The Masterful Hand of God to Work Miracles: Neil Richardson Shares Incredible Stories of What God Has Done in People's Lives Over the Last 15 Years and Invites You to Join With Us for the Next 15!

To God be the Glory Great things He has done!  Listen as Neil Richardson shares tribute to what God has done these last 15 years through SafeHouse Ministries and consider partnering with us for the next 15!

Transcript

Phil Shuler: 0:00

HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

Phil: 1:13

Good morning. This morning on the podcast, I have Neal Richardson and we are continuing our celebration and praise to the Lord for what he's done in the last 15 years. And How he has brought safe house from just a very humble and meager beginnings to the immense and large operation that it is today here in Columbus, Georgia, which helps so many people. So Neil, thank you for being here today.

Neil: 1:42

Honored. Thanks, Phil.

Phil: 1:43

So today I want to talk about what the Lord has done over the last 15 years. And I know you've been on once or twice in the podcast and you've shared some pretty neat stories. But I think today would be a great day to, to give some of the highlights of just the big miracles. Even from the miracles. To get things started to the miracles along the way and just to talk and celebrate and Honor the Lord for what he's done

Neil: 2:11

well, you know, we started it with the chaplain's office in the jail and I remember talking to the warden at the time and the sheriff John Darr at that time and We were talking about could we put a chaplain's office in the jail and they thought it was important. So they contacted budget committee at city council and basically said, we're not, we don't have enough money to create that position. And then I said, truth of the matter is, we can fund this thing. So I remember that Monday that I showed up in the jail. I, they said, what do you think you're going to need to get started? And I said, probably a radio so I can get in and out of locked doors. Maybe a key to operate the elevator. And some business cards. And so I came in that day. They had an ID badge for me, a box of business cards, a key to the elevator, and a walkie talkie that went to the central control in the jail. So I could say, can you open? Whichever door. And so for me, that was the big miracle was that God would take me, a recovering person, put me in jail where I probably belong. I'll tell you a funny story. My son, my oldest son, came to visit. And he called his mom and he said, you'll never guess where dad is. And she said, where is he? He said, jail. She said, do not bond him out. He has relapsed and this is horrible. And he said, no, he's the chaplain. She said, he is not telling you the truth. And he said, he's got giant keys that only fit in jail doors. And she went, no, he made those or stole them. Cause if he's relapsed, it's a mess. And he just laughed, and I was sitting right in front of him while I was doing that but watching how the Lord opened the door to let me become a chaplain in the jail, and then we raised a little money to make sure that, I could pay rent and buy some groceries and turn the lights on, and off we went and at the first. year or so, it just seemed like God just kept opening doors. We go into dorms in the jail. There's 28 public dorms in the jail at that time. There was like six ministers that came on Sundays. And so for the most part, most of the jail didn't see anybody. So made a pledge that we would do a 20 to 30 minute message every week and do it in all 28 dorms. I'd show up on Monday, I'd start doing it. By Friday I'd get in the car, I'm driving home. And I finally realized that it took God 28 times to get the point to me and so we learned how to be a minister and we were learning how to, grow as a Christian and grow as a minister. First Baptist Church, which is where I go chose to ordain me. So about five months after we birthed the ministry, I got ordained to the gospel ministry. I kiddingly said I got reverended, but, um, we just, we saw people's lives change and then, things were going so well. One captain told me Captain Schaefer, who was assistant warden at the time, he told some tour groups that we were there and they said, what's the impact of this chaplain's office in the jail? And he said, violence against staff is down. Violence inmate on inmate is down. And this is the only new thing we did in the jail. So that's why,

Phil: 5:44

wow,

Neil: 5:45

that the jail is a safer place to be or work.

Phil: 5:48

Wow.

