As the festive lights twinkle and the spirit of Christmas warms our hearts, we visit with Mike Schoettle in a special episode that's a testament to transformation and enduring hope. Mike opens up about his journey from moments of uncertainty to receiving affirmations of his spiritual path, leading up to his new role as Director of Spiritual Wellness & Discipleship.
Wrapping up this heartwarming episode, we delve into the profound lessons learned from the Christmas story, drawing parallels between biblical times and the struggles faced by many today. Our guest shares his own path to ministry, a journey marked by faith, unexpected turns, and a commitment to serving the community. This episode isn't just for the Christmas season—it's an invitation to carry the message of hope, love, and compassion with us throughout the year. By concluding with a reading from Luke 2, we're reminded of the timeless message of hope and God's constant presence, which guide us in our mission to bring Help and Hope to those in need.
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
As the festive lights twinkle and the spirit of Christmas warms our hearts, we visit with Mike Schoettle in a special episode that's a testament to transformation and enduring hope. Mike opens up about his journey from moments of uncertainty to receiving affirmations of his spiritual path, leading up to his new role as Director of Spiritual Wellness & Discipleship.
Wrapping up this heartwarming episode, we delve into the profound lessons learned from the Christmas story, drawing parallels between biblical times and the struggles faced by many today. Our guest shares his own path to ministry, a journey marked by faith, unexpected turns, and a commitment to serving the community. This episode isn't just for the Christmas season—it's an invitation to carry the message of hope, love, and compassion with us throughout the year. By concluding with a reading from Luke 2, we're reminded of the timeless message of hope and God's constant presence, which guide us in our mission to bring Help and Hope to those in need.
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and your blessings and provisions. God, thank you for this time. Lord, Thank you for yesterday and being able to celebrate the birth of your son. Lord, we thank you that we get to record this podcast. And, lord, for all of our listeners, we just pray a special blessing over them and a special blessing over this time and the ears they hear it. Lord, in your holy name, we pray, amen.
Speaker 3:Josh, if only everybody could see us this past month as we nod our heads and dance to this Christmas jingle. It's pretty fun. It is pretty fun. What are we gonna do? I mean, I feel like next week things are gonna be boring again.
Speaker 3:Just keep it all year I guess all year I feel like baby. Every month we need a new jingle. But welcome. You are listening to our community, our mission, and it is a TRM podcast where we are coming to you every week Highlighting staff members, highlighting community members and always highlighting what the Lord is doing here at the Topeka rescue mission.
Speaker 3:So it is Tuesday, december 26th. It has been a busy season, but I also cannot say the word busy without saying blessed, and that's what we are gonna focus on today is a little bit of how We've been busy at the rescue mission and how we have been helping and assisting others and how people have helped us to bring a lot of joy during this Christmas season. But we're also going to reflect on the blessing of what Christmas is, and we here at the Topeka rescue mission can never over emphasize the importance of Christ and everything that we do here day in and day out, through His people, through donations, and just the miracles that we see every day. The God does for us, and so we're thankful for that. I am joined today by my brother in Christ, maybe my Trouble partner, I don't know what. Oh yeah, double trouble double trouble.
Speaker 3:I was gonna try to give you a nice and sweet introduction, and then I just realized that really doesn't feel right. So we'll just say double trouble today With me myself, amanda broils, the executive director here at the Topeka rescue mission, and mr Mike shoddle. Hi you have a face for radio.
Speaker 4:I do. I've been told that my entire life. I have a voice and a face for it. My mom's proud of me.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm telling you what I can only imagine. No, Mike, thanks for joining me. It's gonna be kind of different today. It's just you and I yep. And I have a feeling we're gonna share some laughs probably probably gonna cry probably gonna cry.
Speaker 3:We know that, yes, and Also have just a time of seriousness In just what God does at the rescue mission, but also what he's done in your own heart, mike, and how he laid something on my heart to then bring it to you, and just the journey You've been on really since June, when we went to city gate and, and even some experiences that were years before that I've stuff that's kind of been prophesied over you. So we're gonna dive into all of that, but first Something really important Today is national candy cane day.
Speaker 4:Gotta love them.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that's my question Do you like candy cane?
