Our Community, Our Mission
Our Community, Our Mission
Ep #266 – Heart for the Unseen — Jessica Croner’s Journey to Street Reach
In this episode of Our Community, Our Mission, Jessica Croner shares how her heart for the unsheltered has guided her through years of ministry — from the Boise Rescue Mission to the Valley Mission in Pocatello, Idaho, and now as Director of Street Reach. A pivotal encounter at a Citygate Conference introduced her to TRM and the Street Reach and MAP model, which she brought back to Idaho and launched as quickly as possible. Driven by a deep sense of calling and a desire that began in childhood for everyone to know Jesus, Jessica has continually followed where the Holy Spirit leads — even when it’s uncomfortable.
Jessica speaks openly about how her walk with God sustains her through challenging moments. She reflects on the thin veil between her own story and those she serves, and how temporary discomfort is often part of God’s greater plan. For her, this work is not a job — it’s a calling. She encourages the Church to step boldly into its mission, trusting that God is calling His people back to what they were never meant to let go of. This episode is a powerful reminder that when we cast our nets wide, God meets us in the deep.
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Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, lord, for this day. Lord, and just this time to record this podcast. Lord, I thank you for all of our wonderful listeners and Lord just pray that this episode would be a blessing. Lord, we thank you for our wonderful guests today and Lord just her heart for the people that we serve. Lord, pray your blessing over this time. In your holy name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 2:And hello everybody. Thank you for joining us for another edition of Our Community, Our Mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission here on May 6th of 2025, episode number 266. Hi, Marian Crable, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm good, I'm absolutely good. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing all right, I'm doing all right. This is being recorded on Tuesday. Yes it is May not air until Wednesday, but providing anything doesn't change, we're doing this kind of later in the day today.
Speaker 3:We are we are. And that makes it tough for Josh to get it turned around. But I do my best.
Speaker 1:but you know, sometimes I need a little more time.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:But I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3:I didn't get my after lunch siesta today, so where's our coffee, Josh?
Speaker 1:That's the thing. Yeah, see, I'm running loose too.
Speaker 2:Kim was going to do that. Yeah, I think Kim was supposed to do that, oh right, but hey, we had a good reason.
Speaker 1:we're doing it later. That's right. Why did we do this later?
Speaker 3:Well, do you want me to talk about it yet?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:You do no.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, no, no we have to get to the really important stuff first.
Speaker 3:I knew that was going to happen. You know I should have just started and then you might have missed all this other love for me.
Speaker 2:You're going to like this one today, am I? This is going to fit you, okay. So again, for those who are first-time listeners or repetitive listeners who really look forward to this piece, this is the Topeka Rescue Mission Research and development department that pinpoints the most important parts of the day every year on May 6th. And one of those most important parts, mary, is National Nurses Day, did you know that I did not know that. Why is that important to you?
Speaker 3:Well, because I actually, you know, I never know exactly how to answer this, because I'm going to say it like other people say it oh, you used to be a nurse and I'm like, oh no, I'm still a nurse. When you go through all of that, you're always one. You just aren't still practicing, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was a nurse. Describe a nurse to us. It's National Nurses Day. We really need to know what a nurse is. At the end of the 19th century it was called the lady with the lamp, as she is more widely known, florence Nightingale. That's kind of where we get the nurse thing from. But how would you describe a nurse? I've got a description for a nurse, but I want to hear a nurse describe a nurse.
Speaker 3:So I think a nurse is that person that is actually the one that takes care of everything that the patient and the family needs. So they are compassionate, they deliver on different things that need to happen to a patient. They're great listeners, they're usually quite empathetic, they want to make people feel cared for and, at some of the worst times in their lives, right Because you don't want to be there, you don't want to be sick. You know, I was a cardiac nurse, so when you have problems with your heart, it's scary. So a nurse is just that person that's there. That's there.
Speaker 3:Doctors do a lot of wonderful things, but nurses are there all the time, 24 hours a day, to make sure that people get what they need, 24 hours a day, to make sure that people get what they need. So I think they can be some of the most compassionate. Let's see, I don't know exactly how to say this while also being very much about oh no, no, you need to do this. That's what I'm going to describe the one that comes in and says you need to lose weight.
Speaker 4:You need to get your blood pressure down.