Neil: 5:49

I remember the warden came up to me one day and he went, he said, you got any more crazy ideas? And I said, like what? And he said it was a crazy idea coming up with this chaplain's office, but it's working for both us and for the inmates. You got any more crazy ideas? And I said actually, I do. And he said, What's that? I said, We could open a faith based recovery dorm. And he said, we get sued by the ACLU. What are you crazy and stormed out of the office. And about a week later he came back in, he said, could you put it on writing on how we could do that? That's just the Lord just tweaking him. Yeah. And he said, can you make sure we're bulletproof on getting sued? And I went, yeah, we just won't force anybody to go. If somebody wants to go to a faith based recovery dorm and work on their recovery, that's choice, that's freedom so we did. We opened that dorm. My goodness, over the first couple of years that we were working in that jail, we opened a fatherhood dorm where we believed that last night didn't make a guy a dad. That being a role model, being a supporter of the mother, Being involved in both discipline and encouragement and shaping that young life, that's a father. And we had read some data that said that 50 percent of inmates that reconnect with their families while incarcerated don't come back. I'll give you a sense, the recidivism rate on inmates is 67%. So two thirds of the people that walk through the back door are coming through again, most within six months. So if you can tell me we can cut that by 50%, that's huge. The people we opened a GED door we gave out 183 GED inside that Muskogee County jail, and we funded that ourselves. We raised the money on the outside and funded that GED program in there. And those are people that. I'll tell you a crazy statistic. We figured the people that pass the test would be the most successful and not coming back. Then those that took the test and didn't pass would be the next group. And then those that never qualified to take the test by the end of class would be the bottom group. Truth of the matter is all three groups, whether they took the test past or failed or just worked in class, Their recidivism rate was down about 37 percent instead of 67%.

Phil: 8:09

Wow.

Neil: 8:10

I was shocked too because we were trying to figure out how come somebody that passed did about a little bit, a small percentage better than the ones that didn't and ones that couldn't. What we realized was when a person commits to learning, they change. You don't know it. That's why if you read books, if you spend time in scripture, if you spend time in the word, if you get serious about your relationship with the Lord and participate in church, those are learning experiences trafficked and led by the Holy Ghost. And those experiences change you whether you intended to change or not. And that's why whether they passed or didn't, they didn't come back to jail at 30 percent less of a percentage. Wow. Wow. By the time it was all said and done, God gave us the idea and the abordant approved it to bring in assistant chaplains. So a man could work the male dorms, a woman could work female dorms. They'd come in for two, three hours every week on the same day. So that they would just go and work the dorms on that floor. Both bring a message, sit and pray with and encourage. I mean by the time we were done, when we opened the veterans dorm, they'd It was the first veterans dorm open at any jail in the United States of America. God opened doors that then other communities read about it. The New York Times covered the dorm. They were sitting at lunch one day and the guy said to the photographer said to the journalist, he said, we're not, we're in the deep south. This isn't even a progressive community up north. And they're the ones that are doing the stuff. We were rocking the world. But then, I remember one day, a woman came back to jail, she'd been gone about a week, and she said she was homeless, she was carrying her one year old baby, and I'm, where did you go when you got out of jail? She said, I went home. She said, but about a week later mom's boyfriend said, them or me. And so she put me and my daughter out, and I said, we're trying to find a place to live. We could not find a place. First of all, there was about 12 beds available for females, maybe 15, in Columbus, Georgia. And none of them were going to talk to you about if you're bringing in a one year old baby. And we couldn't find a place for this girl. I watched her walk away. And that's what stemmed, motivated us to turn around and open their first women's shelter, Trinity House. We just figured I went. It was funny because the sheriff had taken some property that was collateral for bonding company that folded and I tried to get him to give me the building dollar a year. He didn't want to have Anything to do with a dollar a year and being in the real estate business. Eventually donated it to the city and the city gave it to us for a dollar a year and we still have that facility. And so now Columbus, Georgia went from 12 to 15 beds available for women to another 25 beds for women and children. And so we doubled the number of beds that were available, started having an impact in that area. Then, we realized that men didn't have the same concept. What we did at Trinity was amazing. We would let a woman stay with us long enough to find a job, save enough money to get her own place. And at that time, Valley Rescue with Damascus Way and the men's program. was the only shot of anybody involved with homelessness. But they were modeled after the old style of, they called it emergency shelter, that they would give you a place today and they'd feed you and make sure you're straight. That's you get to hear a gospel message and get fed. And that was working. But there wasn't a plan or a way for folks to find time to get a job, save money and get a place. And so we decided we prayed about that. God gave us a place called Grace House. We had 59 beds in that place. And then things just kept opening up. Phil, today we have 213 beds. We have apartments with 20 homeless mental health people. They used to be wandering the streets and we're working on mainstreaming them so that they can learn how to be a roommate so that there's some accountability and then grow from there to get their own place because they grew and matured in, in their capacity to function and then put somebody else in one of those apartments. We've got, men's shelter that has 104 beds in it. We have a women and children shelter that's not got 54 beds in it. The safe house, which is our original place outside of the jail, is a church that provides worship, not once a week, not twice a week, seven days a week. With worship services and music on Sundays and again on Wednesdays and then a message and devotion and Bible study every other day of the week. We have case managers that can take people who have needs and help them set a plan in motion, hold them accountable to achieve the plan, and then move into permanent housing, get off the dadgum streets. We actually have people who've gotten jobs. ministry that we're still homeless and we're going to work. And of course, we can give you a shower at the safe house, guys and gals coming in and getting a shower, going to work, coming back and then qualifying for some vouchers so they can, we can help them pay their first and last and get in the building. If I was gonna say how many miracles has God done what's that song that says I can't count that high? Yeah, that's what God has done. On average every year, a hundred to a hundred and four men, women, or families move into permanent housing through our ministry.