Speaker 4:I do, yes, I really do.
Speaker 3:Do you like? Like the normal red and white one, the peppermint, or do you like all the crazy flavors?
Speaker 4:It really it depends, in my opinion. There are some that have kind of the crazy flavors, but they're, they're good. But there's some it's like what are you thinking? Like they did the jolly rancher? Yes, I do like those. But there are some it's like like a blueberry candy cane. That's, that's nasty in my opinion.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm so glad you brought the blueberry up, because my girls love the blueberry candy canes and I can't even stand the smell of them.
Speaker 4:It's so artificial.
Speaker 3:It is. And then their mouths have like this blue ring around them and I'm like well, I know what they've been eating.
Speaker 4:Well and that's not even like blueberry, that's it's. It's not even blue. So just the amount of artificial.
Speaker 3:Don't tell me anymore, I'll feel like a worse mom. No, I like candy canes. I, I I don't know why, because I know it's the same thing, but I do prefer like the mini ones, you know, the real little ones that are like thinner and they're smaller. Yeah, I like that more than a normal size, but I don't know why. Probably cuz they're just bite-sized, I guess, because let's be real, I eat ten of them, but you know.
Speaker 4:I remember a couple years ago, though, and it was like incredibly dangerous but we had a donor that gave the distribution center these candy. They were candy sticks, they weren't games, but they were like. They were like as big around as like a half dollar. Oh my, and the way to eat those things. It ends up like turning into a shiv. Like you had to be really careful because you know it just, it ended up being really sharp. So it's like you know this is. This is a little bit too much to enjoy.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness. Um yeah, so it's National Candy cane day. Um, I didn't even know that was such a thing but, at least we are celebrating it and I would have thought.
Speaker 4:I would have thought it would have been before Christmas.
Speaker 3:I know, it's kind of bizarre.
Speaker 4:It's I mean.
Speaker 3:Maybe we should be fact-checking Josh Turley. Maybe he's playing a joke. Look this on Wikipedia you know it's on.
Speaker 1:It's on the Google.
Speaker 3:It's unbelievable right.
Speaker 1:I'll believe it. Okay, and let's Google lies. I don't think Google lies, google has to tell the truth? I think so.
Speaker 3:Oh Now, hopefully you've never gotten a lie in one of these. But it's also National thank-you note day, wow, okay so that was a good transition, by the way.
Speaker 4:Like that, that was great.
Speaker 3:I probably not gonna quit my day job to be a radio DJ, but did you know I did radio really? Yes, yeah, I'm not sure if I've ever said that on here, but I was Mandy in the morning back when.
Speaker 4:I was like 18?
Speaker 3:Yeah, go into college, and it's part of how I paid for school.
Speaker 4:That's fun Anyways, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did. The weather and it's raining outside. Country music, you know anyway, Wendy.
Speaker 3:Fast-forward multiple years and now I'm here and I love it. But on a serious note, national thank-you note day. I really am a person that is like all about words of affirmation and I think when I first came here, you all cringed at me. Every time I was like, let me tell you how much I love you, let me tell you how great I think you are, and was like oh, and now you'll just expect it kind of uh-huh, yeah, yeah, when we once like what did we do wrong?
Speaker 3:That's exactly. Is Amanda sick? She's not being a mushy mama. What happened?
Speaker 3:Did she not get coffee this morning? Give her a candy cane, a mini one, whatever you know. I think that there is something about words of affirmation, but also when they're written down, and one of the things that I am not joking is one of the best parts of my job is Every day I'm writing cards to someone, and that's just something that I've told my executive assistant, kim. She's remarkable and helps me keep track of it. But I always want to write thank-you cards, and so every day I'm writing a thank-you card to someone for a donation or maybe just their kindness. Sometimes it's on a personal level, sometimes it's on a professional level, but I just don't think that we do things in writing near as much as we we should and what we used to agree a hundred percent.
Speaker 4:I'm actually kind of reminded, just like showing gratitude not only just to the Lord but also to friends and family and the people in our circle. I'm right, I'm reminded a couple, but probably about three months ago Josh actually sent me an insta story of these two that are talking on a podcast and the guy brings up how studies show that the same part of the brain it, the same part of the brain that has fear and anxiety is also the same part of the brain that shows gratitude. So you can't be anxious while you're showing gratitude.
