Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
This podcast was intended to resource our Dream Teamers at LifePoint Church, with biblical fundamentals on worship, life and a variety of leadership principles.
Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
The Story of YAIPAK: Transforming Lives and Communities
What if a simple act of kindness could transform a life? Meet Sherry Nicholson, a leader whose passion for community outreach is making waves through her organization, YAIPAK—You Are Important People Administering Kindness. Join us as Sherry shares her remarkable journey, highlighting the collective efforts of volunteers, donors, and churches in uplifting those in need. From heartwarming encounters on the streets of Nashville to unique Thanksgiving traditions, Sherry’s stories will inspire you to embrace compassion and take action in your own community.
Hey, what's up everybody and welcome to Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative. My name is Elmer Canas Jr and I'm excited today because today on the podcast we have a very special guest and the ministry and the work that she's been called to has been making an impact in such a great way in our community and now it's expanding and I want to introduce to our podcast. Sherry Nicholson, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm great. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I am doing good. Thank you for joining us today and, man, this has been a long time coming. I know I spoke with Pastor Willie this is months ago and we're like who would be awesome to have on the podcast? And we're like Sherry. Oh gosh, yeah, and your story is incredible and just what you're able to do through YAPAC and just the heart that you have, even the things you do around here. Like you have such a sweet soul and we're so grateful for your call and ministry and yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, that's very kind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no problem, no problem. Well, we're coming up to Thanksgiving, so, before we get into just more of the conversation, what are some of the things that you're preparing for with Thanksgiving? Is it a big family gathering? Is it a small gathering? Do you guys go to Cracker Barrel? What are the plans?
Speaker 2:Our family tradition is we do gumbo.
Speaker 1:Gumbo.
Speaker 2:We do traditional gumbo.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:The kids. We have a lot of kids and grandkids and they're spread out everywhere, Okay, and so they're all visiting all the other grandparents and in-laws, and so when they come to us, instead of more turkey we just do good old gumbo.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's delicious. We just do good old gumbo. Oh, that sounds good yeah it's delicious.
Speaker 1:We've talked about that this year. We're like I don't know if we want to do turkey yeah. So, we're trying to decide what our Thanksgiving meal is going to be.
Speaker 2:Good Cajun gumbo. Can't go wrong with that huh, no, sir.
Speaker 1:Oh man Is it spicy.
Speaker 2:Yes, has to be that's right, oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Well, ms Sherry, I would love for you to share with our audience today just the heart of you know, today's conversation is focused on loving others. Well, and you've started a non-for-profit called YAPAC and I'd love for you to share more about what YAPAC is all about. Yapac is all about and most importantly, the heart of YAPAC and really the heart that God's giving you for people and loving them, and there's a lot of people. Even there's one Sunday that I preached and I'm like here we have a donation bin behind the stairs and a lot of people weren't aware that we are partnering with you guys and that there's different ways that we can as much awareness as we can bring to what you guys are doing. I'd love for people to get to know more about what you guys do.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and the chance to share what we call our God story. Yapac is an acronym for you Are Important People Administering Kindness. Pack is an acronym for you Are Important People Administering Kindness and everybody that we get to encounter. We just want them to know that they're important to us and they're important to the Father. And the People Administering Kindness is really our donors, our volunteers, the churches, everybody that's been a part. We always say, with our team, we do this together. It's not Cherry doing it, it's not Patriot Hope doing it or whatever project, or the leaders. It is together that we do this as one, and so everybody gets to celebrate the wins, everybody gets to be a part of it, because it takes a community to do what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Yapac started because my husband and I we were waiting for an ice storm almost eight years ago.