Phil: 14:08

That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot. That's a whole lot.

Neil: 14:11

And with the economic downturn the last few years, we saw a bump up in homelessness, but we're still knocking it back. Plus, we've got 213 beds for homeless people. And I think the last point in time count that United Way's Home for Good did, there was, under 90 people homeless on our streets, but we still had several hundred because of the shelters that can take them. But we've gotten it down to the point where there's that handful out on the street. And we're going to continue to work to knock that back. But, people have access to a gospel message. I like to tell our staff that we are not here to make anybody's trip to hell smoother. That our job is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, provide the hope of salvation, the way forward, and the freedom of salvation to any hurting people in the Columbus and Chattahoochee Valley area. And we live up to that promise. We share the gospel message. We let people know that the reason that these meals are there, that housing is there, that somebody to listen and pray with and encourage you is there, is because Jesus provided it. And so every day we see miracles. Every day we see people who five years ago, ten years ago, I knew in the jail as an inmate, now work for us. Some of our big leaders in this ministry have come out of that jail or come out of the drug program that we provide for free. As this economy has, is trying to recover and recover. We're a beacon of hope to people who will be the last ones to feel the economic recovery. We're the ones that are taking care of the people who maybe are still learning how to function in society because of a mental health diagnosis. That we can help them and partner with a couple of agencies in town to help them find that first job and then learn some accountability and discipline and self, just take care of yourself, respect. Biggest miracle for me is that in 15 years, God said, I want to have preaching and teaching in the jails. And then as people were getting out of the jail, I want to have the ability to care for them, guide them, and continue to both disciple and grow them. But also, To teach them how to change.

Phil: 16:32

I think that is one of the greatest examples that I could even think of the final command that Jesus gave to the church before he left. To reach the lost, to evangelize, to share the gospel. The second part of that great commission is the discipleship piece is to help them on that journey of growing and growing in their faith and growing in their ability to contribute in this world and help others. And that's, that is the amazing miracle that happens in so many people's lives that I have been able to witness time and time again. Just that miracle of. Yeah. And it takes time. It takes a long time sometimes. But loving people over a long period of time, the Lord begins to do a great work and they go from darkness to light and bondage to victory and they become people that give back tenfold and just help so many others.

