Imagine finding the courage to transform your life in the face of addiction, the strength it takes to rewrite your story. Our latest guest, Tom Throssel of Redwood Adult and Teen Challenge, brings these stories of hope and redemption to life as he shares the journey of those navigating the path from addiction to recovery. With over 65 years of history, Teen Challenge has been a beacon of light for many, and Tom recounts not only the compelling narratives of those in the program but also his own transition from a missionary and airplane mechanic to leading this impactful organization. As we navigate the conversation, the resilience of the human spirit stands at the forefront, with personal triumphs and the collective will to overcome life's most daunting challenges.
The day-to-day at Teen Challenge may seem like a blend of military discipline and spiritual revival, but it's the individual stories that capture the essence of transformation. As Tom takes us through the structured environment of the program, we learn about the balance of morning Bible studies and physical work assignments that keep participants grounded and focused on their recovery. Tom shares the behind-the-scenes of how the program sustains itself through community work and how each participant's journey is tailored to their personal growth, leading up to graduation and beyond. And there's no shying away from the harsh realities faced in places like Skid Row, where the ministry's work takes on an even grittier edge.
But life isn't all about the heavy lifting of personal transformation. Tom opens up about his 30-year marriage, his serene hobby of agate hunting, and the joy of restoring classic trucks. His multifaceted life doesn't end there; as a family man and religious leader, Tom speaks to the importance of kindness and compassion within and outside his community roles. Wrapping up our conversation, we contemplate the legacies we wish to leave behind and the power of community collaboration in fostering hope and healing. Join us for an episode that's not just about the battles against addiction, but about the beauty of second chances and the enduring spirit of human kindness.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Imagine finding the courage to transform your life in the face of addiction, the strength it takes to rewrite your story. Our latest guest, Tom Throssel of Redwood Adult and Teen Challenge, brings these stories of hope and redemption to life as he shares the journey of those navigating the path from addiction to recovery. With over 65 years of history, Teen Challenge has been a beacon of light for many, and Tom recounts not only the compelling narratives of those in the program but also his own transition from a missionary and airplane mechanic to leading this impactful organization. As we navigate the conversation, the resilience of the human spirit stands at the forefront, with personal triumphs and the collective will to overcome life's most daunting challenges.
The day-to-day at Teen Challenge may seem like a blend of military discipline and spiritual revival, but it's the individual stories that capture the essence of transformation. As Tom takes us through the structured environment of the program, we learn about the balance of morning Bible studies and physical work assignments that keep participants grounded and focused on their recovery. Tom shares the behind-the-scenes of how the program sustains itself through community work and how each participant's journey is tailored to their personal growth, leading up to graduation and beyond. And there's no shying away from the harsh realities faced in places like Skid Row, where the ministry's work takes on an even grittier edge.
But life isn't all about the heavy lifting of personal transformation. Tom opens up about his 30-year marriage, his serene hobby of agate hunting, and the joy of restoring classic trucks. His multifaceted life doesn't end there; as a family man and religious leader, Tom speaks to the importance of kindness and compassion within and outside his community roles. Wrapping up our conversation, we contemplate the legacies we wish to leave behind and the power of community collaboration in fostering hope and healing. Join us for an episode that's not just about the battles against addiction, but about the beauty of second chances and the enduring spirit of human kindness.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, it is Scott Hammond and 100% Humboldt podcast with my good friend Tom Thressel. Good afternoon From Teen Challenge. Yeah, redwood Teen Challenge. Yes, what is Redwood Teen Challenge and what do you do there? What's your role, tom?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good question. Redwood Adult and Teen Challenge. I forgot the adult. We added the adult a couple of years back, because we now help adults, they're mostly all adults, all adults In Humboldt County. We're all adults. So Teen Challenge started about 65 years ago helping young men and women in New York City that were involved in gangs and drugs Right, and that program exploded across the United States. Now there's about 200 programs in the United States and we're one of them.
Speaker 1:So David Wilkerson met Nikki Cruz the gangster, yeah and he got radically converted and changed his life and devoted it toward gang members and recruiting and recovery and yeah, nikki Cruz is still alive.
Speaker 2:Is that right? 65 years of ministry? Wow, we got to see him about two years ago. Oh, is that right. And after 65 years he's still hard to understand, is that right? He has a very strong Spanish accent.
Speaker 1:Is he Puerto?
Speaker 2:Rican. I think so yeah.
Speaker 1:And then Wilkerson, is he still living?
Speaker 2:No, he was in a car accident about 15 years ago.
Speaker 1:Okay, Was that his son that spoke here several years ago?
Speaker 2:Yep Gary. Yeah, we're hoping we're working on getting him back for our banquet this year. Great and so.
Speaker 1:So what does teen challenge do? The misnomer is teen, because it's certainly anything but teens, especially here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, across the United States there are teen challenges that work with adolescents.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Here in Humboldt County we're only adults, so we're adult and teen challenge Gotcha, but we're a recovery program, a year-long recovery program aimed at helping people get off of whatever addictive lifestyle they're dealing with.
Speaker 2:Wow, so, that could be anything. It could be anything yeah, most are drugs and alcohol, but we've had students come through that didn't have addiction as most people see it in the world today, but just struggling with life-controlling issues Right, living homeless, living, couch-surfing, whatever and they just want a chance to start over, to do it, get a do over, yeah, and so we're free, we don't charge anything. People come into the program and they live with us for a year and we help them eat and feed. Feed them, yep, give them jobs and help them learn how to do life.
Speaker 1:You guys are. How many chapters are there around the world?
Speaker 2:About 2,500 around the world.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's a lot of people. Have you churned that over several years?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I met one of your guys. I mentioned him in the last show and I see her with Brian Hall from the rescue mission. He was. You might know who this was. It was when John Dolby and everybody was still meeting down at the old well your center, it was your, our bookstore and the bookstore.
Speaker 1:And this young, good-looking guy comes out of the building and he's hey, I'm Mark. I don't remember what his name was and he was just finishing the program and he looked he's good looking, because I'm going back to UCLA to go to med school and I live with my parents and I go wow, this is a great program. And he goes I came in here 14 months ago and I weighed about 100 pounds less and my hair is falling. And he goes I just had a, I was a mess, and these guys and God made the difference. And I'm going back to med school and I go hallelujah, man, this kid's gonna make it. Yeah, so those are the kind of the great stories that I love. Yeah, absolutely. I saw with my own eyes. So what's your role day to day to day? What do you do? You yell at people or I do, okay.
