Welcome Home. Here, Us, Now.
A space for all of us seeking what's real and sacred in a world that rushes past the soul.
Welcome Home. Here, Us, Now.
Charles Wolford -- Running With Patience
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President and CEO Charles Wolford tells about the path he took -- and how he ran some of it.
Welcome And Mission Context
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Welcome Home here, Us, Now. This is a podcast of the Union Gospel Mission, Terran County. I am your co-host, Eric Engelman. I'm a volunteer here, and I preach. This is the fourth podcast that we've made, and in previous episodes, we've talked to Don Schissler. Don Schissler is the CEO Emeritus and is completing his succession of being the CEO at Union Gospel Mission in Tarrant County. It's been around for 135 years, I believe. 37. 37. And that was the voice of the current CEO, Charles Wolford, also my co-host here at Welcome Home Hear Us Now. Hello, Charles Wolford, sir.
SPEAKER_01Hello, my friend and brother Eric. Good to be here with you at home with this podcast.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And I want to thank our listeners for considering us as their home, letting our words have a home in their heart, and may we all have a home for Jesus' words in ours. Let's talk with Charles Wolford about a little bit of the past, a little bit of the present, and uh what we can see, at least in the principles and the kingdom of God, about the future. Charles, I have studied a little bit. I've being around you, I just have picked picked up uh various details about you. You have been ministering while around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for a long time. I'm trying to remember the name of another homeless shelter that you were at at Dallas that doesn't come to mind right now.
Why “Welcome Home” Matters
SPEAKER_01But yeah, no worries. It's it's Dallas and the DFW area has been home for me for some time. So I've had the great pleasure of being a part of a number of different communities. Uh the one you're reaching back for maybe an organization called Promise House.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Here you go. And have had the great pleasure of serving in a number of different capacities for uh right at about 37 years of my journey in in the area of uh of homelessness. And just in sitting and having the conversations with you, Eric, and the dialogue that we've been able to have with Don, this idea of birthing a podcast for us uh with the banner of welcome home really speaks to the reason why I've felt God has called me to this place and space to work in the area of homelessness. Uh, our tagline that we've really wrestled with right now is a space where we seek the real, what is sacred in a world that oftentimes rushes past the soul. So when you think that thought is we pull it apart, welcome home is an idea that everybody wants to feel like they belong. I don't know if you remember back in the day there was a a sitcom that was called Cheers. And uh Cheers was based upon a uh a look a Boston bar where you would have the locals who would gather and and individuals would be there in and out. And what was true to form when they would open up the episode, or there would be moments, there was a character by the name of Norm that when he would come in, everybody would call his name Norm. And their tagline spoke to that fact that someone knows their name. They know your name. They know your name. And what I have found in the place and spaces of working in the communities that I've had the great fortune of. I've worked in Dallas and here in Fort Worth, I've worked in Plano and in Anna, and I've had the great fortune of working in places like Wichita, Kansas, and Dayton, Ohio. Wow. And clearly, Eric, what my determination is most of us in our humanity, when we stop and press the pause button, we all want somebody to know our name. Yeah. We want someone that when we show up, when we come into a place in a space that there's familiarity, it's nothing worse than someone to pass by you and the and and the the the person that you are not to be heard, not to be seen and recognized. And so God has been good to me and that I've been a part of some amazing organizations. And when we distill the idea of homelessness, we get to the bare bones of the fact that most of us in our journey, in this walk that we call life, want to find a place where somebody knows our name.
SPEAKER_00In addition, yeah, people knew my name, but the stuff attached to that name was was not very welcoming. That's a whole different story. Yes, that's a different podcast.
Belonging And Being Known By Name
SPEAKER_01But I love that thought. Yeah. And there's no greater achievement that we all would be able to have, and that is the familiarity in having a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. To your point, Eric, is if we can help establish a person's connection with God, Jesus Christ is Lord, and they know his name, but more importantly, that he knows their name is a triumphant goal that we all can achieve. And so that's that's greater because there's gonna be a moment that all of us will have to reconcile in Revelation where the word clearly says that uh we hope and pray that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and we want our names to be called. So absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So I'm going back to some of my notes here. We need to talk, I think, a little more about your path. What is it about the homeless ministry? Tell me a little bit about this focus that you've had for decades.
SPEAKER_01I think it birthed out of a calling that I've had going through life's journey as maybe a young man, and we regularly as a child moved from place to place. In my journey, I would consider myself a vagabond, to be quite honest. And I don't feel myself a whole lot different than a lot of people that I've come into contact with, and in that, you know, early on in my life's journey, my family moved a lot because of the family dynamic. There was disruptions in a place that I would call home. So it was not uncommon to go from house to house, place to place, couch to couch, floor to floor. And the belonging is not always as much as the place, but the people that were there. Because we had moments in our journey where we stayed in shelters and stayed in people's garages or homes or whatever that may have been, but the consistency was that I had family and they knew my name. And I did not have moments where, to be quite honest, I considered myself homeless. Not at one time. It was not a framework in my head because the the space that my mother and my siblings provided for me was a place of comfort, and that's home for me. And it's less of a location as it is an environment that's created by the people who are around you. And so my journey throughout life is I don't want to pass by people's souls because they can be out on the street corner living in an alleyway. The home that resides within them is being able to connect with somebody that sees them and hears them and feel a space and place. And so it's foreign to many people that may see one of our neighbors out on the street and say, Why won't they go home? Or why won't they come in? Well, to them, home may be that resident environment of another person that they connect with out on the street. And they f they have found home because guess what? Somebody knows their name, someone sees them, hears them, invalidates them. So my journey as a homeless service provider, as a practitioner of the unhoused comes out of place where I want to continue to draw attention to the fact that there's no greater joy than when people are excited to see you come and hate to see you leave. Wow. There's a home that there's a resonance in that. And the more that we can bring light to that and attention to our journey, that people want to belong, Eric. People want to belong. There's the opportunity that God gives us this space and place to do that. And so I've dedicated my life to that and connecting with individuals. Organizations have given me the platform to do that, but the undergirding of those discussions for me is you know being able to find a friendship with someone and that they find a place to belong.
Charles’s Early Life And Calling
SPEAKER_00So somewhere in that path, in addition to having a family, somewhere you mentioned Jesus. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Can you tell me a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Um I developed an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ as a teenager. My parents had in and out experiences with churches because we moved so much. There were places where we went and worshipped, there were opportunities to be introduced to church, but not until I was at a revival being done by Reverend Heel at a church called Grant Chapel AME Church in Wichita, Kansas. In that moment where I realized I was a vagabond, but I was a wanderer, my soul was wandering. I did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And that revival is when I made the declaration when I fulfilled Romans 10 and 9, where I confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart that Jesus Christ was Lord. My life was forever different because then it cemented this relationship where I belonged in the economy that God has created for me in being a part of his kingdom. And so that really pole vaulted me in my relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord. And from that, he has continued to give guidance and directions to me, and I'm so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00Wow. I'm putting some other dots together of things that I know about you. I know you're a runner. And I know that sometimes you like to run just to get to know your city.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's a sweet thing.
SPEAKER_01Man, it is sweet. I love the city of Fort Worth. If you've never had an opportunity to walk, run just some of the places that are downtown. Downtown Fort Worth to me is just an amazing place to get to know a community and get to know your neighbors. So being able to walk downtown, run downtown and see the city when it's quiet, it's a beautiful space and place to do that. But to see it full during the daytime is is another experience. So part of running and walking in the morning, I do it for health reasons, of course, and health and wellness, but it also gives me a familiarity where you see how the city lives and breathes when everything's a steel and there's not a whole lot of movement there. And so I take great joy of doing that every morning.
SPEAKER_00I'd hook around and take Lancaster Avenue and uh once in a while be present enough to pray for my brothers and sisters on Lancaster Avenue.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell There's a natural rhythm that happens in our community where we see and get a chance to feel the community that is is alive and and and breathing because there's the every morning when I go by running or walking, you know, I get a chance to walk by the YMCA and consistently. I see some of the same unsheltered neighbors that are on the stoop, that are waiting for an opportunity to go in. Maybe they're gonna go get a shower or sit there and have a place to belong. You see that. Go down Lamar, go to Throckmorton and go to 7th Street, go to 3rd Street, get to the library, they're off of 3rd Street. You see individuals hunkering down in their places where that's that's that's home for them currently. And you see that over and over again, whether you're going across um the Sundance Plaza or at Burnett Park, uh, wherever that may be, there's many of our neighbors that are sleeping on um the ground or on a stoop. And um I'm I'm going back to this thought, Eric, is getting to know their names is something big. And it doesn't have to mean a whole lot, but there's this now familiarity that we see each other and there's a connection. And not just walking past them, but they we now see each other. They see me, I see them. And there's a rhythm that happens, and now there's almost an expectation that, oh, I didn't what happened to you yesterday, Charles? I did not see you. So there that there's a pause. Hey man, what happened to you? I did not see you. So we look for each other, and now there's a community that's being gathered. And I share this story regularly that sometimes you don't know, we don't know when and where that connection may happen. And through my walking, through my running, there's a lot of people who I've become familiar with, and it may have not been the first time that we've connected, but maybe a month or two months later, as I get a chance to know them, it's offered an opportunity for them to come in to UGM because I became familiar with them. I knew their name and not forcing a placement upon them, but giving them an opportunity to share their story and to be known and be seen by someone. So that that I enjoyed doing that and running and walking in community.
SPEAKER_00Well, Dr. Charles, we've talked a little bit about the past and running around. I'll call that the present. Um what about the future? Yeah, yeah.
Faith Journey And Commitment To Service
Running The City To Know Neighbors
SPEAKER_01Um let me build on the conversation of being a runner. I was a track stir, not a track star. Uh when I ran track in I was a runner, I've been a runner, middle school, high school, ran on the track team, ran track at Wichita State University, and um running has provided a great outlet for me in places and spaces. And you hear this phrase that um this life, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. But what I learned, I'm a sprinter, and I love to run. I love to sprint. So what is the race to a sprinter who loves to sprint? And the danger in that is you don't always put sprinters in marathons because that may not be the best race for them. So as a sprinter, I've learned to adapt and adjust my running cadence to the race that I've been called to run and learning how to pace myself and learning how to be in the race that God has called us to run and learning the adaptability of that. And so, in doing so, the future of UGM, I've entered into this race. UGM has been around for 137 years, and great leaders like Don Schisler and Don, who is before him, and so many of the individuals who have passed the baton to me, I am so grateful that God has granted me this opportunity to do that. And it's afforded me to come alongside in a relay with individuals like you, Eric. I get a chance to run with you, and we we pass the baton back and forth, whether be it I see you in chapel or you do the podcast with me, whether I see other individuals who are in the kitchen, we all simultaneously, we're on the same relay team, and we are trying to run this race together. And the cadence and the pace is appropriate for each and every one of us as we get connected. So the future of UGM is inviting so many of our neighbors to run this race with us, to come and get on the team, suit up, put your, lace up your track shoes, the Teddy Runners, and get involved in the race with us. Because there's so many of people who are sitting in the stands who don't want to get involved in the race, because they may say, Charles, I'm not a runner. Well, we have a place and space for you. You could be a walker, you can get in and you can become connected. So, our future at UGM, uh, because we have this beautiful neighborhood called Fort Worth, called Terran County. So many of our neighbors are on the streets right now. 2,700 to be exact. The annual point in time count last year recorded 2,700 individuals that are unhoused. The goal that we have at UGM is to eradicate that. And the way that we do it is each and every one of us lace up, let's get involved, and let's run together. And let's run and let's walk at a pace such that we can help individuals who are outside of the race get back involved, get and find a place to belong. And so we're going to do that in a number of different ways. We're creating a welcome center. We're recalibrating our programs to be able to find spaces and places for individuals that are 55 and older, for our veterans, to our young people. Uh, veterans and seniors are some of the fastest growing of our unhoused. We're learning a lot uh about the the 18 to 24 year old. We have more 18-year-olds today than we've ever had before. Something's happening in our community uh with the um deterioration of job core. Many young people don't have a place to go. So we have a challenge before us. Our future is bright, but the reality is that more and more people are finding themselves unhoused. And so we're excited about finding a new way to help our neighbors who are unhoused belong and find a place.
SPEAKER_00Dr. Charles Wolford, CEO of Union Gospel Mission in Tarrant County. Thank you for the honor of letting me be a volunteer co-host.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you so much for your time. It's an honor to um co-host this podcast with you. Thank you for making yourself available. There's nothing like feeling like you're at home, and I feel at home with you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Well, praise God, and may we do something a little different so that the winds that blow past the soul don't howl quite so hard. Amen. Amen.