Neil: 17:27

During COVID, and I'll tell you about some God miracle stuff. During COVID As we as a community, we're just trying to figure out how we're going to navigate this nonsense. In February, everybody in 20 was trying to figure out what is it, how bad is it going to be, what are we going to do? Ben Moser, who's the president of the United Way, and Betsy Covington, who's the head of the Community Foundation, opened a phone call that happened every day anybody that was in an agency or the community, David Lewis from the school board, Mayor Henderson was there. All our leaders, police services, agencies Leaders of the community all got on a phone call every morning and between Betsy and Ben, they funded that. They raised money. I think they raised seven figures to make sure that if somebody, heck, we needed to buy a server to grow our capacity because of the increased work that we had to do, they helped pay for that. We needed more COVID supplies. They helped us pay for it. We had to increase food budget. So that we could take care of the needs of the people. They gave us money to do all that. We live in an amazing community. So we felt God was saying, where would a homeless person go during COVID? And I don't want to meet strangers if I'm a homeless person, but I'm going to panhandle. How am I going to take care of myself? How does that affect us as a community? So God said we should open and our church. On Hamilton Road, there's a large area in the rotunda that has an own air conditioning system that vents outside and draws supply air from outside. So it shares no air with anywhere in the church building. So we went, this could be the isolation unit. So we partnered with Mercy Med. Grant Scarborough and his team came down and trained us. We opened up this area. We got the cots, the pillows, the beds. We got blood pressure cuff pulse ox thingy you put on your finger, forehead thermometers. And so on the isolation unit, we set it up where if anybody was exposed or tested positive that we would house them there for the entire isolation period ordered by the CDC. At that back and then it was 14 days and you had to have 48 hours, symptom free before you could release. And then MercyMed came out and tested all the homeless once a month. So 180 plus people lined up for free got tests. You know that in all three months we only had one test. Two people who tested positive in the homeless community. Wow. And they weren't homeless because the lines at the civic center and in the community were hundreds of people lining up to get tested. And somebody found out that the homeless only had 180 in their line. And so this one family dressed down, this is hilarious, but they did, they dressed down and they were our positives. And so we kept mom and son, dad and daughter were cool. They went away. Mom and son. They moved in with us and they hung out with us in that isolation unit. So we, we were crazy back then of the stuff that we were making up and doing because we didn't know what the rules were. America didn't know what the rules were with this pandemic. So we said we're going to do an isolation unit. We're going to protect the community from the homeless and the homeless from the community. We're going to feed them. And then because the governor made that emergency order from about the middle of March to the middle of May that we were on lockdown as a state. So we had to open the safe house 24 7. So we had to add dinner and that meant more food. We had to obviously we're open all night. Our expenses are going up. And so we got several of the blood, those forehead testers for your temperatures. The CDC guidelines said it's 101. 4. You have to isolate and pay attention to sneezing and coughing. So everybody that came in and got tested, if they went over 104 went straight to the isolation unit, get them away from the rest of the folks, get them tested. And then if it's just symptoms but not COVID, then we could treat the symptoms. We had the cough medicines and the Tylenols and all that kind of stuff that was necessary. We wrote down everybody who went to a coughing fit or had some sneezing. Everybody was in masks and everybody had, we had access to hand sanitizer. It was everywhere. We would close at two o'clock every day and let everybody hang outside and come back in at five. And we use those three hours to scrub every seat, chair, surface, doorknob, wall in the entire safe house so that it was clean and fresh every day. And then let folks back in to eat supper and spend the night started all over again. We, if you started coughing, we wrote your name down. You were tested every hour. So August of 20. I go to this zoom conference on homeless health, and it was hosted by two doctors in Boston. And so we got invited to come because we were pretty serious about dealing with COVID in the homeless community. So we went there, they did the seminar and the stuff they were trying to teach. And we took some notes and learn some things. And at the end they asked everybody to report. You know what? If you paid attention to the news back then, in some areas of this country, the homeless community was ravaged, and then shared it all over the community itself. People dying, people on the streets, it was horrible. Columbus, Georgia had its turn to report, so that was me. And so I said, we've had no deaths. We've never hospitalized any of the homeless that are involved in our community. And we've been able to contain to the point that we were not negatively impacting the community. And somebody asked on there, said, what are you doing different? And so I rattled off all the things we did, how our quarantine work, how our ones, our checks and how we were constantly cleaning cleaning, constantly keeping everybody masked and hand washing. And they said, everybody's done that. I said there's one extra thing that we do every morning. I said, we circle up all of us and we pray. So you got 70 to 80 homeless people that probably spend the night or they're every morning when we're there you had our staff and We circled up outside and we asked the Lord to protect us one more day Just one more day, sir and help us take care of the community that we live in and our homeless community itself. You should have heard all them Yankees and them doctors clearing their throats trying to, try not to admit it. But I said, isn't that the data? Aren't we data driven? So we pray every day and you don't. We've got no deaths no Hospitalizations and we have we protected our community from us and us from our community You want to talk about what a church does? That's what a church does. Yeah, so I'm so excited About the God that kept us alive for 15 years Phil when we first started I had to pay rent Put on utilities and buy some groceries And that's all I took. We didn't have enough money to do anything else. This past year, our budget is two million plus dollars in order to continue to provide the services, the meals, the blankets. all the things that are necessary to house people in our shelters, to provide case management and professional treatment for our substance abuse program and for just people who need access to mental health or medical health or find a job. What God has done is huge. My ex wife, we're still friends. I still remind her every now and then that she's told him that don't bail him out. And he stole them keys. You'd be nervous if he's using, it's trouble. That guy is sitting in this chair right now bragging about the past 15 years of being allowed to walk with the Lord and serve our community and the homeless within our community.