Speaker 2:That's kind of the joke. I'm like what are you going to do today? I'm going to go yell at some people. We'll go yell at some guys, at gals. Yeah Well, to be honest, I didn't think I'd ever be here. But I'm the executive director, so the CEO, executive director, and so I'm kind of in charge of everything. We've got a women's house and a men's house and we've got two graduate houses, so when they finish the program, if they want to stay in the area, they can live there too. Okay, so I'm in charge of all of that.
Speaker 1:How many individuals are involved in that?
Speaker 2:Right now about 50. To call them students, students. Yeah, we got about 50. We have a hundred beds, okay, so, so there's room in the end. There's room in the end.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I would think somebody would want to take it, somebody's would want to take advantage of that but that's their choice.
Speaker 2:Pre COVID we were pretty full.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And COVID really made it difficult.
Speaker 1:That's interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're slowly filling back up Gotcha. At one point we're down to six girls in the program and the women's program.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I think we're at 15 right now, so slowly filling back up. Same with the men's house.
Speaker 1:So did you come from within the programmer?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So you didn't see yourself being a CEO and sitting in that chair today.
Speaker 2:No Long story short. I was a missionary oh is that right. My wife and I lived in South America, bolivia.
Speaker 1:How about that?
Speaker 2:And I'm an airplane mechanic by trade.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So we worked for a mission aviation organization.
Speaker 1:Which is really necessary in South America. Yeah, and we worked for the.
Speaker 2:Navyators. Yeah. Well, in Bolivia, where we lived, the northern part of the country during the rainy season is an island, oh wow. And so it's just swamp. You know swamp boats, south Florida style, hot muggy, yeah. And so once the rains come, there's no way in or out other than by the airplane.
Speaker 1:Boats.
Speaker 2:Not really. Yeah, there's too much land in between, so you'd have to have like an amphibious boat.
Speaker 1:So literally the whole country becomes the northern part, an island, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like a swamp. So there's villages that are completely isolated from the outside world, and so we have ham radio, they got solar. So they call us, say, hey, we need some food, we need medical care, we have a little kid who got bit by a snake, we need some help. And so we will fly missionaries out into the village and back out back and forth. And so that's what I did for 10 years. Yeah, and a long story short, it was time to come home.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking of the movie with the rock, where he's down in South.
Speaker 2:America, the gods must be crazy.
Speaker 1:No, that's South Africa, that's an older one. Now this is with Dwayne the rock and he's a chef and it's the British guy and he flies a janky old plane and they drop them in the jungle and it's like you know that thing's made out of, you know, baling, wire and skin and duct tape.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I've seen that one.
Speaker 1:I'll think of the movie in a minute. It's a pretty good movie, Nickel. Look that went up. Dwayne Johnson, he's in that, he's a chef and they're down there and it's with Christopher Walken and it's coming to me. It'll come, Anyway. So yeah, that whole same everything's Aviators, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we came back from that into Humboldt County in 2012.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Economy wasn't great in 2012. And so I couldn't find a job. You said, come back. You came to Humboldt. We came back to Humboldt specifically what do you call it? A shameless plug? Okay, sure, shameless plug for Arcata Christian School. Go for it. My wife went to Arcata Christian School, okay, and that's where our kids went, and so we really needed a quality place for our kids, and so we came back specifically to Humboldt County to put our kids back in Arcata Christian School.
Speaker 1:That's at Arcata for Speak. Memphis behind Humboldt Yep, cal Poly, humboldt not Humboldt State.
Speaker 2:Formerly known as yeah, so we get the kids plugged into school and my wife applied for a job. She got a job almost immediately at Holly Oshie Perfect, and I couldn't find a job.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I went to the airport. They said you're qualified, but we don't need help. Yeah, a lot of shops are like we don't think so.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:And so a friend of mine said hey, what do you think about Teen Challenge? And I'm like, what's that? What's a Teen Challenge? What is it? And they said, well, go find out. So I made an appointment with the director at the time with the idea that I would start an automotive program where we could have people donate cars, help students, teach the students how to fix them, and then we could sell them and the money would help propagate the program.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. That was my vision, so the program was in place back when you got here.
Speaker 2:The Teen Challenge was here from 2005.
Speaker 1:Who was the director back then?
Speaker 2:Fred Lamberson. Okay, yeah sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I met with him. He started laughing when I told him this vision. I said what's so funny? He said I just stopped a few minutes ago in front of an empty auto shop and I thought we could do this. But who would run it? I said I will. So he said teen challenge is like nothing you've ever done before. So would you be willing to volunteer for a couple months just to see if you like it To do it? Yeah, so I started as a volunteer working in the auto shop.
Speaker 1:How about that?
Speaker 2:Working on cars, getting to meet the students and just fell in love Cars that were donated to the program. Well, or whoever. Well, a teen challenge has 22 vehicles. Well, that's enough, right, there's a fleet. You were the fleet guy. Yeah, I mean just to maintain those doing breaks and changes.
Speaker 1:That's full time yeah.
Speaker 2:So we were working on our own cars, yeah, and I was just enjoying it. I had a Bible degree, I'd been to Bible college, and so Where'd you go? Moody Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
Speaker 1:Chicago Illinois, yeah Famous, yeah how many years.
Speaker 2:We did four years. Wow, we did two years, three years in Chicago. Long story short. I applied and my wife applied at the same time To Moody. To Moody, we're in different parts of the no, we were married. We had just gotten married, we're living in Eureka and we both applied and she got accepted. She was a straight A student, she was CSF and all the ribbons and honors you got right in. They took her and they saw my application and laughed.
Speaker 1:See this guy. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So they said we want you to do a year of junior college first. So our first year married, I went to CR and then we moved to Chicago. I reapplied and they said no. So she did a year of Moody without me.
Speaker 1:OK Remote.
Speaker 2:No, we were living in Chicago. We moved out there with the belief that I was going to get in. So what did you do during that? I worked, I got a job, and I started taking correspondence courses online and just proved to them that I could do it. That's great, though.
Speaker 1:Good way to follow your wife's dream and bless her and support yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we spent three years in Chicago and then at the time they had an aviation program in northeastern Tennessee, up in the mountains of Tennessee. So we moved to Tennessee and our second son was born there.
Speaker 1:So was this a Moody program or? Just separate missions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was their Moody's Aviation Program.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:So we did that for two more years and uh, airplane mechanic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huh. So it's good, that's wonderful. So, and then, how many years in Bolivia?