Speaker 2:It was the Christmas of 2015. And they had announced that we were supposed to be getting ice, and so, probably like a thousand other people around here, we thought, oh, one last run to the store, let's go get something to eat before we're stuck in the house for four or five days. And so we actually went to Nashville and we were eating lunch and after we finished we pulled up to the corner of West End and 23rd. And if you pull up to that corner and take a look around, on one side of it is Vanderbilt University and on the other side of it is this beautiful Methodist church. The architectural work is stunning and there's a little yard out there and there's a little park bench and at that red light for me it was as if time stood still and my eyes caught the attention of an elderly woman. She's a tiny little thing, about 4'9". She carried a little pink backpack. She had all of her belongings in a little buggy, a little shopping cart.
Speaker 2:In Southeast Texas we call them buggies when you go to the store, but she had all of her belongings in that buggy and you could tell where her bedding was. She had slept there the night before and it's freezing cold and the sun was shining, but it's just freezing and people were still walking up and down the street. Probably the same idea one more chance to get out. And nobody stopped to look at her or make eye contact. And and and today's society, when we see a homeless person, we typically don't make eye contact because we don't want to be asked for something we know they're going to hand, they're going to stick their hand out and ask for something, so they become invisible to us, so that we don't have to engage.
Speaker 2:And I watched, as if in slow motion, that no one for this lady, who I later found out she's 85 years old, and my heart broke. I couldn't understand why, in a nation that's so blessed and sitting in front of a church, that where was her help? Why was she there? Yeah, and freezing cold, how vulnerable. And our women and our children on the streets that are dealing with homelessness are so vulnerable.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we left. I was in tears and my husband's like are you okay? And I'm like, yeah, but so that night I could not sleep and I have my own little study room in the back of the house. It's just a private place for me to go. And I told my husband. I said I need to see what the Lord wants. My heart is so stirred. So all night for me it was like that wrestling moment with the Lord, like he was asking me I showed you this, what are you going to do about it? And I was making all the excuses that there's other organizations, there's other people, people are doing stuff. There's just others. But for me I felt like the Holy Spirit said but I'm asking you. But for me I felt like the Holy Spirit said, but I'm asking you. And so I said, okay, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know where to start.
Speaker 2:And so the next morning I pulled a bunch of purses out from underneath my bed and I started filling them up with what I knew a woman needed. A hard piece of candy takes the taste out of your mouth when you haven't eaten for days. A pack of wipes make you feel half human when you haven't showered for a month. A good brush and bobby pins and a ponytail holder make all the difference for getting your nasty hair up off your neck and your face. And fingernail clippers, because you know, when you're living on the streets it's tough and your hands are filthy, and a cough drop when your throat's scratchy, and a little pack of aspirin. It takes the edge off when you've slept, sitting up or sleeping in a car on concrete all night. And so I filled those purses up and a few days later Steve does prison ministry.
Speaker 2:So I thought, well, I'll go with him. He goes in the evening every Thursday evening and I'll just walk the streets and see if I can find her. So it's still freezing cold. Went with him that evening to the Hill Detention Center where he parks, and I stepped out of the car and I put purses on. I put a couple of purses on my right arm and a couple of purses on my left arm. It looked like I had an invisible sign above my head that says, hey, mug me. But he said Sherry, are you sure about this? And I said, yes, daddy, I'm sure I grew up on the streets and had some street smarts, and so we kind of had this ongoing joke that YAPAC started because he went to jail and I walked the streets literally. So he really went and did Bible study and I really went to find ladies. Oh man, but we kind of giggle about that but I was determined to see if I could find her again.
Speaker 2:I knew what a woman needed because I had experienced homelessness myself with two children having to sleep in a car, wow, and so I headed out and I got about three blocks away and I found my first lady and she has inspired me to keep going because she was the first lady that I found the night I decided to start, yeah, and I later found out she was a published author who had written a book on bullying and I keep her book on my desk till this day and the title of it is Good Samaritan.