Speaker 2:You need to quit eating that crap and you need to lose weight, you need to get your blood pressure down, you need to quit eating that crap and you need to do more exercise, and so that's not compassionate.
Speaker 3:No, you're talking about a doctor's office nurse. You're not. I was a hospital nurse.
Speaker 2:Ok, all right, so there's a difference.
Speaker 3:By the time, that nurse wasn't able to convince you.
Speaker 2:now you're with me and now I'm going to have to be nice to you, yeah, but we have some great nurses the volunteer Topeka Rescue Mission, one of our- all-star heroes Sharon Meisner, who's been the volunteer leader of the clinic for 30 some years. I mean we have great nurses and with Stormont Vale and our access partnership and some of our schools nurses.
Speaker 3:So we couldn't do any of what we do, and the community would be at a complete loss if they did not have nurses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's National Nurses Day. Here on May the 6th it's also National Creep Suzette Day Creep Creep.
Speaker 3:I don't think they're creepy, but they could be Creep. There you go.
Speaker 2:So what is that anyway Is?
Speaker 3:that pancake? Oh, it's a pancake. Okay, it's a French pancake, it's a.
Speaker 2:French pancake With some kind of sauce. Okay, okay. So, and it's also and LaManda's not here today because she's actually at a university, one of really important ones, called Kansas State University, right now, for all the folks that love Wildcats, so, but anyway, it's National Teacher's Day.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:And so LaManda's a former educator, and so we're missing her on the podcast today, but she's there for a very good reason at Kansas State. So anyway, Miriam, those are the really main things today.
Speaker 3:Those are the important things.
Speaker 2:Right, Then we've got some important updates, and then we want to get to our guests.
Speaker 3:Now today's been a really wonderful day and Josh was there as well as a whole bunch of people on our team. So there is a project called Recycled Rides that's done by Washburn Tech's automotive department, and United Way is a significant partner in that and what happens is that a car that maybe had some issues or was in an accident or something like that, and now the insurance company owns it, they donate that car to Washburn Tech and then the students and other advisors like from Lewis, Toyota Collision and all these different kind of car folks yeah, the technical stuff you know that, then come together to kind of guide those students in how to repair this car and how to get it looking absolutely brand spanking new.
Speaker 3:And then what happens is they put out applications or requests for applications to organizations like ours that we can identify people that are really in need of good transportation, because we know the lack of transportation can bring about incredible challenges.
Speaker 2:It can stop everything or it can help accelerate the ability to move forward, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. So this year we nominated one of our facilities team members that actually was just on a podcast not that long ago Chris Harstadt, and he won.
Speaker 2:He won.
Speaker 3:They selected him. So it is a group of students that gets together the same students that are working on the car or somewhere in the automotive department that come together to review all of the different applications and make a decision on who they feel is a good candidate for this vehicle. This was car number 35 that they've done 35,.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I wonder if we know how long this is going.
Speaker 3:It's been going on a long time and I believe this is the second time or the third time that somebody from TRM has actually been awarded the car and it was wonderful to see Chris and his son Drake. Drake was so excited and the car is beautiful and there's all these people in the room and I think Chris was incredibly overwhelmed by it all, and not in a bad way, but just such a cool guy.
Speaker 2:He's such a cool guy.
Speaker 3:Right and Brett Martin talked about Chris and was the one that introduced him, and Dr Mazacheck was there from Washburn University. There were just a lot of of a lot of people that were there to recognize the efforts of the students and also the ability of Chris to potentially really move forward now in a different kind of way and get into housing and all the things that can come now because he has transportation.
Speaker 2:Chris's story is he was living in a tent with his son and finally knew it was time to get out of there, ended up in Topeka, came to the Topeka rescue mission and had a big decision to make, and this is all on the podcast that he shared with us. So it's nothing that we're sharing out of turn here, but he ended up deciding if he was going to keep his drugs on him or throw him in the trash. He threw him in the trash and never looked back.
Speaker 3:Never looked back.
Speaker 2:So now he's employed Topeka Rescue Mission has that automobile Wants his son to be raised well yes, and he wants to be a grandpa someday, yes, so yeah.
Speaker 3:It was a beautiful event, and the whole facilities team was there, as well as some others of us, and so it was just a really special time. Josh, do you know which number podcast that is?
