July 30, 2025 • 36 mins
In today's episode, Kathryn interviews Laura Bullock, the Executive Director of Vigilant Hope. They discuss the organization's mission to empower the North and South Side community of Wilmington through grassroots initiatives and relational support. Laura shares insights on Christian Community Development, the importance of listening to community needs, and the impact of proximity in effective community work. They also reflect on their recent trip to Chicago, where they learned from the Lawndale Community Church and the significance of language and making people feel seen. The conversation emphasizes the power of community, mutual support, and the importance of taking small, actionable steps to make a big difference!
00:00 Introduction to Vigilant Hope and Laura Bullock
03:07 Understanding Christian Community Development
05:48 The Impact of Proximity in Community Work
09:00 Lessons from Lawndale Community Church
11:47 The Importance of Listening and Relationship Building
14:59 Language Matters: The Shift from Homeless to Unhoused
17:46 The Power of Community and Mutual Support
20:51 How to Get Involved with Vigilant Hope
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Kathryn @kathryn_benko
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Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and WATCH all episodes!
Follow Laura on Instagram: @lifewithlaurab
Follow Vigilant Hope and The Roastery on Instagram:
@vigilanthope
@vigilanthoperoasting
Get involved or donate at Vigilant Hope HERE!
Sign up for the Sole Online Training App!
Use coupon code 'SOLE20' for 20% off your first month!!
00:00 Introduction to Vigilant Hope and Laura Bullock
03:07 Understanding Christian Community Development
05:48 The Impact of Proximity in Community Work
09:00 Lessons from Lawndale Community Church
11:47 The Importance of Listening and Relationship Building
14:59 Language Matters: The Shift from Homeless to Unhoused
17:46 The Power of Community and Mutual Support
20:51 How to Get Involved with Vigilant Hope
Follow me on Instagram:
Kathryn @kathryn_benko
Heart + Sole @heartandsolepodcast
Sole Fitness @sole_fitness
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and WATCH all episodes!
Follow Laura on Instagram: @lifewithlaurab
Follow Vigilant Hope and The Roastery on Instagram:
@vigilanthope
@vigilanthoperoasting
Get involved or donate at Vigilant Hope HERE!
Sign up for the Sole Online Training App!
Use coupon code 'SOLE20' for 20% off your first month!!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Heart and Soul Podcast with Catherine Banko.
I'm on a mission to celebrate breakthrough, empowerment and shameless
living in the lives of women everywhere. Join me and
let's live unashamed together. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome back to Heart and Soul Podcast today. I am
joined by Laura Bullock. What is your title?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
The executive director of Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I really did ask that where we start recording. She's
the executive director of Vigilant Hope. We are, actually, if
you're watching on YouTube, in the Vigilant Hope headquarters, the
VHQ career and Laura and I kind of just got
to know each other. But Michael has been working part
time for Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
For like, yeah, four months, about four months.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Okay, three or four months and fallen in love with
this ministry, and so we all went A big team
of us went to Chicago last week for a learning trip,
which we'll get into. But I wanted y'all to be
able to get to know Laura. So thank you for
being on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm excited since I don't even know your title, why
don't you start by, I swear to friends, why don't
you start by telling my listeners more about who you
are and what you do here.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah. So, well, my name's Flora. I live here in Wilmington.
I have been the executive director of Vigilant Hope justins January,
so I'm still getting used to that title too. But
I've been with the organization for about nine years now,
and so our work here, we're community based organization, kind
of really grassroots, boots on the ground. We focus on
a specific geographic neighborhood in our city. We call it
(01:37):
the South Side, which is the south side of downtown Wilmington,
a historically neglected community, and really our heart is to
be holistically available and empowering to that community in whatever
way that it needs, based on this season of life.
And so we've done lots of different programs over the years.
We've had community like after school programs in our early days,
(01:58):
We've had community meals. We've run a mobile shower trailer.
You can check out Mobile SHOWERSIOLM dot com, which is
another arm of our work where we send mobile trailers
out into the community for folks who are experiencing homelessness.
We do a lot of being just relationally available to
folks who are experiencing poverty and helping them identify what
it is they want to see happen in their life.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So really, you do, You're not. You can't put vigilant
hope in a box.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We surely do not fit in a box. We are
not a traditional nonprofit for sure, just like you.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Can't put God in a box.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
We went on a trip last week to Chicago and
it was as you would say, would you say packed.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
We maximize, We maximize, maximize every day.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I'm like, would you say tire packed?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, full, over, scheduled. I think someone call it.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We were there three days and we made the most
of it thanks to Laura, and we went and shadowed two,
well three kind of organizations there that are making impact
in their community in the South Side and West Side
of Chicago. But can you start by sharing before we
get into like Lowndale and all that, because that will
(03:10):
be a topic. Can you start by sharing what got
you into this style of mission work and how are
you connected to the organizations that we shadowed in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I would love to talk about that. So there's a
model of ministry called Christian community development that has been
around for really about forty years. Officially, it's a whole network,
so there are folks all over the United States and
really the world that are doing this kind of work.
And so there are eight key components that build up
Christian community development. So it's a really different model from
typical charity because it focuses on empowering the people who
(03:43):
live in the community to know and pursue the health
that they want for their own community, as opposed to
somebody like me, the outsider, coming and telling somebody what
they need or saying let me do this for you,
or let me do this for you every single day
for the rest of your life. It's like, well, what
do you need so that you can be successful?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What do they call it? Like come in and be
like a white savior to like an underprivileged community and
think that like you can come in and just like
write a check or give an idea and then leave
and then that would produce results.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Like it's all relational, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And so I think, you know, we're we're recovering from
you know, some of that bad theology, I would say, ourselves,
and a big part of what Vigilant Hope does is
help people like that want to help, not come in
as the white savior thinking they have all the answers,
but come in curious, come in with and Christian community development.
We always start from listening and being curious and saying
like the person closest to the problem is probably the
(04:37):
one that best understands the solution. And for sure, like
my backgrounds and homelesses in housing and forever, I've been
able to clearly know what needs to happen because the
folks that are my friends on the streets tell me
like they can see, they know what they need. And
so if we listen to people, then we can work
together to build something healthy. Yeah, and it actually gets
people out of poverty instead of holding people in that
(04:58):
same spot forever.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Which was a big theme of what we learned in Chicago.
Listen first. In fact, coach who I'll have you described
said or was it coach or was it the last
guy we saw, I can't remember his name.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Pastor J Maybe now it was one.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Of them said take a year to listen, like a
full year. I can't remember who said it at this point,
but that was the theme of every organization we visited,
I listened to the community, I listened to their needs.
I listened to what they needed, and then I helped
them establish those things in their community. Okay, so what
(05:35):
is your connection to specifically Lawndale Christian Community Church in Landale,
Chicago area and how did we get connected to go
on this trip.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, so I've we as an organization. I've been a
member of the CCDA Christian Community Development Association for a
couple of years now. I sort of stumbled into that
whole community to Northlandale Windale Community Church because it is
sort of the founding space that birthed the network CCDA,
and I found it through searching for higher education programs.
(06:08):
So basically I had been doing urban ministry for ten years.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
And back here through Vision and Hope.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Doing the ministry. Yeah or yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I've been before your full time the nine years before
that's what you were.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So for the last nine years I've been with Vigilant Hope.
I was running our street outreach and our community training.
So like if we came to a church and did
a workshop on how to interact with people experiencing homelessness,
I would be leading that workshop. Hystorically so I'd been
doing the work for a long time, but it was
lonely honestly, like our staff is a really deep community,
but often because we're like, like, I'm this like white
(06:42):
person that's immersed to myself in a predominantly African American community,
and I've been welcomed, but also I'm different. And then
I coming from like the white middle class community, but
living most of my life in other neighborhoods, Now I
don't quite fill at home there anymore either, And so
I was quite honestly feeling isolated and just frustrated. And
(07:02):
also we were like urban ministry is hard, Like the
obstacles were facing are hard, and I was tired of
watching people suffer going I just feel like somebody else
knows how to do as well. So I literally was
like Google searching and I found this master's degree at
Northern Seminary that was called Christian Community Development. I was like,
whatever this is, I want it. And it exposed me
(07:23):
to so coach who you mentioned earlier is the director
of of Well. He was the pastor of Onandale Community Church.
