Latest / Our Community, Our Mission / Ep #235 – You are Valuable: A Conversation with Mick Ballinger

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Ep #235 – You are Valuable: A Conversation with Mick Ballinger · Our Community, Our Mission

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Father, you're good to us.
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: God, we're just thankful for this time.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: God, we're thankful for the people in this room.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: God, we're just so thankful for who you are and who you've been.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: God, I pray that, just as we go through this podcast, that you're glorified, God, and that you would lead your people to you.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: We're thankful for the listeners and we're thankful for all the opportunities you give us.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello everybody, thank you for joining our Community, our Mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission here on Wednesday, august the 14th of 2024.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: This is podcast number 235.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, barry Feeker and Josh.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: We're going to do this a little differently today.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Lemond and Mary were both out and so we didn't want to cancel a podcast, because we're on a roll and we don't cancel podcasts, right?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: So you bring in the D-strings.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Keep working your way down the alphabet.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Well, no, we won't call that.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you were kind of just hanging around and so I said, hey, help.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: But no, we have a couple other guys here today and we've already been having a good time talking to both of them.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: We're going to kind of get into the details here, but Josh Turley, who really started these podcasts back 234 times ago, right, 2019.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: 2019.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: That was a fun year, yeah and so.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: But anyway, we've been on a roll ever since.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Josh, you've been the technical guy behind this and all the equipment that we have, and just load them up.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Now we have Isaiah, who's just said the prayer here a minute ago and yeah, hi, isaiah, how are you?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I'm good.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And so Josh wanted to bring you in today because our other two normal co-hosts are out today.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Are you going to be nice to me today, josh?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be nice because you know where the off button is.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: The edit button is and you have editing capabilities, so I'm going to be super nice to you.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: However, we always like to make sure that we, you know, help people understand a value of a day, if they hadn't already understood a value of a day.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: So there are a couple of things we're going to look at today on a national and global basis, but nationally, this is what day.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: So this is a very, very important day.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: As always we like to go through these.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: It's National Creamsicle Day.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Research and Development Department came along with this and felt like this was a really important one National Creamsicle Day.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: What is a creamsicle?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: How do you not know what that is?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: This is like my favorite one.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: And you don't know what a creamsicle is.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I know what an ice cream cone is and a popsicle, but what's a creamsicle?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Is that kind of a blending?
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: That's kind of with like orange.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like you know, like the chocolate bar, that's all like a it's like, it's like.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's like, it's like you know, you know, like the like the chocolate like bar.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: That's just like a bar of like fudge chocolate or whatever ice cream bar or whatever.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about yes, a lot of.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I do very well know those.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: It's like that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: But you replace the chocolate with like orange, like I don't know, like kind of like sherbert, but it's just like orange ice cream.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And then the center is like like a creamy, uh like.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: So it's like this uh, orange fruity layer on the outside and then this like creamy, nice middle interior type thing.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Would you explain that again?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Nevermind.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So I think we get the point.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It's a national mix, your ice cream popsicle, okay.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So anyway, it's uh, uh, every year on this day.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: You know we we have to have something very, very important for this day, but there's something that's maybe a little more important.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: That we don't do every day, and that's World Calligraphy Day.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a lost art.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Do we write anymore?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, do people have pens anymore?
