Latest / B1 Podcast / Love Is Inconvenient. Are You Willing to Stop?

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Love Is Inconvenient. Are You Willing to Stop? · B1 Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome back to the B1 podcast.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: I am Mark.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Blake.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Great to have you.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: We have an awesome guest from my favorite humans here today.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Tell everybody who you are.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, I'm Karma Dugovak, the executive director at the R58 mission.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: So good to have you.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: I was stoked.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Blake texted me last night and said, Karma's coming tomorrow.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was just going to do that.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: I texted her week.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I don't want to give you too much time.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I know, right.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing like 12 hours news.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: And her immediate response was I'm there.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that's actually exactly what we're talking about.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because this past weekend I talked about going and loving.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: And um I love this.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: I want to share something with you about the word compassion.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Compassion is when someone else's pain becomes personal enough that you do something about it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: The Greek word is spalag, spalognizomai.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I had for dinner last night.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Spalognozomai.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um in the passage we talked about, a good Samaritan, it says that he took pity on him and had compassion on him.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: And this word compassion moves you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: You can't have compassion, right?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: So sympathy says, that's terrible.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so sorry.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Empathy and sympathy, like, that's terrible.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Compassion says, I'm coming.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm showing up.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so it it's moving you deeply inwards, almost like you feel someone else's pain in your gut.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever felt that?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like you've seen someone hurt and it just sinks, and you like you have such compassion that you're moved.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's like Jesus when he's looking over Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, how I longed to gather you like hens, and he had compassion on them, over people, uh, because they were without a leader.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of times we aren't moved to compassion.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I say this like um, I want to talk to religious people that have been in the church their whole life and they do all the rules, they show up, they smile, they're pretty on the outside.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: But they aren't when you're filled with the Holy Spirit of God, um that I think that's what moves you to compassion because in our own flesh, we only and always think of ourselves, right?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: We're just we're just selfish.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: We always think of me, me, me.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: But the compassion of God recognizes that the people of God belong to they're my problem.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, when we belong to the church, we're part of his children, and you go, man, if you're hurting, I'm hurting.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so because it's your problem, I've got to do something about it.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so that brings me to you, karma.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: I love the story of the mission that you lead and how it began.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you kind of talk about how it got started, how you were moved by compassion, had to do it, couldn't not, right?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the verse that is the inspiration for all that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um we pulled a tag off of an angel tree at our teeny tiny little church.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: So angel tree is like that's you.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of gives you like a gender and an age range and maybe some preferences, like it might be a you know, a 10-year-old little.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: But it's Christmas, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: So you go to buy gifts.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we bought the presents, and I don't know if y'all have ever seen like the big Toys for Tots containers like at Walmart, where you can drop off the things that you purchase.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what I thought.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know where I thought I was taking the presents.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But when I went back and I was like, hey, April, Pastor's wife, April, um, I have these gifts that I bought for this child.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And she literally hands me the mom's name, address, and phone number.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, and you're delivering those.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: So you went to her house.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I did not sign up to go into somebody's home.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because there is this level of intimacy when you're invited into somebody's house.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh we loaded up the kids, we loaded up the presents, and we drive over there, and feeling good about our middle class selves that bought these great gifts, and then we get there, and the level of poverty was and it was y'all, it's like right off of Main Street, Sanoa.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're building million-dollar houses, right?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and there is this invisible mama and her daughter.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we walk in and we just we're surrounded by poverty.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're running water in the bathtub, literally, no glass between the windows in the front of the house, plastic.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's December.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it anyway, it was it was a lot, and we left, and that that day we were like, okay, this mom's right here, she's five minutes from our nice house, and she's living like this.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is not okay.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not we say we love Jesus, but then we're allowing this to happen without doing something about it.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was kind of the day that Jesus was like, and now you're doing something about it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it went from that's terrible to what am I doing in my life?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I have to move towards compassion.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then what happened?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So then we started making phone calls.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just started calling everybody I knew who might know somebody.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, we need a plumber, we need an electrician, we need a builder who can put in windows.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And y'all know what happens when you call somebody, then your numbers in their phone, and y'all, I felt like all of Sinoai had my phone number.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Legit, the phone just started ringing off the hook.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it was people saying, Hey, we heard you're 11 on this mom and her kid.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're it was everything, y'all.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was clothes, we're getting rid of it, we cleaned out my kid's closet.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or I had one friend that said, I just bought new dishes.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Could that mom use my dishes?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with them.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted something new.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just started saying yes.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I would come home from work and my front porch would look like Target exploded.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like people were dropping off, shipping.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: I it was wild.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Scarlett Grace couldn't sleep in her bedroom.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: She was sleeping on her mattress in G's room because her room was full of rubber-made containers, full of clothes.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the garage was full of furniture and appliances.