Phil: 25:51

It's amazing. It and you have never sought out any kind of recognition or praise. Interestingly, you just recently won the Dan Reed award, a very prestigious award for just service above self, just serving other people in tremendous ways in the community and doing it for so long, not for any other reason, except for just. Serving the Lord and loving people.

Neil: 26:18

So when God does things for you, it's like an OZ. God doesn't bless us so we can go bless ourselves. God blesses us so that we can share that blessing and grow the church and grow the people that are involved with the program. Heck yeah, for whom much is given, much is due. And there's another verse that's pretty powerful and Jesus actually said, why should you get credit for just doing what I asked you to do?

Phil: 26:42

Yeah.

Neil: 26:43

Can we be honest here? I didn't raise the money. I didn't come up with the idea to be the chaplain in the jail. I didn't come up with the idea to turn, an empty building into 104 bed men's shelter. I didn't come up with the idea of assistant chaplains and prayer requests and e mails. I didn't come up with any of that. Our God and our Savior said, Let's do this today. And then open doors so that we could have a family shelter. Open doors so that we could offer women and children shelters. Open the doors so men could get off the streets. Open the doors so people could get jobs. God is the one that does this. God created the partnerships like with United Way and with the Community Foundation. God opened the doors for us to work with goodwill. And help people get a good job and legitimate job training in order to get jobs that will pay mortgages as they decide to open, start families going forward. This is all God's doing nobody that, most of the people that work here, Phil, have come through it. Either as family members of addict, of people that were addicted, or addicts and alcoholics ourselves. God's rescued a whole bunch of, a whole bunch of folks and then just fuels the fire of the energy that they have to give it back to the people that are behind them. If I had to be proud of anything, here's what I'm proud of. I envision climbing out of the gutter as a ladder. Okay and the ladder is, we're being helped by Jesus up each step. Do you look down your nose at the person that's on the step beneath you? Or do you look up to the God who's rescuing you as you climb up the next ladder? And the people that work for us are not looking down their nose at people behind them on the ladder. They're looking up to the Savior, and they're continuing to climb. to God's perfection.

Phil: 28:40

Yeah, that's

Neil: 28:41

what makes this thing work.

Phil: 28:42

Absolutely. And seeing it firsthand, those people that work with safe house, not only are they looking up, but they're reaching their hand down to help the others that are on the lower steps to come up to.

Neil: 28:53

Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm 72, I seem to have a little bit of energy left, and I don't intend to slow down I mean I love what God allows us to do, to bless our community, but I I know in heaven, I'm pretty sure God's going to let us have a couple of reunions, And we'll get to see the people that came through and see the people who met the Lord through our ministry and through our church. And I think it's going to be spectacular just to know that we helped grow the kingdom forever.