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: I mean, I have it and I use it every once in a while, but you know, yeah, but you know not a lot, Not like beautiful handwriting, Like I mean, calligraphy is beautiful.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: It is beautiful.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and actually you can get on your iPad and make it even look more beautiful too.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: You can cheat a little bit.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Now you can go to AI and say, do something really pretty and write in handwriting not mine, yeah, handwriting is kind of something that's going away and the manuscript pen company wanted this day to be a global day World Calligraphy Day to remind us all that handwriting is a skill.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And it sure is, especially if you look at mine and I don't have the skill.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: So anyway, I'm so glad for— I think in schools they don't even teach cursive anymore.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: No, but we stopped doing that when.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I was like third grade.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: That's wild that you don't even teach cursive anymore.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: So when I do my regular handwriting it always looks cursive, but anyway— do my regular handwriting, it always looks cursive.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: So, but anyway, that's mine too.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: So anyway, well, I'm so grateful for Siri, who can dictate.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: You know, I can save stuff and she can write stuff out, so anyway.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so, national Creamsicle Day, world Calligraphy Day, but something maybe a little more down to earth.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Here at Topeka Rescue Mission, we have Christian Stringfellow here with us today.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Christian's been on here.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Deputy Director of Shelter Services.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Hi, christian's been on here.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Deputy Director of Shelter Services.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Hi, christian.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Hey, barry.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, christian, how long have you been at TRM?
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: I've been at TRM for nine years now, nine years.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, it started 2015.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you came in as an intern at Washburn University in social work.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And you did your internship here and then you came on board and so you served in predominantly services to men for many, many of those nine years under a different director and then you became the director of that and then you're now the deputy director of both shelters and some other stuff, right?
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Like outreach and what's all on your plate.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Oh man, I'm probably going to forget something.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: So I'm over the shelters.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I'm over the men's shelter, over the women's shelter, the Hope Center.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: I'm also over case management, the housing program and the street outreach team, so pretty much everything that relates to the homeless that we serve.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so on the streets in shelter and then getting them housed.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I mean that's a good package.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: You remembered that pretty well.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I mean that's a good package.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so a lot of fun.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You remembered that pretty well.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: So you have to have really good people that you work with, that work for you in these arenas to make that all happen, Right.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: People make all the difference in the world.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they do, they do yeah.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: And some people make an incredible difference, that they get in certain positions to lead other people, and so we have our other guests.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Today You're a guest, but we have a first timer here on our community, our mission and Christian.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: He is now the assistant director of shelter services men's services, so tell us about Mick.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Well, like you said, having the right people makes all the difference in the world.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: And so I've had to kind of change my focus throughout the years in those different roles, coming in as an advocate, then assistant director, then case manager, then back to assistant director, then director, typical rescue mission movement, yeah, yeah, yeah, all hopping around.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: But I've had to change my focus every step of the way.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: And as I changed my focus I've had to realize what the important values or the things of that new role were.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: So at first you know it was working directly with guests.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: I love getting to know stories and getting to meet people.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: And then you know from there, you know the assistant director was still a lot of that at that time of working directly with the guests.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: And then there were some leadership responsibilities that were kind of tagged on, but more in an assistant leadership position.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: When you get really good at doing a thing, you can be maybe good at doing some more things than just the one thing, and that's that's an occupational hazard.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's other duties as assigned is probably one of the biggest job items or items on our job description.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Everybody's got that on there.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: Uh-huh yeah, it's a magical line.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I love it now.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: So one of the important things is as I shifted really into the director role, I realized that I could only do.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: I can only serve the homeless as good as the people that were serving them in front of me.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, if I was over now a team of men, I could focus on trying to help the homeless or the person in front of me the best that I could, or I could step back from that and focus on serving the people that are there 24, seven.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: And so, as I as I did that, that really kind of opened my eyes to the power of leadership and the importance of leadership.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: And now, in this role, my job is to kind of help equip leaders to take on that charge and then start to invest in their teams, and we invest in our teams in a variety of different ways.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: A lot of it starts with just seeing them as a person and not just as a role, not just as someone that's filling a position.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Um, so anyway, didn't mean to get off on the sidetrack there for a little bit, but it kind of sets up stage for the guy that you got in the in the seat here.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know, Mick, um, you know, having the right person in that place of leadership is key and it's essential.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: You have the right person in there and it makes your job ten times easier as you don't have to focus on, you know, catching all the things that fall through and you don't have to worry about doing their job for them, but then you get to sit back and watch them and then just support them and encourage them and then take that energy and divert it elsewhere.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Um, anyway, Mick has been a huge blessing, as he came in originally as a housing navigator, um, and then did that role with excellence um for for a while.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: And then we we saw that and we needed an assistant director of the men's shelter, and so we sat down and talked to him and asked him if he'd be interested, and he took that.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: I'm very grateful that he did.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: So, mick Ballinger, welcome to our community.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Our mission you have been here since, I believe, april of 23.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Went into the housing area first and that was Navigator was trying to help people to get their housing and stabilize and those kind of things A program that Topeka Rescue Mission really put into high gear back during the pandemic to get people rehoused.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And so, mick, you and I got a chance to visit a little bit before we started here today and you came out of kind of the construction industry, mechanical, those kind of things, and you were really feeling like the Lord was directing you somewhere else.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: And so what did you know about Topeka Rescue Mission?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: And then, why did you throw your hat in the ring to possibly come and be a part of this team?