• 6:18
  unknown: Wow.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: My HOA hated me.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hated me.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: So somehow the whole spirit, not only your compassion moved you, but because you used your mouth to speak about what's right under your nose and our nose, a community was guided by the spirit, and this thing starts doing this snowball.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: And stuff starts showing up at your house.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: And you're going, what is going on?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then people, when the HOA said you you're running a business out of your house, I'm like, I'm giving things away to people who don't have anything.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, We don't, we don't care.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a business.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it had a lot to do with the fact that there were cars that didn't look like their cars and people that didn't look like them in our neighborhood coming to my house.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um why did did she tell her friends and other people start getting some help from besides just her?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: The story grew beyond it just it grew beyond her.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: One day I don't even know how it how it happened, but this young African-American guy's in my upstairs bathroom trying on suits.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know anybody.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is the best thing in the whole world.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jose Banks gave us all these suits, and this amazing young man had a job interview, and I'm like, come to my house.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: We will try on suits and figure it out.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was awesome.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was awesome.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and he looked so handsome and he was so ready for his interview, and it just I don't know, it just makes my heart smile.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we just started loving people, and then people, like you said, it's almost like always say it's like when somebody wins the lottery at that gas station, then everybody's like, Oh, we need to buy a ticket there.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like they, you know, it's a thing.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So when one person's loved on, they tell everybody, yeah.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And turns up their community, and then that community comes and they're like, hey, I could use this and I need that, and then they tell somebody, and it just like you were saying, it kind of snowballs.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: So and so then I-58's born.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so is tell tell us about the verse and then how you started this.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: The verse.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: I know this Bible verse is amazing.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: I-58, I is actually Isaiah 58.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so this is the message version.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I hope nobody.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Eugene's great, good man.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just love the way it reads because it's, I don't know, it's very passionate.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, so um starts at verse six.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It says, This is not the kind of fast I'm after to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm interested in seeing you do is sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill clad, being available to your own families.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do this, and the light will turn on.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: She still cries.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: You still cries.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Will turn around at once.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your righteousness will pave your way.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: The God of glory will secure your passage.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how it can't get better than that.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then when you pray, God will answer.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: You'll call out for help and he'll say, Here I am.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down and out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will always show you where to go.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places, firm muscles, strong bones.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be like a well-watered garden, a girdling spring that never runs dry.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build a new, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be known as those who can fix anything.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: Come on, come on.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like well.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's just saying, hey, love people like I love you.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then the blood seeds can't be counted.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're just gonna overflow.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's I I will fight you.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have the best job in the world, Charlie.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: You do, Karma.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've watched you on, Pastor Henry.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: A city of ruin in life.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Downtown Sonora, because of what I-58's become.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's so, so good.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: The amount of food you guys give out now, the way that you dress and you allow people to shop, they're given dignity.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is all the dignity.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's beautiful.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: You put their hair, you give them family pictures.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it it is such a beauty of like ashes to beauty, ashes to beauty.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you're not just doing that for individual mamas, but entire city, a community that's coming around, and not just Sonia now.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people come from all over to be a part of I-58.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so I could not be more proud of you and what what it's become, and it clearly it's still just your heart.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're just yeah, I love it so much.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: You bleed it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't like I feel bad for folks that I used to feel like you have to go to work, like you, it's it's painful.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm like, oh my gosh, Sunday.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Get I'm like, come on, Sunday.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're lasting forever.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to go to work tomorrow.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I want to be there.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the best feeling because you know you're doing something that you're called to do.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just like what you have to do, yeah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that makes the biggest difference.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get to love people all along the way, and and it's really neat because it's not just loving the I call them a people, it's not just loving our clients, but it's our volunteers too, you know?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, yeah, it's pretty amazing.