He's the director of my school program. And so I've
gotten this in the last really four years getting to
know him and being mentored by him just been awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, and he was is and was amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
And one thing that really stuck out to me when
we first our first well our first day, I guess
we kind of did like cute see Chicago things. But
then our first full day we did we shadowed the
Lawndale community and mainly Coach was telling us about the
past fifty years of ministry that he has committed to there.
(08:06):
So it's not just like something again the White Savior
Complex where you like go in and like overnight you
like put in programs and like wipe your hands clean
and then go back to living and your beautiful home.
He literally transplanted his life to be relational with this crew.
So I know you can explain it better than me,
but would you mind sharing about what his ministry does.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah? I actually have his like super cool like nineteen
eighties book Real Hope in Chicago. Right, it's got all
these like kids from the eighties.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Onthe you're watching on YouTube, which you should be look
at there screenshot.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Here it is Wayne Gordon is his name. So yeah, Coach,
his story really began. He didn't he wasn't trying to
start this crazy huge ministry or change the narrative of mission.
He was a high school teacher, like fresh out of college,
got a job teaching at Farragut High School, which is
on the West side of Chicago, known for it's like
really considered one of the poorest communities in the United States.
(09:03):
And so he just logically basically was like, I want
to live where my kids live, my students, and so
he moved into the neighborhood, not knowing he literally that
like community he lived in. He was across froom. I
think it was a bar called Bucket of Blood. Like
he had no he was like in the worst part
of the worst part of the neighborhood, you know. And
so but he lived and moved into the community and
(09:25):
just started getting to know people and has really coolst
like his his memoir Real Hope of Chicago. Coach, I'll
take some of those credits please for mid this when
I graduate. You grew my next paper. But yeah, he
like he got married his my fan. They both moved
into the community and they started really and the kids
in his school he was a wrestling coach, and they
(09:45):
kept like losing matches, not because they weren't good, but
because they couldn't like bulk up because he didn't have
a weight room. And so he literally just got a
weight room like some weight equipment, and they had Bible
study and weightlifting, and out of that, the kids were like, Coach, like,
we're reading about church, and we don't want to go
to our grandma's church. But what we read in our
bibles with you, like, we think we are a church,
and we think you're a pastor. And so these teenage kids,
(10:08):
it literally was like a handful of teenagers and like
one neighborhood mother and coach, this white dude from I
don't know, like Iowa that had moved to the west
out of Chicago start this church. And that's the beginning
of Londale Community Church. And over the years, as the
community named what they were struggling with, they they as
a community worked together and as a church to try
(10:29):
to see those things happen. And so they've built you know,
blocks Long Community Health Center that's one of the like,
you know, highest quality health centers in the city. They
have a gym, they have restaurants that have come into
the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
They have I mean, you should just be the recovery center. Yep,
they have the farm, the urban farm.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
They have an urban farm with the botanical gardens they
have They've built hundreds of homes where rehabbed and revitalized
for affordable rentals or for home ownership. So we didn't
even get to see all the houses, but like the
neighborhood has really holistically been transformed, not by Coach, but
really it's by those kids. Like a lot of the
directors of those big programs that we see were like
(11:12):
those kids that were weightlifting in the gym with Coach
fifty years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's what Michael and I kind of came home and
digested or kind of like talked about. Was the thing
that stuck out to us most is you can we
could go on this trip and shadow and we and
it is kind of overwhelming to see, like, oh my gosh,
you have a health center, you have a farm, you
have a recovery center, you have a church, you have
all these things, you have homes and you could you
(11:37):
forget that it took fifty years of cultivating that's right,
So it's like easy for you to like be overwhelmed
by that and be like, oh, I can't do all
that yeah, but really all that happened and the doctor,
another Wayne, the one running the health center, said something
that really stuck out to me the most is like
proximity is key. And so what all it really took
(11:57):
was he was a wrestling coach. He saw they didn't
have weights, and it started with that's right, buying weights correct,
And that's it so simple, It's so simple, like where
are where, who in your life or in your area
and your community has a need that you can meet now,
and then how if it builds, it builds, you know,
and it will build, God will multiply, that's right. And
(12:18):
that was like the coolest part for me to see
is because I'm a doer and I'm a TYPEE. I
like lists, I like I like to check things off,
and so for me, I could have I was getting
kind of over. I'm like, what are we doing when
we come back? But it really it goes like what
can you do right now? And you know that doesn't
mean you have to uproot your life and move into
(12:40):
the south side of your city or the west side
of your city, but what can you do with where
you're at and who you are and what gifts you
have and the resources you have right now for someone
that was the thing that stuck need.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That's so good. We talk a lot here about like that,
just do the next right thing, Like what does it
look like to love the person in front of you?
Do the next right thing and then the next right thing.
And when you hear coach tell his stories and community
members tell their stories in Lawndale, the thing I hear
constantly it is like just the next step of faith,
and it's always small steps. Like occasionally there's the crazy
(13:13):
story of you know, he's like we we had we
wanted to buy that building. It was forty thousand, We
had thirty five in our bank account, so we drained it.
You know, like we have these crazy steps of face story,
but so much of it is just literally being in
relationship with each other and continually taking the next step,
next step, doing the next right thing.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
What about the trip? So you had your staff, which
I am not on staff, so I did not do that.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yet I don't know. I'm trying to recruit. Let's go.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You had your staff keep a journal while we were
there and they had to had to write out what
they saw, what they saw, what they saw, and what
they felt.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Is that right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Hopefully Michael did his homework.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
He did, he was the first one to turn it in.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Oh nice job, boom. And he doesn't listen, but nice job, boom.
If you could share with my listeners your journal quotes
of what you saw and what you thought and what
you felt while we were there, Yeah, would you mind?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Oh man? Okay, So you know, I've gotten to see
these radical spaces before, so this was not a new
experience for me to see it myself. I've had that
first experience where I'm like, how do we you know,
and they just say, like, it's not You don't start
with three hundred homes. You start with one home, right,
you start with one. So I've had time to digest that.
But getting to take my team, I'm a really huge
(14:33):
believer in immersive learning. We have at Vigilant Hope poverty
simulations for people who don't have lived experience with poverty.
We have, you know, immersions where you go grocery shopping
in a neighborhood that's a food desert on foot, so
you learn on a budget, So you put your body
in the place of someone who's living this every day,
because that shapes and reshapes how we It shapes and
(14:55):
reshapes our imagination and our compassion exactly. Yeah, like it
helps us see humans differently. Yeah, and so kind of
taking that same model, I think what I saw was
was so fun for me. My prayer and my hope
is like, God, just open up our imaginations because we're
in this sort of time of retooling and we're going
the needs of our community are changing. We have a
(15:15):
ton of relief work going on in our neighborhood, but
almost nobody's asking the question, like, you know, we're like
pulling bodies out of the river every day, but nobody's
going upstream and saying, who's pushing all these people in
the river. Yeah, so we're kind of doing this like
crazy thing where we're going. What if we went upstream?
What if we started thinking about development, development and opportunity
instead of survival because we believe that this outside is
built for thriving and that God wants them to thrive.
(15:37):
And so anyway, I digress. But so seeing my team,
my prayer was like expand our imaginations and so exactly
like what I saw was my team members who spend
every day being fully available to our community, who is
awesome and hurting. Yeah, be energized by seeing what could be,
(15:58):
and grow hopeful by seeing what could be, and really
just buy into this idea of what if we went upstream,
like what if we started talking about solutions instead of
getting so sucked into survival. And so I think that
that was something that I saw, and it was you know,
like fun as a leader, like I don't forget leaders
that tune in, but like as a team leader. It
(16:21):
also gave me this opportunity like pulling my people out
of our context, putting their bodies in a different context,
and watching how they responded. So, you know, I had
a few people that I kind of I'm like rewriting
their job descriptions a little bit based on how they
responded to what they saw. So I saw people light
up in ways I couldn't mentally get there, So like, oh,
this of course, you know, And now I'm like, well,
(16:41):
of course she should help develop the employability program. Why
didn't I think of that before? Or you know, just
seeing them shine in a different.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Way gifts out of the context of where they've been
and where U seeing them every day. And now that
speaking of like immersing yourself in a community, if you're
listening right now and you've ever been to like a
summer camp where you go in and you know no
one and you leave and you're like weeping because you
(17:09):
can't imagine living life without this person that you just
met five days ago. That's kind of like what I
experienced with Vigil and Hope. So for me, it was like, obviously,
I've heard about Vigil and Hope. I've been to the Roastery,
which is our community coffee shop, which we'll get into
by the way, sipping it right. We have we have drinks, cheers,
(17:30):
and I'm wearing the March, which I've been wearing for
the week straight.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
We got a new shirts today. We'll get you a
fresh shirt.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'm trying to find a parallel here, and I swear
I'll get there. I think summer camp, summer camp. So
we kind of did like a mini summer camp where
we all stay in the same Airbnb and me not
literally not knowing anyone really except my husband and Lauren.
I was like, sure, let's go, and by the end
of it, I'm like walking into the roast come twice
(18:00):
and I'm like, I feel like part of the family.
And it gave me a good picture, like a parallel
of what it likes to like really go into a
space with someone, because that's what coach did, is he
didn't just like get a job at the high school
and then like live fifteen twenty minute miles away. He
moved into the city and that proximity allowed him to
(18:22):
better understand the people. Same with like summer camp. It's
like you don't know this person from Adam, and then
all of a sudden, you've spent five overnights and done
like Bible studies and water events and things with them
and ropes courses, and all of a sudden, like you
trust them with your life. That's what I was trying
to like parallel for just for me, since I don't
I'm not necessarily on the staff, but I know I
(18:42):
can help. Is wow? Like that the proximity word just
keeps sticking out to me, is like if you don't
go into the space, you'll never know one how connected
you might actually be to those people, yes that you've
judged or you've put in a different classes than you
And two you'll never know like the impact you actually
(19:03):
could make or they could make.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
On you exactly, or that you can make together like
I think that's so often. You know, I think about
in the Bible, there's this book called Neamayah, and I'm
like obsessed with Nemai. He was this government worker who
had lived in captivity and he goes back and basically
like he had been like in you know, in Babylon
(19:25):
in the empire system. Right, So he's a government he's
had access education, he's access now. He was like the
food tester guy. So also he risks his life literally
every day, so probably the trauma was high. But you know,
he was also a favored beloved living in the palace
and he goes back to Jerusalem that's like a total
dump at this point with the people who were left
behind because they weren't worth kidnapping, and empowers them to
(19:47):
rebuild their own city. But I think it did take
Neihamiyah and the people that were there that were deemed
undesirable and like working together. So anyway, I think ever
that mutual picture, when we get close to each other,
O there the doors start to open up for what
we could accomplish together and the beauty that can come.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And it's really easy with our busy schedules and our
to do list to not look up and like see
the needs around us to kind of just like go
from one task to the next. Like even if you
just kind of look around, which I've I noticed on
the trip, like how people were not looking at their phones. Yeah,
(20:26):
while we were on the train. Yeah, granted we were
like sitting and it would have been disrespectful to like
pull out our phones because we're sitting.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I had scheduled every second, so there was no.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Granted we had time to give a post. Sorry if
they didn't text you back last week. Yeah, but what
I noticed in our world then we go back into
the world is like I immediately A'm just like scrolling
and looking at my phones. I'm going from one meeting
to the next, and like I don't even sometimes look
up and where I'm at to see what's where the
need is. And that's that's like a huge thing if
you're listening in life, Like if you could just like
(20:57):
look up and see someone and just like meet whatever
need they have or listen to them, like that could
really change the trajectory of that person's day and even
life just because you saw them and notice them.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's so good. And I think that you know that's
where like by all means, I want everybody to come
join us in the inner city. Right, I'm always like,
come be a part of our life. Let's go some
of you. Maybe that's your thing, your next step. But
for like I swear, there's a margin of every community,
Like there's a margin in your church foyer after the service.
Somebody's on the edge and they're not going to be
(21:32):
noticed unless someone notices them. Yeah, at the soccer field
when you take your kids to soccer practice, like where
do you put your soccer tear? Because there might be
maybe it's that mama that doesn't speak super great English,
or you're assuming doesn't speak super great English that's the
only one that's off to the side, or you know,
like there's always a margin of every space. And so
I I I'm learning to ask the question, like, Okay, Lord,
(21:54):
in the morning, open my eyes to see the person.
Maybe it's the person on the street corner and they're
flying the sign and they've had to posture themselves all
day looking pitiful looking, because you're not gonna feel sorry
for them, or you're not gonna help them or invest
in whatever it is they're asking for if they look well.
So they have to look miserable, and like, can you
imagine holding that posture all day so that eye contact
(22:16):
that you know, I'm the Queen of rolling the window down,
And nine times out of ten it's awesome. Every once
in a while I upset someone because it's what they're
asking for, but like nine times out of ten, IM like, hey,
I have no money because I never have anything, you know, like,
but I see you and I hope you get your
need met today, and just that moment of dignity, Like
nine times out of ten, people are like thank you,
like their humanity is honored. And anyway, don't get me
(22:37):
preach in, but it's a eye contacts paying attention to people.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Our church does like these. They put together like ziplocks
of like toilet paper, so snacks things that someone who's
unhouse might need. And so I try and collect a
few at the beginning of the month and then when
I see someone in need, I'll roll down it. And
we actually just did it on Sunday after church. Uh,
(23:01):
I dropped the after church. This is a routine. We're
routine people. Okay, dropped the Michael and William off at
the grocery store and Coke was already asleep in the
back seat, and I drive around till they're on grocery
shopping and then I pick him up. Well, as I'm
doing my laps, there's this guy on the corner at
the grocery store, and I'm like, we need to go
back there when we get back. When I get all
the kids in the corner, So we go back and
(23:24):
we rolled down the window when we hand him his thing,
and we look him in the eye and we're like,
we really hope that God blesses you through this. We
could have just given it to him, thrown it and
like drove off, but then we had to go. It
was kind of awkward. Michael was like, great route, Catherine,
because I like stopped in the parking lot and he
was like on the street, like on the other side,
and I was like, sir, come here, we have something
(23:45):
for you. And then awkward, I pull out and I
have to pass right by him again. Michael's like, you're
so dumb, like we could have just done it right here,
and I was like, I don't know what I was thinking.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I just like and so.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
But but when we drove by him again, he looked
up and he waved and he said thank you, and
I was like, just by someone looking at him like
it gave him the confidence to look up and look
back at someone, because that is a lot of loss
of dignity to be in that vulnerable of a state, truly,
And one thing I love about William speaking on this topic,
my son and kids will do this. You know. Scripture
(24:19):
says have childlike faith, and I truly, since having kids,
get that now because you kind of forget as you
get like pained by the world. But William, anytime he
sees someone on the street, he always says what he
thinks they're feeling. Oh, so I know, it was so sweet.
He'll be like, Mommy, that guy looks really sad, or
(24:42):
that guy looks hungry, and like it's so obvious. But
it's things that we don't even approach out loud because
it just feels uncomfy. Where He's like, got this, Like,
I see a guy who looks sad. What can we
do he's sad? We have turt people and anyways, I
don't know where I'm going, I'm gonna see on but
I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
But I've read that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Childlike faith and look people in the eyes when you're
serving them, because everyone has is created in the image
of God, so they all deserve the dignity to look
look at them, and.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You never know, you listen, never know.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Also, one thing I learned speaking of the unhoused and
word is I didn't know that that was a word,
like in my ignorance, like I didn't know that it
wasn't home. We weren't saying homeless anymore, and we were
saying un housed. And I would like you to better explain.
I ask the question to Coach while we were there,
why do we do this? Just curious, like yeah, Jane,
(25:41):
and he had a really good answer, but I'd like
you to better explain to you work in this.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Sure well, So I think you know, I have kind
of two trains of thought when it comes to language.
We always want to be as respectful as we can,
which is how all these things sort of come up.
And also, like if you talk to people on the streets,
the spectrum of language is all over the I know
all kinds of people who will just write out the
word say I'm homeless or I've been homeless for this long,
(26:05):
and other people would never say it about themselves. So
I think it's kind of like with all language, Like
the goal and the heart of it is just talking
about people with respect in the same way that we
you know, I think people who are or someone who
is or this person by name as opposed to their
situation and circumstance are the most viable things. I think
one of the reasons that we kind of in the
(26:28):
service system have moved away from the word homeless is
number one, there's a massive stigma around it, Like to
the point that even if we're working with a church
that wants to host something that's going to serve people
who are living outdoors, were like, don't say homeless to
your insurance because they'll immediately not cover whatever it is
simply because you said that word. So there's this massive
(26:48):
stigma around homelessness. But the other thing is, you know,
when my friend comes to our community breakfast and eats
breakfast and takes a shower and then goes back to
his tent, he says, I'm going home now. Yeah, people
refer to wherever they're staying often at like they still
have a sense of home. It just happens to be
outdoors or so often there is something a place that
(27:11):
people call home, even if it's not a place that
they want to be their home or that they that
makes them safe or is a place you can actually sleep,
And so, you know, I think that's the main reason,
is the stigma, and then also just really trying to
kind of bust up people's impressions because they immediately their
(27:32):
mindset goes to the person on the corner. But I
would say maybe less than five percent of the people
that I've known over the last fifteen years who have
been unhouse are working a street corner, right, Like, that's
not actually the face of homelessness right now in our city.
You know, over a thousand of the people that entered
the system last year had never been homeless before. Don't
get me on a homelessess intent, but you know, like
(27:54):
it's people that are living like living on grandma's couch
for a couple of nights and then a cousin's and
then aunt, and then a hotel room and then a
car and then back and kind of moving around where
it's people living doubled up. It's people living in their
cars and shelters. Like homelessess looks like so many things
that the picture people get when they hear that word
(28:15):
maybe isn't inaccurate. Right, isn't accurate?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Language and word told a lot of power they do,
and so also identity, like uh, I guess what's the
word U wordshold power? The labels, Yeah, Like, labels can
really like shift someone's identity. And I think maybe you've
been if you're listening, you've probably been called a label
that offended you or made you rethink who you are.
(28:41):
Michael actually really taught me this is you know, even
sometimes you go to church and you hear this verbiage
of like you're just a sinner saved by grace. And
if you want to get Michael actually talking like literally
just talking, just like getting my tangent because he really
rewrote that for me. Is like, if you constantly just
(29:02):
think of yourself as this sinner, not worthy, not worthy,
saved by grace and thank God, which is true, then
you forget all the labels that God calls you and
calls you too, like he calls you righteous, he calls
you sawt in lights that he said on a hill,
chosen his masterpiece as workmanship. I mean all throughout scripture,
he labels you how he sees you.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And so if you go back to the label that
he saved you from and you just say I'm just
a sinner. Yeah, he's like, no, they're not. That literally
sent my son so that you would not be a sinner.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Anyways, the labels that you put on people, like if
you just say, oh, well he's homeless, right, then that's
kind of how you have this like redirection of how
you think of that person, when instead you can say, oh,
that person's currently unhoused because they lost their job, their
wife left them, and like you don't know any of
their story exactly. So you got to really get to
(29:55):
know someone's story, because especially if you say that label
in front of them, then they're gonna think that's my idea,
that's all I am. And we're so much more than
those words.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, And you know, the on the trip, we were
touring this neighborhood and we had this adult woman who
gave us a tour roulette and she was saying, she
was like, you know, in north Windale, like we are
like listed as one of the poorest communities in the US.
She's like, but we don't feel poor. Yeah, we as
a church, we don't feel poor. We look out for
each other. Our basic means are you know, she just
(30:24):
spoke to like that attitude or not. Messieur of that
community didn't identify themselves as poor. And even like Coach
tell stories about making mistakes when he was early in
his work talking about people and then a little girl
it may have been will Let when she was a
little girl, who knows, but like you know, like him
telling this, you know, talking about this little girl that
was poor and she was like, Coach, I'm not poor,
(30:47):
and like Coach is like she had nothing, like she
was materially poor, but she did not see herself that way. Yeah,
and so we do to just be really careful about
how we're characterizing people.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's like just a whole nother A feeling podcast is like,
you know, I've done short term missions and I come
out thinking they have so much more than we have.
And we have money absolutely because of just the relationships,
the joy, the dependence on God. Like when we have
everything our needs met with money and finances and like
(31:18):
material things, it's hard for us to be like in
a lowly position of feeling like we need to depend
on God. We kind of become our own gods. So
you really see in those types of communities that they've
kind of found the key, which is just relationships and god,
you know, and material things. They don't satisfy you. They
(31:38):
might fill a void for a little bit, but they
really be fully satisfy.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Well that's what we always you know, we teach a
lot of workshops and we'll ask people, usually who are
coming from outside the community, like, what's that opposite of poverty?
And immediately people are able to immediately go, well, it's
not well because I'm like, right, like, how many really
rich people do you know who are miserable? So they're
not living a flourishing life, right, They're also experiencing poverty
(32:02):
of some soar it's just not the material part that
maybe somebody in this neighborhood's experiencing. But that also levels
that playing field because all of a sudden, well, okay,
well you've got money, but you're sad. You know, I
have community and people who love me and care for
me and we do life together, but we don't have
any money, and so both of us are living without
the fullness that we're created for. But also we have
(32:25):
our basic means met. Sorry, someone is like singing.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I know, courtly, I think my program can like knock
out all the noise, but if not, it's honestly entertaining.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I hope that everyone's not missing in. Honestly, I know.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
There's some background singing going on.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
This is just the life of Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
It is, which speaking of if someone I have a
lot of listener not a lot of listeners, but a
lot of my listeners live in Wilmington, awesome. So if
someone is listening to this and they want to get
plugged in, like, what's their first step with Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, So there are a couple different ways that you
can engage with us, you can learn with us, and
so if you go to vigilanthope dot com you can
look at our community training page and we'll have a
kind of really coming up in the next month or so,
kind of once everybody's back in school and back in rhythm,
we'll have a full fall menu of workshops and classes
that you can take if you want to do some
(33:17):
one to one consulting to explore like, Okay, here's my
unique situation. Here's what I'm good at, Here's what I'm
bad at, Here's what I'm passionate about. How am I useful?
Like a lot of people just they want to help,
but they don't know how. So our whole thing is
helping you figure that out. So you can learn with us,
you can support our invest in us, And honestly, this
is a need that we have right now. So we're
(33:38):
kind of in that place of going we just have
enough for today. We don't bring a lot of public
funds in. We're pretty much dependent on individuals and churches,
and so we are like dreaming big. We're trying to
purchase a home, one home, right so, like affordable housing,
we haven't figured out how to solve all the problems.
We can't build three hundred, but we can build. We
can buy one one yeah, and rent it to somebody
(33:58):
who has graduated from our leadership development program and he's
moving back into his community to invest in it. So
you can invest. You can give specifically to that, to
that need, or just to our general that's vigilant Hope
dot com slash donate.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
And I'll put all these links in the show.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yes go team Yeah, and then you can spend time
with us. And the best way to do that right now,
we have a community cafe that's designed to kind of
be a space where people from different walks of life
share space together, and so we have folks like if
you come and stand on line in the morning, you
might be behind like an elected official and in front
of somebody who like may or may not have slept
on our back porch last night. Yeah, and everything in between.
(34:36):
And it's just kind of a beautiful, dynamic space with
lots of different people. So you can buy, like buying
coffee literally helps fund the work that we do. And
if you you know, there are some ways you can
get into the weeds with us, if you want to
look at hosting a pop up safe space at your
church or your business location where folks can come take
a shower, like if maybe there's an encampment near you,
or if you just want to figure it out. We're
(34:57):
here to help walk with you to figure out how
you can best your city.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I love that And I'm gonna put all those links
in the show notes so that y'all can get connected.
What's the best place for my listeners to find you?
Follow you?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oh? Well, yeah, you can follow me on Instagram at
Life with Larbi. I think we learned this week. I
know you didn't, Michael, warning that I don't have Twitter.
I don't either, oh not, what is it? What's the
other one that TikTok? We get out of that because
I'm so not cool.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I do have a Twitter that I haven't posted on
since like twenty fourteen, so it's yeah, like my old
thoughts are out there.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Oh everybody go look that up.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah, so I don't.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Even Yeah, I don't have a TikTok, but I knew.
I'm an Instagram like Larbie, you know what. We all
got the gram, we all got the Graham.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, connect with Laura on Instagram and then I will
also put the handles for vigil and Hope and the
Roastery in the show notes as well, so that you
all of them, and.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
We do a lot of Yeah, we drop a lot
of get info on there, so you'll see my face
if you go to Vigilinhope dot com or yeah, oh
it's on the socials.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Thanks for being on my podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Thanks for inviting me so fun. Yeah, it's like going back, literally,
I love it all right, Happy.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
All right, listeners, love you, I'll talk to you neuys week.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Thanks for listening to Heart and Soul. If this episode
encouraged you in any way, please leave a review on
Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Talk to
you next week.
You're listening to the Heart and Soul Podcast with Catherine Banko.
I'm on a mission to celebrate breakthrough, empowerment and shameless
living in the lives of women everywhere. Join me and
let's live unashamed together. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome back to Heart and Soul Podcast today. I am
joined by Laura Bullock. What is your title?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
The executive director of Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I really did ask that where we start recording. She's
the executive director of Vigilant Hope. We are, actually, if
you're watching on YouTube, in the Vigilant Hope headquarters, the
VHQ career and Laura and I kind of just got
to know each other. But Michael has been working part
time for Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
For like, yeah, four months, about four months.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Okay, three or four months and fallen in love with
this ministry, and so we all went A big team
of us went to Chicago last week for a learning trip,
which we'll get into. But I wanted y'all to be
able to get to know Laura. So thank you for
being on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I'm excited since I don't even know your title, why
don't you start by, I swear to friends, why don't
you start by telling my listeners more about who you
are and what you do here.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah. So, well, my name's Flora. I live here in Wilmington.
I have been the executive director of Vigilant Hope justins January,
so I'm still getting used to that title too. But
I've been with the organization for about nine years now,
and so our work here, we're community based organization, kind
of really grassroots, boots on the ground. We focus on
a specific geographic neighborhood in our city. We call it
(01:37):
the South Side, which is the south side of downtown Wilmington,
a historically neglected community, and really our heart is to
be holistically available and empowering to that community in whatever
way that it needs, based on this season of life.
And so we've done lots of different programs over the years.
We've had community like after school programs in our early days,
(01:58):
We've had community meals. We've run a mobile shower trailer.
You can check out Mobile SHOWERSIOLM dot com, which is
another arm of our work where we send mobile trailers
out into the community for folks who are experiencing homelessness.
We do a lot of being just relationally available to
folks who are experiencing poverty and helping them identify what
it is they want to see happen in their life.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So really, you do, You're not. You can't put vigilant
hope in a box.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We surely do not fit in a box. We are
not a traditional nonprofit for sure, just like you.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Can't put God in a box.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
We went on a trip last week to Chicago and
it was as you would say, would you say packed.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
We maximize, We maximize, maximize every day.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I'm like, would you say tire packed?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, full, over, scheduled. I think someone call it.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We were there three days and we made the most
of it thanks to Laura, and we went and shadowed two,
well three kind of organizations there that are making impact
in their community in the South Side and West Side
of Chicago. But can you start by sharing before we
get into like Lowndale and all that, because that will
(03:10):
be a topic. Can you start by sharing what got
you into this style of mission work and how are
you connected to the organizations that we shadowed in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I would love to talk about that. So there's a
model of ministry called Christian community development that has been
around for really about forty years. Officially, it's a whole network,
so there are folks all over the United States and
really the world that are doing this kind of work.
And so there are eight key components that build up
Christian community development. So it's a really different model from
typical charity because it focuses on empowering the people who
(03:43):
live in the community to know and pursue the health
that they want for their own community, as opposed to
somebody like me, the outsider, coming and telling somebody what
they need or saying let me do this for you,
or let me do this for you every single day
for the rest of your life. It's like, well, what
do you need so that you can be successful?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What do they call it? Like come in and be
like a white savior to like an underprivileged community and
think that like you can come in and just like
write a check or give an idea and then leave
and then that would produce results.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Like it's all relational, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And so I think, you know, we're we're recovering from
you know, some of that bad theology, I would say, ourselves,
and a big part of what Vigilant Hope does is
help people like that want to help, not come in
as the white savior thinking they have all the answers,
but come in curious, come in with and Christian community development.
We always start from listening and being curious and saying
like the person closest to the problem is probably the
(04:37):
one that best understands the solution. And for sure, like
my backgrounds and homelesses in housing and forever, I've been
able to clearly know what needs to happen because the
folks that are my friends on the streets tell me
like they can see, they know what they need. And
so if we listen to people, then we can work
together to build something healthy. Yeah, and it actually gets
people out of poverty instead of holding people in that
(04:58):
same spot forever.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Which was a big theme of what we learned in Chicago.
Listen first. In fact, coach who I'll have you described
said or was it coach or was it the last
guy we saw, I can't remember his name.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Pastor J Maybe now it was one.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Of them said take a year to listen, like a
full year. I can't remember who said it at this point,
but that was the theme of every organization we visited,
I listened to the community, I listened to their needs.
I listened to what they needed, and then I helped
them establish those things in their community. Okay, so what
(05:35):
is your connection to specifically Lawndale Christian Community Church in Landale,
Chicago area and how did we get connected to go
on this trip.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, so I've we as an organization. I've been a
member of the CCDA Christian Community Development Association for a
couple of years now. I sort of stumbled into that
whole community to Northlandale Windale Community Church because it is
sort of the founding space that birthed the network CCDA,
and I found it through searching for higher education programs.
(06:08):
So basically I had been doing urban ministry for ten years.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
And back here through Vision and Hope.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Doing the ministry. Yeah or yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I've been before your full time the nine years before
that's what you were.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So for the last nine years I've been with Vigilant Hope.
I was running our street outreach and our community training.
So like if we came to a church and did
a workshop on how to interact with people experiencing homelessness,
I would be leading that workshop. Hystorically so I'd been
doing the work for a long time, but it was
lonely honestly, like our staff is a really deep community,
but often because we're like, like, I'm this like white
(06:42):
person that's immersed to myself in a predominantly African American community,
and I've been welcomed, but also I'm different. And then
I coming from like the white middle class community, but
living most of my life in other neighborhoods, Now I
don't quite fill at home there anymore either, And so
I was quite honestly feeling isolated and just frustrated. And
(07:02):
also we were like urban ministry is hard, Like the
obstacles were facing are hard, and I was tired of
watching people suffer going I just feel like somebody else
knows how to do as well. So I literally was
like Google searching and I found this master's degree at
Northern Seminary that was called Christian Community Development. I was like,
whatever this is, I want it. And it exposed me
(07:23):
to so coach who you mentioned earlier is the director
of of Well. He was the pastor of Onandale Community Church.
He's the director of my school program. And so I've
gotten this in the last really four years getting to
know him and being mentored by him just been awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, and he was is and was amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
And one thing that really stuck out to me when
we first our first well our first day, I guess
we kind of did like cute see Chicago things. But
then our first full day we did we shadowed the
Lawndale community and mainly Coach was telling us about the
past fifty years of ministry that he has committed to there.
(08:06):
So it's not just like something again the White Savior
Complex where you like go in and like overnight you
like put in programs and like wipe your hands clean
and then go back to living and your beautiful home.
He literally transplanted his life to be relational with this crew.
So I know you can explain it better than me,
but would you mind sharing about what his ministry does.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah? I actually have his like super cool like nineteen
eighties book Real Hope in Chicago. Right, it's got all
these like kids from the eighties.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Onthe you're watching on YouTube, which you should be look
at there screenshot.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Here it is Wayne Gordon is his name. So yeah, Coach,
his story really began. He didn't he wasn't trying to
start this crazy huge ministry or change the narrative of mission.