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: So I heard a little bit about it in church.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: I go to Northland Christian Church so we had had some people come over.
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: Some of the pastors come over and lead some pastoral times, preach a little bit and then we have Angela Beamer, who is our children's minister, who comes in and does some I think it's Friday game nights over at the men's shelter.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: So heard a little bit about it in church.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: In church I heard my children coming out of Sunday school talking about bringing coins in to help save up for the peak of rescue mission and doing a little bit of crafts for some of the kids that were housed here.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: So pretty big switch from the industry that you were working in.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: You had a big responsibility there, a lot of on-call, 24-7, high-stress stuff there.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: It's not like you jumped out of high-stress, a low stress arena coming to the Picker Rescue Mission, but what you heard about it?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Was there something that you you know?
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: You knew the Lord was directing you this way?
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, the closer I got to God, I just didn't feel as though the jobs that I was in were fulfilling what I needed.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: I don't think I was doing what God had called me to do, so it was time to look at something else.
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: Unfortunately, at those times I was very money motivated and realized that everything that the Bible states that our God will supply all our needs according to his riches and glory I probably had to see that physically, you know, and not just be told.
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: So as I got further into these positions at these mechanical industrial places, it just wasn't fulfilling anymore.
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: Financially it was okay, but it just wasn't what God was calling me to do.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: So April of last year you came in and was doing housing natification and then Christian invited you over to be the assistant director of men's services since January.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: So you're still pretty new in this ministry aspect.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Has there been a fulfillment here for you at this point?
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: There has Just seeing each guest that comes through that front door, just showing them the love of Jesus Christ, letting them know that they're, that they're loved, that they're cared about, that there's hope, that they're valuable and that the the same one who created me created them.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: And the same.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: Savior that died on the cross for me, died on the cross for them also.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Well, of course, that's the kind of guy we need here, right?
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: That's it?
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Not this person who is a director over trying to keep people fed and sheltered, but really has a heart.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Mick, when you come out of an industry maybe like you were in and then you see people, the condition that some people come into emergency housing oftentimes are pretty broken up.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: How has that affected you?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: How are you handling that?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: We heard your heart just a minute ago, but how has it affected you with some of the suffering that you see?
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: It's made me humble, seeing.
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: You know you don't see this if you're not in this area.
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: You know you just don't make your way down to this area of town, you know, unless you're volunteering for some reason.
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: So it's made me humble.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: It made me realize to be thankful.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: Some of the guys that come through the door who just feel like giving up, feel like there's nothing left.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: It allows me to be able to sit down and let them know that there still is things out there for you.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: You know God's created you for a purpose.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: So let's see if we can figure out what that purpose is and walk with Jesus and see what direction he leads and guides us in, and walk with him and pray with them and encourage them and uplift them.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know there are people who view homeless as in a negative light and they seem to be labeling them, irritated with them, judging them, those kinds of things.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: But you get a chance to see the real person behind that label.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: How does that make you feel when you hear people who are mislabeling people and you actually know that these are people that God has given you an opportunity to actually be with them, walk their journey with them?
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: How does it make you feel when you hear how people are judged?
