't have this, it's okay, and Holton said you're right, I don't know what we're going to do, because here's the next things that we have planned out for the next 14 days. And so then I called in James and I called in Christian and I called them in because they have different parts of the operations at the rescue mission. So the other part to this is the team members themselves. When I look at the jobs that they're all doing, that motivates me. But then the other side of it is. I also try to keep that relationship good and strong in the rapport with all of my team members so that when we get in stressful situations we can depend on each other.
Speaker 4:And at the rescue mission we function independently as far as the different parts of our ministry, but we are functioning as a part of the church and so what we did was we tagged in and Miriam and Courtney were on standby for certain responsibilities that the DC had.
Speaker 4:They're two other deputies, christian and James, both put on different hats and they did some moving people in completions of programs, and they did all of this. I pulled from James's team, I pulled from Christian's teams, we pulled from Miriam's to work at the DC Food service. Sally came over, she helped us organize the toys that were being dropped off, and so this other part of it is the motivation. There is each other, and so sometimes the team looks at me for motivation, sometimes I look at them for motivation, and then sometimes we are all looking at each other in the Lord for motivation because it can get challenging, but it's also beautiful because the relationships are there and so there's trust. That happens and that's something that we'll always remember is hey, when we got in that predicament, we all came together and still made it happen, because people are depending on it, that's what a team does when they know there's no retreat.
Speaker 3:You cannot not do this. You cannot not do this. Mike Schottel, you've been with Topeka Rescue Mission for four years.
Speaker 5:Five and a half years, five and a half, okay, and I'm pleased.
Speaker 3:The joy of that has been at the distribution, yep. And so, mike, what some people say and we've said this to every day is a distribution at the Peacock Mission in some fashion or another. What's different about Christmas? What's special about Christmas?
Speaker 5:I have always loved Christmas. I am the kind of person and I married a wonderful woman who is the same that Christmas season, Christmas music, Christmas decorations start on November 1.
Speaker 4:I love her.
Speaker 5:It's just wonderful. The shuttle household will always have a tree up on November 1st. So Christmas is always something that it's just a feeling of nostalgia, it's a feeling of you look at the prophecies of Christ coming and he will be a wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and there's just an overwhelming sense of peace that I always have. That I always feel no matter what struggles are going on in life, no matter what we're facing I mean my family right now. We're facing some pretty hard stuff right now, but still there's just this nostalgic peace that I feel because I know that the Lord is in control. I know he will get us out of these long nights, these dark nights of the soul. So, with TRM's Christmas being so special it's, I just take that and then put it on everybody else that I come in contact with.
Speaker 5:And then when Holton came on at the distribution center, he just really felt like you know, we need to be more intentional. We got to be intentional with these gifts. I'm like I got your back, but that's going to be a pretty big feat that we got to go. But let's do this. And one of the things that Holton brought up and we just through discussions were like we need to do a Christmas party for our guests because this is their home and do they feel like a family?
Speaker 5:No, and last year I told everybody who's new I'm like you better pick a room or pick a corner to go cry in when you're doing this party, because if you have a dry eye you might want to get some vising or get it figured out why you're not crying. Because these intentional gifts that we had for the women, for the men, for the children, I mean I probably cried for five minutes straight, bitterly cried for five minutes straight, because a little girl at the Hope Center was so excited just over a pair of socks and that joy that just came upon her face touched me that this is such a blessing that we can just profess and say that Jesus is Lord and he has provided and we are here to bless you. I was at the Hope Center for the party. Holton was at the men's shelter but both when the women and the men opened their presents it was like a fog had lifted from them and it was like they were kids again.
Speaker 5:There was one guy who told one of our employees at the distribution center that was there for the men's side party. He said I haven't opened a present in over 20 years and just seeing them go from depressed downtrodden beat to. I'm having the time of my life right now. A TRM Christmas. That's what it's better than a Hallmark movie you know, but that it's more real cut, done everything. Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 3:Do you see a difference, holton, mike, in regards to people who come to the distribution center? We talked about the guests and some reaction there in response. Do you see anything different in your distribution to people who are coming to pick up their Christmas Bureau, adoption presents, food baskets? I know you didn't stop this year in distributing. Sometimes over the years it decided we better hold off to the plan for Christmas. You said, no, the needs too great. We're going to do Christmas and regular operations. God bless you guys and your team. Do you see any kind of shifting going on, with just the spirit of people coming by? Is there more desperation or is there that spirit of Christmas?