Speaker 2:About 10.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, so you've been there, done that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you see how it works and it doesn't work. Yeah, well, it took us 10 years to get there. Wow, yeah, between the two I took a trip in. Yeah, now you're making me think we took a trip 93. February 93, I went to Bolivia for a month.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:There was a local guy, mike, and Kay Leibolt I don't know if you know the Leibolt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they go to church up in Arcada with where we used to go. At Taleos, taleos, yep, yep, mike's a great guy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely amazing. You see the missions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was a missionary pilot. I was serving in the Coast Guard.
Speaker 1:That's right. My son-in-law knows him real well and he said he was a great pilot and kayaker maybe.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's a fanatic about it. He builds kayaks.
Speaker 1:He builds them yeah, yeah, and nobody has got a bigger smile on town.
Speaker 2:No, hey, he builds hey Musical instruments. Very talented guy hey.
Speaker 1:Mike. Shout out to Mike. Yeah, yeah, really great guy. Speaking of Holly Holly, holly, yashi Jewelry, my turn for a shout out, shameless plug. Holly Hosterman yeah, I don't know her last. She's married now I think. Holly, we want you on the show. Oh, so if anybody knows Holly, I do Get her whole. She goes to church with me, that's right. Yeah, because she's been to a lot of Huckleberry Flint concerts.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Dick Taylor Huckleberry, Flint. There's shameless plug. Yeah, we're shameless plugging it here. What's going on Next? Next I'm going to be pointing at the Humboldt County map Do you know?
Speaker 2:Do you know Mr Yashi from the Holly Yashi fame? I met him at Paul back in the day. Paul Lubitz, yeah, great guy, you would look he Nice guy. He would crack you up the whole time. If he was on the show, great, maybe we should have him both. We should have him together.
Speaker 1:Maybe we could have him both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be something.
Speaker 1:They're really great people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've seen her at several shows, at Jeff Crohn's Memorial yeah, different places, and said kind of high, but yeah, met them years ago in the mixers. But yeah, so you're in Bolivia. So you come back here, go to ACS, to the Christian school. Yep, plug into First Bees. You guys are First Bee people.
Speaker 2:First Bee Eureka and Arcada. First Bee. That's a lot, yeah, so we bounced back and forth for maybe about a year, and then we finally settled on Eureka.
Speaker 1:First Bee and Eureka is somewhere out in the back right.
Speaker 2:It's right next door to Sanders Funeral Home. Oh, it's right there. Ok, on E Street by the NAS?
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, they're all kind of right there. Yep, ok, yeah, oh, that's right, because that's or did we go there? Do you guys still bring the students?
Speaker 2:to the church we do. Yep Teen Challenge meets there every Wednesday night.
Speaker 1:Shameless plug number four, and that's where we graduated Jeff Krohn, absolutely Friend of ours, yeah.
Speaker 2:So every Wednesday night we have our own church service right there for the Teen Challenge students, kind of aimed at recovery, good time of worship, and so communities invited. So number four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're kind of keep them coming. So from the journey there. Then you were the auto guy for the shop, and how did you graduate to your current position?
Speaker 2:Well, we had a pastor. A daisy from Rio del was our education coordinator and when I came on, kind of know of her, I think Him, him daisy, dennis, daisy, sorry him, he's a great guy. Anyway, he was teaching all of our classes and so classes were Tuesday, so there was no work, nothing happened on Tuesday, but class. So when he resigned he took over a pastorate job and they needed help. So I said, well, let me try. So I started teaching classes 8 o'clock in the morning. I started until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. One class all day. It was horrible.
Speaker 1:For one day just solid.
Speaker 2:Yep, you give them their homework. They test everything.
Speaker 1:Tuesday night was tired at your house.
Speaker 2:Yes, the guys were sick of my voice. I was sick of my voice by Tuesday afternoon the lecture guy and so since then we've changed it up and so we do classes every morning from 8 to 10. Perfect, and then we go out to work. So I started doing that, I started teaching classes. They made me the education coordinator, so kind of guiding the students getting their homework done.
Speaker 2:At Teen Challenge we sit down with each student. What are you struggling with? I think that's one of the things I really love about the ministry that we're involved with. That's the difference between a church and Teen Challenge. It's the first day a guy comes into the program and he says I'm struggling with addiction and I need help. So we sit him down, tell us about your porn addiction, tell us about your abuse as a child, tell us about and as a pastor in a church. It's going to take you 10 or maybe 20 years. Might be a while. It might take a long time to get to the point where you can sit down with somebody and say tell me about your child abuse as a child.
Speaker 1:And let's do something about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I started as the education coordinator. I did that for about a year and they needed some help. So I became the assistant director of the men's house and did that for maybe a year and then the director resigned and took a job with PG&E.
Speaker 1:How about that? Who was that?
Speaker 2:His name was Larry Ratliff.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:He could climb trees. That guy could do anything. I think I know Larry he was a great guy and so he resigned and they needed a director, so I became the director of the men's house.
Speaker 1:This is you moving up the food chain.
Speaker 2:Moving up the food chain. So I did that for a couple of years. That's the hardest job at Teen Challenge. Oh yeah Is a center director. You are answering a million mundane questions all day long, All year long. I need another pair of shoelaces. Can I have shoelaces? Can I make an extra phone call? Can I do this? Can I?
Speaker 1:do that.
Speaker 2:It drains you. Oh, I bet. So I did that for about two years.
Speaker 1:Do you like Moses and delegate, absolutely Delegate, that stuff out, yeah, yeah. So I want to kind of cut to the chase in the sense of well, let's finish your story. Then I want to hear some of your stories, maybe be thinking about some of the really cool testimonies of guys and gals that shine in your brain in terms of what happens, what happens to a life, a heart, a spirit, a body, when they get healed, made whole, made, I don't know, recover, if you will. So you're director of the men's ministry and then were you also teaching with other guys and gals at that time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was still teaching. I still enjoy teaching.
Speaker 1:Is there a whole staff of folks that do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have about 15 people working for Teen Challenge, and so then the executive director retired. So it was like what are we going to do? So I don't know if you know Steve Strombeck Sure, he's the chairman of our board and he called me and he said we want your resume. Hey, steve, and I thought he meant resignation. I'm like what did I do? You know? No, I had trouble. We want your resume. I'm like what for? I said well, we need an executive director. And I'm like you know you're talking to a knucklehead mechanic. I've never directed an organization. I've never. I've always been number two.
Speaker 2:I always had another guy who was my boss I've never been an executive director before and he said well, that makes you perfect for the job. I was going to say you're the perfect guy. So I applied and they gave me the job. How about that? So that was about six, seven years ago.
Speaker 1:Can I have your resignation please?
Speaker 2:You want my resume OK.