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: You know, unfortunately, I used to be one of those judges Okay, and it's not for me to judge God's love, compassion and grace.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: So walking along with these guys, just getting to know them, just encouraging them, you know, when you hear it from outside of the TRM area and you hear others talking about the homelessness and unfortunately the word nuisance comes up sometimes.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: Homelessness and unfortunately the word nuisance comes up sometimes, you know it's.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: You get to let everybody know just how how lovable these people are, how much they are.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: They have hearts, they really do.
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: Um, let's not put targets on them, let's love them.
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: Let's not call them names, let's love them love them.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: And so what hope do you have for the men that you are encountering that are coming in, maybe feeling, you know, broken.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe they are broken, challenged with addictions, challenged with mental health challenges, challenged with maybe they just never even graduated with any kind of a piece of paper.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Some don't know how to read.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Some have physical disabilities.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: We're seeing a lot more of that these days.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Some are older, coming in're seeing a lot more of that these days.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Some are older, coming in, maybe worked all their lives, but now they're homeless.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: What hope do you have for these individuals coming through?
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, you can feed them and you can shelter them and keep them safe.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: What do you hope for these Generally?
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: What do you hope for folks?
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: I hope that they can see their value.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Why is that important?
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: It's important, as my boss, christian Stringfellow, always says we have a value and our value is through Jesus Christ, that we are who he says we are, and I would like for them to be able to recognize that.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: Maybe we get someone in through the doors who don't believe or has never heard of Jesus Christ, someone in through the doors who don't believe or has never heard of Jesus Christ.
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: That gives us the opportunity to introduce them to Jesus, to let them know who he is, what he has done and continues to do in their lives, and that the hope is that they recognize us and that they can turn their lives around and maybe get Jesus involved in their life and in their hearts.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: What do you understand?
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: is the value of that Living a life that Jesus Christ has blessed us with Salvation.
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: I would love for everybody to be able to experience, hopefully, what we have at the end of our race on this earth, to be able to just experience God and his love, not just here on earth and going what we go through, but in his realm, understanding who he is and why Jesus has done what he's done for us.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Some people think it's important to come to Jesus Christ and recognize they need him in order that they don't die and go to hell, and so nothing much changes while they're here.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Do you believe, do you understand in your own personal journey and also for these individuals, that there's an opportunity for them to have a better life right now and not just wait to die?
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: I do believe so, yes, and I believe that God has called each and every one of us to help them realize that, to explain that to them that I always say if there's hope, there's help.
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: So let us be able to help you in your everyday struggles.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: To help you in your everyday struggles, help you to be able to get to where you need to be so that you can, you know, not be homeless and hopefully be back in a place where you have a job and you have a residence to reside in and, along that journey, to help you also realize who Jesus Christ is and share his love with you.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Christian has been someone who has been in mixed position and now the position you're in today.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: You talked about leadership and the importance of it.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: How unique is it in your thinking to have individuals who are helping people, kind of in a social service way, to have a place to go when they don't have a place to go, something to eat, clothes to wear, a place to go when they don't have a place to go, something to eat, clothes to wear and, in your case, helping them to one day get housing and the supportive services around?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: How important is it to have a team of people that are like Mick, who understand the importance of value, not only how we value them, but introducing them to the creator of the universe, who values them as well.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: It is crucial.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: It is crucial, and we can have people with all the best skills but without that heart.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Really, the heart isn't something that we create or that's something that we make.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: It's something that's really kind of awakened inside of us and it comes from actually seeing our own value and seeing our own worth.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And when we recognize where our value comes from, then we start to see where other people's value comes from.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: And that's kind of one of the most amazing things in just getting, as we serve our population, as we serve these people, is God saw them well before they ever came.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: You can go back as far as saying while they were even in their mother's womb, god saw them.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: And before they ever came, you know, you can go back as far as saying while they were even in their mother's womb, god saw them and God knew them.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Even before the foundations of the earth, god knew them.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: And so every opportunity or every interaction I have with an individual is an opportunity.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: It's an opportunity to treat them according to a value.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: I can treat them according to the value systems of this world.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: I can treat them according to the value systems of this world.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: I can treat them according to the value systems that they may have over themselves.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: Or I can try to ask God for how he values a person, how he sees them, and then treat them accordingly, whether they're acting like it or not, because really, when someone doesn't know who they are, they act like someone that they're not Labels sometimes yeah.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: But then really Mick kind of touched on this but one of the things that is kind of a core value in what we do is we meet practical needs and we meet those practical needs daily because people have needs that need to be met.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: But if that's just the end of it, then what are we really here to do?
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: There's other services, other places that provide those services, but why do we do this?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: And for me and for Mick and for others, we do this to show people they have eternal value.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: You're not trying to get them to join the church or anything.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I just want to see them find the place where joy comes from.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so one of the things we do in our community, our mission, is we allow can of worms to get opened up in order to examine things.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: But you mentioned something about the scripture saying that God knew us while we were being formed in our mother's womb, and so, either for both of you guys, you see individuals who come in really beaten down.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they've made really poor decisions, sometimes those decisions have been made against them, and sometimes a combination thereof, and so they've taken a journey of life that is suffering great suffering.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: So this is the can of worms.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: So you guys are on the front lines.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: This isn't theoretical.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: You see brokenness coming in.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: How do you reconcile that with a God who loves and a God who knew that that person was going to go through this journey of brokenness?
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: How do you deal with that with God?
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: That's a big can of worms and that's probably one of the most existential questions or challenges that I think we face globally and personally on a day-to-day basis.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Some people can't do this kind of work because it's too hard for them to encounter this kind of suffering, so they have to look the other way.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Other people do it and they are very angry at a God creator who would allow these kind of things to happen to people, and so they're helping people but hating God at the same time.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: You guys are blending the love and the value that God has for us in the midst of a God who allows suffering to occur but for some reason, has deterred you from seeing the value of God and seeing the value of the person.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of it depends on how you see the world.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: One of the things that's a big common thing in the world today is viewing the world as being essentially good.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: I can't necessarily say I see that.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: You know, the more I've looked behind the curtain, the more and more broken the world seems.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: The deeper down I get to see the world, the more and more hopeless it is.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: The deeper down I get to see the world, the more and more hopeless it is, and that's kind of, you know, plays really in line with you know what I've seen, also kind of unfolding in the scripture before me.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: I think we're all in kind of this journey and you know, the word only means as much to us as really is what's revealed.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: And so as we live out this life with God and as we seek after him, his word will open up before us, anyway so.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: I'm getting off on another can of worms there, but it's a challenge because really, where does our value come from, you know, and is it just something that is just out there and just it's what it is and something that helps me to understand?
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: That is kind of just this picture and really, like, I have to look at what does value come from?
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: You can look at economics, you can look at supply and demand, you can look at, you know, all these other factors, but really essentially, what value is is what someone's willing to pay.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: And so you know, if I wanted to know the value of a car, I look up what people are willing to pay for that car and that value changes over time.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: We, so you know, saw values change and we're seeing values change, you know, before our eyes today.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: You know, with, uh, what we're seeing with inflation, um, and then we saw, you know, the supply lines close and values, you know, skyrocketed.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: But really the value on anything is really what someone's willing to pay, yes, and so in this line, like when I look at the person that's in front of me, even when I look at myself, my value is what someone was willing to pay In this world of pain, this world of sin, this world of brokenness, like, we try our best, we do the best we can, but at the same time we are not able to do the good things we want to do and we keep on doing the bad things we don't want to do.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: What a wretched people we are, you know.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: And that who will save us from that?
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: And so that is kind of essentially my.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: My view of humanity is that we were made in the image of God and we have a desire for good things.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: We have a desire for God's things, we have a desire for his joy and for his love and for his peace, and at the same time, we are also born with a corrupted nature, a sinful nature, and as a part of that we have a desire for good things, but not actually the ability to find those things or to carry those things out on our own.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: So, because we have that free choice, then people have free choice to hurt us.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: We have a free choice to hurt ourselves or others, and so, um, the value is that, uh, god has said that's not what I desire for you, right?
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: And created places like rescue missions to be able to help people to see.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: Even more than that.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: You know that that value comes from.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Like I said, it comes from what someone's willing to pay.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: And when I look at myself and I look at people around, it doesn't necessarily matter the things I've done or what, how good or how poor I am, necessarily matter the things I've done or what, how good or how poor I am.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Really, the a lot of times we would try to look at humanity as being the tallest or look at trying to find the good people as being the tallest skyscrapers in you know a city and it's not.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: We're kind of looking at the wrong measure.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: You know the, the measure for good is actually a lot bigger than we are.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: It's more akin to the distance from the earth to the sun, and so we kind of get ourselves all wrapped up with looking at the tallest buildings around us when the measure for good is so far beyond that, so much bigger than that, and so that's kind of like.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: My view of this is like I'm not going to look at the people around me and try to compare, not look up to people around me or look down on people around me, because the measure is so big that I'm infinitesimally small.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: But the thing is coming back to value.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Regardless of the things that I've done, and especially because of the things that I've done and the things that we have done as people, god saw those things, god knew those things.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: God knew our value.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't pay $100,000 for a Toyota Camry.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: It's probably not worth it.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Isaiah would know that better than anybody.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: But it's not, but we view ourselves as a Camry, sometimes as something more of a beater than that.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: But really God saw us and he was willing to spend every single drop of blood that he had.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: The creator of the universe decided that we were worth taking on flesh.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: God took on, he humbled himself to the point I think that's something that we don't really look at how humble God was by becoming his creation, living subject to the same struggles and temptations and issues that we deal with on a day-to-day basis, and then choosing that even in the end of that, after living perfectly and loving and healing and transforming lives, he was willing to take on our ridicule, our scorn, our hatred, our beating, and he eventually even laid down his own life.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: I think one drop of the blood of God would have been enough for all the sin of mankind, but he said that we were worth it all.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: And so when I look at the person that's coming in and out from that front door, people that I see walking by, coming for a meal, when I encounter people in the camps or all throughout the city, I can see the things that are on the outside.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: That's pretty easy to see the things on the outside.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: I can see the addiction, I can see the brokenness, I can see the filth, I can see all those things, but really, and I can see the brokenness, I can see the filth, I can see all those things, but really, what does God see when he sees that person?
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: And personally, it's the same thing that he sees when he sees me.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: He sees someone that he was willing to lay down his life for and die for.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I think what you're saying is that the key to how we look at people who get labels regardless of what the label is, whatever they've done is are they valuable?
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: And who says so?
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: You know, if it's me saying so, it's going to have about a $7.5 billion chance of being different than the rest of the population of the world, right?
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: But God says no, they're valuable in this way.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: To me, to the price was the ultimate price.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's good.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, you jumped in that can of worms, pretty good, christian.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Well, I like that can of worms.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: I know it's what means I have value.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I knew you would.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: You've done this for nine years, christian in this regard, and it hasn't deterred you from understanding the value of the people that walk through the front door.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Mick, you've had less than that just a little over a year Opportunity from your lens.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: When you see brokenness come through, where do you see God in this?
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, you heard Christians unpacking of this.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: After nine years of this, what about you?
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Do you question God's wisdom?
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Do you question, does God care?
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Do you question if there's a plan at all, or are you already where Christians?
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: at.
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: I don't question God at all.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: God give us choices.
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: You know we can make our own minds up.
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: One of the things I like to share with the guys that come through that door is your past does not define you.
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: We make choices that we might regret later on in life, but we have a heavenly father that will forgive us.
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: past does not define you.
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: We make choices that we might regret later on in life, but we have a heavenly father that will forgive us for what we've done.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: So just knowing that our life was valuable enough for him to lay his life on the cross for us helps me to be able to hopefully instill in those others who come through the door, who are broken, that there is still love, that there's the same person that laid their life down back then for us is still here with us and he's alive again.
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: He has risen again.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: So just giving them, hopefully, the hope that you know we can help them, that praying with them, encouraging them, just uplifting them and, you know, just letting them know the decisions that you've made, the choices that you have made, do not define who you are.
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: We can bow our heads at any moment in time and ask for that forgiveness, and we know that God is there with us.
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: We know that any time we come before Him that he's there, that he's not going to wait on what we pray for or see what we're in need of.
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: He's going to be there regardless.
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: And if we pray sincerely for that forgiveness, for that encouragement to change our lives and our ways, that he's there and he's walking with us with every step and every breath that we take.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: How true it is that people make really good decisions based upon the understanding of their value, or really poor decisions sometimes because they think there's no value at all.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: And you guys get a chance to be able to help people not only with the basics, but to understand that essential ingredient in our lives.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: You know, somebody said they were talking one time and talking to God and said God, why don't you do something about this?
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: And he said to them I am Go, look in the mirror and so we are the ones.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: That's a part of his plan, you know, and everybody gets a chance to be a part of that.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Josh, I thank you for jumping in this today, but I want to bring you back into this conversation.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: You've been at Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: How long now?
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Yourself Just celebrated 10 years.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: 10 years Congratulations.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: And so, josh, in the area of communications and strategic development and those kind of things you want to communicate, you and Isaiah and the team wants to communicate what Topeka Rescue Mission is.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: When you hear these guys talking in this regard, what does it do to you, or what is it?
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: How does this influence communications about the ministry of Topeka Rescue Mission?
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: I think, just right off the bat, hearing this and knowing that other people are listening to this right now.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: That's why we're doing what we're doing.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: We want other people to hear this.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: We want people to hear that they have intrinsic value.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: It's not based on what you can produce.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: It's that you're a child of God and that you are loved and that that's where your value comes from.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: And I think being able to do that here, being able to do that through our newsletter, being able to do that through little snippets on our social media and you know that's what's fulfilling in all of this is being a catalyst to tell these stories.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: Obviously, you know, isaiah and myself we aren't on the front lines and so we don't always get to hear these stories of, you know, redemption and you know, but we get to be the catalyst for other people to hear them.
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: You know we get to bring on the Kennys and the other incredible stories that we've had on, and so just being able to be a catalyst for that communication is such a blessing.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: God definitely creates teams, so I want you to plug real quick.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Something's going to happen in September.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Yes A particular evening that's going to kind of pull all this together.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: So we are super excited to have our second annual Night of Praise, september 22nd, 6 pm.
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: It's going to be awesome.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: We've got local church bands playing worship sets and we're going to have some great communications on some stories going on and I don't know, it was such a blessing last year to put on the first one and just having kind of a unified you know, I think we all come from different denominations and, you know, um kind of even just Christian backgrounds and so being able to kind of put all those aside and just be able to all come together and worship the Lord and, um, you know, support the mission was incredible and so I'm just really excited to do that again.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: So, uh, september 22nd, put on your calendar, be there 6 pm, and that will be at Fellowship again.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, fellowship Bible.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Fellowship Bible, and so some of the things that you guys are talking about are going to be stories that are going to be talked about that night and some people are going to share their testimony.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you're needing encouragement, you know you can go there.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: Hopefully you're going to get encouraged before September 22nd.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, but definitely that's one of those nights.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: You know, having been involved with the rescue mission as many years as I had been, I sat back up in the bleachers that night, just took it all in, didn't have to do anything, didn't have to speak, didn't have to do anything.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: It was so blessed by the presence of the Lord in that place and really felt like that.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: There were people who maybe were struggling and received some hope to be able to say God, you really do have a plan here.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I've heard you know LaManda's talked about this before, but you know the understanding that it's not just the people that we're serving in the shelters or on the streets, but it's everyone.