Speaker 1:I don't, I can't remember. Off the top of my head it wasn't too long ago.
Speaker 2:No, it was just four or five ago. Yeah, we're 266. But yeah, yeah. So we'll post about the event today, maybe link to the podcast.
Speaker 3:So it was great it was, it was wonderful.
Speaker 2:Well, we have a very special guest today who happens to be a really cool friend of mine that I've gotten to know pretty well. She, that I've gotten to know pretty well. She has a name, but I call her Idakann, and that is a combination between Idaho and Kansas. Her name is Jessica Kroener and she is the former CEO of the Pocatello Rescue Mission. Pocatello, Idaho had formerly been with the Boise Rescue Mission Came here a couple summers ago. I think it was to visit Topeka Rescue Mission. So, Jessica, welcome to our community, our visit, Topeka Rescue Mission. So, Jessica, welcome to our community, our mission.
Speaker 4:Thank you, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you are director of Street Reach now. Some of us like to call it Operation Street Reach, but we got rid of the Operation Street Reach.
Speaker 3:I had to throw it in.
Speaker 2:I had to throw it in. Do not edit that out. So where it started, we began a Street Reach program here at Topeka Rescue Mission, let's say probably 16 years ago somewhere in that neighborhood. 15, 16 years ago we had not been out there to do that and we began. We've learned a lot of things and part of the learning process was forced kind of our hand during the pandemic to create a mobile access partnership called MAP. That's not Operation Street Reach, but we learned a lot how to do that. Because of that, you came to visit that out of Pocatello.
Speaker 4:I did.
Speaker 2:So talk about. We want to get current with you, but talk about what brought you. How'd you find out about Topeka, Kansas, from Idaho and what brought you here to visit us? Was it summer before last Summer, before Two summers ago? I don't know. It's been a while In the recent past. It's been in the recent past. It was in the summer.
Speaker 4:Yes, I believe it was in 2023, actually, and it was in November. So just at the end.
Speaker 2:Oh, was it? Was it November? Yeah, okay, it was a warm November. It was a warm November.
Speaker 4:I think it was like November 1st or something. You guys were just on Halloween and you guys were setting up Christmas the next day.
Speaker 2:I was like we're full on in. I was going to swear it was warm out, okay, well, never mind me. So your name is Jessica, right, and you were originally in Idaho, never mind. So, jessica, why did you come here? How did you find out about Topeka, kansas? You're out there working as a new director at the Polk Teller, or fairly new in Idaho, and so you came here why?
Speaker 4:I came here because I had met LaManda down in Florida at the National City Conference and there was just kind of a flag for her. I didn't really introduce myself to her, I didn't do anything, I just sat back and went, okay, well, god, what's next there? And got back to Idaho and actually I was at Valley Mission.
Speaker 4:That's right, valley Mission, oh, okay, yeah, in Pocatello, okay, and was sitting and we're just kind of figuring out programs as we're trying to start up this mission and I was sitting and we're just kind of figuring out programs as we're trying to start up this mission and I went, what about street reach? And like everything came together that we didn't need to go. Most missions were going from shelters to streets and it occurred to us that we could build from streets to shelter and that there was a lot of good in that for our neighbors and for us, and so I said well, there's this person in Topeka. So I got onto the Sege Network and looked up LaManda and sent her an email and she was like we're about to shut it down for the summertime because it was going to be moving indoors.
Speaker 4:So she was like come. Come, now Come right now so booked a ticket and I was here the next week and sitting with you guys and went out.
Speaker 2:Part of that CityGate network is rescue missions, getting to go to conferences and meet each other and that kind of thing, and so you heard about it. You came here and I know that you and I got a chance to visit just a little while while you're here that time and uh, uh, mary, I remember just saying man, this, this, this woman really is full of the spirit of the Lord.
Speaker 2:You know this this such a incredible um presence of Christ in your life, and so um, we, we, we are always seeing that, while you were here, Never knew you'd be coming back, but especially at this level. So you got the chance to see the Mobile Access Partnership and you gleaned from there. So what happened next?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I got to do Mobile Access. I actually got to go and do an outreach with Street Reach. I went down on the north side of the river and and did that with them and so, um, I gleaned a lot from that, um, a lot of different pieces that I could take back and, you know, some different things that I altered a little bit but the bones were all there and you guys handed over the bones pretty straightforward and said stick your name on it and go go do your thing, I did I did and, uh, went back.