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: What I love about Isaiah is that he came after a religious spirit, hard and heavy.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: So he's the one that's known in 29-13.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: You draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so then you get to 58, and he's saying, Hey, I I don't he's talking about a fast.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's talking about new moon, sabbath, your feasts, your my and the Bible says, My soul hates.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Why does God hate for people to show up and do the religious things?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's because your heart's not in it.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: It so he's saying, if you want to be spiritual, this is what I'm calling you to do.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Be hungry, clothing naked, yeah.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean simple things that we go and so we talked about the Good Samaritan this past week, and it brings up a lot of questions that I feel like we need to talk about.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: It how how in our own lives do we allow ourselves to get to a place where we walk past those that are in need?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: How how are we just like so cold, so religious, so like it's not my problem.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, somebody else will deal with that, right?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: When the scriptures clearly show us that, you know, there's the it he goes after the Jesus, goes after a priest and a Levi.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: So two religious people that should be the ones that are moved by compassion, and what do they do?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they just walk by.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: This man that's in need, suffering on the side of the road.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it's because they were busy religious folk, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so I always like to say busy stands for being under Satan's joke.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever heard that?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: Being under Satan's joke.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: You're like too busy, not not today, right?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's uncomfortable because we know a lot of people that know scripture, they go to church, they worship, right?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: They serve, and they go home, and that's all they give to the kingdom is that one hour a week, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: They don't, they don't like, they're not asking God to put someone in their path.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Don't make me um inconvenient.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: But can I say something?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Love is almost always inconvenient.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Can I get an Amen?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Put the people in the back, right?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Are there times in your life, Mark, where you've gone, I I'm too inconvenient right now.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm too busy.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm too I can't right now.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when you just shared that, it made me think of like uh at least for me.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, how are you doing?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Man, busy.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's almost like uh this badge of honor, you know.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that I I know I'm not the only one that says it.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh like I hear it often from a response How are you guys doing?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: So man, we're good.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just busy, you know, it's kind of like that's the response.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like the in my life, the reason why I would I don't stop for the Samaritan is because I have zero margin, you know.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've got meeting, I've got a practice to attend, I've got another meeting, you know, it's just like it there's zero margin for me to pull over to the side and help the guy in the ditch, you know.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, when I was thinking about this podcast, I thought, well, who's the good Samaritan in our community?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's karma.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I greatly respect you, honor you, I look up to you.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I, if I'm honest with you, every Thursday I'm I'm in my office.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's my main day to write my sermon.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's my one day to study and write.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: I give my whole heart towards it, but at 10 o'clock, I'm always like, I'm such a loser.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just sitting here on my computer.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm busy as a Christian.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: When down the street from me, Karma's loving on the poor, feeding people.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I always feel this like, well, I I do send money.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: I do send some people.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: But Blake, why aren't you going yourself?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so I haven't been there in a long time.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry for that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um anytime.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: I know, yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: What happens at 10 o'clock on Thursdays?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: So Thursday is the best day of the week.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Sundays here.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um my people come and they it's a sanctuary, but it doesn't feel like a sanctuary.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: It feels more like a community center, kind of those vibes.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we have volunteers that shoot the bull, hug necks, uh, pray with folks, and just hang out.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then they shop on our stage, which is kind of like our version of Target.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so fun.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: The ladies can get new sunglasses, the guys can get new ball caps, you know, whatever it might be.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then um we do devotion.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have pastors and musicians on rotation that come and church bring the word and bring the worship, and it's incredible.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Before everybody grocery shops, it's so sweet.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what I love.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: W one of the things I love about you and your mission is that it's not just providing for needs physically, but it's also telling them, sharing the gospel.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I I I grew up Baptist, so um I always heard growing up, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like you exemplify that by providing for real physical needs, like the in their emergencies, you know, and you provide and I j I've seen it being there that people are receptive to the gospel, you know.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And uh okay.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Got saved a couple weeks ago at devotion.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it and and then there are clients that we've been walking with for, you know, five, ten years, and the person they started as is not the person they are today.