Speaker 2:And how fitting that my very first night to give out purses, I find a lady who has written a book called the Good Samaritan. And so I said, okay, god, I see you and I hear you, and that started the journey of YAPAC, and it's been an absolute God journey and a journey of joy a journey of absolute learning a whole lot, but above all, it's been a walk with Jesus that I absolutely cherish because of the lives that we get to. We just get to see and be a part of every single day.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you this question be a part of every single day? Can I ask you this question your personal experience, when you mentioned being homeless yourself, how does that impact the connection that you have with others that you see in the same situation? You know just years later, like what I guess I'm trying to ask in comparison to someone that may never have experienced living on the streets or being homeless like, how does that impact you differently?
Speaker 2:I think for me, experiencing it allows me an opportunity to be very relational, because I relate when they say you don't understand, and I got that a lot early on. You don't understand. And I was like no, wait a second, let me tell you my story, because I do. And when I would share where I had been in life. You just see one, they're stunned because here there's this older lady coming out, you know, and work boots and leggings and you know, ball cap, um, willing to get dirty with them. And they're like I had no idea, I wouldn't looked at you and ever thought that, yeah, and I, they, you know it. Just when they say to you I never would have thought that you would have been on drugs like that or that you would have, and they repeat some of the things I shared with them and I'm like but that's the story of Jesus For me.
Speaker 2:My story is I want to know Jesus so well that I'll live a life without scars. Come on, I am so healed and so whole today because of him alone and nothing else but him alone, because his word is so faithful and his word is so true that I understand when Peter said silver and gold. I have none but what I have, I give thee I have Jesus to give, because I know how freeing and whole he has made me. And so when I share with the ladies about the damage to my own body but yet God healed me. When I lost a child, but yet God healed me. When I was abused, but yet God healed me when I was addicted, but yet still God healed me. When I share with men, that I'm able to walk in the power of forgiveness because of what happened against me, I still walk in the power of forgiveness because of what happened against me. I still walk in the power of forgiveness because of Jesus. I'm free because of Jesus. I don't have hatred and pain because of Jesus.
Speaker 2:And so what I experienced, god has wasted nothing of it, because now I get to love people where they are. I get to walk into their darkness and love them unconditionally, and the Word of God tells us that love covers a multitude of sins. I knew when I was in the gross darkness of my life, I knew something was wrong with me. I didn't know it in comparison to knowing Christ, because I didn't yet I never had that growing up, but I just knew something was wrong with me. I didn't need anybody to tell me something was wrong. I didn't need them to beat me up that you got to fix this and change that. I needed to know that I was loved, and my first encounter with love was an encounter through a couple that just was the living example of Jesus's love for me. And had they not loved me that way, as hard and yucky as I was, I would have probably never changed or come out of that. And love changed me.
Speaker 1:Man that's so powerful. I always share the story of when I was in elementary school and, for various reasons, I was dealing with a lot of anger issues. And for various reasons, I was dealing with a lot of anger issues and there was this one teacher who took the time to love me and he loved me by spending time and showing me how to be a leader when it came to sports and my academics, and so a lot of my life achievements I actually attribute to that one teacher, mr Molina, because he didn't have to spend that time investing into me for two years fifth and sixth grade and it transformed me from just going back and even kids that knew me back then.
Speaker 1:It's like man we thought you were going to be this crazy kid and people probably still think I'm crazy, but it's the investment when someone loves you, it's such a powerful thing because it just does something for you as an individual. Like man, I can do this, I can move forward, I can make progress in my life and that's such a powerful testimony. I think one of the things you said is that you could relate with them and they could relate with you. Could relate with them and they could relate with you. And but someone that's homeless, it's the. Where you relate with them is not so much that they don't have a house, because at one point, most of these people at a home, had a career, especially here in close to Nashville.
Speaker 1:You know, even me coming from LA you see a lot of people very successful pursuing a dream and then life just hits hard and they have no other options. So just and if you can just speak to this, like how many people do we drive by that actually have very similar stories to ours?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. Every single person has a story, every single person that is on that street. We value them because we know that nobody as a child dreams of growing up and being homeless. Nobody says I can't wait till I'm starving and have filthy clothes to wear. We all have dreams and aspirations to do something incredible, but along their journey, for whatever reason, something traumatic happens. And the people that we have met have been absolutely beautiful people. The stories that we hear about their past life or we see their restoration and find out what they're really made of and that they just got off track with their purpose and destiny, and we get to see God restore that to them is extraordinary, because they all have a calling. We all do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all do.
Speaker 2:And just some hasn't recovered yet, some haven't been found yet. We get to go out and find that one, and out of that is what has brought Ye back to what it is today, because of what we were finding. It's what drove us to develop the programs and the projects that we do today.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. What would you recommend for somebody that, after hearing your heart and just maybe they can make a difference in someone's life? Is this as easy as just stopping when you get off the freeway and just engaging with the person that will that aggravate? You know person that's in that situation. Is there a certain way to go about this? Like that might be correct? I don't know if there's any advice you have.
Speaker 2:We always tell people if you're going to give money, give it to the nonprofits that you trust that are doing it, but always be willing to keep a goodie bag in your car. You can keep a goodie bag of a $5 gift card to McDonald's. You can put in some socks and some baby wipes and a bottle of water and then maybe some beef jerky. It's something that may get them through the day. The socks are important because a lot of them deal with foot problems because of their living conditions, and a fresh pair of socks can reduce the infection and different things like that. Water hydration is so important and they need water. Beef jerky doesn't have to be kept in a refrigerator or anything else. It's sustainable and so simple items like that. Keep them in your car and be willing to hand them through the window to them. Don't be afraid to look at them in the eye and talk to them. We don't encourage women to do that when they're alone. Obviously, we do have some on the streets that do have addictions. We have some on the street. They may not be addicted, but they have severe mental health issues. And then we have some on the street that they're still dealing with anger issues and they think everybody's against them, and so our approach to that has been very unique in how we love people, but we do it with a dedicated team that's been trained, and so I just encourage people find a way to be involved. You may not be the one to go the street, but you can be the one to support.
Speaker 2:And it's not just about our homeless men that are on the street, because that's been something that we've learned. It's a misconception. Everybody assumes it's just a lazy man and that's so not the case. There are those with handicaps that their family couldn't take care of them. There are those with mental illness that the family financially didn't know how to get it fixed. There are families where dad was the only breadwinner of the home and he lost his job so they got evicted and they had no family support, so they end up in a tent hiding, trying to get on their feet so that they don't get their child taken away or their children. There's so many different scenarios.
Speaker 2:We just encourage people don't be afraid to ask the questions, and if you can't answer and you can't help connect them with someone, everything that we hand out when it comes to our homeless outreach and we are far more than that. Now. That was just our launching pad that we hand out when it comes to our homeless outreach, and we are far more than that. Now. That was just our launching pad, but we make sure that every person that we go to or give something out to, they have a Connect card for us so that we can get them where they need to go, we can get them the wraparound care, we can get them connected to mental health.
Speaker 2:Just this week alone, we've already sent three addicts to long-term recovery. This week alone, we've already sent three addicts to long-term recovery and we've got two mothers that horrific, horrific stories, but just in a matter of a week, of them showing up at our door. One now has a job, the other is ready and moving toward getting that job. We're getting them to a safe place that they're no longer horrifically abused and their children will be safe and getting them off to a good start. So don't be afraid to ask questions and get involved or at least connect that person to see that life change.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. I have a story I'd like to share. I'd like to share Jordan. We lived in Nashville at the time. This is probably 2014, 15.
Speaker 1:And there was a particular exit that we got off every day for me to go to work and everything. And one day, going to church, we saw this gentleman and I probably passed him a few times and I just wave at him. And there was this one Sunday that we pulled up and I remember Jordan he was little at the time he goes dad, pull the window down and he started waving at the gentleman and then eventually we started a conversation, got to know his name, wayne and every time we'd pull up, he didn't want money, he just wanted to have a conversation. And well, jordan ends up giving him we had bought him a fire Bible, the orange Bible that they had in kids ministry. And one day we pull up and he's like hi, wayne. He goes, I have something for you, wayne. And Jordan gives him his Bible. Wayne starts crying and we go about our way. Then the next time we come by, he tells us the story that he had been at that exit, on that off ramp, for a certain amount of time and that in that amount of time. So many people. There was a few churches in that area and he goes, he goes. I know who goes, to which church he goes, but no one's ever stopped to acknowledge me or even tell me anything about Jesus. And the fact that Jordan gave him a Bible encouraged him to go to church.
Speaker 1:Wayne got saved at church. He gave his life to Jesus. Two months later, three months later, he finds out he has cancer. But because he was faithfully attending, he actually had gotten connected with someone there that was helping him, helped him get a job. He was still living in a home where it was like several people, but through the community that he had at the church they helped him go through his chemo and everything and got healed. He went through remission and the story that he just told everyone's like it started with a little boy that was willing to share the love of Christ with with him and that never leaves us. My wife is huge and we don't share this a lot, but my wife tends to like, if she sees a need, like, and she has anything. Like you said, you know what women need and she'll go up to women and bless them and pray for them and sometimes she might not even have anything, but she's like can I pray for you?
Speaker 1:And that goes such a long way. And I love the story of Peter and just the fact. Know the fact, acts three were silver gold. I don't have it, but what I have, and we all have something to give we all have something to give. For some it might be material things, some, for some it's our story, just sharing our story, that they're not the only ones that that are going through the things that they're going through. You know, and I think it's encouraging to people just to acknowledge that, hey, I see you, you're just as human as I am.
Speaker 1:And that's a beautiful thing and that's something that you guys do so well and thank you guys for doing that you mentioned. It's not the only thing you do now, so would you mind just kind of sharing how you guys have expanded in the reach and helping people over the years?
Speaker 2:So what we were finding on the streets is what drove our projects. We started Project Foster Hope because of a little boy that we found. He was two, going on three and wrecked my life. At the moment when I found him, he actually ended up in my home for three days while we were looking for help.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:We learned during that process where things in our system were broken, and it was a big eye-opener at what the hands of some of our children suffered the children that we were finding, from newborns to little boys, to teenagers, to young adults wrecked my life. Early on, the two-year-old was with a drug-addicted mother and I stood in the parking lot for four hours with Metro, waiting for DCS to show up, waiting for somebody to come and intervene and get this little boy out of the situation. The mother was agitated and ready to put him in a car with a homeless person to drive away. I said please don't do that. I asked the officer what to do and the officer said well, he can go with you, and so the only thing I know to do to keep him safe was take him.
Speaker 2:And for three days. I reached out to people at the Hill Detention Center, just people that I knew I couldn't get help in Montgomery County because the little boy and his mother were from Davidson County. It took us nine months to track this little boy on the streets. To get him off the streets. We ended up having to get an organization involved that dealt with human trafficking. That was very difficult and I learned a lot during that process about the dangers of it, about how broken our system is. In the meantime we had a newborn that was sleeping on the street with its mom who was just fresh out of the hospital. We had teenagers that had escaped and ran away from a group home. We later found out with the officer that we were working with to get them. They ran away because they were abused. They end up in a homeless encampment trying to hide out. They had connected to somebody online out of Memphis that the day that we pulled up and this is just the divine grace and mercy of God we had pulled up with our entire team and were talking to the teenagers and did not know that the person that was going to be trafficking them was sitting in the parking lot to pick them up and take them to Memphis and so that started our journey of Project Foster Hope that we have today. We serve thousands of children every year in the foster care system but still living in those encampments we have to assess are they safe, where can we get the parents or do they need to be pulled, which is a very hard thing. But when you have a child that's living with a drug addicted person that potentially could lose their life because of the situation, you have to make those hard calls. But we're able to keep in the streets to make sure that we're connecting the dots for these families.
Speaker 2:We also have Project Patriot Hope, our veterans program. We were finding elderly veterans who had kind of just given up. They'd gotten lost in the system and, through a series of events in their life, ended up homeless. We get them reconnected to their benefits. We're a friend to them and actually become family to a lot of them while they're still living in the encampment and they're on the housing list, which takes a little while to get through for a man, especially Once we celebrate them finally getting moved into home. We get to provide moving kits, they get to make an appointment, come to the warehouse and they get to shop for all the free items they need and make their home a home. And what we've learned in that is now they're proud, the men and the women, because there's women too but now they've made their home their home. It's like they want it, they decorated it, they picked out the items. It's theirs, and the stories coming out of that is they're reaching out to the family members that they've been estranged from for so long. Some of them have grandchildren they've never met and they're inviting them into their home over a dinner and they're finding restoration and reconciliation with their families. And so we get to celebrate that and hear those stories and then Project Rebuild Hope.
Speaker 2:I grew up in southeast Texas where all the hurricanes hit right there at Swamp Bottom, right on the Louisiana border, and our family had lost multiple times everything during the storms but our homeless.
Speaker 2:When it started we had lost several of our homeless due to flash flooding.
Speaker 2:They have no early warning system, they don't have the TV and the radios to hear all the stuff, and so we wanted to figure out how could we have an early warning sister for them.
Speaker 2:Well, out of that during that time, not only helping our homeless but just the families in those neighborhoods around some of those places that our homeless lived. We saw that and we knew that we could help with the items that we had. So we would deploy pretty quickly and it started getting the attention of first responders and like, hey, that's great, could you do this? And all of a sudden they're loading our trailers and could you run it over here for us and out of that birthed who we are, what we do today, and we're able to mobilize our laundry unit, our mobile kitchen, we have a generator program and now we also have big trucks that we can move supplies all over this part of the country we have launched. We're in our second year of our Texas division. Clarksville is headquarters now and with the talks of starting a division in Missouri and Alabama, that is amazing.
Speaker 2:And it reflects all of our projects in all those places to love people well and our big community events. We just get to bring hope it's called Be the Hope and we get to bring hope into school districts that are low-income districts. We get to bring hope into those hard-hit counties that are really struggling. Families are struggling, like Campbell County in East Tennessee. It was an old coal mine community. When coal shut down it decimated that little county and today we're very involved in doing our mission trip there every summer, staying engaged when we know that they need stuff, working with the local mayor. We want to see the community become healthy and, along with the local churches, that they're caring for themselves and we can start moving to the next county and get them to care for themselves. And so we just did our first going global, and so we have some things in the work for 2025 that we're super excited about and hopefully changing the lives of some children that really need it. So we're excited about that.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. And it all started by walking the streets With a purse. With a purse, my husband went to jail and I walked the streets. That is insane. That is awesome.
Speaker 1:And it really started with a yes. It did Like, just like, what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 2:It really did we had.
Speaker 1:We had a gentleman on the podcast, um, about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, named edwin, and he was saying how? Because we're talking about creativity. And he was saying you know, a lot of people are expecting for creativity to be like you're an artist or you can play music, but he's like. He's like if god shows you the need and you see it, it's like he's going to give you the creativity to meet the need.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I totally agree with what you said, like if you see it, what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that should be encouraging for someone. Maybe for some it just puts more pressure on like man. I've been seeing these needs and I haven't done anything but the impact that it can have by just responding and telling God yes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's beyond just listening to your story. You're learning as you go.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But God provides everything, and that's incredible.
Speaker 2:It's been. We call it our God story. It is a God story because I didn't go to school for this. I didn't go to college for this. I didn't go to college for this. I just love Jesus and I wanted Him to just use me. And today, looking at what all he's done, sometimes just in the inner circle of our team, they're like Did you ever think you'd be here? And I'm like, no, I had no idea. I was just going to hand out purses and had the Lord showed me all this. I don't know if I'd have been like Jonah and Joseph, I don't know what I'd have done, but it's been a lot. But I'm determined every day to say yes Because I know, had somebody not loved me, I would not be here today. That's right. When I was homeless and went to the women's shelter and they turned me away, they were at max capacity.
Speaker 2:Well today, our women's shelters still can be at max capacity. Nobody sent me away with wraparound care. I didn't know where I could go for food. I didn't know where I could go for diapers. I didn't know where I could get a shower. I didn't know where I could go for food. I didn't know where I could go for diapers. I didn't know where I could get a shower. I didn't know anything.
Speaker 2:I thought my answer was to take my life so that somebody would take my children. Obviously, god's plan is so much better and I want to be the one that's standing at the end of the porch when somebody turns around and walks away because they've been rejected. I want to be so sensitive to my father's heart that that just oozes out every day with every person that we encounter, because we don't know which one of those people could be our next president. We don't know which one of those people are going to be the vessel that God uses to do such an outpouring of His Spirit that our sons and daughters that we've been praying for for years and years and years are going to be hearing that voice that's declaring the Word of God, that they're going to come to Jesus.
Speaker 2:God loves everybody and we always say that the whole point of the gospel in John 3, 16 is that God so loved the world that he gave, and he gave his son. He loved the world. I want to love the world like he does, and that means I have to lay aside my perception and thoughts and ideas about everything and just say, for this moment, for this person, father, who you made and fashioned in their mother's womb, what do you want to speak to their heart? I don't have the answer, for every person except Jesus is the answer, and if I can share that, I know that he'll take that seed and he is able to do something with it, and so just give him what I can each day.
Speaker 1:And we're grateful that you do, and I know just myself coming to Clarksville about four years ago and seeing how God's been using. I remember my first serve day here and we went with students and we were in the basement of the building where the press is at and now the warehouse that you guys have been blessed with and trucks, and just how quickly God is doing what he's doing through YAPAC, what he's doing through YAPAC. And I just want to say as much as it is a God thing it does.
Speaker 1:God wants vessels, like you mentioned earlier, and we cannot limit what he's capable of doing, and sometimes we don't even know what he wants to do. Like you said, you would never have imagined like all these things you know globally and, but man God is amazing and and, and loving the way he loves us is, I think, key too.
Speaker 2:It's important, it's endless. His love is so endless. He's so vast and beautiful. Yeah, and I mean there's so many stories.
Speaker 2:But just seeing when somebody feels accepted because you know, if you work all day with people and if somebody's salty with you or snaps at you, you're like what and it's hard to shake it off We'll go home and we'll tell our spouse and we'll talk about it and the next day it might be awkward that we're going to see them and we're not sure if we should say and when people come to us, they're so used to being rejected that when we just welcome them as they are and we just love them where they are, we see so much start melting off of them and we start seeing them share their story and start opening up their hearts and they start letting us in.
Speaker 2:And it's everyone from not just the homeless, but it's the teenager that got in trouble at school and the school's telling him okay, you're going to have to serve community hours before you come back to school. Those teenagers that walk into our warehouse that are having to serve, and they don't want to, but they know they have to. And by the end of the night they're laughing with us, they're looking us in the eye. We have some that they're like I can't wait to get my hours done, and they get their hours done. And guess who shows back up again?
Speaker 2:Because they've absolutely, and so it's loving them where they are. How beautiful example of Jesus, because he loved us where we are. We all too, were somewhere pretty wretched before him.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And so his love is just so good and so beautiful.
Speaker 1:And I know we're talking about what you guys do through YAPAC.