Speaker 1:I have a story set with Joe Marvel. It was a flooring guy and he wanted to hire me and I didn't know. He said I want to sit down with you, have a cup of coffee. And I'm sitting with coffee, he goes do you have health insurance? I go would you get to break my knees? You're going to kill me. What's going on? He goes I want to offer you a job. Oh, ok, that's different. Ok, he goes. Actually, he led with this. Used to work with my daughter, amy, at the Tri-City Weekly Paper. I go yeah, I was like Amy, really nice gal. And he got to you. And he goes do you have health insurance? Got the wrong guy, mister. He goes no, I want to hire you, I want to give you a job offer. It was kind of funny, anyway, so that you got hired as the director.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, ceo. Yeah, how long ago was that?
Speaker 2:About six years ago.
Speaker 1:What's the hardest and the most loveliest part of that job.
Speaker 2:I guess it depends on what kind of hard. The hardest part emotionally, the hardest part is seeing people that you invest in, seeing them make bad decisions, people that you love, because that eventually happens. You fall in love with these students and you see them, you see the potential, you see just what amazing gifts and skills and neat people they are. And then they're like I think I'm gonna go back to where I came from and I'm gonna take my old job and move in with my old roommate and it's like that's not a really good idea yeah, not for you, but you're an adult and you can't tell them no. And watching people relapse I mean, we've had deaths, we've had you name it. We've been through the pain of losing people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it hurts because it was real.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the love was there.
Speaker 2:Because you care.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's probably the hardest part of it Big paradox, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It is. It's one of those that has a lot of. Pastor Bethany talks about tension. Yeah, that's a tension point. There you go, ah, love you. And now, why did you die?
Speaker 2:Yes. So, At the same time, I truly believe if you don't care when somebody leaves, then you failed, Didn't do it. Yeah, you haven't connected, you haven't made the relationship.
Speaker 1:So it is. I agree. Yeah, it's a hard one. It's hard to do that.
Speaker 2:You know other hard parts the racing funds isn't really easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's not really fun either.
Speaker 1:Well, it's humboldt or anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say humble is probably one of the most generous, small business minded communities that I've ever seen in my entire life. Yeah, I think we have it easier than San Francisco.
Speaker 1:People repeat that again and again for such a small area and Humboldt County, it's right over here, it's in Northern California which is on the West Coast. We're not quite the most Northern County but we're right below Del Norte County and this county seat is here. And you're right. I think there's ample proof of our giving nature.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the other thing is, if you put a teen challenge with 50 students in a city like San Francisco how many million people live in San Francisco? Yeah, jillian, it's just a drop. Yeah, and if you put a program like teen challenge with 50 people in Humboldt County, it's a lot bigger than a drop.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I think our impact in the community is bigger. But people see what we're doing and we have. We do an annual banquet in September and probably half of our money is just donated. Phone calls to Scott Ham and State Farm hey, do you want to make a donation to our banquet? I mean every one of these little small maw and paw shops that we're plugging. They donate, sure, and they donate baskets of stuff. All the banks, all the credit unions.
Speaker 1:Buy a table, cut a check. Yep, do a thing yeah.
Speaker 2:And they support us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of the churches support us on a monthly basis.
Speaker 1:I debated whether or not to kind of call out Steve Strombeck. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh wait, oops, he is the chairman of our board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he's publicly known to be a fan and a big supporter and I think it's great it is, and we went to your. It was a speaker that you guys sponsored at the Ingemar one morning before COVID, probably six years ago, and he's done a couple of those. They were great. Yeah, just guys that were from out of the area and I can't remember who and exactly what they said, but just the fact that they're behind the program and you all could be too. Yeah, you don't have to, but you get to.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I don't. When people talk about a board, many times they're like oh, that's a boring meeting. You know a board meeting is horrible.
Speaker 1:And board yes. V-o-r-e-d yes.
Speaker 2:Well, some of them deserve it. The Teen Challenge Board is Steve Strombeck, sheriff Billy Hansel, sheriff Pastor John Armand, who is a pastor of the Hoopa, just retired from the Hoopa church. Okay, he's a Native American, he is like a grandfatherly, loving soul. Nice, amazing pastor Rodney Maples, who just retired from Maples Plumbing.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Rodney and then Joel Imley. Her husband is one of the the foreman there at Maples Plumbing and her husband went through the program how about that? And so she's on our board and has a little different view than others who.
Speaker 1:Skin in the game, if you will. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the first board meeting I had ever been to, I was never a CEO of nothing and I was telling about a problem that we had. And Steve looks at me and says, well, what's your solution? I'm like, well, I, I, we need some shipping containers to put some of this stuff in. We need like a portable garage. There you go. So he looked around and he said do we have a motion to approve? Go buy some shipping containers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, so I wrote it down. Next board meeting how many shipping containers did you get? I said I didn't get any. He said, why not you have the checkbook? Go buy some shipping containers and get the job done. Yeah, and they, they truly enabled me in a positive way to get the job done. To go get it done, yeah. And it's just amazing to be a part of an organization where I really feel I have I have a board that has my back.
Speaker 1:And the scale to be flexible and to go. Hey, why haven't you bought the containers? Yeah, they have on sale, down wherever.
Speaker 2:It dawns Rental.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go get some, yep, okay so.
Speaker 2:I mean they are. They are definitely, you know, helping me, preparing me to do the job I have to do. Yeah, I feel they have my back, which is an amazing, that's amazing feeling.
Speaker 1:It's wonderful. And so if I'm a student, I show up? Yeah, I go through some sort of orientation. I'm going to guess. Yeah, let me not guess at it. I'm just going to ask the question, you can fill in the blanks. And then, five days a week, I'm at Bible study from eight to 10. Yep, and then I go to work on the crew, yep, and, and you're, I'm being fed, I'm being. All my needs are met. You got the Bayview hotel, is that the name of it? Yeah, it's the former Bayview. Yep, yep. So that's not a bad facility. That's gorgeous. That's gorgeous. Yeah, is that just the guys, or is it that's just the men? Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then weekends, so evenings we're at services Wednesday, Sunday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sunday morning it's a busy schedule. Yeah, there's not a lot of downfall.
Speaker 1:So people are staying engaged to constantly? Yep, I wouldn't say. I guess there's demands, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's accountability and responsibility. Absolutely, Tell me about that. How does how does that work over a year, over a heart that's been steeped in lunacy and insanity?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if you took like a boot camp, a military boot camp, and you mixed it with a church camp and you put it together, that's kind of what team challenge is I like that?
Speaker 1:Are all the models the same?