Speaker 6:Yeah, absolutely so. I think one of the biggest shifts that we made was what you mentioned with food distribution. Through the holiday season this year I have had so many people who, when we told them that we realized things are hard and we want to stay with you and partner with you through this tough season, the relief that those families had when they realized that I can still come to TRM and I can still get my needs met when it comes to food, and then knowing that that maybe frees them up to maybe purchase a gift for their kids this year that they may have not been able to. And then you prepare that with we're starting to do some of the deliveries to our Christmas Bureau families that we've adopted, and it makes the biggest difference for these families who were hopeless as far as what they were going to do to provide for their kids or for their spouse or whatever this year, and it just makes it does truly bring hope. It does bring hope and it's not just the stuff that we're giving. It's not the food, it's not the gifts or the toys, it's that connection that's made during the process. That's what's so important about the food line the people and the faces that we get to know. That's what's so important about delivering and taking stuff to the people at their homes is just the richness of relationship that gets to be established during that process I've got.
Speaker 6:I had the pleasure of delivering a gift to an elderly lady last year for Christmas and we went there and she didn't even open the bag. She didn't care what we had in the bag, it didn't matter. But what really did matter was the fact that she lost her eldest son. Her husband is long gone and she hadn't seen anybody in a really long time, and so we spent an hour with her and it was a beautiful hour and it's those things that really spread that joy and that hope and the love of Jesus.
Speaker 3:I'm sure that touches everybody that's listening to that right now. Somebody get into the weeds, Okay, we've got Christmas Bureau folks that we adopt up from. Then we have the folks that are staying in the mission 240, 50, 60, whatever. Some of those are children. We have the unsheltered that the outreach teams are going to. So talk about some structure here. How does that work for people that don't get too far in the weeds? But how does this work from deciding out of thin air, Miriam, how many we're going to take care of and then trying to meet that need to the place where there's actually, like Houlton was just describing, distribution?
Speaker 2:You know I hesitate to even try to put it into words. It's a machine. It is a machine and you almost have to see it. I'm honestly not sure that words do justice to how many moving parts there are, because, yeah, there's all this gift giving things, like getting things in, sorting them, determining where they go, making phone calls. There's also the decorating of all of the shelters. There's also the making the environment feel right. There's also all of the things that have to happen because of, for instance, first, united Methodist just did their white gift Sunday, right, and so making sure that we have a team that can go out, be there when this is happening, bring all the gifts back. I mean, barry, there's just so many balls that have to stay in the air at the same time. And yet, if you would see the organization, literally the details that are covered at the DC, it is phenomenal, right. I would challenge any logistics manager to come in there and say, oh, you could do this so much better.
Speaker 3:We've had logistics. People come in and are shocked. Are shocked at the at the organizational.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness To this, where it is down to the specific detail of what somebody needs and the specific detail of what this group of volunteers is going to do to make this happen, which then trickles down to making this happen to then ends up being something that can be delivered to families by other volunteers and staff. It is a well oiled machine and, even when it doesn't look like it or feel like it to the people that are doing the planning for all of those volunteers that are coming into this environment, they feel like things are just unbelievably organized and they are stunned. Right so it doesn't even matter how those folks sitting across the table from me, mike and Holton, think it's going. It's because they know the, they know everything that's not going well, right, but for those people experiencing it the volunteers, the other staff, the people that are being blessed it looks like everything is absolutely in order all the time.
Speaker 6:And we got you guys fooled.
Speaker 3:It is managed chaos. It is managed chaos and in the management of it comes from experience, but even more so dedication systems that have worked in the past and learned and adapted and modified them to the current. Pandemics always change things and other things change things, numbers, things, but there's so many intangibles that you can't control, like where those gifts gonna come from.