Speaker 1:But on this subject of love and being loved by God, I know we might seem to have it all together, we might have the house and the family and all the resources and everything on the outside, but, just as a human in general, if we struggle with being loved, it makes us kind of reject and push everyone else aside and um, and I it's something I've had to learn, even after years of ministry that you know, what good is it for me to be doing, helping other people and loving other people and but not allowing myself to be loved by god? And there's, there's, there has been Sherry that like just me being transparent, where I've done all the things, but on the inside I've struggled with like like there's no way God can love me, you know, but I'm doing all these other things and you know, and it's easy to do things for others at times but not accept that love in return, and so it's been life-changing for me to be able to love people from a place where you're actually receiving God's love because you don't put limits to it.
Speaker 2:And so it's awesome. Think what's beautiful about that and just speak into what you just said. My foundational scripture for my life is Romans 8. And I love the whole chapter, but toward the end of it he says I am convinced that nothing shall separate me from the love of God. And it's all these things. It's not being rich, it's not being poor, it's not being clothed or naked or hungry or filled or demons or angels Nothing will separate me from the love of God. And in my testimony, part of that is I had all those things and there was a season I had nothing. I was married to a very wealthy man and then had nothing and was homeless. Very wealthy man and then had nothing and was homeless.
Speaker 2:I've been from A to Z and experienced from feeling protected by his angels to being tormented by the demons, all the things. And yet when I got a revelation that nothing and I wished in the Bible we could capitalize every letter of nothing Nothing shall separate me from the love of God. And am I convinced and I think we have to ask ourselves that sometimes Am I convinced? There's days that's hard with YAPAC, it really is, and it's whether it's a business or something we've got to work out with the state or government or all the big things that have to come with this.
Speaker 2:Some days are hard and at the end of the day I still have my joy because I know that nothing shall separate me from the love of God. It might have not felt good, but I know I don't have to carry it because I am convinced, fully persuaded, 100%, totally knowing with every ounce of my fiber of my being, nothing shall separate me from the love of God. And so those moments that I feel jucky, or I feel like I've worked and God, I'm being more of a Martha than a Mary or whatever that's like, nothing is going to separate me from the love of God, come on. And so it allows me to do what I do and nothing to steal my joy, because I have joy in knowing that he loves me.
Speaker 2:So I preach myself happy to steal my joy because I have joy in knowing that he loves me. So I preach myself happy, and that's why I love what I get to do, because I get to share that. In that right now, you feel separated. But I was there too. But I was found, and today I'm convinced, fully persuaded, that nothing else is going to separate me from the love of God Not abandonment, not rejection, not abuse, not failure, none of those things. And so I just boy, if we ever just get the magnitude of being convinced to His love, it is a game changer for us as believers and those that we're going after to share the love of God.
Speaker 1:So man, so I have this organ usually for Pastor Willie. Tell your neighbor nothing can separate you.
Speaker 2:Tell what he has done for you today.
Speaker 1:I was so tempted to hit that button. I love it. That's so powerful. Well, ms Sherry, thank you so much for spending time with us on the podcast, and this was such an honor. Honestly and just, we continue to pray for what you do, love you and I call him Pastor.
Speaker 2:Steve.
Speaker 1:And just everything you guys do and the heart that you have for people From day one. For me, just meeting Steve, meeting yourself, it's been refreshing and I just continue to pray, as God expands your territory, that he continue to give you the grace and the love that you need to love others well.
Speaker 2:Y'all are so important to us and our church family. We can't speak to the volume of what y'all mean to us and what LifePoint has done to be a part of this. So thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Amen, no problem. Well, thank you for all of you that have joined us today. On the podcast and if you'd like to know more about YAPAC, you guys have a website. Yes, yapacorg, yapacorg. So any information about YAPAC you can find out more on the website. If you want to know more about our ministry here at LifePoint Church, more about the podcast, more about how we can serve you as a church, you can go to LifePoint Church Sorry, lifepointchurch TV. You can follow us on Instagram at LifePointChurch, or follow our creative social media at LifePoint Creative. And, like always, until next time, we love you and God bless.