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: Everybody in the community questions their value and so if we can offer that hope, no matter who you are, you know we all are struggling, we all are going through difficult circumstances and situations but, like I said, just offering hope to everyone is a blessing Life is messy.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: God does not always remove the mess, but he guides us through the mess so we can get on the other side of it, mess by mess and then eventually the big mess.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Christian last word from you, and then I want to have one more word from Mick.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to challenge people who are listening.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: There's a quick story and I'm probably going to get off on a tangent here.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: He is a preacher, so we're going to get the Reader's Digest version.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: So God had directed Samuel, who was a prophet in the Old Testament, to go and to anoint the next king of Israel this was actually during Saul, who was the king there at the time but God had directed him to go to the house of Jesse.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: And he goes before Jesse and Jesse brings out his sons and they prepare a sacrifice.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Jesse brings out his sons and they prepare a sacrifice.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: And here Samuel is looking at these brothers looking at these sons of Jesse, he sees the oldest one, he sees Eliab, and he thought for sure, surely this is the one that the Lord wants to anoint.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: This has to be him.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: He's big, he's strong, he's capable, he's smart.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: This has to be the one.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: And God said this, and it's kind of, I think, something that pertains to a lot of the things that we talked about today.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: This is in 1 Samuel, 16 and verse 7.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: But the Lord said to Samuel do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord sees, not as man sees.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: So Samuel then went from there to the next brother and to the next brother and then through all of them, and realized God didn't tell him how any of them were.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: And so here Samuel is, thinking I probably wasted my time coming out here.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: And then Samuel asked Jesse, do you have another son?
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: And Jesse's like?
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: Well, the youngest is out in the fields.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: And that youngest was the boy who became, you know, king David.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: And so I think it's important that you know we look not on the outward appearance when we value, and we value the people in our lives, for the people around us, not looking at the things that are good at, especially not at the things that they can do for us, but we look at them and seek to look at them from a different lens, from a different set of eyes, and realize that what God sees in us, too, is different than what people see in us.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Fortunately Samuel was pretty close to God, but even in that he was looking through the lens of man to start with.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: And he had to say, god, is this really what you're wanting to do?
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: And he had enough relationship with the Lord to say, nope, that ain't it.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: But here it is, and then have the faith to go ahead and choose the thing that probably the world wouldn't have chosen.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah and so, yeah, thank you, christian Mick Ballinger again.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Assistant Director of Services to Men.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: We always like to give our guests an opportunity to say whatever they'd like to say to share with our listeners that.
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: What would you like for people to take away from today's podcast?
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: Just to realize that each and every one of us has value, no matter what they look like on the outside.
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: I always say you can never judge a book by its cover, because we never know what God has in their hearts.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: You can never judge a book by its cover, because we never know what God has in their hearts.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: Back in Jesus' day, they wore garb.
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: Basically is what they wore.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: So you can't look at somebody in their clothing and judge who they are or what they do.
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: Just know that everybody has value, that each and every one of us has God in our heart.
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: But sometimes we don't discover it right away.
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: Sometimes it takes a little bit of time, and walking the life and having people come into our lives that help us see that value on ourselves and know that God has always been there and never left us.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Well said.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Well, we never know where our community, our mission, is going to take us.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: So we decided to interview McBallinger, who's the assistant director of men's services today, and we ended up talking a whole lot deeper of this.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Thank you, christian, for joining us.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Josh, you as well, you have value as well.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Those of you who are listening.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: And if you don't believe, you do just know that God's going to show you.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: If you're open to seeing that, and if you already understand who you are in God's kingdom and there are those around you who are suffering that don't believe they matter God said go, look in the mirror.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: Maybe you're the answer to that person to let them know their value as well.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to our community, our mission.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: If you'd like more information about the Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to the website at trmonlineorg that's trmonlineorg and also look for that night of praise.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: It's going to be in September that you can join with others that understand their value and helping others there to be able to understand their value when they join us on that night.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to our community, our mission.