Speaker 3:That's incredible.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so yeah, something to think about, something to think about, the more you know Interesting.
Speaker 3:I love that Well, and you know I last year was kind of a rough year for me. I lost a couple of grandparents and they were my last grandparents and there is just something about I have cards that they wrote me and and their signatures and their little notes, and so I think about that to myself too. Is, you know, I know one day I won't be here and I hope that there are just little sprinkles of Amanda's love, you know, for people and stuff out there, and it's just different than making a Facebook post or something like that. Nothing against social media, but I thank you card and anytime we write notes to someone, I think is special. So as we move right along, though, talking about special, I'm sure you've been described as special before multiple times.
Speaker 3:Yes, and when I say it I mean there is no one like Mike Schottel. But on a serious note, mike Schottel is such a blessing here at the Tbk rescue mission and he is one that often overlooks his own giftings, and we all can tell him incredible things about him, and it takes him a good Year or two for him to believe it about himself. Oh so, and so we just keep saying it about him and keep pouring into him. But if you have had the blessing to know Mike Schottel, you have either heard some extremely lame joke that's really not funny and you feel like you lose some brainpower or you have been prayed for, or you have laughed so hard you've cried, which is actually what happened to us as we were trying to do this podcast. We won't talk about how many times wasn't my fault.
Speaker 3:That's true. It was my. I got nothing.
Speaker 1:Look at me. I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at that lamp.
Speaker 3:I have an idea you blame Josh, josh blames me, I blame you, it's just a circle.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:But you it doesn't matter if you're spending five minutes with Mike Schottel or you're blessed to have five years with him. Your life is better because of his influence and his friendship and just the sincerity of even his humor, of how he does that to bring joy for others, and so I'm so excited for you to be on here with me today and we're gonna start with kind of talking about a little bit of I don't know kind of a transition You're about to be in, and so we've announced it to staff. We announced it a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3:We've been working on really making sure that, as you transition, from the distribution center to this new position, that the distribution center is taking care of, that. We've thought out the process for yourself and all of that, and you're just a couple of weeks away from stepping into a new role Two weeks away, two weeks away. So why don't you tell everybody and announce on this podcast what your new title is, and then we're gonna dive into how we got here.
Speaker 4:So Starting January 8th 2024. I will be the director of spiritual wellness and discipleship. Oh my gosh, I'm just so excited. I really am.
Speaker 3:And what does that mean to you? So they just heard that was a mouthful.
Speaker 4:It is a mouthful DSW and D is the.
Speaker 3:Of course you have an acronym for it. We've practiced it a couple times.
Speaker 4:Courtney has a nice Courtney is gonna be my direct supervisor, so she's the deputy director overseeing me and we've practiced it DSW and D.
Speaker 3:There we go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So it's like department shoe warehouse or whatever and D, so DSW and D so we're kind of in transition as far as what chaplaincy looks like at the rescue mission, and we know that faith plays a foundational and critical role in how we act as staff and why we do what we do and our beliefs and even though we do not force our beliefs on anyone, nor do we mandate that anybody conform to our beliefs it's foundational for us and we also know that there are so many people hungry for Christ and and hungry for healing, and At the rescue mission we believe that can only come through Christ, and so we've had chaplains and the chaplaincy program has done incredible things and we just feel, like you know, we're seeing just different needs and we're seeing different challenges and when we're looking at all we do to support people whether that's nutritionally, through feeding, safety, through the shelters, objects, through completions of programs and things like that we also need to be walking alongside people's physical wellness to also be helping them spiritually, and so that is what you're going to be going into.
Speaker 3:We're gonna be a little bit building the plane as we're flying it a little right or find the plane as we build it.
Speaker 3:But we also have a great foundation, because it's been pretty incredible how God is kind of laid on vision on Courtney's heart, your heart, my heart, that kind of thing. So take us back however far you want to, but at least as far back as city gate and just knowing you knew change was coming.
Speaker 4:Whatever you want to share about that, well, on May 14th 1977, my parents were married.
Speaker 4:Okay, maybe not that so just kind of a quick readers digest version of my calling into ministry. I'm growing up, I grew up in a wonderful Christian home. Both my parents are believers, still believers, and they're they're both serving the Lord in their capacity. So I gave my life to Christ at a very young age. During that time I wanted to be an EMT. I wanted to do paramedics during the day and at nighttime. I wanted to be a comedian, save lives during the day and make a killing at night, and so that was really kind of my upbringing, from being like really little from like three years old all the way up until I was about 12 or 13.
Speaker 4:It was when I was 12 or 13 that I literally felt pushed out of my seat at a conference, that I was being called into ministry, so rededicated my life to Christ. There were a lot of traumatic things that happened between giving my life to Christ and then also rededicating my life to him. But then that was like, okay, I am here for ministry. And just in the back of my head the entire time I was thinking back to Samuel when he could hear the voice of the Lord and he didn't know how to answer. But Eli was saying no, you need to say when you hear this voice, I'm not the one calling you, it's the Lord calling you. You need to say here I am, speak to me, for your servant is willing. So that's when I felt called to ministry.
Speaker 4:Went to college, got a degree in youth ministry and adolescent studies. Really wanted to do a church plant. Felt called that God was going to call me to do urban ministries. Do a church plant. Really wanted to do a church plant in Detroit. But the Lord also laughed and said hey, remember that time when you were sophomore in college and you said you'd always pastor anywhere except Iowa or Ohio. You're going out to high it happens to all of us sometimes.
Speaker 4:So I ministered there for three years. It was a growing time for me. But then met my wife, who's from Topeka, and the entire time that we were dating I knew about the Topeka Rescue Mission. I knew that they had a really strong impact on the community, on outreach, and outreach was one of the things that I was very passionate about. So we got engaged. A couple days after our engagement at the church we had our annual business meeting, and they're like hey, we're going to be blanking out of money down in the hole.
Speaker 4:So I was like well, I'm jumping ship, I'm going to move down to Kansas. I was unemployed for a long time. Eight long months.
Speaker 4:And then I'm like am I done with ministry? Am I not doing what I thought that the Lord was calling me to do? I mean to show his love to people, to profess his love, which you can do that wherever you're at and whatever job it is, whether it's sacred or secular. But I just kept feeling this hunger, this insatiable hunger that I needed to be doing something with some kind of ministry, whether it was a church, and there were doors that were closed and it's like, no, it's not doing church ministry. Well, what am I supposed to do?
Speaker 4:And then 2018 rolled around and Barry was speaking at our church at Grace Point and I just turned to my wife just with tears in my eyes and I said I don't care if I'm wiping kids' noses or cleaning toilets at the Topeka Rescue Mission. That's where I think the Lord is calling me. And I was just so proactive, trying to find a job with the mission and got to meet Mike Schenkel. He took me under his wing and just the amount of time that I grew close to him and God rest him. I miss that man so much.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, I got plugged in with the mission and for several months I was just a driver. And then there was some signals that several people in management and directors were seeing like, okay, this kid's got something else, let's bump him up to something else. So then I was in another position and then for a short period of time I then got bumped from a management position to the assistant director of distribution services and I've been in that position for about almost three years. Actually, almost three years It'd be three years in April. So, yeah, almost three years.
Speaker 4:And then you came along and when I applied at the mission I just kind of thought, do they have any pastors here that they would pay? And in the back of my head I'm like I really feel like the Lord's calling me to do something like that. But no door's open. So I just stayed faithful to what the Lord was putting on my heart and just loving these people intentionally and just being perceptive and just knowing that the Lord's hand is guiding, it is moving. And then you pulled me aside and you're like I'm watching you like a hawk.
Speaker 3:Is that exactly how I said it?
Speaker 4:All eyes are on you, I'm watching you and you just said you know, I don't feel like this is where the Lord is meant to have you permanently. There's something bigger and I want you to realize that. And I'm like, yeah, okay, all right, well, I'll realize it, but I don't feel like I need to move at all.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure you put an X up, like with your arms in front of you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, wrong answer when.