He was a high school teacher, like fresh out of college,
got a job teaching at Farragut High School, which is
on the West side of Chicago, known for it's like
really considered one of the poorest communities in the United States.
(09:03):
And so he just logically basically was like, I want
to live where my kids live, my students, and so
he moved into the neighborhood, not knowing he literally that
like community he lived in. He was across froom. I
think it was a bar called Bucket of Blood. Like
he had no he was like in the worst part
of the worst part of the neighborhood, you know. And
so but he lived and moved into the community and
(09:25):
just started getting to know people and has really coolst
like his his memoir Real Hope of Chicago. Coach, I'll
take some of those credits please for mid this when
I graduate. You grew my next paper. But yeah, he
like he got married his my fan. They both moved
into the community and they started really and the kids
in his school he was a wrestling coach, and they
(09:45):
kept like losing matches, not because they weren't good, but
because they couldn't like bulk up because he didn't have
a weight room. And so he literally just got a
weight room like some weight equipment, and they had Bible
study and weightlifting, and out of that, the kids were like, Coach, like,
we're reading about church, and we don't want to go
to our grandma's church. But what we read in our
bibles with you, like, we think we are a church,
and we think you're a pastor. And so these teenage kids,
(10:08):
it literally was like a handful of teenagers and like
one neighborhood mother and coach, this white dude from I
don't know, like Iowa that had moved to the west
out of Chicago start this church. And that's the beginning
of Londale Community Church. And over the years, as the
community named what they were struggling with, they they as
a community worked together and as a church to try
(10:29):
to see those things happen. And so they've built you know,
blocks Long Community Health Center that's one of the like,
you know, highest quality health centers in the city. They
have a gym, they have restaurants that have come into
the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
They have I mean, you should just be the recovery center. Yep,
they have the farm, the urban farm.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
They have an urban farm with the botanical gardens they
have They've built hundreds of homes where rehabbed and revitalized
for affordable rentals or for home ownership. So we didn't
even get to see all the houses, but like the
neighborhood has really holistically been transformed, not by Coach, but
really it's by those kids. Like a lot of the
directors of those big programs that we see were like
(11:12):
those kids that were weightlifting in the gym with Coach
fifty years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's what Michael and I kind of came home and
digested or kind of like talked about. Was the thing
that stuck out to us most is you can we
could go on this trip and shadow and we and
it is kind of overwhelming to see, like, oh my gosh,
you have a health center, you have a farm, you
have a recovery center, you have a church, you have
all these things, you have homes and you could you
(11:37):
forget that it took fifty years of cultivating that's right,
So it's like easy for you to like be overwhelmed
by that and be like, oh, I can't do all
that yeah, but really all that happened and the doctor,
another Wayne, the one running the health center, said something
that really stuck out to me the most is like
proximity is key. And so what all it really took
(11:57):
was he was a wrestling coach. He saw they didn't
have weights, and it started with that's right, buying weights correct,
And that's it so simple, It's so simple, like where
are where, who in your life or in your area
and your community has a need that you can meet now,
and then how if it builds, it builds, you know,
and it will build, God will multiply, that's right. And
(12:18):
that was like the coolest part for me to see
is because I'm a doer and I'm a TYPEE. I
like lists, I like I like to check things off,
and so for me, I could have I was getting
kind of over. I'm like, what are we doing when
we come back? But it really it goes like what
can you do right now? And you know that doesn't
mean you have to uproot your life and move into
(12:40):
the south side of your city or the west side
of your city, but what can you do with where
you're at and who you are and what gifts you
have and the resources you have right now for someone
that was the thing that stuck need.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That's so good. We talk a lot here about like that,
just do the next right thing, Like what does it
look like to love the person in front of you?
Do the next right thing and then the next right thing.
And when you hear coach tell his stories and community
members tell their stories in Lawndale, the thing I hear
constantly it is like just the next step of faith,
and it's always small steps. Like occasionally there's the crazy
(13:13):
story of you know, he's like we we had we
wanted to buy that building. It was forty thousand, We
had thirty five in our bank account, so we drained it.
You know, like we have these crazy steps of face story,
but so much of it is just literally being in
relationship with each other and continually taking the next step,
next step, doing the next right thing.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
What about the trip? So you had your staff, which
I am not on staff, so I did not do that.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yet I don't know. I'm trying to recruit. Let's go.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You had your staff keep a journal while we were
there and they had to had to write out what
they saw, what they saw, what they saw, and what
they felt.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Is that right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Hopefully Michael did his homework.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
He did, he was the first one to turn it in.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Oh nice job, boom. And he doesn't listen, but nice job, boom.
If you could share with my listeners your journal quotes
of what you saw and what you thought and what
you felt while we were there, Yeah, would you mind?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Oh man? Okay, So you know, I've gotten to see
these radical spaces before, so this was not a new
experience for me to see it myself. I've had that
first experience where I'm like, how do we you know,
and they just say, like, it's not You don't start
with three hundred homes. You start with one home, right,
you start with one. So I've had time to digest that.
But getting to take my team, I'm a really huge
(14:33):
believer in immersive learning. We have at Vigilant Hope poverty
simulations for people who don't have lived experience with poverty.
We have, you know, immersions where you go grocery shopping
in a neighborhood that's a food desert on foot, so
you learn on a budget, So you put your body
in the place of someone who's living this every day,
because that shapes and reshapes how we It shapes and
(14:55):
reshapes our imagination and our compassion exactly. Yeah, like it
helps us see humans differently. Yeah, and so kind of
taking that same model, I think what I saw was
was so fun for me. My prayer and my hope
is like, God, just open up our imaginations because we're
in this sort of time of retooling and we're going
the needs of our community are changing. We have a
(15:15):
ton of relief work going on in our neighborhood, but
almost nobody's asking the question, like, you know, we're like
pulling bodies out of the river every day, but nobody's
going upstream and saying, who's pushing all these people in
the river. Yeah, so we're kind of doing this like
crazy thing where we're going. What if we went upstream?
What if we started thinking about development, development and opportunity
instead of survival because we believe that this outside is
built for thriving and that God wants them to thrive.
(15:37):
And so anyway, I digress. But so seeing my team,
my prayer was like expand our imaginations and so exactly
like what I saw was my team members who spend
every day being fully available to our community, who is
awesome and hurting. Yeah, be energized by seeing what could be,
(15:58):
and grow hopeful by seeing what could be, and really
just buy into this idea of what if we went upstream,
like what if we started talking about solutions instead of
getting so sucked into survival. And so I think that
that was something that I saw, and it was you know,
like fun as a leader, like I don't forget leaders
that tune in, but like as a team leader. It
(16:21):
also gave me this opportunity like pulling my people out
of our context, putting their bodies in a different context,
and watching how they responded. So, you know, I had
a few people that I kind of I'm like rewriting
their job descriptions a little bit based on how they
responded to what they saw. So I saw people light
up in ways I couldn't mentally get there, So like, oh,
this of course, you know, And now I'm like, well,
(16:41):
of course she should help develop the employability program. Why
didn't I think of that before? Or you know, just
seeing them shine in a different.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Way gifts out of the context of where they've been
and where U seeing them every day. And now that
speaking of like immersing yourself in a community, if you're
listening right now and you've ever been to like a
summer camp where you go in and you know no
one and you leave and you're like weeping because you
(17:09):
can't imagine living life without this person that you just
met five days ago. That's kind of like what I
experienced with Vigil and Hope. So for me, it was like, obviously,
I've heard about Vigil and Hope. I've been to the Roastery,
which is our community coffee shop, which we'll get into
by the way, sipping it right. We have we have drinks, cheers,
(17:30):
and I'm wearing the March, which I've been wearing for
the week straight.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
We got a new shirts today. We'll get you a
fresh shirt.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'm trying to find a parallel here, and I swear
I'll get there. I think summer camp, summer camp. So
we kind of did like a mini summer camp where
we all stay in the same Airbnb and me not
literally not knowing anyone really except my husband and Lauren.
I was like, sure, let's go, and by the end
of it, I'm like walking into the roast come twice
(18:00):
and I'm like, I feel like part of the family.