Phil: 29:31

Yeah. And that reunion is going to be beautiful. Larger than we can imagine, especially factoring in all the many individuals and churches and others who really are partnering with us without whom we couldn't do the work. That's right. Yeah, I think Columbus has about 200, 000 as far as a population, roughly celebrating this 15 year anniversary. We would love to see 1500 new partners at 15 a month. But even 15, 000 I think you mentioned Columbus as a unique city and it really is. I believe there are so many people in our community Columbus and Phoenix city in the surrounding area that really do want to help others. And sometimes it's hard to figure out how to do that. What do I do? People on the side of the street asking for money or people that come to the church and say, Hey, can you put me up in a hotel? Or but. One of the easiest and simplest ways that anybody in our community can help is just to partner with Safe House Ministries. The work is being done so, so well. The structure is there. The love is there. And it's not practical for me to take people off the street, bring them into my house, or to make my wife cook a meal for people that don't have anything to eat, We can say, you know what? Hey let's give a little bit of money every month to partner with Safe House and let them do the work that they do so well. I can't do everything. And so I think it's a smart strategy to find someone who's doing something well. And if that's important to you to help others, partner with them and let them do the work and just become a partner.

Neil: 31:06

I love it. The more people who can give of their time, their talent, their treasure, and this 15 a month thing, it's not a coke a day, but instead of worrying about the guy that's flying the kite, that means holding a sign up at an intersection and worrying about helping him go get a McDonald's, which probably isn't where the money's going to go. Giving us that little bit of money, we'll make sure that he gets a plate of food every time he needs it. That he'll hear a gospel message, he'll see the hope that exists. And for a 15 a month investment, you're making sure that hope touches people, that the Lord is touching people, that we can meet their physical and mental health needs, and at the same time, show them a path that can lead to eternal life and a good journey towards it.

Phil: 32:01

Yeah. And a better life on earth and in heaven. An actual life after this earth passes away. That's right. Yeah. Amen. And it's it's easy to find us. You can go to our website, www.safehouse-ministries.com You can become a partner there by clicking the donate now button. You can call us. Yeah. And, or you can go email us at info at safe house dash ministries. com. You can come by our day center, 2101 Hamilton road. We would love to give you a tour of what we're doing to show you how we go about helping so many in the community. So if you're someone that wants to learn more, reach out to us, we'll be glad to host you. We'll be glad to answer any questions. And we would love to have you partner with us if you would like to do that. Neil, I know it's been a journey of great faith. Would you take a minute and talk about The role that faith has played in the last 15 years in your life and in the work of safe house ministries.

Neil: 33:04

Wow. I think everybody gets a certain amount of faith and I think if you go to the gym with that faith and you lift a little heavier weight, that it grows trust. And for me, getting to that place, so from this is just me personal, me being exercising the faith that grows a trust muscle that allows us to, you want to open 104 bed men's shelter? Are you kidding me? Moments that I've had with God? Then it's just going everything else you said you wanted to do, you did. And so being able to trust God to do what I think is the impossible, what we've done in 15 short years. Is build a system in place that guarantees any hungry person gets fed that guarantee both food and Scripture it guarantees any person that wants off the streets that needs help with medical health or mental health issues That's preventing them from moving forward in life that'll get met because this powerful amazing God comes up with answers One of my favorite passages in scripture is when Joshua asked out loud God to stop the sun in the sky so they could finish the battle. And God did. And Joshua had enough courage to say, I believe God can do this out loud and run the risk of being embarrassed. I want to have that kind of faith that I'll say it out loud that I believe God can throw down any wall that stands between us and what he wants us to do. But, I met a woman one time in our women's shelter who, we ask them to look for 25 jobs a week. That's five a day. That's not a problem. Big pressure. But if you ask 25 people a week for work, you're going to find work. And but she never got invited back for a second interview. And she was not cheating, she wasn't trying to hide, she wasn't lying with the stuff. She went into places, and nobody wanted her back. I got on the phone one day and went behind her sheet and called a couple of places that she applied and said I'm trying to counsel her on getting a job. I didn't say she lived in a shelter, put any shade on her at all. I just said, can you give me something that I can teach her not to do or to remember to do that'll help her be invited back for a second interview? And he goes, oh heck yeah, brush your teeth. And I went, you're kidding. And he said, Oh my God, her breath was horrible. And I went, dang. I started realizing that she had some dental challenges. A lot of dental challenges. So we started praying about that. Because here's somebody that's doing everything you're supposed to do to be successful and not got a shot. And God opened the door for a friend of mine who's a dentist to put me in touch with somebody who would take care of her. And a dentist in this town took care of her for free, fixed the rotted teeth that were, I mean she could brush her teeth and 30 seconds later knock a buzzard off a garbage truck. I mean it was that bad. So this guy took her in, put her in a chair, did it all for free, and now this sheepish woman who understood that she was challenged by her breath. Couldn't I bet you she was sleeping. She was smiling, showing off them teeth every minute of every day. So it goodwill put her in a training program for custodial work. She graduated the program, the school board contractor that cleans all the schools hired her and she calls me up and she says, She came back at me. Thank God she didn't call me when she got off work. They do it in the middle of the night, but she called me the next morning and she said, you're not going to guess what happened last night. And I said, what happened? She said, I got there and they handed me keys. And I went Didn't that great? And she said, I asked, why are you giving me keys if I'm just starting? And they said, based on how well you did in the goodwill training program and goodwill's recommendation for how smart you are, we've made you the supervisor of the cleaning crew at a middle school.