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just really Karma, you get to see so many miracles.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: The hand of God.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Every day.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you you watched people be transformed by the truth of Jesus, the love of Christ.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: But you also like, I love that you were going to church in the building you're in.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: It was your church building.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then it became your mission and and completely paid for, debt-free now, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's wild.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we just launched an expansion.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we're like, okay, yeah.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, we don't do fundraisers.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're just we know Jesus wants us to grow so we have more room for his people.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're putting it out there.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like red sea part kind of miracles, like things you go, what how did this happen?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, only God.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you get to see that all the time.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that one of the things I love the most about I-58, if you haven't ever been and you live in the area, you've got to go see it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but here's here's what I love: every tongue, tribe, and nation, every walk of life, yeah, right?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: People that stink, people that ain't got no teeth, right?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like people, people that are hungry, yeah, and they come in and they're given hope, they're given dignity, right?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're shown that you don't have to live in despair.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's people here to help, people that love you and wrap their arms around, hug, and you see the church being the church, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so that's when I think about the Samaritan, um, I want to just talk about the Samaritan.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: So people don't realize that for Jesus to make the good Samaritan the hero, that would have been like saying, you know, I I think the only way we can understand it is like making an an extreme Islam terrorist the hero.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody that we are conditioned to hate, abhor.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you how much they hate it.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: So if you take the Sea of Galilee, and then the Jordan River goes all the way down to the Dead Sea, Samaria is right in the middle, and they would it was a direct walk from um Capernaum all the way down to Jerusalem.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so instead of walking through Samaria, which is right in the middle, not only did they hate them so much that they didn't want to see them, they didn't want to walk on the land that they belonged to.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so they'd walk around the Sea of Galilee and they'd go down to the Jordan River, and their lives would be threatened by going over the Jordan to get to Jerusalem.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so they hated the kind of racism and hatred that we have in America, we don't even understand.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: And here's what's crazy the Samaritans were Jews.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: It was their their people, their own people that hated their own people because when they were taken away to Babylon, they had you know gone and slept with people from Babylon and they had taken wives, and so they saw them as like the mestizo, the you you're an interbred, you know, you're not a pure blood Jew, and so they just despised them for that.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: But it's their own folk, right?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so I love the heart of that.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and so what does a good Samaritan do?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: He it it costs him.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: How does it cost him, Mark?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know you know the story.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Financially, yeah.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: What's he do?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: He pays for stops.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right or stops, yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: He's he sees him and he bandages his wounds.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yeah.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: He loves on his immediate needs, picks the dude up, right, physically carries him, takes him to a place and pays for all of it, right?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it not only did it cost him his time, and I'm telling you, the good Samaritan was going somewhere.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: He's a busy dude, right?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: He's got people to see and things to do, but all of a sudden, you know, the priest and the Levite, they ain't got no time for that, right?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: But the the good Samaritan does.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, I'm not only gonna take my time, I'm gonna pull out my my wallet, I'm gonna pay for all of it, right?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was it became his prop.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: So moved by compassion.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's that's a message for us today.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: And in like, you know, Jesus ends the whole thing by by saying, go and do likewise.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: Go and do likewise.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you're a follower of Christ, I don't see where it says, so consider that.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe maybe consider if you if you've you know if you're walking by somebody in need, eh, not really.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think Jesus is going after that spirit of like, what's keeping you from loving my people?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: And why do you think you're so righteous and holy?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's really what he's saying.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, are you too too uh pompous, too arrogant, too prideful, too pious?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Are you you're so you know holy that it's not not my problem, right?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: But Jesus is saying, no, the people you you despise the most sometimes look the most like me.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: When they're when they're filled with compassion by the whole power of the Holy Spirit, moved by His Spirit to do something.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I I just have to tell you, Karma, I see that in you.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: I see you so moved by compassion, loving every tribe, tongue, and nation, and just a beautiful picture of what the church is really supposed to look like week in and week out.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: And we're honored to support you, get behind you.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the mission would do without without one church.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the the the food, the financial support.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, you guys are one of our biggest, you know.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: The last time I looked at the numbers, um, only nine percent of giving came from our church families.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nine.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a lot of individuals that are that's awesome.