Speaker 4:Um, I think the day I got back I pitched it to my board and said this is where I think we need to begin. They approved it and, um, by january, so about eight weeks later, we were out on the streets and I think it was May of last year we started mobile access in Pocatello as well, isn't that cool, it's incredible.
Speaker 2:So before Pocatello you were in Boise with the Boise Rescue Mission. That's a pretty well-developed rescue mission there. It's nationally known. What did you do there?
Speaker 4:So I was in their women and children's shelters. Um, so I started in the Boise downtown uh shelter, uh working swing shift, and um then moved out to their Nampa location and then kind of was between the two as I as I needed. Um, I had some different things going on in my world, so as they began to watch God shifting and moving me, they began to pull me into that more administrative end, and so I got to do a lot of data entry for a while which was what I needed just for myself in that time, and then, when I told them that I had been offered a job to be the executive director, they pulled me in and they began to coach me up.
Speaker 2:Get you a little more ready for that next step. Yeah, so what's the distance between Boise and Pocatello For those that aren't acutely familiar with Idaho?
Speaker 4:With Idaho, so Boise is.
Speaker 2:It's that funny state with that little smokestack on top right.
Speaker 4:That's the one.
Speaker 2:Corbelina at the top right, Boise is on. It's that funny state with that little smokestack on top right. That's the one, Corvallina, at the top right.
Speaker 4:It's called the panhandle. Yes, yeah. So Boise is on the western, about an hour in from the farthest west, and Pocatello is about an hour in on the farthest east.
Speaker 2:Okay, so both sides, so you've got about a four-hour drive between the two. She had a lot of great relationships in Boise. Still today, you got over in Pocatello to really help them get some foundational things established. One of the things that I really appreciated is that you and I got to meet each other when you were here, whatever time of year that was, and then we stayed in contact with each other CEO or executive director to executive director and started talking through stuff, and that was a real blessing for me, and so we really weren't talking about you coming to Topeka to be a part of the Topeka Rescue Mission. So what happened for you to think maybe this is where you wanted to apply to be the director of Street Reach?
Speaker 4:You know, it's interesting because when I came to visit, I think I had been at Valley Mission about six months and I was like I started there in May and come over here to visit. And as I was pulling out of town from visiting you all, I just was crying and I felt the Holy Spirit just say are you willing to come? And I said yeah, I'll come.
Speaker 4:But it didn't make any sense given that I had just started this other position and as I walked out the next year, god did a lot of good things where I was and I know that he planted a lot of good seed. And then I was in bed one night asking him what next, and he said to come to Topeka. And so I opened my phone and looked at it and we had the director of street. Reach was open and I had a meeting the next week already set with Amanda, just to check in and say hi. And so I sent her a message at like 3.30 in the morning and said Well, she's probably up.
Speaker 4:Could we move that up? And I think the next day I spoke with her on the phone and said God's told me to shift and I'm thinking it's to Topeka. And you said well, amanda just got your message. She's pretty excited about it. And I waited a little bit. I needed a minute to pray. And I waited a little bit. I needed a minute to pray.
Speaker 2:So it's a big decision for you. I know that you have a connection with the Lord and you pray and you look for answers and you got a direction to come here. But then we hear those things, we understand those things, however, we communicate with the Lord, but to do them is another thing. And to actually pack up, move clear to Kansas. Do you like the beautiful mountains here, like you like over in Idaho?
Speaker 4:This is like skiing territory. It's the greatest thing.
Speaker 2:Skiing for me, because I would never go down a hill like that ever with snow on it and slippery and hit trees. I mean ski Kansas right. Snow on it and slippery and hit trees, I mean ski Kansas right. So you know, being in Idaho I think much of your life and then coming to Kansas, what was that like? You knew the Lord wanted you to come and so you came. You're stepping out in faith. How's that for a person? I mean, there's been people that experienced that. I mean some people go to Africa or some people to stay in their own home forever. But you made a pretty big decision to leave the executive director position to come work for another rescue mission for another executive director. You had to know, really, that you know that that's what you're supposed to do. So did everything just kind of fall into place real easy? I mean, was it all smooth? She's laughing.
Speaker 4:It was magical.
Speaker 2:It was like why I get to go beyond the streets in Topeka, Kansas, where they're really hard to find the homeless people anymore, because the camps aren't together anymore.
Speaker 3:And it gets really cold and really hot.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh yeah.
Speaker 4:Got a lot more bugs here and I think that night before I messaged LaManda, I talked to. God about tornadoes and I still have conversations with God about tornadoes. He didn't seem worried about them.
Speaker 2:You mean, he wasn't really troubled by tornadoes.
Speaker 4:I think I'm there too. I live in Kansas. It's not, god forsaken? Very true.
Speaker 2:It's God's country, so there's always an adjustment. But I remember talking to you here a number of months ago and you said you really feel like this was home now. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Definitely it was a big adjustment to feel um, not surrounded by the mountains, because where I grew up they were kind of in the distance a little bit, but I mean you could see them. But then where I've lived as an adult, like I'm right in them, whether that be in boiser and pocatello, I would sit in my living room and just there's a mountain sitting right there yeah, just across the street and you could go walk up it if you so desired.
Speaker 4:But I think there was like a sense of safety and even when I came and visited, I felt like this is just open and there is nowhere to run. I mean, there's a lot of places to run, but there's nowhere to hide, it's just all hide, it's just all flat.
Speaker 2:It's just all flat.
Speaker 4:There's something.
Speaker 2:You don't realize that unless you go somewhere. I remember going back east to visit my daughter and family, washington DC area and it's trees everywhere.
Speaker 2:Get off the KCI and driving back to Topeka I'm going. Man, this is the farm country Really is. It's just wide open space and big sky, big sky, yeah Well, or Montana, they call that big sky country over there because there's mountains and big sky. So, jessica, the assignment that the Lord has given you to work with the unsheltered obviously this wasn't a new thing to you. You'd been doing that in Idaho, been working in shelter and out of shelter Is there a common person or a common situation, regardless of where people are when they're unsheltered, that you could help people to understand? Is it different for people being unsheltered in Idaho versus Topeka area, or is it pretty much? You're seeing the same thing whether it's in Boise, pocatello or Topeka, in regards to just kind of who the people are?
Speaker 4:Interestingly enough. I think there are some subtle differences.
Speaker 1:When I was in.
Speaker 4:Boise and we would do counts and whatnot. In the shelter, most of our people were graduate college, many of them with master's degrees. That were homeless, that were homeless them with master's degrees.
Speaker 2:That were homeless. That were homeless.
Speaker 4:Okay, that's interesting. And just different life situations and we were surprised. I mean it wasn't everybody, but it was a larger percentage. Moving across to Pocatello, many hadn't completed high school. Interesting, couldn't read at all, I mean just in the same state. How, how different that can be.
Speaker 4:And then I feel like in topeka there's almost a mix of the two, um, especially going from streets and now this last week, getting some time to be in the shelter and help there, um seeing kind of the difference between those populations within the same, within the same city. So, um, you know, obviously we're all human. I think what struck me about rescue mission when I first started was the veil between me and the guests that I serve is nothing and it is only by grace that I sit on this side of it so true um, it's, it has nothing to do.
Speaker 4:I mean, there are points where I can look at somebody's story and say it's horrific compared to the story that I have, and then there are times that I can say my story is horrific compared to somebody else's and it's all about other factors, you know, um, how people are able to cope just a lot of different things that go into it.
Speaker 2:There's a gentleman that I know over in Lawrence Kansas who helps coordinate a breakfast program every morning for the homeless and the people who are struggling, and his story was that his own son had suffered from a mental health challenge and so they were able to get his son services to be able to get him back on the right road, and he said it can happen to any family at any time. He said so I'm here for the people who don't have a me.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm here for the people who don't have a me, and so if we don't have those support systems, then, whether it's family or friends or whatever, that thin veil could result in nowhere to go. And so, by virtue of that, god and community has come together to create places like rescue missions, to be that family to help people through their time. So there's some similarities, kind of blended here from what you've experienced in Idaho on two different parts of the state in regards to the kind of experiences, jessica, what I don't know if this is the right term, but what draws you to work with the homeless, what draws you to especially the unsheltered? Not everybody does this.
Speaker 2:What Uh-huh it's the best thing ever. Not a long line of people standing to say I want that job. Not everybody does this. What Uh-huh? It's the best thing ever?