Phil: 37:22

Wow.

Neil: 37:23

And so she was, I mean like you, I can't put into words the magic that took over her life because God intervened. And gave somebody trying the break they needed. And I've talked to her over the years. She's never been homeless again. She's never been dealing with drugs or alcohol again. She's just somebody who pays it forward when she sees somebody. She shares her testimony. And, I mean I could tell you big numbers and how many people did this and how many people did that. But for that one woman. The people that support this ministry guaranteed her the opportunity to get her teeth fixed so that she could get her life fixed so that she could move on and then be an example of the glory of the amazing God we serve. That's the kind of faith I have in this ministry that God got her and all the other ones just like her.

Phil: 38:19

Amen. Yeah. And I love that in our journey of faith. That the Lord uses people. He, the Holy Spirit works and He puts it on the heart of people to give money. He puts it on the heart of people to give their expertise, their professional skills. And He just, He works it all out. He really does. And He's going to do what He wants to do, whether I join Him or not. But how amazing, and how wonderful, and how beautiful. When he speaks and I say, I absolutely want to join you in what you're doing yeah.

Neil: 38:51

But you're going to have to show me what to do.

Phil: 38:53

Yeah. You're

Neil: 38:54

going to have to teach me, train me, encourage me, motivate me and hold me accountable. And then we're going to do everything you want to do at my pace because I'm nowhere near yours. Yeah. That's what we get to do every day. Yeah. I'm so lucky. I'm so blessed that God lets me be not just. Clean and sober, but free and able to pay it forward.

Phil: 39:18

Yeah. Praise the Lord. It's very cool. It's very cool. So if anybody listening to this podcast if you want to be a part of the miracles that are happening in people's lives and the work that's being done that God is doing through safe house ministries, then join with us, partner with us and give some money, give some time give some prayer. And, partner with us to see the miracles continue to happen. Amen. Neil, is there anything else you want to add? No. You've done it. Thank you for being here. Sure. And how about how about you close us in a word of prayer?

Neil: 39:51

Father God, as we get to brag about what you do and how you impact the community that we share. I ask for blessings on the next client that walks through the door to be able to both hear a gospel message, but also God to be able to have food in their stomach or clean clothes on their back and an opportunity to go and grow. And so Lord, as people are considering out there that are listening to this, how they could partner with us to help us touch their hearts, Lord, as to whether it's their time, their talent, their treasure, or how they can help us grow your ministry and always be there the next time that woman needs you. to get her breath fixed so that she can change her life. And God, I'm praying for new people to join us. I'm praying for new people to help lead us. And I'm praying God that you get all the credit in Jesus name. Amen.

Phil: 40:47

Amen.

Phil Shuler: 40:48

We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2: 41:26

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.