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all are part of that nine percent.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very grateful.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then poor Mark.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: I call Mark all the time to do our show.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like constantly.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's awesome.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, I love it.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: But it's um so when I think about I think about why people don't go and serve, it's it is often schedules, it's busyness.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you probably hear people say, I'm sorry, I couldn't make it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably like, what are you doing?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's probably hard not to go, I I you were on my team, you're super involved, and now you're quitting.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so as people in the church and that give our lives to serve, um, I think one of the things that keep people from serving is sometimes there's compassion fatigue.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Do you ever have that, Karma?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's hard.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: Were you just overwhelmed with so much need and need so much money and people back out on you?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: And like it's it's challenging to hear no when you feel like you're doing kingdom work.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: And also, like, why are it's probably hard to not go, I thought I thought you were a Christian, I thought you live by the Spirit.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Why aren't you doing this?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like easy to like start to judge people for not, yeah, you know.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like I've been in all those places where I I was the person who didn't see, yeah, I didn't realize the need.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I realized it, I got pretty angry that other people didn't realize it.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how are y'all not seeing this?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then and then you grow and you go, Okay, Karma, you didn't see it.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now you do.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: They need a minute to catch up to.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: So everybody in the world that that's listening and watching, maybe you can't be uh Karma Novak.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: But I we were told a story this past week by one of our guys on staff.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: His name is John, and he's he's helps out in like he does all the construction and facility stuff around here.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: He's awesome.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: John took something to help a family that's in poverty out towards noon, I think.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a really run-down neighborhood, and he was dropping something off to help them.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: And this little kid comes out, and I think he had a bruise or something.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Something had happened to him where you could tell something bad had happened inside.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: And he saw himself in that kid.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, I remember being that kid.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the kid says, Hey, I see your fishing pole.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Yeah, you fish.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Oh, my dad took me a long, long time ago.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: And and then the kid says, Do you know what'd be really cool though?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: And John said, What?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, if you'd take me fishing.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: And John just said, I'll take you fishing.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be glad to take you fishing.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes the Holy Spirit puts people right in your path.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's the simplest thing.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: But but could change someone's life if you'll just say yes.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just want to challenge our church and anyone listening to open your heart to the love of God and ask God to give you compassion.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: But be careful.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: It'll mess you up.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: And be thinking about your life.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because he'll start putting people in your way.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right in your path that you go, okay, I will say yes.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I will say yes.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: And compassion takes over and sends you on action.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm telling you, it'll change your life because, like the verse says, you're the one that's blessed.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're the one that'll be overwhelmed with God's flood.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: His, you know, love will flow through you.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you'll, you know, the scripture that Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: It truly is.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: And once you start to give away things and you see the joy of like what it feels like to be the hands and feet of Jesus, it just ruins you in all the right ways, right?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: It makes you just go, I can't get enough of this.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so, church, anybody listening, go and do likewise.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: As Christ said, just um become the love of Christ because the world is desperate for it, living in despair, um, living in hatred, anger, bitterness, slander.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're divided, and the Holy Spirit can change all of that in an instant if you'll just say yes.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks for joining us today.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Carmen, you have anything else you want to say?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just do it even if you're afraid.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Even if you're afraid that's a good word.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: The best decision to just say yes.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there were moments like I remember going to um a friend who ran another food pantry and saying, Hey, if it gets bad at my house, can I get food?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I mean, when you start into a ministry, you don't know what that's gonna look like.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so even with that fear, we said yes.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And look what he did.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'd say, just don't let fear, yeah, don't let fear stand in the way.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just say yes, it's gonna be good.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: Mark, do you have anything to add?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, that's really good.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think that's a strong word.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Go and do likewise and even do it afraid.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: Come come preach that, sister.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: All right, guys.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: We love you.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Have a good day.