Speaker 4:Not a long line of people standing to say I want that job. You know, ever since I can remember when I was just tiny, whether it was blowing out candles on a birthday cake or I would make up games, like when I had to take out the trash, like throwing in the dumpsters, and if I hit it I got my wish right. But every wish that I ever made was that, um, everybody would come to know Jesus and that they would they would get to walk with him, like that's always been my heart.
Speaker 4:And as I got, older, I knew that, um, I wanted to do mission. What I didn't understand was that mission existed right here at home.
Speaker 2:I thought that meant going abroad.
Speaker 4:And then I got old enough that I could do that and that door didn't open for me for a number of different reasons. And before I got into rescue mission, before I ended up at Boise Rescue, I had just been praying and going God, you've poured so much into me.
Speaker 4:Now begin to pour me out onto others and initially before I got to Boise Rescue, it was, you know, a lot around the pandemic and stuff and I just went out and mowed lawns and just joined a mow crew and just went out and I was like measurable outcomes in a day, like I had to help a lot of jobs, including other executive director positions, and I was just done and ready to be away from people and just go do something that I could clock in and measurable.
Speaker 4:And so I'm out there mowing these lawns and all these little Sunday school songs God brought back to me of like I can do all things Because it's a hard work.
Speaker 3:It is like very exhausting.
Speaker 4:And I was out there with young men much younger than I am.
Speaker 2:You were little kids then.
Speaker 4:Yeah, much younger than I am and I was out one night and I asked God, like, is this still where I'm supposed to be? And he said you can go, but cast your net wide. And so the next day I spent praying and then I resigned and I cast the net wide and Boise Rescue popped up and I asked God. I said, okay, I'll do that if you keep it there for a month. And I went on my way and a month later I was there and so I applied and they called me that day which is why I said a month and then with them, I said, okay, I want to clock in, I want to clock out, I don't want to be a manager. And they let me do that for a couple months.
Speaker 2:That's where we get people in. We go sure, that's no problem. So you're a manager.
Speaker 4:But then God's just been so good in teaching me and teaching me how to see the heart of individuals and how to have my ear tuned to him to be able to see that one that is in front of me. And you know, in shelter that can be really challenging, because you've promised safety to a hundred and some odd people a night and um, depending on which facility you are in and when we go the street. It is a paradigm shift that I really enjoy, that I go to your home and I respect you where you are and I build a relationship there and I have a real relationship with you there. And then, whenever you come to my home now you know that my rules are not about my love for you. My rules are about the safety of, not about my love for you. My rules are about the safety of everybody and my love for everybody, but I can establish that in your home first. So that was kind of what drew me.
Speaker 2:I think that one of the things that we've come to realize is the extreme value, if we're going to address chronic homelessness, solve chronic homelessness, to have this, what you've just spoken to, is to go to their home. You call it their home. Maybe a tent, maybe a car, maybe a lean-to, maybe a hole in the ground, right, it's their home, to respect them in their home, to show them love in their home, right there. And then when they're ready to come to your home, which is a shelter or wherever it is, then the love is still there. But now I showed you respect, show respect here. I mean, that's huge, isn't?
Speaker 3:it. It's huge, it's well. Isn't it really the game changer, right? You know we talk all the time about it really is about relationship, and this, what Jessica is describing, is just evidence of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, jessica, I think right after you came and joined the team here and were leading Straight Reach, we're having some weather issues here, and so you got to stay with the homeless as their warming centers were opening up and actually didn't get to go home and one of the reasons for the first winter vortex we had it was too dangerous to go home for people to drive, and so you got immersed right in it, didn't you? I did With the guests that were coming in off the streets, who were staying here for a period of time and actually being here and caught in the children's palace. So were things going through your mind like, hmm, we had snow in Pocatello, but we didn't have this? Was there any time where you were wondering if you made the right decision? Or were you pretty confident, since you heard the voice of the Lord as you hear him, that this was the right thing?
Speaker 4:I think there have been many points along this that I'm like okay, god, are we? What are we doing? Um, but he's been so clear, um, and he brings me back to it. Even last week I was kind of in a moment and he had somebody that I've never even met call me on the phone. Say, your name popped out on a list and I need to call and I need to pray for you. And, um, I called him back and it was just like this. This time has been, in some ways, some of the most painful, and yet, if there was ever a time that God was just screaming out to me that he's there, I was thinking about it this morning because when I was growing up.
