112: Meet HOPE Staff! Keith Mallon shares about Faith and Facilities at HOPE.

Keith Mellon shares his journey of faith and service as the Facilities Manager at Hope Church. Discover what drives him to make a difference in the community and how he felt led to this role after searching for his own church family. 

• Keith's background and role at Hope Church  
• Transition from full-time public service to church ministry  
• The impact of faith on community involvement and personal fulfillment  

If you see Keith around the church, don't hesitate to stop him and thank him for all the hard work he does! 

Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch.  Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.online.church! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.  

Enjoy what you heard? Be sure to rate us on Apple Podcasts and click the subscribe button so you don't miss new episodes every Monday!

Transcript

Welcome to Meet Hope Podcast

INTRO 0:03

Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast , where we have conversations about faith and hope . Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online . We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others . Welcome to Hope .

Rick Court 0:28

Hey , well , hello everyone , Welcome to another episode of the Meet Hope podcast , and I'm Rick and I'm excited to be your host , and today we're doing another staff interview , so I have with me Keith Mellon . Hello , keith , good to be here . Yeah , so Keith is our . Are you our newest staff member ?

Keith Mallon 0:45

I believe I am .

Rick Court 0:46

Yeah and so , and what's your title ? I don't even know what your title is Facilities Manager . You're the Facilities Manager . Folks , you need to know that Keith does an exceptional job here . Everyone on staff , when I hear it , they'll say , oh my goodness , keith has done exactly what I needed . Keith took care of it so quickly . We have to be careful when we tell Keith , hey , we'd like to have this done , because you turn around and Keith doing it before you even walked away from him .

Keith Mallon 1:16

You're efficient , pal . That's how I am . If I know something's got to get done , I just get it done .

Rick Court 1:21

Yeah , and so we're spoiled by having you here so and so . So how long you've been on staff .

Keith Mallon 1:28

Since October , so about four or five months yeah .

Rick Court 1:31

And so you're fitting in well . Like I said , everybody's excited that you're here . So why don't you tell us a little bit about , about Keith , so you know your family and where you live , stuff like that , okay .

Keith Mallon 1:48

So everybody knows it's my birthday . Next month I'll be 60 . Me and my wife live in Gibbsboro . I grew up in Gibbsboro .

Rick Court 1:56

And your wife's name is Dawn .

Keith Mallon 1:57

My wife's name is Dawn . I have two children , my daughter's 31 . Her name's Amy . I have a son who's 25 . His name is Kevin Dawn and I have been married . Come this October It'll be 34 years . Wow , she put up with me . Yeah , yep , so we're just living our life . We're looking at some point to move to our next stage , maybe like in a 55 and over kind of .

Keith Mallon 2:25

Thing for us . But yeah , we're living in Gisboro , love it there . Like I said , I grew up there . I didn't know you grew up there , I did . I lived there from 1968 until I guess I was three or four years old Three Wow . And I moved out when I was 21 , lived with my brother for a little bit and found out I didn't like that and I went back mom and dad for a little bit , saved some money and bought a house in West Berlin Wow okay .

Keith Mallon 2:58

So three blocks outside of Voorhees . And yeah , I got married a few months after that .

Rick Court 3:04

Okay , you guys have pets , right , you have a dog , don't you ?

Keith Mallon 3:07

We have a dog . What's your dog's name ? My dog's name is Zoe . I rescued her from Camden .

Keith Mallon 3:14

I used to work for Camden County MUA and we have some properties throughout with pump stations , metering stations . We had a little dog out on our property and it was out there and it would run away and bark at me . I finally caught it and pet it and sent it on its way and did my work . A week went by and there's the dog again . So I was petting it and the neighbor came out and said , oh , somebody dumped a dog and another one , but they took the other dog . I said , oh , see if they want to take this one . And a week later I came and there's the dog running around with a leash , but nobody took her and it got away from the neighbor who said he would take it . So I decided to bring it home . I called Dawn and I said Dawn , I'm going to bring somebody home and Dawn said it better only have two legs because she knows how I am with animals . So I brought her home and $600 later she was mine with all the vet bills .