Speaker 3:I said how great you were and that you were leadership material and all of this.
Speaker 4:I was like don't butter me up, I'm not a role that's exactly.
Speaker 3:But I'm bumptch and I'm pretty sure you gave me the big O, x, and so then I said, okay, well, the Lord's already told me, so I'll give you time for him to work on you.
Speaker 4:Boy howdy did he. Then city gate happened. I had the wonderful privilege to tagging along with a awesome group and what we were there for how? Many days.
Speaker 4:Four days, four days or so, and it just. There was just one thing after another and it was like a catalyst. It was like the Lord was imparting in me that I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing, known around here to be you know the class clown or you know the one that cracks the jokes, but there was a turning point that we were in our emerging leaders thing and it was what like probably what 1130 at night.
Speaker 3:We're all like we want to be in bed.
Speaker 4:Obviously it's past our bedtime, but you asked a question, like you wanted people to be vulnerable, like what do you need to do in your job when you go back for you to further the Lord's kingdom? Nobody said anything, it was quiet and I just kind of thought, well, I don't want to say anything. And then at that moment it was just like when I was a kid, when I felt pushed out of my chair. I felt these two hands just push me and I went. You know what? I'm going to be vulnerable right now.
Speaker 4:I'm not being as intentional as I should be, I'm not taking things as seriously as I should be, and I want my team to keep me accountable on that. I want to be able to help people. I want to be able to invest in people in an intentional way, that they are seen, they are heard, they matter. I want to be able to minister to people. And that was it. That's all I said and I'm like well, okay, all right. Well, I said it, it's out there, it's out there, it's out. So just left it at that.
Speaker 3:And so the conference we're talking about is the City Gate Network, and the City Gate Network is an association that we at the Speaker Rescue Mission belong to, along with about three to 320 other rescue missions and ministries across the United States and internationally, and so they do an annual conference every year. And previously I was an educator and so I know the importance of professional development and ongoing learning and being a lifelong learner, and so just because we're in ministry does not mean we don't need that continuous improvement and continuous education. And so I took a pretty good, pretty large group to City Gate for this past summer and Mike was one of them, and it's a time where we all get to network. There's a lot of general sessions, there's a lot of track sessions where we can go and listen and learn, and all the topics are different. So there's a lot to choose from, and Mike was one that got to go with us. And then the emerging leaders is kind of a different layer. It belongs to City Gate Network, but it's a group, a subgroup of the City Gate Network, and myself co-leads with Jordan Smith out of Virginia, and there were three or four different times that we got to come together as emerging leaders and we just do different things to grow in those leadership skills.
Speaker 3:And so when Mike said what he just spoke to all of you, all of just this intentionality and being able to be more serious too, and those kinds of things, what Mike didn't know is that God had already been really revealing to me that Mike was going to be a part of this shift in what chaplaincy looked like, and that when I think about someone being able to love, like Jesus, and to make anyone and everyone feel comfortable, regardless of the brokenness that they're coming with, disregarding any kind of physical judgment, mental judgment that they might be used to feeling, people just don't feel that way. With Mike Schottel and he looks at people and loves people I think the best that we can humanly possibly do closest to Christ. And so then that leads us to the airport and we won't talk about all the horrendous food we had had, like pizza.
Speaker 3:And there was nothing there, that was helping. And we had a seven hour layover, a six or seven hour layover.
Speaker 4:Seven or I thought it was eight. Yeah, it could be. It was a long time we camped out there. Seriously, it was brief.
Speaker 3:And so I'm pretty sure you know Mike is just talking about how impactful this was and we were all sharing and then all of a sudden I just kind of laid it out.
Speaker 4:Well, everybody had gotten up after it's like all right conversation's over. So it was just you, me and Miriam, yes, and I'm like all right well.
Speaker 3:And then I just play and call my wife and then I just plain as day say Mike, have you ever thought about being the chaplain?
Speaker 4:I went cold.
Speaker 3:Uh-huh, I'm pretty sure you passed out, fell out. I picked you up, put you back in the seat. Okay, that might be a little dramatic.
Speaker 4:I said I was like um yeah, kind of I got to go to the bathroom, so I got up and just had walked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm pretty sure all coloring left your face and I looked at Miriam and Miriam was like I love working with you, amanda Cause this isn't the first time I've seen you do this to people, and it's it's not me, it's just the Lord and how he works, and we just have to be vulnerable and obedient, to really listen to what he's saying, even if it doesn't make sense, and then taking steps of faith, which you know faith can be defined as believing in the things unseen, and we do that, and so we didn't know what that was going to look like in June, but I know that you talked to your wife about it.
Speaker 4:I did Um, so we got back. What was that? A Saturday?
Speaker 3:I think so.
Speaker 4:A Saturday. Okay, so Saturday we got back. Yes, it was. It was a late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. So Amanda and I ended up staying up until Oof, um, I thought she was just like ready to go to bed because, like, when she came to pick me up from uh, uh, from the mission, I thought she was like, okay, we're getting home, we're going to sleep Period. No, and she's like, okay, tell me all about this. Like what, what did LB say to you? So I just laid it all out and she's got tears in her eyes and she's like you realize that you went there because this is what the Lord called you to do all those years ago.
Speaker 4:I'm like I don't know about that. I just, I just don't know how to feel about how I feel about it. And you, I think we're not at work that Monday. So I texted to you what I wrote in my prayer journal and this is what I wrote. I said, as I walk into the DC, it's like this building is foreign to me. I speak to everyone in here and I wonder to myself am I doing the most of what can be done, or is the Lord in fact leading me to not only shepherd the DC, but TRM and the staff as a whole. I want my next steps to be intentional and lead only by the spirit. Lord, please make it clear to me. I know you will, but just so you know I'm listening.
Speaker 3:And so now we are. We've been walking this out since June and Courtney's incredible how she's helped you transition Holton. You know it's not very Christlike of him, but he's kind of mad at me.
Speaker 4:He's calling you a sheep shuffler.
Speaker 3:He is yeah, which you know. He's done it himself, so been a product of that. I just told him it's the Lord moving, but for some reason he holds grudges. But no, holton has been supporting you and we're just excited about the domino effect that things like this have, because then God is also working in other people's lives and for those positions. And so, yeah, you know, mike, when I think about how you are going to be pouring into guests and staff on a spiritual level, it excites me and it, it, it just reminds me that we get a front row seat in seeing what God does and who he is. And we're not hearing about it, we're seeing it.
Speaker 3:And I know that, barry most people know Barry, but if you don't, he was the executive director for 36 years before me. He has said the reason why he was able to continue to say yes through all the hard times is because he did not want to miss out on what God was doing. And so, just as a small part of being your life, you know, I just have that same blessing and desire. I just want to be a small part of seeing what God does in you and for you, but most importantly through you, and I've already seen that in a big way. But as we embark on these next several weeks and months and build kind of what this new chaplain program is going to look like, I just can't wait to see the lives that are impacted in a practical way. I'm not talking religious way, I'm not talking where we get into semantics of things, but where we're really focused on do people understand how easy it is to have a relationship? With.
Speaker 3:Christ and how relentless and reckless he is in such a beautiful way with his love for us, and I know that you're a huge part of that. So, as we go into that, you know, yesterday we just celebrated Christmas, yes, and so there are tons of things We've been talking about it for weeks things that the distribution center has been able to put on. We have put on Christmas parties for the shelters. They've put on Christmas parties for the unsheltered. We have delivered I don't even know how many households at least 150 to 200.
Speaker 3:So we've done all of that tons of stuff to bring the holiday joy right that we all get to experience in our homes. We have wanted that for our people. But Christmas is also different for us here at the rescue mission, and it is something that is very serious and very sacred and beautiful in the fact that we acknowledge Christmas is the day that Christ was born. He came in the form of man to live a life devoted to healing, seeing and loving people who were at their worst. And then he knew not only was he going to devote his entire life to this, but his life was going to be short, and he also knew what kind of death he was going to have to face, so that one day our death is different.
Speaker 3:And so, as we think about Christmas and you get ready to read the Christmas story, the other thing that I want people to be thinking about is I'm not sure if anybody's ever made the connection or thought about Mary and Joseph and Jesus.
Speaker 3:They didn't really have a place to go and because of multiple different reasons, they had to leave where they knew they were strangers. I am sure some people judged Mary and probably judged Joseph, not understanding the full story. And right now, when I just think about the time we're in, there are so many just similarities to the stories and the lives and the hurts and the worries. I mean, they were people. Even though Jesus was a baby and then a toddler and then a young child and all of that, he still was a person that had feelings and emotions, and we see that in scripture. He wept, he mourned, he did those things, he celebrated, and so, as we think about really, what we celebrated yesterday, would you mind reading the Christmas story to the listeners? And then we're just gonna kind of reflect on what that means to us.
Speaker 4:This is from Luke, chapter two. In those days, caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirain that's a hard word was governor of Syria, and everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth, in Gaddley, to Judea, to Jerusalem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks. At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Speaker 4:Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared, with the angel praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest of heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed what the shepherd said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Speaker 3:And you know, to me that in itself is just beautiful, that God, the Creator, is never done with us. And think about all the things that happened before Christ and God still knew this is what I want to do. And he sent his only son At the perfect time, and he didn't pick the richest people for him to be born to. He didn't pick a big, beautiful home, you know, back then, with the gold and all of that, he didn't. If you think about it, mary and Joseph, they really had nothing and Jesus was born into that, with the exception of love and a promise and an understanding that this baby was different and that this baby was going to be a life that was going to be well, lived, crucified and then rose again, risen again because of us and to save us, and that because of that, our sins are forgiven, because of that we are not condemned to a death like it had been, that we have an opportunity when we die to be in heaven with the Creator and the Lord, and in a place that there is never brokenness, there's never gonna be homelessness in heaven, there's never going to be cancer, there's never gonna be sickness, there's not gonna be financial strains. We're gonna have everything we need because we're gonna have God right there.
Speaker 3:So to me it's just beautiful because I hear the Christmas story and I just feel like each time I hear it there's just different parts that I take away. But I will say, this past Christmas I have just had so much gratitude at the humaneness of Christ's story and to know that some of the things that I have faced this year and that I know you have faced and others, whether it's who we serve or who we're serving with that there is none of that that Jesus doesn't understand and that the Lord knew those were going to be our challenges, when you lost your job and when you didn't have a job for eight months, and when you're questioning and when you're going through those traumatic things. Mike God knew and knows about all of those events, just like he knew we were gonna have a conversation over pizza in an airport, laughing, saying Horrible pizza, horrible pizza.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that really it was bad it was bad pizza.
Speaker 3:He knew that we were gonna be in that moment. That was a moment of kind of joy and excitement and those kinds of things he cares about at all. And so I just keep being reminded of how Jesus was human and he had emotion and he knew, and how he was so relatable to people, even though he was the Messiah. And it's beautiful. And I'm not sure that I have really ever been so touched by Jesus's human attributes as I have this year, because then I feel like any time I go to the Lord in prayer, there is nothing that I'm telling him that he doesn't understand. Right, and that's incredible. So, as you read the Christmas story, mike, just what are some things that touch your heart or that you feel stand out to you, particularly for this past Christmas?
Speaker 4:Well, it always just gets me choked up when I'm reading about the shepherds and we said it right after I got done reading. But it was the perfect time for him to show up and I just get choked up because I love statistics, I love factual things and this one absolutely positively blew my mind. So when you started, going into the perfect timing, this is just what I was reminded of and this was in my graduate level systematic theology class. So I'm just going to read off what the slide was. I mean, I took a picture of it. I'm like everybody. I said to my professor I'm like pump the brakes, stop. So why did the incarnation not occur at an earlier time? Why was Christ's birth when his birth was so? Historically, what's significant here is not the time involved, but the population of the world, the Population Reference.