Speaker 2:Where the volunteers gonna come from.
Speaker 3:And what's gonna hit, you know, in homes and the economy and so on and so forth. But again, I remember my first Christmas. There was a KBI agent who dressed up as a Santa Claus and brought a brown box of toys by for kids at the risk commission on the first Christmas. That was all we had and he came into Santa Claus and I thought we had nothing but the children got blessed. That deal Didn't ask him to do it, he just did it, and so compared to where this is today. So let's talk about numbers. How many people, amanda, in general, from community, inside the rescue mission shelter as well as on the streets, do you anticipate that are gonna be held this year?
Speaker 4:We're probably gonna be pushing 2000. I mean, when we look at, we're probably gonna be helping a minimum of what? 1000 people for Christmas Bureau, because we've agreed to 150 households, whatever that looks like. So some households have one, some could have nine or ten.
Speaker 2:Most of them have four.
Speaker 4:Yes, so if we look at that and then we are taking extra which you know we're always hesitant to say but I mean, just in the last 48 hours Miriam has gotten three different emails of people that have reached out in need and so that got forwarded to the distribution center and it's so hard because we have to have this logistics piece, but then the need is there and so we just trust the Lord is gonna provide for those people because he loves them, and we have to take a step of faith first and do it and know that the Lord is gonna provide. So we're looking at 1000 or so on that. We're looking at a minimum of probably 250 to 270 as far as guests go, because numbers increase, it's not a one day event.
Speaker 3:Some people are gonna be here, some people leave new people coming in. So what's the numbers add up.
Speaker 4:Yes, and sometimes it changes from that evening, from what it was that morning, and so the DC has extras and different age groups and stuff like that sizes to try to be able to do that, because everybody gets a gift that has their name on it. So even if it's someone who registered two hours before, our team is trying to pivot quickly and go and get the extra stuff and bring over. And they had to do it last year. And so we're looking at 250, 260 there. We're looking at probably 200 unsheltered. I mean we still have a couple of weeks or a week or so to do the surveys and collect some of that data and we're already over 100 for just that. So I mean, I don't know give or take 1500 to 2000. And that's just the big things that we're doing, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4:There's also a bunch of needs that pop up, whether it's someone doesn't have a meat, they don't have a turkey or a ham, they don't have something like that, or you would think that people are wanting, you know, big things.
Speaker 4:Sometimes we think Christmas is all about lavishness and it's really not. We see an increase in people asking for a toilet paper or Clorox wipes to be able to clean paper towels, a pillow, and so it just really puts things in perspective. So our distribution team, you know they're still taking care of the big things that I just mentioned. That total into that 1500 for Christmas gifts and things. That doesn't include 100 to 150 people a week that are then going to come through the distribution center and access the food line for the one day that we're doing it. That doesn't include the walk-ups that come up because it's a Wednesday and someone is needing feminine hygiene products. I mean, it happens all the time and so I think easily saying that we're going to touch a minimum of 2000 people this year set aside for needs over the next three weeks or so, is safe to say.
Speaker 3:That's not just 2000 pairs of socks.
Speaker 4:No, there's a lot of different gifts in there.
Speaker 3:You know, I kind of gave the post office a hard time a minute ago but number of years ago I think Maryam, you may have remembered this that they forwarded a letter to Santa Claus. Yes, To me it was an elderly, disabled man in our community that just wrote a letter to Santa and basically he had no family, he had a parakeet and had a home, and so we found out what his some of his needs were and we went over there and how blown away that guy was when we came into his house and had Santa Claus with us.
Speaker 3:And just to your point, Holton, with the lady who had lost her son and her husband.
Speaker 3:Before that you spent time with her, and it's hard to spend time with 2000 different people. It's hard to spend time and not everybody's going to get the same amount of time. There's not enough hours to spend an hour with 2000 different people between now and the end of the year. But you do whatever you can with whoever you can at the at the time to create in them a sense of I matter, when a lot of people at this time of year really question whether they matter or not. So what do we still need at Topeka Rescue Mission to take care of this monumental outpouring of care and love? And and there's food, there's gifts, there are specific items that people have requested. None of it's real elaborate. So what is it that you think that T-Ram still needs?