And it gave me a good picture, like a parallel
of what it likes to like really go into a
space with someone, because that's what coach did, is he
didn't just like get a job at the high school
and then like live fifteen twenty minute miles away. He
moved into the city and that proximity allowed him to
(18:22):
better understand the people. Same with like summer camp. It's
like you don't know this person from Adam, and then
all of a sudden, you've spent five overnights and done
like Bible studies and water events and things with them
and ropes courses, and all of a sudden, like you
trust them with your life. That's what I was trying
to like parallel for just for me, since I don't
I'm not necessarily on the staff, but I know I
(18:42):
can help. Is wow? Like that the proximity word just
keeps sticking out to me, is like if you don't
go into the space, you'll never know one how connected
you might actually be to those people, yes that you've
judged or you've put in a different classes than you
And two you'll never know like the impact you actually
(19:03):
could make or they could make.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
On you exactly, or that you can make together like
I think that's so often. You know, I think about
in the Bible, there's this book called Neamayah, and I'm
like obsessed with Nemai. He was this government worker who
had lived in captivity and he goes back and basically
like he had been like in you know, in Babylon
(19:25):
in the empire system. Right, So he's a government he's
had access education, he's access now. He was like the
food tester guy. So also he risks his life literally
every day, so probably the trauma was high. But you know,
he was also a favored beloved living in the palace
and he goes back to Jerusalem that's like a total
dump at this point with the people who were left
behind because they weren't worth kidnapping, and empowers them to
(19:47):
rebuild their own city. But I think it did take
Neihamiyah and the people that were there that were deemed
undesirable and like working together. So anyway, I think ever
that mutual picture, when we get close to each other,
O there the doors start to open up for what
we could accomplish together and the beauty that can come.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And it's really easy with our busy schedules and our
to do list to not look up and like see
the needs around us to kind of just like go
from one task to the next. Like even if you
just kind of look around, which I've I noticed on
the trip, like how people were not looking at their phones. Yeah,
(20:26):
while we were on the train. Yeah, granted we were
like sitting and it would have been disrespectful to like
pull out our phones because we're sitting.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I had scheduled every second, so there was no.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Granted we had time to give a post. Sorry if
they didn't text you back last week. Yeah, but what
I noticed in our world then we go back into
the world is like I immediately A'm just like scrolling
and looking at my phones. I'm going from one meeting
to the next, and like I don't even sometimes look
up and where I'm at to see what's where the
need is. And that's that's like a huge thing if
you're listening in life, Like if you could just like
(20:57):
look up and see someone and just like meet whatever
need they have or listen to them, like that could
really change the trajectory of that person's day and even
life just because you saw them and notice them.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's so good. And I think that you know that's
where like by all means, I want everybody to come
join us in the inner city. Right, I'm always like,
come be a part of our life. Let's go some
of you. Maybe that's your thing, your next step. But
for like I swear, there's a margin of every community,
Like there's a margin in your church foyer after the service.
Somebody's on the edge and they're not going to be
(21:32):
noticed unless someone notices them. Yeah, at the soccer field
when you take your kids to soccer practice, like where
do you put your soccer tear? Because there might be
maybe it's that mama that doesn't speak super great English,
or you're assuming doesn't speak super great English that's the
only one that's off to the side, or you know,
like there's always a margin of every space. And so
I I I'm learning to ask the question, like, Okay, Lord,
(21:54):
in the morning, open my eyes to see the person.
Maybe it's the person on the street corner and they're
flying the sign and they've had to posture themselves all
day looking pitiful looking, because you're not gonna feel sorry
for them, or you're not gonna help them or invest
in whatever it is they're asking for if they look well.
So they have to look miserable, and like, can you
imagine holding that posture all day so that eye contact
(22:16):
that you know, I'm the Queen of rolling the window down,
And nine times out of ten it's awesome. Every once
in a while I upset someone because it's what they're
asking for, but like nine times out of ten, IM like, hey,
I have no money because I never have anything, you know, like,
but I see you and I hope you get your
need met today, and just that moment of dignity, Like
nine times out of ten, people are like thank you,
like their humanity is honored. And anyway, don't get me
(22:37):
preach in, but it's a eye contacts paying attention to people.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Our church does like these. They put together like ziplocks
of like toilet paper, so snacks things that someone who's
unhouse might need. And so I try and collect a
few at the beginning of the month and then when
I see someone in need, I'll roll down it. And
we actually just did it on Sunday after church. Uh,
(23:01):
I dropped the after church. This is a routine. We're
routine people. Okay, dropped the Michael and William off at
the grocery store and Coke was already asleep in the
back seat, and I drive around till they're on grocery
shopping and then I pick him up. Well, as I'm
doing my laps, there's this guy on the corner at
the grocery store, and I'm like, we need to go
back there when we get back. When I get all
the kids in the corner, So we go back and
(23:24):
we rolled down the window when we hand him his thing,
and we look him in the eye and we're like,
we really hope that God blesses you through this. We
could have just given it to him, thrown it and
like drove off, but then we had to go. It
was kind of awkward. Michael was like, great route, Catherine,
because I like stopped in the parking lot and he
was like on the street, like on the other side,
and I was like, sir, come here, we have something
(23:45):
for you. And then awkward, I pull out and I
have to pass right by him again. Michael's like, you're
so dumb, like we could have just done it right here,
and I was like, I don't know what I was thinking.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I just like and so.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
But but when we drove by him again, he looked
up and he waved and he said thank you, and
I was like, just by someone looking at him like
it gave him the confidence to look up and look
back at someone, because that is a lot of loss
of dignity to be in that vulnerable of a state, truly,
And one thing I love about William speaking on this topic,
my son and kids will do this. You know. Scripture
(24:19):
says have childlike faith, and I truly, since having kids,
get that now because you kind of forget as you
get like pained by the world. But William, anytime he
sees someone on the street, he always says what he
thinks they're feeling. Oh, so I know, it was so sweet.
He'll be like, Mommy, that guy looks really sad, or
(24:42):
that guy looks hungry, and like it's so obvious. But
it's things that we don't even approach out loud because
it just feels uncomfy. Where He's like, got this, Like,
I see a guy who looks sad. What can we
do he's sad? We have turt people and anyways, I
don't know where I'm going, I'm gonna see on but
I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
But I've read that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Childlike faith and look people in the eyes when you're
serving them, because everyone has is created in the image
of God, so they all deserve the dignity to look
look at them, and.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You never know, you listen, never know.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Also, one thing I learned speaking of the unhoused and
word is I didn't know that that was a word,
like in my ignorance, like I didn't know that it
wasn't home. We weren't saying homeless anymore, and we were
saying un housed. And I would like you to better explain.
I ask the question to Coach while we were there,
why do we do this? Just curious, like yeah, Jane,
(25:41):
and he had a really good answer, but I'd like
you to better explain to you work in this.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Sure well, So I think you know, I have kind
of two trains of thought when it comes to language.
We always want to be as respectful as we can,
which is how all these things sort of come up.
And also, like if you talk to people on the streets,
the spectrum of language is all over the I know
all kinds of people who will just write out the
word say I'm homeless or I've been homeless for this long,
(26:05):
and other people would never say it about themselves. So
I think it's kind of like with all language, Like
the goal and the heart of it is just talking
about people with respect in the same way that we
you know, I think people who are or someone who
is or this person by name as opposed to their
situation and circumstance are the most viable things. I think
one of the reasons that we kind of in the
(26:28):
service system have moved away from the word homeless is
number one, there's a massive stigma around it, Like to
the point that even if we're working with a church
that wants to host something that's going to serve people
who are living outdoors, were like, don't say homeless to
your insurance because they'll immediately not cover whatever it is
simply because you said that word. So there's this massive
(26:48):
stigma around homelessness. But the other thing is, you know,
when my friend comes to our community breakfast and eats
breakfast and takes a shower and then goes back to
his tent, he says, I'm going home now. Yeah, people
refer to wherever they're staying often at like they still
have a sense of home. It just happens to be
outdoors or so often there is something a place that
(27:11):
people call home, even if it's not a place that
they want to be their home or that they that
makes them safe or is a place you can actually sleep,
And so, you know, I think that's the main reason,
is the stigma, and then also just really trying to
kind of bust up people's impressions because they immediately their
(27:32):
mindset goes to the person on the corner. But I
would say maybe less than five percent of the people
that I've known over the last fifteen years who have
been unhouse are working a street corner, right, Like, that's
not actually the face of homelessness right now in our city.