Speaker 2:Similar, okay. So it's kind of like a franchise. I don't know if that's really a good word, but yeah, we all produce the same product, but in a little different way.
Speaker 1:Well, there's something that works, so you replicate the recipe.
Speaker 2:So we use team challenge curriculum. So we have their homework.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But each team challenge is required to raise their own funds. So in some of the bigger cities down in Southern California they not during the pandemic but during healthy times they do a lot of door-to-door solicitation. They just say, hey, we're a team challenge, would you give us some money? Yeah, and they go out and they do that. Well, if we sent 50 people throughout Eureka, which we do about once every year or two, you can get every. You can get a door in the morning In about two weeks and I think once you hit a door more than once in a year, you're now annoying people Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think door-to-door is very different today than it was 10 or 15 years ago.
Speaker 1:Don't answer this question, but who are the guys that go door-to-door? Are they in your Anyway?
Speaker 2:They don't come to my house anymore. Yeah. Well, yeah, some people that yeah, but other story but yeah. But some team challenges do that. They do a door-to-door kind of thing asking for money. And we've decided from the very beginning we're just going to be a work program, so we students go out and volunteer and we go out and mow lawns and clean up houses.
Speaker 1:We do have all kinds of work, right, because people call in as if so it's landscaping, yeah, and then some Some cleaning Handy man stuff.
Speaker 2:Not really handy man stuff anymore. We do a lot of cleaning.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So a lot of clean up and mowing and yard work Like carpet cleaning. We used to have a carpet cleaner. It really didn't pay off, so we got rid of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, part of the business model. Yes, yeah. So 12 months later, I start to approach graduation. What?
Speaker 2:happens. Yeah, that's good. That's a good question. It really depends on the individual student. Mm-hmm, I guess it depends on what they want. So we have an exit plan Like what do you want to do?
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Some people want to get to work right away, send money to their kids or take care of their families, and we have a lot of businesses in the community that like to hire our graduates.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I got a list on my desk of just businesses that call and say hey can. I have the next graduate. Can I have a? Wow, you have anybody that's coming up.
Speaker 1:Does anybody say hey, I'd like another year, please?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Is that part of the? Is there exception made to that?
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, we have a program called in apprenticeship. So they finish the year and some people aren't quite ready to go. Or they want a little bit more freedom and a little bit more leadership skills, and so they apply for an apprenticeship which is four months, and so they get one day off a week. They have a little small stipend, so they get a little bit of grocery money or whatever they, so they can walk down to the mall and get some free time.
Speaker 2:And then they also have a little bit more leadership skills, so they're waking people up in the morning and they might have a key to the you know, to the clothing closet or whatever they get, sure, and so that's a four month apprenticeship and then at the end of that, if they're still not sure what they wanna do, teen Challenge runs a Bible school in LA called Teen Challenge Ministry Institute. It's a year long Bible school. It's really hands on. So they go down to Skid Row and they feed people and they go out to churches. I mean, it's a very hands on school and they have a different track. So if you wanna get involved in youth ministry, they plug in with a youth pastor in the community. Where's that based down in LA? It's in Southgate.
Speaker 1:Okay, pretty rough town.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Pretty rough part of town, Although it's all been gentrified so it's probably pretty nice now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's a great school.
Speaker 1:Skid Row is still Skid Row, though it's pretty dark downtown it is there's some bad parts there's a homeless.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's a homeless shelter any longer, but Fred Jordan Mission is on Skid Row.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And some of our students have gone down there and worked at Fred Jordan Mission for TCMI, so the part of their schooling was at Fred Jordan Mission. That's pretty neat, just feeding homeless people. So that's a year long with the idea that when you graduate there if you want a job they will help you. And so we hire a lot of graduates coming out of that school to be our employees to work back up here in Eureka.
Speaker 1:How about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:People that were from here necessarily, or just that wanted to Either way. Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2:We highly encourage our students to do TCMI If they're ministry minded and are interested in working at a teen challenge. It's not guaranteed, but pretty close to guaranteed they can have a job at a teen challenge and we have graduates that went through our program in Texas, oklahoma, new York, florida, here in Eureka all over the place.
Speaker 1:So they can launch from there into some ministry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or another teen challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot. Let's talk about you and your family for a minute. Can we do that? Sure, what do you guys do for fun in Humboldt? Have you got the? Day off oh man, you could do whatever. And here's the car.
Speaker 2:As a family or by myself.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's do both. Let's do the family first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, my family is me and my wife. We've been married 30 years. Okay, congrats.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:She's amazing. Yeah, you married up like a. I married way up. Yeah, yeah, her dad worked at Caltrans in Humboldt here, so you guys met here, then living here, yeah, yeah, in high school or no, I got stationed here in the Coast Guard.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're at Coastie yeah.
Speaker 2:Got stationed at the Air Station in McKinleyville. What year is that? 1990.
Speaker 1:Is Bob Durfee the cap? Then he was. I think he was here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:A little bit after, maybe early or night.
Speaker 2:I was an E4, so we didn't have a whole lot of contact with the captain. Mm-hmm, great guy, so. But yeah, legitator. Yeah, janine and I met at Church of the Highlands how about that? Not even around anymore? No, it's a Pentecostal church, right? Yeah?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But we met there and we've got two boys, peter's still living at home, 26. And Phillip is 23 or 24. Grandparents.
Speaker 1:Not yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not yet. We're waiting for him to get married first.
Speaker 1:Well, Phillip's in Nashville. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And has a girlfriend, has a fiance getting married in October.
Speaker 1:So that's why you're talking about. Earlier. You went back to Tennessee To visit Phillip, yeah, and you found there a lot of kindness there, yeah.
Speaker 2:Tennessee was fun. We had a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of people you know there used to be a left humble. I'm moving to Idaho. Oh goodbye. Now it's like I'm moving to Tennessee. Tennessee is like right there, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, he went during the pandemic hoping to start a music career, and music careers are tough anyway, but during the pandemic was really hard, even harder. Yeah, so he works for Apple Computer and Apple Phones In Nashville, in Nashville, downtown Nashville how? About that Doing great.
Speaker 1:Oh, and the weather's, I'm told, is decent weather. It's not it's not.
Speaker 2:It was chilly. It was no one when we were there.
Speaker 1:But it's not Minnesota, like no. Or Iowa. Yeah, yeah, where I'm from. Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:It was nice. So for a day off, Janine and I will go to the beach. Should we head up to like Patrick's Point? Sure, hey, let me show you where that is.
Speaker 1:Show me where Agate Beach is. So Agate Beach is right up here. Here's Big Lagoon, here's Patrick's, which is now known as Sumig, sumig Village, sumig Village and Sumig, the whole park is Sumig. It's beautiful, I love it, it's gorgeous. And then, right north of that, is Agate Beach. You can walk down and pick up these agates. They're the coolest thing. Yeah, we have a friend that has an aquarium full of collected over the years. Yeah, they're kind of neat rocks because they're translucent. You can see through them. Yeah, it's a great park. I'll frequently take a frequently. I want to more frequently, I agree. Take a half day and just walk and pray and get out of my head and lock the device in the car.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:This has to go. Lock and go for a walk, eat a lunch, take a nap, you know, just chill the heck out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, For my birthday last year, Janine bought me surfer like a surfer booties.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Little neoprene booties, sure, and it goes on when you're agate hunting. It's amazing your feet stay warm, they don't hurt, and you can walk and look for agates for hours the way down to the waterfront. Yeah, and your feet are all wet and you don't care because you got booties on, you've got neoprene.
Speaker 1:That's a secret. It works great. The secret agate hack. Yes, you heard it here first Shabless plug.
Speaker 2:And you can get them at Pacific Outfitters.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, no, there's another one. Yeah, now you can just slip them on. Yeah, yeah, we used to do that Down over. Oh, it's not even on this map, it's 50 feet underground on this map. We'd always wear the neoprene. Yeah, not always. Sometimes we wouldn't wear anything, but yeah, in the wintertime you got to keep that on to stay in the water. So you get a solo day. What are you going to do? I work on the truck.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've got two classic trucks. I got a 1949 Chevy Suburban.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Is that one of the first years? No, they had them back in the 30s. How about that? Yeah, and so I go out, work on the truck and I have a 1970 K5 Blazer. Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:So Big four by yeah.
Speaker 2:Four wheel drive, oh nice. So both of those are a continual work. And so, yeah, I pulled the head off of the Suburban. It was not running real good and kind of blown head gasket. So that's my next free day. Yeah, it's going to go out and finish putting the head back together.
Speaker 1:Can you find parts for those pretty easy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, I wouldn't say easy.
Speaker 1:My son does internationals. He's got a scout oh nice he rebuilt a whole scout. He's got a couple of old trucks, the old like mater truck from yeah From cars and a Disney movie, and then he's got a what's the big one, the Carioll, the international.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with the benches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it looks just like my Suburban, but it's international.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are pretty big deal of the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of kids in Iowa, had families had those back in 60s. Yeah yeah, that was a neat car, so you just go take a round on the rigs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was my dad's truck when I was a kid. How about that?
Speaker 1:So so there's therapy in that.
Speaker 2:There is, there's a lot of therapy in there so, and it's fun for me so, but I've painted them both, you know, pulled them all apart, put them back together.
Speaker 1:So you're giving a big gift certificate. Where do you go to eat when you guys would eat out? Where would you?
Speaker 2:Oh man, we went to Sea Grill the other day, pretty good. So you give us a gift certificate to Sea Grill Nice. I think that's the best restaurant in.
Speaker 1:Eureka, still real good. Yeah, I have an eight there in a minute. I think it's Excellent. So my $2 question and nobody's answered that Do they have the salad bar, cause the salad bar was the most fresh sell? I mean amazing, and I think before during COVID, when it went away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think it. They brought a salad to our table when we went through last time.
Speaker 1:Other foods. Their service is nice.
Speaker 2:And it's fresh.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We don't get to go there very often cause it's a little on the spendy side.
Speaker 1:That's why it makes it special.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got to go to waterfront the other day and had some snapper and I forgot how good, how good fish is, fresh fish, yeah, you know just like. Oh my gosh, this is magical. Yeah, so tell me more about you. What about me? Yeah, who, let's? I'll give you my two question test. Yeah, okay, let's get the bell. All right, tom Throssell, who are you and what do you want? Oh, that's it. So Jody's father, who's passed away, recovering alcoholic, and I always had the witty, the witticisms of the a culture you know a couple of. Don't go to your mind alone. It's a terrible place that you know. There's a couple of funny ones. Anywhere, anywhere in the world is within walking distance if you have enough time, it's true. And the other one is who are you? If you could answer who are you and what do you want? You're kind of you got to start. Yeah, to some of the answers. So who is Tom Throssell?
Speaker 2:That's a really hard question, Cause I don't I don't.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're a mechanic, I know that much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I call people I use the word knucklehead a lot, so I think I'm a knucklehead. Okay, you know, just a knucklehead mechanic, that's all right. Who loves the Lord, loves Jesus Good and loves my family.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I think I'm a pretty sensitive guy. Mm-hmm, yeah, I don't know. I watched a lot of your podcasts, oh, did you? And you asked that question a lot Like who are you? It's been a. It's been a minute since I've asked it. I was saving it for you. I think it's a hard question because it's a deep question. It's an evolving question. I'm a dad, I'm a husband.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a cousin. Sure, I'm a boss, I'm an employee, ceo, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're a board member.
Speaker 2:Crazy story is I'm a pastor, oh wow, and yeah, I never thought I'd be here From.
Speaker 1:Moody, or from Arcada. First From Eurekafer. Eurekafer, sorry, yeah, yeah, is that a Southern Baptist convention? American Baptist, okay, I know it well. Yeah, yeah, we were part of Church of the Light in McKinleyville for many years Okay. Which was ABC, as is Arcada, first Baptist.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And they're just a little different from our Southern Baptist friends. They are yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I have a friend here in town who said the first time that I met him I shook his hand and I said hi, my name's Tom and I'm a Baptist. And I don't think that's true, because I don't typically like labels like I don't want to be labeled, right. So, he always jokes. So when he introduces me, he said here, this is my friend Tom the Baptist, Tom the Baptist, so that's how he introduces me on the top Tom the. Baptist.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's good. So, yeah, I don't see many people would lead with that, so you were ordained at Eureka.
Speaker 2:Baptist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how about that? So are you the head pastor there?
Speaker 2:I'm the interim pastor, okay.
Speaker 1:So who went before? Who was that?
Speaker 2:Young guy named Steve Fedders. He was there for a couple of months, and then before that, pastor Cassie Weiland was there for 22 years. How about that? She retired and so we're looking.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about girl pastors for a minute.
Speaker 2:You put me on the spot.