Speaker 4:I trained dogs alive, trained seeing-eye dogs and other people's dogs, because they found, of course.
Speaker 2:Come fix my dog.
Speaker 4:And sometimes dogs are just like freaking out, and in that moment I'll take them by the collar and I get their eyes and we just wait, and I wait for them to just come and to focus and I felt like so much of the time in the last six months God's been like oh, he's had you by the collar, maybe more by the cheeks, and just go and put your eyes right here.
Speaker 1:Your eyes are right here.
Speaker 4:And they're not on any of the rest of it, and he just calls me back to that place and sometimes it's just in even screaming out to me and being like be still, you are fine, be still.
Speaker 2:This is a personal walk and journey with him that you've just described to us. How does that help you to do what you do with going out in the streets to people's homes personally, but how does it help the person that you're ministering to Do you feel that you've got that kind of connection with the creator of the universe, who has told you that he loves everybody? Yeah, and some people misunderstand or don't really like people. They don't understand, judge them. How does that help you to be able to help them? This walk that you have with the Lord?
Speaker 4:I think that he is well. We know that he is the good father. He tells us that he is a good father and going through this experience and for it to be as uncomfortable when we ask our neighbors to do something on the streets or when we ask our guests to do something in the shelters, we know it's uncomfortable. And in this whole season, when I really boil everything down, I'm like I'm uncomfortable and it's okay that I'm uncomfortable for a while, because my discomfort right now is toward a greater good and I can see that. But I can see that because I've walked step after step after step with the good father to know that he knows and that that temporary discomfort ends in a place of blessing and abundance that I wouldn't have experienced had I not walked through that. So then, when I'm out and I am working with the one who is in front of me and I'm listening to what the Holy Spirit's telling me about that one, the good father is not asking all of them to do the exact same thing.
Speaker 4:It's not a black and white situation. I can have some guidelines about what we'll do for safety or for health, but when I look at one and I say I just need you to stand up today, because Jesus won't even stand up for me, and I need you just to begin with standing and walking, physically walking, and that that's the way that I can show compassion and love toward you. And then for another one that is in a different spot and that they need to know how to hold an appointment and to keep an appointment and to follow through on that appointment, and I can work with them on incentivizing toward that in a different way, I can have compassion for both, because I recognize that it's uncomfortable and in talking with my team about that and that it's not going to be this black and white thing, what we've talked about is the good father doesn't necessarily look at what seems fair.
Speaker 4:He looks at what is best for you, because you are the individual that he is concerned about, and I told them like I think it's helped because I was raised that way. My mom would be like you know what it was? My sister and I she's like you both get things at times that the other one doesn't get and you both come out just fine. There's not going to be a fair. Sometimes you get something, sometimes you do. We're not going to play that game.
Speaker 2:Somebody one time said that God does not love us all equally. He loves us all uniquely time say that God does not love us all equally. He loves us all uniquely and so he loves, but he loves uniquely and that's so. Not every unsheltered, homeless individual that you're encountering needs the same kind of response as you mentioned, even having somebody you know.
Speaker 2:Let's stand up you know, because some people may be strung out on drugs or maybe don't feel like they can do anything anymore. They're so depressed or whatever. No, let's, let's do the very basic thing which makes them uncomfortable. That's going to be a little uncomfortable for you at sometimes, I would assume. To take a risk to challenge somebody's uncomfortableness Is that. Is that ever a problem?
Speaker 4:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:People who can't see. Jessie, she's not real big and so you're very petite, and so going into these homeless camps, do you ever be very concerned? We know the potential of violence is all around us all the time, regardless of where we are. How do you go out there? You're not like Mike Tyson so, and you're going and challenging people's systems sometimes.
Speaker 4:I decided, actually, I think the day that I came and visited and I was about to head out on streets I don't remember exactly what was said, but there was some agitation in the camps and you guys had told me about that and in my mind I thought I wonder what my board's going to think. Because I'm thinking you're supposed to stay alive if you're the executive director, you're not supposed to.
Speaker 2:You're supposed to visit. I'll stay there forever.
Speaker 4:And I wasn't sure how much of a risk and I thought no, it's my life, it's my choice and I'll go out. And in making that decision, the reality is that God is in charge of my days and my coming and my going, and he has set me in my time and place and uniquely designed me for this. So I can make the decision and I've had the conversation with my family of if the worst case happens that I did what I loved and I did it to the end. So I wake up in the morning and I go out and I do what I love.
Speaker 2:So there's a piece in that that this is my assignment. This is what I'm going to do, mary. You and I go out and I do what I love. So there's a piece in that that this is my assignment. This is what I'm going to do, mary. You and I have talked and other people we've talked on. The podcast is working at.
Speaker 3:Topeka Rescue.
Speaker 2:Mission is not a job. It's calling, without a doubt. Without a doubt, you know it personally, josh. You know it. I've known people here. If you don be, because it's hard, it's very difficult, it can be dangerous, but it can also be very rewarding. If you know where you're supposed to be and every day you know this is God going to take you where he wants you to go and utilize you to be able to help those who believe he doesn't care or nobody cares to go there, because a lot of people won't go do what you do.
Speaker 2:They won't, they would say don't do it, but you do it and your team does it. Jessica, what is the hope that you have going forward? We've had this continued increase nationally with people who have no place to go. Shelters are busting at the seams. We have a recent uncertainty about these federal programs and how they're going to be adjusting and shifting around in regards to housing and opportunities. We know that there's an aging population of individuals who are becoming homeless and falling into the chronic homelessness, and so you don't have a very large team that you work with, but you do intersect with the law enforcement Topeka Police Department, vallejo and others. What's your hope with this kind of flood or pending flood of homeless that we need to be doing to reach those who are unsheltered now and to be ready for the more that may come?
Speaker 4:You know, I believe that God is just doing a good thing. I believe that he's doing a good thing currently and that he is doing a good work in his church and in his people right now. And we can begin to look at it all and we can look at numbers and we can get all stressed out about that, or we can look and recognize that God is cleansing his people and that he is equipping his people and he's drawing his people back to what he called them to. In my perspective, the church handed over things that it never should have handed over years ago.
Speaker 4:And at this point in time, the church is coming back to and being called back to what it was originally handed to manage. And so, as I look at the current landscape of things, I actually feel incredibly encouraged because I believe that God is doing a good work and he is bringing back what we were originally designed for and taking us out of our comfort zone and out of our buildings and back into the lives of people, because that's where two or three are gathered, that's where he is, it's not within a facility. And while those facilities serve us and I have no judgment toward that, I think for a while it became a social club and the church is losing its social club identity and coming back to the heart of Christ.
Speaker 2:That's brave what you just said, but I think a lot of people are realizing that there's kind of a remake of the modern day church to be more questioning, at least about what its purpose is, and to when you start to question what your purpose is, you might get to the right conclusion. And that is to be more active in community and helping. And there's just a whole lot about the poor and those who are in need in the scripture. I mean we can't get around that. I mean it's not an option. Some people cop out and say Jesus said the poor will always be with you. I remember Lynn Johnson, who was director of Health and Human Services, said yeah, but I want to try proving wrong, so let's go for it. But that's a cop out just to say they'll always be with us.
Speaker 2:Because there's a whole lot more to talk about those who are following Christ and what we are to do to minister to those who are in need. And it's not just homeless, it's not just hungry. It could be the neighbor or somebody in your own family, or your student in school, or your teacher or the principal, or on and on and on, or your coworker. Is that we are supposed to be light in people's darkness. And so well, jessica, I'm glad you're here in Topeka. And, yeah, so many positive reasons that you're here. I think one of the biggest is not only your passion for those who suffer, but the Jesus that you bring with you here. Is there anything else you'd like to share today? Um, on your very first Topeka rescue mission podcast Won't be your last.
Speaker 4:No, I think I'm good Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, well, thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for listening to our community, our mission. If you'd like more information about Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to trmonlineorg.
Speaker 2:That's trmonlineorg, and you can find about volunteer opportunities, also some openings for jobs which aren't jobs, correct, correct. Miriam had to fill those positions and if you've heard anything today, you've heard about a young lady who has said yes to God, and it's okay for us all say yes to God because he will take us to places that maybe we're uncomfortable, but that's where we find the joy. Thanks for listening.