Speaker 4:Bureau estimates that the number of people who have ever lived on this planet is around 108 billion people. What's really interesting is that less than 2% of them were born before Christ Wow. So Eric Crepes of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research says, and I quote God's timing could not have come, could not have been more perfect. Excuse me, god's timing could not have been more perfect. Christ showed up just before the exponential increase in the exponential explosion in the world's population. The Bible says that in the fullness of time, god sent his son, galatians 4-4,. When Christ came, the nation of Israel had been prepared, the Roman peace was dominating the Mediterranean world, the world stage was set for the Messiah. So we can see here that the wisdom of God in bringing Christ into the world when he did all, just at the right time.
Speaker 3:No coincidence.
Speaker 4:No coincidence, it's a God incident. So it just when I think through that, it's like, yeah, he had to go to. Joseph had to go to the town that his ancestors were from. He had to go to the city of David. And what really resonates with me is, yeah, they were homeless and while there was no room for them, in the end there was no room for them in a hotel but the glory of it all is, yeah, joseph still had ancestors and he had family that was in that town, so it wasn't like just a hole in the wall cave kind of thing that we probably sometimes depict it as.
Speaker 4:What probably happened was he had some cousins or something that said you know what, we don't have room for you in the house, but you can stay in the stable. So basically they were staying in the garage giving birth to a baby. I mean, what is more, that was coming to save us all. Humili, like it's humbling. Yes, it is, and borderline humiliating. I mean, hey, where were you born? I was born in a garage. He was born lowly, so he could cover every single solitary base that he could live and love and die and resurrect for every single person who was ever, who was ever born.
Speaker 3:Because we are all people of need.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:The needs look different, but we all have it and we are all in need of Christ, and our father knew that. He knew that we see it every day. You know, as we are working, as you know the end of the year too, we have seen an all-time record high of needs here at the rescue mission. In the next couple of weeks we'll have all of those final statistics and then we'll start working on our annual report that we released in February or March, but I've been tracking it and across the board this year we have seen an increase in people needing shelter. Yes, we've seen an increase in people accessing the distribution, food distribution. We have an all-time high in the completion of programs.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:We have a higher need, of course, on the streets of unsheltered neighbors, and the list goes on. We've had an increase in the number of meals we've given out at the distribution center, the number of families that have never had to access us before, and they are the number of meals the kitchen is cooking. All of that, and so you know, we see the need and there was a need over 2,000 years ago for Christ to come and us at the rescue mission. We're still seeing needs in the community and those needs are both practical meaning food, shelter, rehabilitation and then there's also a spiritual need, because so many people feel like they're so far gone and that they can't get over their trauma or they can't move past the shame and the mistakes that they've made. And we see that. And so if you're listening to this and you are trying to figure out, you know what to do with your end of the year gift or the giving that you're thinking about doing. I can assure you this If you give to the Tobeka rescue mission, it's going straight back into our community and it's going straight back into our community in a way that it's practical, through food and clothing and sheltering, but there's also going to be a smile, there's going to be a prayer and there's going to be a hope that comes along with that too, with what we're serving. And so we look back at the needs through to the 2000 years ago, and there's so much that's the same and there's so much that's different. But what is continuous through all of that and consistent is who Christ was, who he is and who we know that he will continue to be, amen.
Speaker 3:And so we just want to thank all of you for listening. Thank you for listening to how God is working in Mike's life, how God is working here at the Tobeka rescue mission, and how God continues to work in all of our lives if we just allow Him, if we just acknowledge it. And so, as we just celebrated Christmas, we're reminded of what Christmas is. We've read you the Christmas story, we've focused on who Christ is, but we are also asking for you to join us in continuing to bring hope and continuing to bring the truth of who Christ is, so that we can look people in their eyes and say that baby was born over 2000 years ago for you. And not only was that baby born, that toddler walked, that young boy grew up and that man became our Messiah and he died and he rose so that we can have redemption and forgiveness. And the Tobeka rescue mission for 70 years has been telling people they are not too far gone and the cross is for them. And with your support financially and through prayers and through volunteers, we will continue to do for at least another 70 more.
Speaker 3:Thank you for listening today on this episode of being After Christmas and End of the Year giving. Also, don't forget to write somebody a note as we opened up. Talking about it was National Thank you Note Day. We appreciate you listening and don't forget. The cross happened not only for me, not only for Mike, but the cross and the birth of Christ happened for you. Have a blessed rest of the day.