Speaker 1:No, he could put me on the spot. My pastor Bethany is wonderful. Yeah, I called her yesterday and I felt impressed to do this. I said listen. What did I say? I said I really appreciate the fact that you listen to God and take time at your sermons, your messages, your heart toward the people at catalyst in Arcada Arcada's right up here.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You love people and we love you, and I speak for Joni and I and we adore you and we think you're terrific and have a great day. And she was like oh, you know, she's like blew her mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm really glad I said that I took the time to be kind yeah, felt to do it and acted on it. Is that impulsive? Joni goes, you're kind of impulsive, I go if I don't do it now, I probably will not do it. Sure, it was time.
Speaker 2:Is impulsive always bad.
Speaker 1:I don't think it is Spontaneous, impulsive. It could be, but it's not. No, I agree. Yeah, I agree with that point. So who are you? You've told me that. So what do you want for life? Humble, ministry, earth, god, routine, challenge, sure, humble, did I say humble?
Speaker 2:Yeah, humble. What do I want for humble?
Speaker 1:What do you want?
Speaker 2:I feel like I'm on a beauty pageant. Don't worry, what do you want? World peace, world peace, world peace.
Speaker 1:I do too. Now it's world peace, world peace, that's a bumper sticker, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've seen that. It's a joke. If you anyway, I mean if you're talking like philosophical Sure, yeah, I get to run the digital billboard for teen challenge down there on Broadway. Yeah, I just saw that, and so the other day I put one up. I don't know if you saw the movie the Green Mile.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The one of the main characters says I'm tired boss.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm tired of people being mean to each other.
Speaker 1:Michael, the big man of color that he's such he just died a couple of years ago. Great guy, good actor, great actor, michael Davis. Nick will look it up and tell us.
Speaker 2:But his character said I'm tired of people being mean to each other, I'm just tired of that and I hear of stuff in our community.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I'm just tired of people being mean to one another.
Speaker 1:Oh, man and our.
Speaker 2:George Pirates and thieves and cars and house burglaries. Vicious yeah, you know people punching each other at the mall or whatever Wow. So, yeah, I would like people to be nice to one another.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that goes national yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not just our community.
Speaker 1:No, it's international.
Speaker 2:But when you live here, it's more personal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:Somebody steals your catalytic converter. It's personal, it is, that's right. And yeah, what do I want? I want people to be nice to one another. I like it, and I think that really goes back to what you were talking about with your pastor too, mm-hmm. Yeah, you just want people to be nice to her.
Speaker 1:She's great, she's you know if we can learn some compassion, some manners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, manners, how about just an open mind. Not ask anybody to do heroin, just hey, we have a female pastor and her husband's a pastor. They co-pastor. Yeah, she teaches sometimes she's amazing. Oh well, I'm gonna narrate that for you. Well, no, thank you. Why don't you come and hang out? And you know, listen and actually listen, and you know that can't happen because we're busy not being nice. Yeah, and sadly, sometimes they're not nice in church, which is sad for our team, it's true, because we were the same jersey, same color. It is. We're all Niners around. No, okay, sorry, niners fans, chiefs, it just happened. Yeah, it was a great, great game.
Speaker 1:My cousin, jeremy, who lives in Kansas City, called me at 10 o'clock last night. Usually Jeremy's hammered drunk when I get that call, but I took the call and he goes and he was stone sober and he goes, kind of what you just said he goes. I can't believe because of the shootings last night and yesterday in Union Station, kansas City. I guess it was post parade. They were having their team Super Bowl parade and some of you who shot some folks downtown the train station, yeah, do I have that right? Did you hear that? I think, yeah, game violence is what they're saying now. Is that what they're saying now?
Speaker 2:But just the Bill. Can we be nice to one another man?
Speaker 1:it's like yeah same. And he was just beside himself. I said you know, some of these things are better slept on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, thanks, I'll call him on my way home. Thank you, yeah, check in on him. Yeah, check in on him. Yeah, I like that. Let's be nice to each other.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what I want you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. So my dad, bob, was a World War II vet, drank for 40 years, got sober in 73, and stayed sober until he died in 04. And he was not a good salesman but a great salesman. He was just a sweet guy and he never owned property. His name was Bob SOB, sweet old Bob. He's just one of the guys you'd see at a fellowship that just loved everybody and he's hugger. He told me he goes. You know, adults are just big kids and kids remember little acts of unkindness or flickings, if you will, sure, and he goes. Kids register that he goes. They also register kindness and he goes.
Speaker 1:Scott, it costs nothing to be kind to people, you know, to the receptionists, to the fast food guy, to the guy, to the gal, to the whomever. Yeah, hey, you know how's your day going. You know, is it really that hard to engage somebody? It'd be halfway nice and go. Hey, appreciate it. All you guys do around here. Great job, you know. So to your point, yeah, I like that. Well, I'll ask you if you've seen my podcast, you're ready for this one. So, tom, what do you want it to say on the Tom Thrustle gravestone? You can etch that in right now, or at least pencil it in. What do you envision that saying about who you are, what you've done?
Speaker 2:That's a good question too. Maybe I didn't watch enough of your podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you didn't watch the end. I usually save that for the end, so I'm not sure you know my grandmother's tombstone.
Speaker 2:we put God, family and country.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And I think that really reflected who she was. She loved her. She loved the Lord. Maybe to know, is God family and nature? Nature in that order. Yeah, in that order. I like that, yeah, my grandmother was the one. They had homesteaded property and my dad would go up as a kid with all the brothers and sisters and cousins and everybody and she would take all the kids for the summer no electricity, no, nothing out in the middle of the woods. Where's this at? Up in Amador County outside of Sacramento.
Speaker 1:Way out there, yep.
Speaker 2:And my parents still live on that property.
Speaker 1:So the kids all go to Granny's house for summer.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't even her house, it was the upper ranch and so she would watch the kids all summer and they'd be playing in the pond and just, but she'd go out and pick berries and make pie and pick apples and she loved God and she loved her family and she loved nature. Is she buried out there In that area? Yeah, how about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good legacy. I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I want to be known for. I love God, love my family. I'm not maybe trucks more than nature.
Speaker 1:Trucks are sort of part of nature. Shedding trucks Until they decompose and they're part of nature again. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:I'm not against nature, but just yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you got grandfatherhood ahead of you too. That's going to be fun. Yeah, I'm no expert, but I enjoy these guys, and they're more interesting when they're not this, but when they're older and they talk, yeah, and they're gaugeable. They're ice cream grandpa, oh, that's good. Yeah, dq Dairy Queen. Okay, where are we going? Dax, hey, dq, dq Dairy Queen. Grandpa, I go. You got it, bro. Where do you go to Dairy Queen? There's one up in Medford, okay. So we have a bunch of grandkids up in Rogue Valley and then couple in Four Up in Boise, okay, and to an Amsterdam, that's let me show you Amsterdam on the map.
Speaker 1:Wow, you have a magic map. Yeah, you got to go all the way through the earth to hit Amsterdam. Think of it as a big 3D map. It's a long flight. Yeah, it's 10 hours from us. 12, 11 from SFO.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:And as ADD guys, it's just a rough way to go, bro. So.
Speaker 2:Better than the drive, though.
Speaker 1:Better. It beats the heck out of the drive. Yes, it does. It's a long drive, it turns out. The Atlantic highway is treacherous, but it's kind of cool. You leave it two in the afternoon in SFO and you're there at nine in the morning. We've mastered the trains. You can train everywhere, and everybody in Amsterdam rides a bike, it seems like, or in Netherlands. It's really kind of an interesting experience. It's a very you've been out of culture, out of state, so you know what it's like. People are different, they think different, they're very unengaging. It's like you walk straight ahead, but once talked to and shown kindness, your words, it's interesting. There's a transformation, there's an engagement and a connection and yeah, oh yeah, I can help you. You take the next train through Rotterdam and blah, blah, blah and it's like, oh, now it's my new best friend.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's just a very different experience. So what do you see for Humboldt County coming up in terms of hopeful signs? What do you think our biggest challenges are besides teen and Redwood teen and adult challenges?
Speaker 2:I think, getting along. I think we're divided, not just Humboldt County but across the nation. I think political lines have really divided us and I think if we can just get together and agree on some stuff, I think we could go a lot further than we could divided yeah.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. I see that in Congress.
Speaker 2:I think if we could put our politics behind us or beside us and say, hey, we've got a goal of fixing these roads up, let's do it.
Speaker 1:As opposed to battling one another? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know I saw you had Brian Hall on here yesterday. Yeah, Not uncommon for me to call Brian. Hey, I got this guy. He's just doesn't want to be here, he's interested in another program, but you want him. He's like yeah, bring him on down, how about that Mountain of Mercy. I don't know if you ever heard of that program that's out in Honeydew. You want to find Honeydew?
Speaker 1:on the map I do. Let me show you where Honeydew is. I know exactly where Honeydew is. It's right down, well, it's way down here. It's down off on the road to Petrolia, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a ministry that is based in Honeydew. I've heard of it Mountain of Mercy. Is it for women? Women and men? It's a recovery program very similar to what we do, but they're out in the mountains, they pray and say God, we're hungry and God provides them dinner. It is an amazing ministry. We'll call them.
Speaker 1:Was the one guy that the pastor there. He was involved. There he came and he memorizes like the book of Romans or Revelation. He came to a men's conference that used to be gosh you talk about old age now Remember the famous men's conferences that were big in the 90s. They did a small one at Humboldt, but it's not Richard Paradise, but he actually could recite entire books from and dramatically, and apparently the guy's. But I thought he was associated with that at one point. He might be, I'm not sure, and I thought at one point it was a pregnant women's ministry too, but maybe I'm dating information here.
Speaker 2:But whatever, so they pray and. God provides food, yeah, but the reason I bring up these other ministries is because, working together, we can do more than we can by ourselves. Great point. So, bob, down at Free Meal, down at St Vincent de Paul, he'll call and say hey, we gota bunch of bananas down here, come down and get them. Feed your guys Nice. And so it's pretty common for us to share food back and forth.
Speaker 1:Would the food bank be part of your world at all? Yeah, okay. Yeah, so that's pretty normal for us to work together, certainly EPD and Captain Stevens. Yep, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:I think if we work together, even with people we disagree with, I love it. I think that's really the key to Humboldt County moving forward, like getting the help that we need. I mean, I don't know if people see the homeless People walking on the streets and sleeping in doorways and all that. I see it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the only way we're going to do it is working together. Yeah, and this group and that group and these groups all are doing this different things Betty Chen Orn each other. Yeah, it'll never happen. Right, the problem will continue. I like it, but we got to work together.
Speaker 1:Let's think about how we can do that.
Speaker 2:I like it hey.
Speaker 1:thanks for coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it, tom, and wish you all the best. Hey, how about some shameless plugs? More just a website address? If I wanted to hit Teen Challenge with a hundred bucks today, how would I do that?
Speaker 2:The easiest ways goes to redwoodteenschallengecom Okay.
Speaker 1:RedwoodTCcom. Redwoodtccom. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yep, you can give through PayPal right there on our website. Make it easy for me Super easy Donate directly Yep.
Speaker 1:And how about if we want to get involved on Wednesday night? Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We're going to the Baptist Baptist Church on Del Norte Street in Eureka.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd love to meet nicer students. Come down and meet us.
Speaker 2:So we're actually doing our annual graduation. Students come in every day all year long and when they finish their year we have a special ceremony. You got to see Jeffrey Cron's graduation there at the church. So when their 12 months is up, we bring them up on stage and just pray a blessing over them. We want people to leave with a blessing, that's awesome, so they're staggered.
Speaker 1:So it's depending on my start date.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so we tell people don't leave until you have the blessing.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And so I want people to leave with a blessing instead of jumping out the back window and hike. I can run it down the street that happens sometimes, sure, but we want you to leave with the blessing. And so, when people finish the year, we call them up on stage, we pray over them and we bless them, and then, once a year, we do like a corporate graduation for everybody who's finished in the past 12 months Still around or Still around and that's coming up March 9th.
Speaker 1:So that's, next month.
Speaker 2:Okay, is that on a Wednesday night? No, it's a.
Speaker 1:Saturday morning.
Speaker 2:Saturday morning service At 11 o'clock, march 9th, march 9th, at the Men's House, which is the Bayview Motel, up there on Fairfield Street, gotcha, okay, and so if you ever want a tour of the place and see what the new kitchen looks like and just kind of get an idea of what day to day life for a student looks like, give you a call. Yeah, absolutely. Or come by the Men's Center, just swing by.
Speaker 1:RedwoodTCcom, yep, and so we could donate there. We can get location emails, phone numbers the whole night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have people donate cars all the time too Nice.
Speaker 1:Do you know any mechanics? Not really.
Speaker 2:The problem is I'm getting so busy I don't really have a whole lot of time for the cars anymore. Right, you're being CEO, I got it, yeah, so you gotta train somebody up. Couple somebody we do. We do have a pretty good mechanic right now who works on our cars. How many rigs are there?
Speaker 1:About 20. Wow, that's still full time. Yeah, that's great. Thanks for coming. Bless you, guys, and just let's figure out how to work together. Yeah, all right, thanks for coming.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks for having me All right.