Rick Court 4:09

Oh yeah , right , okay , all right . Well , good for Zoe .

Keith Mallon 4:13

Yeah , and I had two cats . We rescued them from the AWA , okay All right .

Rick Court 4:17

Well , that sounds like you got a busy full life there , so tell me a little bit about you're recently retired also , right , and what did you do ? You mentioned MUA , yeah .

Keith Mallon 4:30

So I started my career with miscellaneous jobs .

Keith Mallon 4:31

Just before I turned 21 , I started working for Borey's Township , started on the actual back of a recycling truck and worked my way up to a driver About halfway through my career there . I spent almost 23 years there . About halfway through I switched over to the sewer department . From there I found that there was DEP licenses you can get . Every town has to have a DEP licensed operator . So I started getting my licenses . It's a process and for like the highest license , it takes 10 years of being on the job plus schooling and that kind of thing .

Keith Mallon 5:05

So when I was at vorhees I was up to c3c stands for collections . So I got that and , um , I just really had enough of vorhees and put a couple feelers out and camden county called me up and basically offered me the job on the spot and within a year I got my next license up , which was the C4 , which is the highest one you can get , and a few months after that they made me a supervisor . A few years after that I became assistant chief . I guess I was assistant chief for about three years and they moved me up to chief Okay , and that's the position I retired from .

Rick Court 5:46

And so you just recently retired , right Last year .

Keith Mallon 5:49

No , it's been long , three years . You've been retired three years now . Oh , okay , all right .

Rick Court 5:53

Yeah , all right , and so let's just backtrack a second , because I didn't ask you what does a facilities manager at Hope Church do ?

Keith Mallon 6:02

Everything , A lot more than I thought . It is similar to what I did at the Camden County . I had 29 pump stations , 16 metering stations . It's usually just taking care of the grounds and any facilities , if there's electrical work that gets done or needs to be done . I do what I can .

Rick Court 6:23

You know , if we can't we'll call somebody in , but I'm a hands-on type person , so you're making sure that you're managing the property here and you're also interfacing with contractors for work that needs to be done . Correct , okay , and so how'd you end up coming to Hope ? Not on staff , but you started as an attender , right ?

Keith Mallon 6:45

I started as an onliner .

Rick Court 6:47

Ah , okay .

Keith Mallon 6:51

I think we talked . We had a small groups meeting last night . We were talking about how most people come online first , and that's exactly what I did we went to a different church and it just seemed to be dying and it just didn't seem like a fit for us anymore . Along came COVID , and it was kind of an excuse to not go to church because it was all online , and then , when it started being in person again , we went back , but it just didn't feel right . So we decided we were going to look for another church . So we went online and watched a few different places and we decided that we liked what we saw . So we came Well , I shouldn't say we came .

Keith Mallon 7:31

My wife sent me as the spy to scout it out . So I came and saw this crazy guy dancing around and jumping around on stage , Found out his name was Andrew and I said oh , my wife is going to love this , Dawn will really like this , and the message was great . I just felt welcomed . And so the next week I brought Dawn and she said yeah , I think we found our new church and we've been here since .

Rick Court 8:01

All right , and how long ago was that ?

Keith Mallon 8:04

About a year and a half ago .

Rick Court 8:05

Okay , a year and a half .

Keith Mallon 8:06

All right .

Rick Court 8:07

All right . And then along the way , we met and I invited you to a small group , right .

Keith Mallon 8:14

Yes , and it's strange because I wanted to feel more a part of something . And it's strange because I wanted to feel more a part of something and my wife said she was praying about it and you happened to approach me and ask me to join a small group , which I did .

