Ep #315- Standing In The Midst of Falling With Barry Feaker

In this episode we sit down with Barry Feaker to share the remarkable story of how a collapsing shelter in 1989 led to one of the most inspiring community efforts in Topeka Rescue Mission's history. What began as a crisis became a powerful testament to faith, perseverance, and the generosity of thousands of people who came together to make the impossible possible.

Transcript

Welcome And The Evergreen Story

0:07

Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us for our community, our mission. This is a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission. This is your host, Barry Fieker, on a bit of a different podcast today. We call these the Evergreen Podcasts. In other words, we don't have a specific date that this is going to be aired. And so we're just praying and hoping that whatever day you're hearing this, which we could be evergreen, it could last in the winter, could last in the summer, uh, could be here pretty soon, that uh this is the right time for you to be able to hear this. Um we normally have guests in here. I'm here by myself today, other than uh the folks that are helping uh work the boards here uh to be able to uh have this uh Evergreen podcast. So our research and development department, Kim and Miranda, uh, they had uh suggested that uh we take a chapter of a book that was written a number of years ago called In Darkness, A Light Still Shines. About 13 years ago, that book was written. Uh the author was yours truly, with a whole lot of help with a lot of people to unpack 52 different stories out of

The Day The Wall Failed

1:06

that book. And one of the chapters that they thought might be good to unpack a little bit today was chapter 26. The title of that book is Standing in the Midst of Falling. Standing in the Midst of Falling. Uh it goes clear back to a time in uh March of 1989. Um I had come to the rescue mission as executive director in 1986, and so one morning I got a phone call while I was at home that a very large stone uh had fallen out of the wall through the ceiling in the old rescue mission building, which doesn't exist anymore today. But back then that's all we had, old hundred-year-plus old building. And it had come down and there was a man sitting in a chair who had just gotten up out of the chair. And had he not gotten up out of the chair, he may have been severely hurt, um, or even uh it would have taken his life because that great native stone, limestone came out of that wall and crushed that chair. Well, immediately I came down at the rescue mission and saw that we had a weak wall and a two and a half story shelter that was sheltering all of the men, the dining room, all the different offices that we had at those times, and uh and so immediately called for an inspection. Uh the city folks came out, they took a look at that, and they said, This wall is falling down. You have to leave now. And so we didn't really have any place to put anybody, but we had a warehouse, and so we asked the city for permission. Can we put the oh, approximately at that point in time, about 50 men into this warehouse, and they said, Well, yes, you can, we don't want them on the street. So we did that. And so um, we were in a situation where we learned through inspections that building was not salvageable. And now we are in a crunch because back in those days there was very little funds, there was very little understanding of what Topeka rescue mission is doing. And so we immediately got with some folks and said, okay, what is it gonna take to go somewhere else or build a new rescue mission? And uh when we were told by the architects who were looking at building a new rescue mission that really could do what we thought it needed to do, have a place for families, a new kitchen dining room, when they said in 1989 that is gonna cost you about $1.5 million, uh, that was like, well, that's never gonna happen. And so we were pretty much at a standstill. And uh we were praying, and uh we were saying, either God's gonna do this or it's not gonna happen. And so we felt like our back was up against a wall. The wall was falling down, uh, literally about three days after we got all the men out, um, those walls did collapse on the upstairs uh area of that building. However, we

A Shutdown Threat And A Bigger Need

3:55

needed an exterior wall to hold itself up and uh while we were working on all of this, and so uh very concerned about that, and I got a call one day from a gal named Mickey. Mickey had been a volunteer at the rescue mission, and she was what we might call an intercessor. She prayed and she uh called me and said, Hey, um, had this uh vision from the Lord, and uh he said to tell you, don't worry about that wall to the north falling down, uh, because there are three very large angels holding that wall up. And I thought, hmm, okay, uh, Mickey, that sounds nice. Uh I wonder if Mickey's okay. Um and so just kind of blew it off. Um, but was kind of glad for the call because I really hadn't told her about the wall. Uh figured she had heard about somewhere. Well, I would later learn that, yep, that's how Mickey would hear. Uh, she heard from the Lord, and he told her that. And years later I'd find out that God would share other special insights with her, and she would call me

Mickey’s Warning And Unexpected Protection

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and and really uh, you know, it was good timing. So anyway, so she said that, and so I thought, okay, well, uh hope that wall stays up there, and and uh so we're working uh diligently to say, okay, we either go out of business and put people in the streets, or we trust God to be able to move forward. What would happen in the days following that when we did announce that we're gonna try to build this new rescue mission? People were saying that'll never happen. A lot of people said that will never happen. Um for all I knew, it was never gonna happen. And uh, but what choice did we have? And sometimes when our when we're falling down, when we are our back is up against a wall, that's when God can really come and take charge of things in our lives. Actually, I've seen the Lord work more in my life when I'm in desperation than when I'm not. And so I was definitely in desperation. I thought I had been there uh at that point about two years at the rescue mission as a director, and I thought, well, rescue missions may be over, and I may be looking for a job. And uh, but still felt it was important because of what we were supposed to do to press on, to be able to say, um, why don't we just go ahead and see what God can do in this? And so, to my surprise, um, I was um finding myself uh seeing donations come in as we were letting

Bunny’s Message About Many Donors

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people know. But we were a long way from $1.5 million. Actually, when it was all said and done, it was closer to $2 million. But um I uh remember praying to the Lord, and this is kind of mixing chapters up here, but there was this gal named Bunny, Bunny Lafayette, uh, sweet gal, been homeless for years. She had been um uh involved in uh drugs in California, she'd been involved in prostitution. She's older in life now. She had relatives in Topeka, came to stay with them, and it didn't work out, so she's homeless. And I remember uh praying, God, you you can uh you got the cattle on a thousand hills, and uh you've got uh uh these big donors that give to these universities. All we really need is three or four big donors that can come along and uh give us the money we need. We don't need to take time here and get this thing going. And so I'm praying that way, you know, three or four big donors, done. And um, I was walking through the family section, women and families, just to add a handful of them at the time. And um Bunny Lafayette uh comes into the room and it's really early in the morning. I'll never forget, still had her nightgown on, and her hair was up in curlers, and she said, Good morning, Barry. And I said, Hey, Bunny. And she said, uh, hey, I had this vision or a dream or something last night uh to let you know that God is going to bring the money for that new building. And I said, Well, that's great, Bunny. I appreciate that. Um, you know, I thought, well, she really wants that building, so that's probably where she's coming from. She wants a place to stay. And um, so anyway, I walked away, and as I was walking away, she said, Oh, the Lord told me to tell you something else. I said, What's that, bunny? It's not gonna be three or four donors, it's gonna be a lot of donors, a lot of little ones, not big ones, but little ones. And I thought, I hadn't told anybody about that prayer. And I thought, how in the world would she have known that other than God revealed it to her? Which also taught me something. God can reveal his message through anyone. Could even be somebody who used to run drugs and prostitution in California, ends up in Topeka. Um, can be anybody if we will stop and listen to what the Lord is saying. What I would find out

6,700 Gifts That Built Hope

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later, and I really didn't want to hear what Bunny said when she said it's not going to be three or four, I go, man, well, this is gonna be a lot of work. And so um when it was all said and done, it was 6,700 different donors that participated in that nearly $2 million building. Which later on I would see the wisdom of the Lord in that. If it had been three or four donors, we wouldn't have had a team, an army, which you who are listening maybe a part of that army today, of contributors, volunteers, because not too many people knew about the mission, people giving materially to the mission, as well as financially. Six thousand seven hundred different people. I remember the smallest gift was four cents, four pennies. A little girl came up to me one day, had four pennies in her hand. She said, Will this help? I guess it will. I said, What's your name, honey? Got her name, put it on a wall. And so, all the way from four pennies to I think our largest gift was about a hundred thousand dollars. But it took a lot of people coming along, doing a lot of things, and sure enough, um, we were able to have the building, which we call the main building today, which is quite old, uh, because it was actually opened up in 1991. But it has served thousands and thousands of people, and then of course, after that the Hope Center was uh built, and then distribution centers, children's palace, and so God has really blessed the Topeka Rescue Mission. Okay, so let me go back to that um vision that Mickey had. So uh about two years afterwards, that old building, part of it that we had to get out of, was still standing. And so um it was time to tear it down. A demolition guy by the name of George Champney, uh a good friend of mine, he said, Hey, I'll take that down for you, no charge. And so he started bringing his crew over and they were dismantling the building. And about two or three days into this, as they're bringing down the north wall that had been up there, and as Mickey said, three large angels were holding it up. Don't worry, it's not gonna fall and hurt anybody. Um he said, You need to come take a look at this. So went across the street to the old building, and he said, I want you to see the floor, Joyce. You had a two and a half story building that held old wood that was put down there in the eighteen hundreds, and it had been through a flood, termites, all kinds

Demolition Proof And A Psalm 91 Promise

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of things, and it was barely holding the foundation of that two and a half story wall up. He said, by inches, not feet, just inches. And he said, There's no way in the world, Barry, that this should not have collapsed and fallen down on people. And he said, Might make you think there's a God. And I said, Yeah, might make me think there's a God. And also to listen to not only somebody who had been in California who's homeless, but also someone else, like a person named Mickey. Mickey's still a good friend today. Uh, she still occasionally says, Hey, I got a word from God for you. The reason we share that story today, and and uh Kim, Miranda, thank you for uh recommending chapter 26 of uh in darkness, a light still shines, is that the uh Psalms 911 says, For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee all thy ways. We're not alone here. Uh you're not alone. Whoever's listening to this right now, um, whatever you're going through, whatever you're up against, whatever wall seems to be falling down, whatever displacement that you are going through or afraid you're going through, God will not leave you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. The Lord is real. Uh, we've seen this all these years at the Topeka Rescue Mission, and we see it throughout the world, that God loves people and that He is willing to come and be there for them. The Topeka Rescue Mission today and other ministries like it are there for people who are very broken, very hopeless, very um despondent, that their walls have come crumbling down. And you don't have to be homeless um to experience those kind of situations in your life. Again, you may be facing that or your family member is today. But just to know this, that if you are finding your walls are crumbling today, just know that the Lord is fortifying you. He'll be with you. He may use this to move you into something even better, like an old building into a new one, and then something burst forward in

You’re Not Alone And Next Steps

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your ministry, in your family, or in your business, or whatever it is that God has called you to do. Thank you for being a part of Topeka Rescue Mission, and thank you for listening to this podcast. If you'd like more information about Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to trmonline.org, trmonline.org, and look at over 73 years of development because people like you are involved, and so is the Lord. Thanks for listening.