Speaker 5:So we do have our Amazon wishlist that you can access from our website. We do have an unsheltered wishlist and we do have a sheltered wishlist and other items that we can get just for the community as well. They you purchase them, they get sent to the distribution center. We get them. The Topeka First United Methodist there were some folks that were going to be out of town. They even just did that. They they'll bring all these white presents in on a Sunday. That's what they did this past Sunday.
Speaker 3:But we've had stuff delivered Just describe white presents. What do we mean by that? If I've seen it so many times, I remember the first time I was like holding them. They're like, you know, crying my eyes out.
Speaker 6:Man, I was the best.
Speaker 5:This is the fifth time I've seen it. It's just every time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, first, united Methodist has a very special way of blessing the folks in need and Topeka through the Topeka Rescuition. So what happens? Just pause on that for a moment because I think people need to hear this, so they I don't even know how long they've been doing it.
Speaker 5:One of the decades.
Speaker 3:Long time.
Speaker 5:Okay, Because one of the deacons was like I don't know how I'm going to wait. And I've been here forever, but they will.
Speaker 3:I was there the first time Beyond ever they will.
Speaker 5:They'll take a pair of socks, they'll take a crock pot, they'll wrap up some Rachel Ray pots and pans all in white. So why? It doesn't matter what size it is, everything's the same, it's all wrapped in white. It's all wrapped in white.
Speaker 3:White tissue paper Sometimes.
Speaker 5:White towels. White towels, pillow cases.
Speaker 3:What's what's what's the white thing.
Speaker 5:I mean it's, it's. It's a sign of love, but also it's a sign of purity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, purity of Christ, yeah. And so how do they? How do they then? Do they just bring it over all these white gifts, or do they have a ceremony and no, they know how to really jerk the tears out.
Speaker 5:You're not getting enough tears. Send the kids in, all right.
Speaker 3:Talk about that piece because that the first, the first year I digress a minute we had been praying for gifts. We were out of gifts, this poor we had, all of our buildings were in an old, old building and we'd been praying God, we do not have enough for that. That Christmas and this is after my initial first Christmas was the next year and I walked into the old warehouse and here is a pile of white packages. I had no idea where it came from. So you know where I thought it came from Directly from heaven.
Speaker 2:We pray your man. It was the man.
Speaker 3:It was all in white, it was a mountain of packages. Next year I found out there was a little more logistics to that. So holding Mike, how do they do that over there?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I mean, the heart behind it is bring what you have, bring what you can. You know, and it's all the same, and those gifts given in the spirit of Christmas and in honor of the King are just super, super, equal and super valuable in the eyes of the Lord. And so the idea is, you know, they collect these gifts over the you know, over the months, and they wrap them all up and then they have them all stored in the back and then they have these little kids, the little ones, the little ones, I mean just barely old enough to walk, and they're coming up and they're just handing these gifts up to you, choir, are some of?
Speaker 3:this amazing beautiful.
Speaker 3:Christmas music. It's little kids and some of them are barely able to walk and they get this package. They can't even see over, but they're going to look for the last guy they gave it to because he looks like a friendly, and so each time they'll come up and they'll look for the right person, because there's some staff there and some volunteers and the guys from the rescue mission and these little ones are just handing these packages off and the more and more they do, they keep going back and more and more and more, and that that mountain of gifts gets hot at one time it was higher than me and that was like amazing and spread out across that large, large platform that they have there and then brought back to the rest of the distribution. Yeah, it's beautiful experience, it is. Yeah, it's just the first time I actually saw it happen. I couldn't control myself. I was stop.
Speaker 6:I do want to just highlight something Mike said about the Amazon wish list. I want to bring a little attention to that. That is so important because the things that are on that list are things that our guests have specifically asked for. So we want to just be as intentional with our folks as we possibly can, and so we had some amazing volunteers go over and spend time in the cafeteria over lunch hours and dinner times and just sit down and met with people and said, hey, what do you want for Christmas? And so the things that are on that list, even if there's not a name assigned to it, there's a code, and that code correlates to somebody specific who is in our shelter, or a name of somebody who's on the streets, and so that is just a way to very easily and very simply be so intentional with the people that we're serving, and so I just highly encourage our listeners to take a look at that.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of love that goes into curating that list and get that stuff online, even just how excited they've been with our volunteers coming back. Just they're showing these pictures and they get so excited. It's like I can pick one of those things. Are you serious? It's like, yeah, it's amazing, go ahead and pick it.
Speaker 6:It's amazing, it's so much fun. People come back and they're like okay, so now that I've had a chance to think about it, I want to change what I really thought about it this time and we're like yeah, of course, do that. We want them to have something that is meaningful and that brings a lot of joy, no matter what's important about that.
Speaker 4:Barry, you're not supposed to ask me anything that is going to make me cry.
Speaker 4:So I know, that's why I was looking away, because I don't think that we should be the ones that determine what someone should or should not get.
Speaker 4:And there is this opinion that is just being felt locally and sometimes nationally.
Speaker 4:You know that there's stigmas out here and the stigmas are ugly about people that are just experiencing homelessness and brokenness and there's so many biases that we can make and judgments that we can put on someone and saying what they should and shouldn't deserve and, you know, are they just, can they just get a job?
Speaker 4:And just all of these negative, negative things, instead of really looking at someone and knowing that they have a name and that they desire eye contact and that they might be in the darkness and have been for years. But to be able to say, hey, we know you and we're not just knowing what you're experiencing. We now know things that you like and preferences and things that you don't like, and really just giving people a voice and a choice and offerings for them to know you're worthy, you're worthy of love, you're worthy of us wrapping around you in support and giving them the truth of who Jesus is and why we are celebrating during this time, and there just should not be barriers for people when they're already experiencing some of the most tragic and huge obstacles of their life, and this is just another way that, for a while, they can just be treated with dignity, like we get the chance to every day, just because our circumstances are currently different.
Speaker 3:I think there's so much to be said about that intentionality, and people sometimes will arrive at the place we expect them to arrive, and if we expect them to arrive at nothing, they may arrive at nothing. And in order for them to arrive at something greater, they need to know that we see them as greater than nothing, and they're way greater than nothing. If we want to change the trajectory of chronic homelessness in America, we're going to have to see people as people and not as problems.
Speaker 3:And if we treat them like a problem, they may behave like a problem. They may be a problem, but if we see them as people and as neighbors that is so many times communicated through the Topeka Rescue Mission is that these are the kind of individuals just like you. They just happen to be in a different situation in life and you need hope in your own life and people who are unsheltered or in a homeless, shelter or whatever the case might be. They need the hope that they matter to, and Christmas is a great expression of that. I mean it's God sending hope into the world through His Son, jesus Christ. He blessed us with the greatest gift and that's not just a subject matter, that is an experience, and I think what you guys have done today you've unpacked just a little bit about the spirit of Christmas here and what's different about this time of year. Anything anybody else wants to say before we close today.
Speaker 6:I just want to say thank you to our supporters and to our donors. Thank you for listening to those tugs on your heart that have you show up at our door and drop stuff off. We super appreciate it. We couldn't do it without you and it makes a huge difference. And even if you're not going to get to see that firsthand, you being obedient and saying I'm going to drop this off to the rescue mission makes a world of difference. So thank you.
Speaker 3:Well said, holden. Yes, thank you for being a part of supporting Topeka Rescue Mission all the time Christmas season, towards end of year, giving Thank you guys for being on the front lines of this and thank all the volunteers, because there's a ton of them that help us to do this work that we do. If you kind of wonder if you are making a difference in this world, know what you've heard today and if you're a contributor, a volunteer, you pray or you do all the above, you're making a difference. If you're not doing that and you want to know more about Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to the website at trmonlineorg. That's trmonlineorg. Find out about Christmas, find out about what goes on at this incredible ministry that's in process for over 70 years now, and you can be a part of this incredible season too. Merry Christmas. God bless you. We'll have some more communications before that 25th of December. Thank you for listening again to Our Community, our Mission.