Rick Court 8:28

And we've been doing that together for about a year now , right , yeah , yeah okay , I guess this is our third one . And it's working out all right . Yeah , it's working out pretty good . Yeah , I like it it's making me all right .

Keith Mallon 8:38

Yeah , it's working out pretty good . Yeah , I like it . It's making me feel like a part of something more , and so , yeah , I'm happy .

Rick Court 8:47

That's great . Now , during that , you also told me that when you retired , you were looking to do something with you . Know , because you're retired You're fortunate to retire , as I consider you younger , yeah .

Keith Mallon 8:59

Yeah , yeah , yeah . So , yeah , I was 57 , and I went six months without doing anything . Right , I had shoulder surgery , so three months of that was like a rehab . After that , though , I went three months , and I just said I have to do something , and I wanted to do something meaningful , something meaningful yeah , I remember you telling me that .

Keith Mallon 9:20

And friends of mine own a bus company and they asked me to come work . They said they really needed a driver . So I did that and I tried to look at that as a way to serve , because I'm bringing kids safely to school and you still do that now . I still do that today .

Keith Mallon 9:32

Yeah , I still do that today , and so I just tried to look at it as a way to serve . And so I just tried to look at it as a way to serve and I was . You know , the kids don't act grateful or anything like that . I don't expect them to , but you know I make sure the bus is clean , I get them there safely , I'm on time , I don't ever miss , so I'm dependable for them , you know . So that was important to me , but it just seemed like I was missing something . And we happened to be at the small groups meeting and I was talking to you about . I just felt like I was missing something . I wanted to do something more meaningful . I was at the point in my life where money's not really a thing for me and I just wanted to do something meaningful to serve God more and be more meaningful to me personally .

Keith Mallon 10:24

And a little bit of time went by and I know at the food bank there was possibly an opening because Scott was there who was at our small men's meeting and we talked and he's like you know , that might be a fit for you . And I considered , I prayed about it and I told God , if it's the right thing , open the door , if it's not , close it . And I didn't hear anything . I said , okay , maybe that door's closed . I think it was the pastor , pastor Jeff said hey , we have an opening .

Keith Mallon 11:00

I think you'll be the perfect fit , and he goes . Some other people already brought it to my attention . So it was not for the food pantry , but it was for facilities manager and it's basically what I did for Camden County MUA .

Rick Court 11:15

I said , yeah , I'll give it a whirl , and I love it , love it , yeah , so do you feel it's bringing that meaning you were looking for ?

Keith Mallon 11:21

It does . I feel like I spend a few hours here every day , but I'd like to spend more .

INTRO 11:26

It's just something .

Keith Mallon 11:27

when I get here , I just want to do the best I can and make a difference .

Rick Court 11:33

That's great , and I said just to speak for all the staff . We've all experienced you doing exactly that that you support us in the ministry . That needs to be done and you're doing ministry yourself .

Keith Mallon 11:50

So I never looked at it as ministry , but truth .

Rick Court 11:53

Yeah , yeah , so , but yeah , so , so . So what's ? What's one of the most challenging parts of , of your job here at the church ?

Keith Mallon 12:00

It's just my time trying to figure out what I can do in this amount of time , right , okay , there's so many things . You wouldn't really think that there's a lot of facilities managing to do , but there is a lot and there's a lot of work and it's continuous .

Rick Court 12:18

Yeah , it's a big building and with a lot of things happening and a lot of ministry going on , so it's active . So that's got to make it challenging . And then what's nice , though , is it's not a museum where it doesn't get used right , it's getting used , getting used and abused , and you know what .

Keith Mallon 12:36

That's what we're here for , right , good work .

Rick Court 12:38

Good work , hey , keith . So thanks so much . Glad that you're on staff and that's terrific . But I want to do some . This is a little fun section , okay , at least I think it's fun . I'm going to answer some questions and we want to get a little better idea of who Keith is . What's your favorite pizza topping ? Pepperoni ? Everybody says pepperoni , okay .