You know, over a thousand of the people that entered
the system last year had never been homeless before. Don't
get me on a homelessess intent, but you know, like
(27:54):
it's people that are living like living on grandma's couch
for a couple of nights and then a cousin's and
then aunt, and then a hotel room and then a
car and then back and kind of moving around where
it's people living doubled up. It's people living in their
cars and shelters. Like homelessess looks like so many things
that the picture people get when they hear that word
(28:15):
maybe isn't inaccurate. Right, isn't accurate?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Language and word told a lot of power they do,
and so also identity, like uh, I guess what's the
word U wordshold power? The labels, Yeah, Like, labels can
really like shift someone's identity. And I think maybe you've
been if you're listening, you've probably been called a label
that offended you or made you rethink who you are.
(28:41):
Michael actually really taught me this is you know, even
sometimes you go to church and you hear this verbiage
of like you're just a sinner saved by grace. And
if you want to get Michael actually talking like literally
just talking, just like getting my tangent because he really
rewrote that for me. Is like, if you constantly just
(29:02):
think of yourself as this sinner, not worthy, not worthy,
saved by grace and thank God, which is true, then
you forget all the labels that God calls you and
calls you too, like he calls you righteous, he calls
you sawt in lights that he said on a hill,
chosen his masterpiece as workmanship. I mean all throughout scripture,
he labels you how he sees you.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And so if you go back to the label that
he saved you from and you just say I'm just
a sinner. Yeah, he's like, no, they're not. That literally
sent my son so that you would not be a sinner.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Anyways, the labels that you put on people, like if
you just say, oh, well he's homeless, right, then that's
kind of how you have this like redirection of how
you think of that person, when instead you can say, oh,
that person's currently unhoused because they lost their job, their
wife left them, and like you don't know any of
their story exactly. So you got to really get to
(29:55):
know someone's story, because especially if you say that label
in front of them, then they're gonna think that's my idea,
that's all I am. And we're so much more than
those words.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, And you know, the on the trip, we were
touring this neighborhood and we had this adult woman who
gave us a tour roulette and she was saying, she
was like, you know, in north Windale, like we are
like listed as one of the poorest communities in the US.
She's like, but we don't feel poor. Yeah, we as
a church, we don't feel poor. We look out for
each other. Our basic means are you know, she just
(30:24):
spoke to like that attitude or not. Messieur of that
community didn't identify themselves as poor. And even like Coach
tell stories about making mistakes when he was early in
his work talking about people and then a little girl
it may have been will Let when she was a
little girl, who knows, but like you know, like him
telling this, you know, talking about this little girl that
was poor and she was like, Coach, I'm not poor,
(30:47):
and like Coach is like she had nothing, like she
was materially poor, but she did not see herself that way. Yeah,
and so we do to just be really careful about
how we're characterizing people.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's like just a whole nother A feeling podcast is like,
you know, I've done short term missions and I come
out thinking they have so much more than we have.
And we have money absolutely because of just the relationships,
the joy, the dependence on God. Like when we have
everything our needs met with money and finances and like
(31:18):
material things, it's hard for us to be like in
a lowly position of feeling like we need to depend
on God. We kind of become our own gods. So
you really see in those types of communities that they've
kind of found the key, which is just relationships and god,
you know, and material things. They don't satisfy you. They
(31:38):
might fill a void for a little bit, but they
really be fully satisfy.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Well that's what we always you know, we teach a
lot of workshops and we'll ask people, usually who are
coming from outside the community, like, what's that opposite of poverty?
And immediately people are able to immediately go, well, it's
not well because I'm like, right, like, how many really
rich people do you know who are miserable? So they're
not living a flourishing life, right, They're also experiencing poverty
(32:02):
of some soar it's just not the material part that
maybe somebody in this neighborhood's experiencing. But that also levels
that playing field because all of a sudden, well, okay,
well you've got money, but you're sad. You know, I
have community and people who love me and care for
me and we do life together, but we don't have
any money, and so both of us are living without
the fullness that we're created for. But also we have
(32:25):
our basic means met. Sorry, someone is like singing.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I know, courtly, I think my program can like knock
out all the noise, but if not, it's honestly entertaining.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I hope that everyone's not missing in. Honestly, I know.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
There's some background singing going on.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
This is just the life of Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
It is, which speaking of if someone I have a
lot of listener not a lot of listeners, but a
lot of my listeners live in Wilmington, awesome. So if
someone is listening to this and they want to get
plugged in, like, what's their first step with Vigilant Hope.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, So there are a couple different ways that you
can engage with us, you can learn with us, and
so if you go to vigilanthope dot com you can
look at our community training page and we'll have a
kind of really coming up in the next month or so,
kind of once everybody's back in school and back in rhythm,
we'll have a full fall menu of workshops and classes
that you can take if you want to do some
(33:17):
one to one consulting to explore like, Okay, here's my
unique situation. Here's what I'm good at, Here's what I'm
bad at, Here's what I'm passionate about. How am I useful?
Like a lot of people just they want to help,
but they don't know how. So our whole thing is
helping you figure that out. So you can learn with us,
you can support our invest in us, And honestly, this
is a need that we have right now. So we're
(33:38):
kind of in that place of going we just have
enough for today. We don't bring a lot of public
funds in. We're pretty much dependent on individuals and churches,
and so we are like dreaming big. We're trying to
purchase a home, one home, right so, like affordable housing,
we haven't figured out how to solve all the problems.
We can't build three hundred, but we can build. We
can buy one one yeah, and rent it to somebody
(33:58):
who has graduated from our leadership development program and he's
moving back into his community to invest in it. So
you can invest. You can give specifically to that, to
that need, or just to our general that's vigilant Hope
dot com slash donate.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
And I'll put all these links in the show.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yes go team Yeah, and then you can spend time
with us. And the best way to do that right now,
we have a community cafe that's designed to kind of
be a space where people from different walks of life
share space together, and so we have folks like if
you come and stand on line in the morning, you
might be behind like an elected official and in front
of somebody who like may or may not have slept
on our back porch last night. Yeah, and everything in between.
(34:36):
And it's just kind of a beautiful, dynamic space with
lots of different people. So you can buy, like buying
coffee literally helps fund the work that we do. And
if you you know, there are some ways you can
get into the weeds with us, if you want to
look at hosting a pop up safe space at your
church or your business location where folks can come take
a shower, like if maybe there's an encampment near you,
or if you just want to figure it out. We're
(34:57):
here to help walk with you to figure out how
you can best your city.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I love that And I'm gonna put all those links
in the show notes so that y'all can get connected.
What's the best place for my listeners to find you?
Follow you?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oh? Well, yeah, you can follow me on Instagram at
Life with Larbi. I think we learned this week. I
know you didn't, Michael, warning that I don't have Twitter.
I don't either, oh not, what is it? What's the
other one that TikTok? We get out of that because
I'm so not cool.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I do have a Twitter that I haven't posted on
since like twenty fourteen, so it's yeah, like my old
thoughts are out there.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Oh everybody go look that up.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah, so I don't.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Even Yeah, I don't have a TikTok, but I knew.
I'm an Instagram like Larbie, you know what. We all
got the gram, we all got the Graham.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, connect with Laura on Instagram and then I will
also put the handles for vigil and Hope and the
Roastery in the show notes as well, so that you
all of them, and.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
We do a lot of Yeah, we drop a lot
of get info on there, so you'll see my face
if you go to Vigilinhope dot com or yeah, oh
it's on the socials.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Thanks for being on my podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Thanks for inviting me so fun. Yeah, it's like going back, literally,
I love it all right, Happy.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
All right, listeners, love you, I'll talk to you neuys week.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Thanks for listening to Heart and Soul. If this episode
encouraged you in any way, please leave a review on
Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Talk to
you next week.
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