Keith Mallon 13:02

Second favorite is extra cheese , extra cheese , okay good . Second favorite is extra cheese .

Rick Court 13:05

Extra cheese . Okay , how about ? Are you a morning person or evening person ?

Keith Mallon 13:09

I would say I'm a morning person . I'm up at 5 every morning .

Rick Court 13:12

Now have you always been a morning person .

Keith Mallon 13:15

Since I started my real career 5 o'clock . I'm up and ready to go .

Rick Court 13:20

Okay , because you're picking up kids off the bus pretty early too , right .

Keith Mallon 13:23

Yeah , I'm there early . Go , Okay , because you're picking up kids on the bus pretty early too , right ? Yeah , I'm there early . My first pickup is 6.15 , but I'm in work at 5.30 . I always am early . That's how I operate .

Rick Court 13:30

And before we started recording , we already talked about this a little bit . But do you drink coffee ? Coffee order .

Keith Mallon 13:37

I do . I drink my mocha coffee cream sugar . Okay , and I know bagels , right Bagels yeah , I stop at the bagel man every day . Bagel every morning . That's what we talk about Monday through Friday .

Rick Court 13:47

Monday through Friday . Okay , all right , and how about a favorite show or movie you've watched recently ?

Keith Mallon 13:54

Breaking Bad . It's a series .

Rick Court 13:56

Uh-huh , okay , it's a good series it .

Keith Mallon 13:59

It is good , it's captivating .

Rick Court 14:01

Okay , all right , I'm thinking about watching it a second time . Yeah , you want to see Walter White again . Yes , how about a book you've read recently ?

Keith Mallon 14:10

I don't read a lot of books , so I'll go with Garden City .

Rick Court 14:13

Yeah . By John Mark Homer John Mark .

Keith Mallon 14:14

Homer . We read that in our small group and , like I said , I'm not a reader , but that was easy reading and I enjoyed it . And there's another one of his books I'm thinking about getting .

Rick Court 14:25

Yeah , yeah , we're just talking about it right , practicing the .

INTRO 14:28

Way , practicing the Way .

Rick Court 14:29

Yeah , yeah , I think that's going to be our next small group , so we do a little small group plug for that . And how about your favorite local place to eat Local ?

Keith Mallon 14:38

place to eat . Well , we like the Piccoli for the wings .

Rick Court 14:43

Ah , okay With the one on 206? .

Keith Mallon 14:45

The one on 206, .

Rick Court 14:45

Yeah , yeah , okay , that's a little bit of a ride , but it's worth it . Yeah , the winter good .

Keith Mallon 14:50

And just as a plug , if you go on Wednesdays , all you can eat , is it really ? It is ? It's like 15 , 16 bucks all you can eat . I didn't know that .

Rick Court 14:58

Okay , golden nugget wings . I have never had them . I want to have them Okay we have to go then , Okay , because I think golden nugget are the best wings , that's what I hear and I really want to try it .

Keith Mallon 15:07

Okay , I just never have .

Rick Court 15:08

All right , all right , we'll do it , we're definitely going to Lunch date that's going to happen . Yep , all right . All right , we're going to wrap up right here . I want to ask you what is Last question ? What is bringing you hope today ?

Keith Mallon 15:21

What is bringing me hope today is my faith in God . That brings me , personally , hope every day and through my struggles I know God's going to be there and be with me . And as far as bringing me to hope , the church , it's the people in the community here .

Rick Court 15:38

Okay , Great answer , Keith . Hey , thanks so much . This wasn't so bad , was it Not ? One too bad All right , listeners , thanks so much . This wasn't so bad , was it ? Not one too bad ? All right , hey , listeners , thanks so much for being a part of this . Hope you got to know Keith a little better . If you see him in the lobby , see him in the church , just stop by and thank him for the work he does . And you all have a great day .

Keith Mallon 15:56

Yeah .

INTRO 16:01

Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope . If you don't already , please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand . You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch .