#25 - AMEN House Version - Michelle Carlisle and Larry Oser - Deacons Discussions Drinks

Episode Transcript
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Tim Stout (00:30):
Did you ever

Unknown (00:31):
stop and think vice versa? Just kidding.
Then maybe

Fr. Linh Nguyen (00:40):
I don't know a single thing that I haven't
noticed.

Unknown (00:50):
When I see you my heart starts racing. I don't know.
Brown.

Tim Stout (01:21):
Today is October 9 2020. Friday the 27th week in
Ordinary Time, and you are tunedin to deacons, discussions and
drinks

Unknown (01:39):
so much that when I see my heart starts
racing, I don't know ifit's the same for my hands start
shaking.

Tim Stout (02:12):
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to another
episode of deacons discussionand drinks. I'm Deacon Tim
Stout. I'm fuddling when thereis no Deacon Dallas Kelly
tonight. He has the night off.
Well, not really. He's. He's ata wedding. Oh, oh, look at that.
We got we got feedback. Now wegot it. Got a mute everything

(02:33):
else. Now he's in one at awedding in Louisville tonight.
So we asked him to call and hesaid no. So Oh, well. Hey, we're
back back live in studiotonight. And it's kind of a
different I we got two guestswith us tonight. One that should
be very familiar to you, Mr.
Larry. Oh, sir parishioner andthe person who put together and

(02:57):
manages the fill the truckprogram we see at least twice a
month, if not more. And we alsohave with us the executive
director of Ayman house MissMichelle Carlyle. Welcome to the
show.

Welcome this, Joe. Yeah. Thanks for the
invite.

Larry Oser (03:13):
Thank you very much for the invite.

Tim Stout (03:14):
Yeah, I'm excited about it. How about you father,
you excited about it?

Well, finally be able to bring them here to
talk about it. Right.

Tim Stout (03:21):
Exactly. Well, not a question we've been given, given
food for how many months now?
3838 months. So that's a lotlonger than we've been doing the
show 38 months the parishionersof St. Francis and john have
stepped up to the call. They'vealready exceeded by expectations

(03:43):
by miles. Well, we'll get intothat in a little bit. For sure.
We're gonna skip our currentevents. That's all right with
you. I mean, there's all kindsof current events to talk about
from the fly and the VicePresident's hair to the
cancellation of the next debate.

(04:03):
But we'll we'll just skip allthat stuff. And go right into
the fun stuff. The fun stuff,the amen house. Michelle, you're
the executive director. How longHow long have you been at Damon
house?

Michelle Carlisle (04:15):
Sure. I've been there for about four and a
half years at this pointalready. already.

I know I don't remember when your first game.

Tim Stout (04:24):
You do or no? I do.
Yeah. So

Time flies.

Tim Stout (04:29):
So for the average person out there that if they
didn't know anything about amadhouse How do you describe
what a madhouse is?

Sure. We are your local food pantry. We have
one mission, and that is endinghunger right here in Scott
County. And, you know, when

Tim Stout (04:45):
I think a lot of people in Scott County, they
don't know that there's a hungerproblem here.

I didn't know. Like I really, really
didn't. Like if you ask me how Igot here and how I got involved.
I was kind of blindsided. by athird grade teacher,

Tim Stout (05:02):
so are you from Scott County originally originally, so
that

county feels like home. But now I grew up in
Western Kentucky. And we movedhere for school and got married
here and and lived in Lexingtonfor a while. And then when my
kids were old enough to go toschool, we started looking at
options and really liked theScott County school system and
thought that would be a good fitfor our kids and our family. And

(05:25):
so we moved to Scott County atthat point. And really, I was
just doing life, I had two kids,I started a business, I used to
own car and run Karloffphotography. So I was a
photographer in my previouslife. And really just, that gave
me the flexibility to getinvolved at school. And so when
lemons mill opened up, I wasinvited to be part of the Family

(05:48):
Resource advisory panel there.
And within moments, like I gotsome big life lessons, you know
that we've had this big,beautiful school that had just
launched and my little thirdgrader was going to class every
day. And literally in that firstmeeting, the teacher just broke
my heart. I mean, she literallybroke into tears in the middle

(06:10):
of the meeting and said, Wecan't wait another two months to
get a backpack program going atlemans mill, the kids in my
classroom are hungry today. shehappened to be my son's teacher,
well, and I kind of had a Okay,like Not on my watch kind of
moment. And I literally justsaid, we're starting to
backpack, like we're figuring itout. I don't know how it's gonna

(06:33):
happen. But we're starting tobackpack like today. And that
just became like this snowballeffect of me getting involved in
Food Rescue and really lookingat the hunger because you nailed
it. It's really, really easy notto see it in Scott County, you
can go through your entire day,your entire life. Like I said, I
was I would live in mine andjust happy and just fine. And

(06:56):
then I think when you're facedwith that moment where it's in
front of you, you have to make achoice. And you can choose to do
nothing. And that's a choice.
Melissa is we just kind of Oh,it's too big. It's too hard.
Somebody else's supposed to bedoing this. And that's a choice.
You know, it's not a choice thatyou think about a whole lot. But

(07:19):
if you're choosing to do nothingor to just look away, that's a
choice to in my world, I made achoice to get involved. And it
has completely changed my entirelife. Like I've shut down my
business, I do this full time.
Now. I'm not just a little bitinvolved in fighting hunger.
It's my passion. It's whatdrives me. It's why I get up in

(07:43):
the morning. And I truly, trulybelieve that nobody should be
hungry here. Not in ScottCounty. We have enough.

Tim Stout (07:53):
And I think that's one of the things that surprises
me so much. Is that the need?
Obviously I did a little bit ofresearch before and read Charles
website and some of the stats,sir. I think it most most
people. There's two sides ofScott County, the part that I
think that people see. And thenthere's this other side. And I
think we even see today when wetalk about crime, you know,
there's some uptick in crime inScott County in the last few

(08:14):
months, could be related to thepandemic or whatever, people are
surprised. But crabs always beena part of Scott County just kind
of been hidden in the way. Andthen hunger obviously, has been
here a while it just didn't showup, you know, four and a half
years ago when you started yourjourney. So did you. Was there a
man house already in place in?

(08:36):
Or did you help establish thatwith

Nova? No, no, no. Okay. I came in later. Okay,
I'm at the Ayman house is 30years old. Wow. So it was
established in 1990. Really justthe heart of this community. The
churches brought it together andsaid, We need one location that
can do this and do this well.
And so No, I was not around whenit was established. But I'm so

(08:59):
very thankful for the hard workthat was put in, that brought
this concept together. It washanded off to me at a beautiful,
beautiful point where so manythings were coming together. And
then I was able to take the hardwork that had been that had come
before me and just say yes, andyes and yes to those next steps.

(09:20):
And then we have a very, verystrong food supply and a very,
very strong food pantry. Becauseof years of dedication to
volunteers after volunteers justfighting hunger, Helen St.

Tim Stout (09:34):
John's been involved.
That's not not Larry's part ofit, because we'll get to Larry's
part of it. But as St. John'sbeen a supporter, they've been
house for a long time, a longtime. You know, I don't know.

I'm saying that similar support started. But I
think

Larry Oser (09:48):
I think they've been involved. Not to the extent it
was.

Tim Stout (09:53):
Yeah, the involvement today is on steroids. Yeah, you
took it up a notch. So How manychurches are involved with m&s?

We have, yeah, you're gonna put me on the
spot number,

Tim Stout (10:07):
oh, well, you can estimate

Beautiful, beautiful support from our
churches, we really do, weprobably have upwards of 10, who
we are literally part of theirbudget, like they are faithful,
to make sure that the amen househas the funds that it's named.
But beyond that, I mean, so manypeople like Thanksgiving is
coming, right. So we will seeour churches step up in a
beautiful, beautiful way. Andjust make sure that all of those

(10:32):
Thanksgiving baskets happen. Wecould not do what we do without
the church community. And, andkind of the, the fallout of
that, because it may not be, youknow, the church signing the
check at the bottom of it. But Iknow so many pastors, you know,
encourage their congregation toget involved to volunteer to, to
look at what the needs are, andjust those communications and

(10:54):
then sharing about the amenhouse, then that ripples effect
to you know, Christians in ourcommunity, who are faithful to
just support us themselves.

Tim Stout (11:03):
So so is your level of outreach? Does it does it
match demand? Are you still notmeeting the demand of what the
what, what the community needs.

So while I would love to just sit here and
say, Oh, we've got this allfigured out. And probably one of
our toughest conversations withfamilies, we do have something
that's called a madhouse direct.
And so we have a food deliveryservice. And it's a pretty young
service, we're probably maybetwo years into that. And anytime
you launch a new program, youhave to start somewhere. So when

(11:39):
we started looking atdeliveries, we really started
looking at the absolute mostvulnerable. So that turned into
a lot of our elderly, seniorcitizens that were homebound and
making sure we could get food tothem. So that's where those
screenings started. And we feellike we, you know, if a senior
fitting that category called usand they need food delivered to

(11:59):
them, we are on it, we have aplan for that. But especially it
seems like the pandemic has justput an exclamation point at the
end of everything. And now wehave like single moms calling
that are physically able to comeget and pick up the food and
take it home. They just have notransportation to do that. But
we're having to look at piecesof if we really say we're ending

(12:22):
hunger in Scott County, andnobody will be hungry here,
we're going to have to look atexpanding that. I do think, you
know, if you can get to the aim,unhealth, like I said, our food
supplies are are strong, and wecan meet the daily demand. But
now it's really looking at kindof like those edges. And being
like, how do we continue tostrengthen a man house direct

(12:43):
and to be honest, that takesvolunteers, like someone
literally has to give us roughlyabout three hours of their month
to take those food deliveriesand make those happen. Me would
pick it up at the amen housewill load you up with food, we
typically try to give you fourto five deliveries to make and
somewhat general vicinity.
Although Scott County's big,that is very big, you know, but

(13:08):
and then you know, you take thefood out, deliver it.
And then just you know, so it's

Tim Stout (13:12):
kind of like the way doordash for a madhouse kind of
like a mad dash. I just came upwith a word,

a mad dash.
And but if I'm if, if we're, ifwe're missing the mark
somewhere, I feel like it'sthere.

Tim Stout (13:28):
And do you? Do you have regular volunteers that do
that part of it for you? Mostdefinitely. So but you could use
more?

Yes. So that's kind of where the tipping
point is. It's not necessarilythat we don't have the food,
because we're we're doing okay,and kind of balanced that out.
So that we're not doing all ofthose in one day, we've got them
spread over the first two weeksof the month. So it kind of
balances the food in house, ifthat makes sense. Because if
they all were to go out in oneday, then that would be a

(13:58):
problem just based on the FoodRescue that we do. Right. Um,
but But yeah, I mean, really, Idon't know if you guys follow
our Facebook page. Butdefinitely the past two months
or so. I've hit it pretty hardwith the description of what
that direct team looks like. Youdo have to be able to lift about
30 or 40 pounds, food is heavy.
And the volumes that that wekind of send out. It does take

(14:19):
somebody who can move that foodaround. We love teams. If you're
going out into somebody's house,we do require that you go two at
a time. And so it's a little youknow, more complicated to find
that match than it is to justHey, come volunteer at the amen
house. But we know people wholove it, they have a heart for
it. They're getting to know thepeople that they deliver to.

(14:40):
Like I said a lot of those areseniors. And it really is a
touch point for a senior who'spotentially homebound and may
not have somebody else checkingon them every month. So we're at
least that one check when webring food that we check in.
Make sure they're doing okay.
Get their food to you. And thenthey know they'll see us again

(15:01):
next month.

Tim Stout (15:02):
So it's a little bit beyond just the food mystery.
It's also presence ministry.
You're, you're present withthem.

Most definitely. Yeah.

Tim Stout (15:08):
So we talked about pounds of food. There's nobody
better to talk about the poundsof food than the mister. Oh,
sir. Larry, yes, sir. How do youhandle all the food that gets
donated at St. John's. org holesin a great truck. And

Larry Oser (15:25):
a great truck gets to fold and we bring the box
truck. But every Monday, atapproximately 830 the great
truck backs down the alleyway ofthe a man house. And we're
greeted with open arms.

Tim Stout (15:39):
And we've been up until the pandemic I was gonna
ask you how the pandemic hasaffected us. We'll get to that
in a little bit because pandemicis affecting both both sides of
our ministry at St. Step saintsRyan says john and your ministry
amen as but in general, overall,what's the total dollars in
tons? I'm gonna say tons. But wecould probably do n tons now.
But let's start pounds

Larry Oser (16:02):
bound the food that we've collected in 38 months?
21,500 pounds of food

Tim Stout (16:09):
21,000 pounds of food? And how many?

Unknown (16:16):
dollars?
Wow. Yeah.
That's a lot

is because he shows up all the time. You know,
like we unload the truck, andthen we unload the truck and we
unload the truck. But when youstart adding it all together, I
mean, the impact that yourchurch is having on Scott County
is huge. And I'll go ahead andsay it if we could get all the
churches to do what St. JOHNdoes for us. Oh, my goodness,
like we wouldn't have to worryabout a thing.

Larry Oser (16:43):
So also supposed to have a field that drug
competition between churches,right? I originally about a
year, year and a half ago triedto get it started. I got two or
three churches that said thatthey were interested, he would
get involved. I explained tothem what I do, and told them
that I'd be willing to come totheir church and show them how

(17:05):
to do it. And I got that far.
But he never came back with adefinite yes.

Tim Stout (17:11):
So you need we need another Larry. Oh, sir, at each
one of these churches, which ishard to do. I'd say it's
impossible myself. But there'speople out there that have the

Larry Oser (17:20):
same spirit that you have. I'm sure there are.

Tim Stout (17:23):
So we just had to find them. That's exactly right.
I mean, if if we had fivechurches in in sky K, do we do?
Would hunger be a non issue inScott County at that point? You
think?

I think it would go a long way. Yeah,

but the issue is here to raise awareness.
Right, Michelle, it's so manypeople do not know, you know,
Scott County, one of thewealthiest county in Kentucky.
And we have the most prettyhighest population of hunger,
homeless homelessness, and wedon't talk about it. I remember
when I came here that one of myfirst strictures was get all my

(18:01):
brother minister together, and Idon't want to talk about it. I
said, Come on. So finally weable to pull together and
Michelle came along. You did anexcellent job. You have a great
sense of we're gonna talk aboutthe

Tim Stout (18:13):
pastor's of different churches

here in Scott County. Yeah, we don't just
don't want to talk about thisissues. And we have an influx of
a new group of pastors verypassionate. And they take very
seriously on this social justicematter. homelessness, taken very
seriously. And so Michelle camejust in time, you know, pretty

(18:38):
much like God, probably danger,right? So how God knockin
certain people.

God had a whole lot to do with me showing
up here.

Mr. Also, Sam thing he came home one day,
right? It just came downFlorida, and they say, Father, I
want you to do this. Sure.

You guys met Andrew Brown?

Unknown (18:58):
Yes. Yeah.

Tim Stout (19:00):
So so you just came home one day and you said, Hey,
I want to do this. I mean,something had to something had
to trigger you to want to dothis.

Larry Oser (19:08):
Let me explain what happened. My wife and I haven't
been blessed for the last 15 outof the last 16 years. We've been
able to go to Florida for themonth of January, February,
March. We stay in a community ofabout 800 people they have for
the same period of three months.
And one year, one or two fellowscame to me, fella by the name of

(19:30):
drew Whittaker, who's a residentof Canada. He said Larry said,
I'd like to get start and see ifwe could get the people at Camp
Florida to donate to Manor,which is the food bank in Lake
Placid, Florida. And he saidwhat we'd like to do is he said

(19:51):
everybody comes to the clubhouseon Thursday morning. And the
reason they come to theclubhouse on Thursday. Morning
is to get free coffee anddonuts. So here we have 200 300
people that come in for freecoffee and donuts. He said, why
don't we start a program? Callfill the truck. I said, What do

(20:11):
you want do he said, well we'regonna do is he said, Well back
my pickup truck up in front ofthe clubhouse. And for the
period of two hours from 10o'clock to 12 o'clock, we're
going to tell people that we'regoing to be there that Thursday.
And we just did it once aseason. So only did it once
every three months. And he said,in that two hours, he said, we

(20:35):
won't get people to fill histruck. Once we fill this truck,
we're gonna take it over thematter. And go give it to them.
I said, Well, we can spread theword. So we got the word going,
told people we were going to bethere. First, first time we did
it, half the truck. Next month,the other three quarters of the

(20:58):
truck. Next month, we got fulltruck, old truck. Next year. We
just that we did it again. Gotloaded up, took it down to man.
So when that started work downthere, I came back to Father, I
said, Father, I'd like to dothis. So what I want to do is I

(21:18):
want to start a program that westarted in Florida. And we all
call it fill the truck. Andwe're going to do once a month.
And I said the important thingabout it is I need to be able to
make sure I communicate with thepeople in our church. What we're
going to do, how we're going todo it, and we need to do it. And
then after we do it, we need toshow them the results. And

(21:44):
that's exactly what we've done.

Tim Stout (21:49):
And you've been religious about it. Right?
religious about you. I don'tthink you've missed many
Sundays. And you've alwayswanted when you were supposed to
be there to tell us what we weregoing to bring. Right? A week
before and being there tocollect. I think you missed a
couple and you got a goodsurrogate when you were going
for peanut, peanut butter,peanut butter, some some

kid calm nickname is meant to peanut.

Larry Oser (22:12):
Yeah, what had happened was the first winter
that came up after I started theprogram in August. I told my
wife and I told Father, I said,I can't leave here and January,
February, March and tell thesepeople, you all take care of
that program. But I want creditfor it. And then I'll be back in

(22:34):
April.

Unknown (22:35):
So

I don't know you. You've been you've flown
back

Larry Oser (22:39):
to the first year, the first year. I booked flights
in July, so that I could flyback in January, February and
March. I flew home on a Saturdayevening, collected food. And I
made arrangements with one of mycompanions of crime so that they

(23:01):
would then bring the food overto the amen house on Monday
morning, and I could fly back toFlorida Sunday night.

And so the thing is a doubleheader.

Larry Oser (23:13):
What happened was that all worked so great. Then
people came to me and said, les,why are you doing this fine up
here that I said, Well, I wantto show people that this is you
know, I'm dedicated to this. Andthey should we be glad to help
you out. I said, that's great.
So I have three volunteers. Now.
One guy takes the month ofJanuary, one guy takes the month

(23:34):
to February, one guy takesMarch. And I'll have to fly back
no more.

Tim Stout (23:38):
That's dedication.
That's what that is. And that'swhat makes it worth it. Yeah.

You didn't know that you were flying back
and forth.

Larry Oser (23:44):
But first year I was Wow. Yeah.

Tim Stout (23:49):
Larry, oh, sir.
Larry. See, that's what I'msaying? Well, we say we need to
find somebody like Larry Oh,sure. At the other churches,
it's it's not just what yousave. It's a lot more you get a
lot more than just what you see.
And that dedication, I think isis unique. Obviously, it's it's
made this program, outside ofthe folks that are given the
money in the food, it's reallywhat's made it successful. Is

(24:09):
that recurrence that's alwaysthere. You know, we'd like to
kid about the peanut butter,right? Anyway, I'll get a good
laugh about that. But, but it'snow it's a part. It's part of
our community. I mean, it's partof our parish life. And, you
know, how many months isn't

Larry Oser (24:24):
3838 months?

Tim Stout (24:28):
38 months, so it only takes 38 months to create a good
habit. So if there's otherchurches out there watching. You
need to get a hold of this guy,or one of us or Michelle and
point us point them in ourdirection and let's figure out
how we can get this going intothe churches. That would be
awesome. I think we ought tohave a contest. I think I

Larry Oser (24:50):
I'd like to do that.

Tim Stout (24:51):
You need to bring that up at the minister
Association. I

Unknown (24:55):
yeah, we zoom right.
Oh, you're zooming.

Tim Stout (24:59):
You're zooming We need to come up with a prize.

Larry Oser (25:02):
I already have the prize, what's the prize? What I
would like us to do if we couldget four churches, ourselves and
three others. Everybody do itonce a week, each month, so each
church would do it, they wouldget food every week, we keep
tabs, everybody would keep trackof what they collected. And then

(25:24):
at the end of the year, we wouldcome to carto. For a type of get
together for all the people fromall four churches, get to
socialize it, talk about whatwe've done. And then we have a
presentation of a trophy to thechurch that collected the most
food for that 12 month period.
And then that trophy would berotated every year. to whoever

(25:47):
you know, collected the most

Tim Stout (25:52):
the golden basket.
There you go the golden goldenbasket.

Larry Oser (25:56):
We can call it the peanut butter trophy,

Tim Stout (26:00):
the golden basket of peanut butter, we can put
whatever we want in the basket.
That's a great idea. You know,we obviously we can make that
happen. How many? How manypeople do you serve? You think?
Do you do you know that number?

Sure. So Feeding America would tell us
there's about 6000 individualsin our community that are food
insecure. We, in a calendar yeartypically touch about 4000 of
those individuals with food. Sowe have not, we have not found
everybody. And that's kind of awhole conversation, in and of

(26:33):
itself is that because theydon't want to be found in some
cases? Sometimes, I would sayprobably our seniors are
probably the highest demographicof individuals who will just
fight hunger silently, alone.
And that like I shouldn't beokay. Right. But it takes hard
conversations. Conversationsometimes with your pastor,

(26:58):
sometimes with your doctor,sometimes with your pharmacist,
because if you can't pay foryour prescription drugs, more
than likely, you're not able topay for your food as well. And
those it's just a differentgeneration, those seniors and in
the pride that it would take toreach out for help. We see it we
see it often in thoseconversations and in trying to

(27:22):
convince them because we have awhole different senior
commodities program that's justfor individuals over 60 that are
living below the poverty line.
And it's it's a whole extralayer of food, and just trying
to have those conversations andnavigate the waters of Could
this be helpful? Would you bewilling to try this?

(27:43):
Those are, those are hardconversations.
But we see that not just in ourseniors. I mean, we see that all
across the board. And things arestrange at the house right now.
Nobody comes inside, becausecoke. So we do everything
curbside in our parking lot. Andthe I mean, the tears that has

(28:03):
been cried in our parking lotfor parents who have never been
to a food pantry, that aresitting in the parking lot. And
we and we try to wrap it indignity, and we try to guide
them through the process. Butthe reality is they have to come
and ask, you know, we have tohave those first conversations
and do the application. And wedo it right there on the edge of

(28:23):
their car with them. Justbecause that the regulations are
at nail, but just just guidingthose families, like I said, who
have never, you know, and itmay, it may not be that there's
no income coming through. But ifthey've gone from a two income
family to a one income family,because the kids are at home
trying to do School, which meanssomebody has to stay home. You

(28:44):
know, I think there's there'ssometimes a misconception that I
will have a paycheck. So Iprobably can't go to the amen
house. And that's not true.
That's not true at all. We helpworking families all the time.
And honestly, it's because ofthe generosity of churches in
our community that we can do,like above what the government
does. So there's a governmentpoverty line and I can't use

(29:04):
federal food if you're above thegovernment poverty line. But
when Mr. OSA brings me peanutbutter on Mondays, he doesn't
ask me how much money the familymakes that I'm gonna hand it to
Joe like anyway

Tim Stout (29:18):
so on the on the federal side of it. So out of
all the food that you alldistribute is half of it federal
federal food or what's thebreakdown there?

Sure. It's probably closer to about a third
of it. That's actually federalfood. We do a whole lot of Food
Rescue through like throughFeeding America, which opens up
like Walmart and Kroger and biglights and and local restaurants
that we can rescue food that washeaded to the trashcan
basically. So we do an insanevolume of rescued food. And then

(29:50):
we have the federal governmentprogram which we're very, I
mean, we're very thankful thatwe've been entrusted with that
and can get that food to people.
And then we've got donationsthat come in That just get
brought to us. And then we takethat, that cash that money that
you're bringing, and we have afood Co Op through God's Pantry.
So we can get food pennies onthe dollar, compared to, to what
we would do just straight up atthe grocery store. And so it's a

(30:13):
whole lot of working partscoming together. So that we have
this food and really the federalgovernment is the is the one
that has the income guidelineson it. But because of support in
the community, it's probablywe're probably two years in to
my board giving us permission.

(30:33):
And it's all percentage based.
So typically, the governmentguideline is 130% of the poverty
level, that I can serve theirfood they have upped it, and
during the covid to the 185. Butour board gave me permission,
like I said about two years agoto go ahead and serve all the
way up to the 180 5% povertylevel without question. That
means it's a working family. Andthat's a lot of what we see in

(30:55):
Scott County, is that it'sworking families who are
struggling, you know, you canwork a full time job. But if
you've got two kids at home, onthat percentage base of income,
more than likely, definitely, ifyou're entry level wages,
minimum wage full time with acouple kids at home, you qualify
for full services, even thegovernment services,

Tim Stout (31:16):
I think that's one of the things that every family has
underestimated is the impact ofhaving everybody at home all the
time, and the impact that is onfood. You know,

definitely.

Tim Stout (31:26):
It's, it's crazy how much food a family can eat when
everybody's at home all thetime.

You should know.

Tim Stout (31:35):
as Michelle said, that's, that's a different
discussion, some other time. Butno, it's a, you know, it's
amazing to think that there'sthat many people that need help.
And don't ask,

well, make sure because I know we're
talking about all thosepercentages and numbers and all
of that. There's a third layerthat the board has interested me
with. And it gives mediscretion. And basically, so if
you're above the 185, povertyguideline, our policy
technically says you have tocome and we'll have a chat. And
I can promise you that there isno way you show up to the amen

(32:13):
house. And you say, I'm not forsure how we're going to eat
today, that you're not going toleave with food, we are going to
find a program, we are going tofigure it out, we're going to
make sure that your family haswhat's what they need to eat.
Because there are so manyscenarios, whether it's medical,
or like I said that two incomefamily go into one income family
like your mortgage doesn'tchange overnight. Just because

(32:35):
mom has to say at home or dad'sneeding to stay at home, those
adjustments can't be made on thefly. But what I can tell you is
I can probably let you leave thehouse with somewhere between 200
and $250 worth of groceries thatyou're not going to spend at
Kroger this month that you canuse to hold that mortgage

(32:56):
together or to offset some ofthe other things that are going
on. And we've talked aboutfighting hunger. I mean, that's,
that's the core of it. Like wewant you to have the nutrition
and the energy and all of thosethings that you need to go
battle the rest of what's goingon.

Tim Stout (33:11):
So if somebody is unsure, should they call or
should they stop by what

they can just show up? Our application process
is very simple. And it's stillthe federal application process.
But it's it's very quick. I knowthere's some applications out
there that are are very timeconsuming. And you're not going
to get approved for a month andyou might not hear back. That is
not the amen house flip into aparking lot. You do have to

(33:35):
bring proof of Scott Countyresidency, you need to bring
your photo ID right now some ofthe regulations are lifted on
paperwork, because they don'twant to pass in all of the
paperwork back and forth. Notouch. Yeah. So we're gonna
verify those things just by likeyou holding up your ID and
things like that. We do talkabout your income, you're going
to self declare what incomecoming in through the household.

(33:55):
And then we're going to figureout which food program we can
serve you with. And what I canpromise is, you're not going to
leave my parking lot withoutfood. You're just not

Tim Stout (34:07):
amazing

that that's it is about simple. Food.

Tim Stout (34:13):
You know, I was, uh, I was going back, you know,
didn't we used to store somefood here.

I know.
They're like, have you heard ofbuilding three? I'm like, Are
you kidding me? Like, that'swhere it started.

Tim Stout (34:25):
So you ran out of space? Oh, yeah. And has that
problem been corrected? Or areyou building a new space? What's
the, what's the facilities

of all of that? You got a couple million
dollars?

Tim Stout (34:42):
well know, somebody listening might but you know,
hey, how many out there so youneed to you need to build a big
warehouse. Is that what

we do? I mean, that's that's the dream.
So currently, we have fivedifferent locations where we
have things squirreled way, weare very, very blessed. And oh,
fingers crossed that it's allgonna happen this year because I
need to talk to the schoolsystem a little bit. But the
Scott County High School FoodDrive for us and typically

(35:12):
happens right beforeThanksgiving is amazing. I mean,
the volume of food that comes inthat day, we can't house like,
it's not even possible. Sothat's when we had to get
creative. And when you guys tookpossession of cardomom, it
became help. I think you haveroom Can we borrow some of it?
And of course, the church saidyes. And for we have been in

(35:35):
building three, we have been inthe basement of the main
building with food and just kindof based on where you guys had a
spot that we could go. Thecraziest memory I swear of these
food drives, is we got smart thesecond year, and figured out
that we could open the window tothe basement instead of trying
to go down the stairs or downthe elevator, we literally

(35:57):
opened the window just passedright in Oh, no high tech, we
brought in like conveyor belt.
Oh, wow. And the kids wererolling through the window. Like
it was crazy. But it worked. Imean, it was like the beautiful
solution to where we can putthis. And of course, your church
stepped up and said, hey, we'vegot a spot. Please come see if
it'll work. And so yes, we havehad food here. We currently had

(36:19):
an opportunity to have like awarehouse grant some space. So
now we can actually drive thesemi truck up to a loading dock
and unload. So it makes it easy.
Yeah, so we've said goodbye tothe window downstairs. But we're
so thankful that we had thatwindow when we when we really
really needed it. But yes, spaceis still one of our biggest

(36:42):
challenges. It has been crazy.
I'm just trying to keep enoughfood in the building fast enough
for how it's been going outduring the pandemic, we created
a special food allocation thatdidn't even exist before. And
just trying to keep enough food.

(37:03):
The Ayman house right now we canroughly hold about two weeks of
food in there before we'rehaving to go out to the
warehouse or go next door, orfigure out where the food is
that we can get in. So space isone of our biggest challenges.
But I'm telling you, myvolunteers are amazing. They
step up. And I mean, even whenwe're unloading Mr. ocers truck,

(37:24):
you know, it's this big oldtruck full of everything. And
well, doesn't really come in ona pallet like some of this stuff
does. I mean Lee order, andthousand pounds of food from
God's Pantry every week. Andliterally, you know, they loaded
up on a pallet. And then we getto the amen house and we back
down that little alleyway. Andwe hand unload every piece
that's on that pallet. Becausein our building, you can't run a

(37:46):
pallet jack or move anythinglike that around. We are very
thankful for the PresbyterianChurch, oh my goodness, thankful
that we have that space. So Inever want to be critical of the
space that we have. But man, ifwe're going to move this
forward, we need an operationalwarehouse. And a couple weeks
ago,

last week, we bless a new land property. Yes,
yeah. Talk a little bit moreabout that. So people know where
it is. And you know, pray forthat. Hopefully, in the near
future, we will have a warehouseout there big enough to operate
as a should

that would be amazing. So yes, so we have
about 14.2 acres, maybe that'snot about we have specifically
14.2 acres that that humanhealth purchased at the end of
North Hamilton. And so if yougrew up in Scott County, you're
going to kind of think railroadtracking Creek, where those kind
of meet at the end of NorthHamilton on that little corner,

(38:41):
and the amen house. And that'shopefully our future site of
where we would build thatwarehouse. And like I said, we
are not joking, a few milliondollars away and part of that
infrastructure like it'sfarmland out there. So we've got
to start from the bottom andactually make all of that happen
so that the warehouse couldhappen. But we're just

(39:01):
believing. I mean, you know thatthat will be a possibility in
the future. And and we've justgot to keep moving on to figure
that out.

Tim Stout (39:12):
$2 million

good stuff.

Tim Stout (39:16):
Well, I mean, what do you think about our little
Parish, doting $40,000 for food?
You know, just the Catholics?
Well, let's be honest. We're notthe the biggest congregation
here in Scott County. So maybewe can challenge some of these
other denominations to challengehim. We need to get a really

(39:37):
good trophy. That trophy needsto look special. We

Larry Oser (39:39):
need to get him to step up to the plate to use the
softball analogy

that has the board come up with a strategy
campaign for that building yet.

Sure. So we are technically right now in the
middle of a feasibility study.
So it's real COVID has been

crazy study without

So I really think or at least what our
consultants tell me is, I thinkthey struggled honestly, to get
people to meet and have thoseinterviews. I think COVID kind
of just stopped everything therefor a little while. And so that
process took a little bitlonger. But we should be
wrapping that up very shortly,and then hopefully have a more
definitive answer for what theplan will look like moving

(40:20):
forward. Awesome. Yeah. It'sslow and steady, right? Oh,
yeah.

Tim Stout (40:27):
Slow and Steady wins every time. This is not a
sprint, it is a marathon. Justlike anything related to
ministry. It's always the longgame that we try to play. So
food and the the distribution offood, is it uniform throughout
the year? Or does it go up anddown holiday season change
things dramatically? winter orsummer with Blitz has that

(40:49):
breakdown?

Sure, we stay pretty steady. To be honest, as
far as the demand, I will say,Thanksgiving is probably like,
where we feel the stress oftrying to get everything
together. Just because it's likean extra layer of the
Thanksgiving basket on top ofthe regular food. But we just

(41:10):
believe everybody, you know, onNovember 26, this year should
have a feast. Absolutely, youknow, in front of them. So. So
we're working hard to get thosedetails together. It's it's a
little different this year, Ifeel like I'm so tired of saying
the word is different, andCOVID. But it's true. It's
different this year. So we don'tfeel comfortable having a one

(41:33):
day event like we've had in thepast. And honestly, we don't
want people standing in linecongregating outside of our
building, waiting to get theThanksgiving basket. So we are
going to roll Thanksgivingbaskets all of November, which
really, really means that weneed the Thanksgiving food in by
Halloween.

Tim Stout (41:50):
Which is just a few days away. Tomorrow, right?
Three weeks away.

Yeah. Yes.
Thanks for the reminder thatwe're running out of time. But
it will happen. It alwayshappens.

Tim Stout (42:04):
We need volunteers to write Do you need more
volunteers? Are you good allvolunteers for that? For

the actual distribution, where we're going
to slow roll it the entiremonth, our day to day volunteers
will just add that to theirallocation as they pick up. And
honestly what we need is peopleto go buy food, just to be
really, really honest. And thatfood is not it's special. Right?
You know, like, I'm not gonna beable to get cans of gravy

(42:29):
through.

Tim Stout (42:31):
Nobody wants peanut butter for Thanksgiving dinner.

Larry Oser (42:35):
Right? Yes, sir. But we we at St. John's. We're
collecting food this weekend,which is only the 10th 11th of
the month. We'll come backagain, before the end of the
month with the Thanksgivingpickup. Awesome. So we're clear
like we usually do in the past.
Everything that we've alwaysasked people to do is whatever

(42:57):
you have during yourThanksgiving meal, just bring it
to us and we'll take it to theamen house.

Tim Stout (43:06):
I think I got it. I'm just checking my email here. I
think I got the amen house emailthis morning. Beautiful. said my
church for for church to tell uswhat to bring this week. I know
I saw it. I must have archivedit already. But you know the
list I'm sure do you know we'resupposed to bring this weekend,
Larry. Yes, sir. Can you tell uswhat that is? cereal?

Larry Oser (43:30):
Peanut Butter, canned vegetables and canned
fruit?

Tim Stout (43:39):
And do you ever get some food down there that you're
like, what is

Unknown (43:43):
this?

Tim Stout (43:45):
Does that ever happen?

It really does. Um, yeah.
Honestly send them that comes inas like fresh fruits and
vegetables. That we're not surewhat it is. I totally thought we
had spaghetti squash, which waslike, I thought a little off
season but one of the localgardeners brought it over. So I
was like, Okay, thank you somuch. And she was like, you

(44:09):
know, that's a canary melon.
Right? And I'm like, Oh, I'mglad you told me cuz I totally
thought it was. What

Tim Stout (44:15):
is a canary? Do you even know what that is? a canary
melon. You're like a fruitvegetable guru over there.

Unknown (44:21):
Kinetic mail. Yes.

They're in the house right now.

Kind of greenish. It's bright

yellow. It looks like a spaghetti squash.
Maybe a little bit brighter thana spaghetti squash.

It's almost like a winter squash.

Now it's it's like a cantaloupe.

Tim Stout (44:41):
I don't know. You should go check it out. Maybe
you could cook some bait soy'all take fresh food to them?
We do we do? Yes. So obviouslythey're local government. So
that has to move that quickerthan the canned stuff, I guess.
But you'll take it

we'll take it. You know we're we're doing
about 1000 requests a month sofood does not fit on our
shelves.

Tim Stout (45:00):
So you'll take all foods, pretty much what will you
not take from a foodperspective?

Be caviar?

Oh, no, we'll take that. We'll connect that
with somebody, I can't take yourbeer. Okay. But honestly,
outside of that, there'snothing. If it's cold or frozen,
we have to have conversation.
Like, I got to know it's beencold, you've taken care of it,
yada, yada, yada. But even like,I should know when deer season
is, but we have like, you know,deer hunters that call us every

(45:31):
year and be like, Oh, I'm aboutto go out and shoot again. I
need my, you know, my freezerneeds to be empty so that my new
kill will make it. Whatever. I'mnot saying this very well at
all.

Tim Stout (45:44):
But you've painted a good picture. We understand that
this way.

Yes, we will take your frozen venison. Our
clients love it. And like Isaid, we're getting into cold
food. Sometimes it's a littlemore complicated. Please don't
bring cold food to Mr. O sir.

Tim Stout (45:59):
Or it's good that it doesn't happen, does it?

No, we know as flurries pretty,

Tim Stout (46:04):
pretty clear. And his instructions. Yeah. Yeah. So

he's got this down. If you're bringing it
directly to the amen house, wecan work that out. But no, I
mean, if it is food, and we canconnect it to somebody,
we will make it happen.

Tim Stout (46:19):
So somebody This is Larry ocers fill the truck
program at church or if they'relistening and they're not part
of our church and they just wantto come down to the event house
and donate what we can they doit?

Sure we are open Monday through Friday, nine
to 12 with extended hours onTuesday until three o'clock.

Tim Stout (46:34):
Have you said that a few thousand times, right.

We're also open the third Saturday of every
month from nine to 12. We'redoing a low touch drop off. So
not that you have to put it inyour trunk. But if you would go
ahead and put it in your trunkor the back of your car.
Literally, you don't even haveto get out. You pop the trunk,
my volunteers because we'redoing a parking lot check in
with our clients. Some ofvolunteers are out in the
parking lot already. So they'lljust see it and they'll be like,

(46:59):
give me a second they'll go geta grocery cart, unload it and
you can be on your way in just amatter of minutes.

Tim Stout (47:05):
So if you get some of these odd crazy canned goods,
because I know you had to getsome crazy days like ochre okra,

my face that's my favorite.

Tim Stout (47:16):
Like, okay, well but like apple pie filling. I mean,
you know, Hey,

bring on the population right now. We need
that for Thanksgiving. But for

those listening out there, I would recommend go
look into your pantry. I knowyou have a lot of cans. And open
clear mouth clean them out. Takedown do amen house all to also
landing

Tim Stout (47:41):
or to a card all the Sunday

card on this Sunday. It might be wet, wet,
but we bring you an umbrella.
But clear your pantry.

Tim Stout (47:50):
Bring it to a man house. So Larry's got the big
truck this weekend. Right? Yeah.
So Larry just wants to challengeus to fill the big truck up this
weekend saw see what happens.
What else do we need to knowabout a bit house? Have we ever
talked about anything?

I don't know I just any opportunity, I want
to give a shout out to myvolunteers. We've got a bout
typically 150 that are activeunder in COVID world, we have
about 100 that are active at themoment. And we get that I mean,
we totally, totally understandthat our volunteers need to keep
them and their family safe. Sowe did have several that that

(48:31):
just felt the need in this timethat they needed to step back.
But oh my goodness, those thathave stepped up, have stepped up
in such an amazing way. And justI love my volunteers and they I
talk about them all the time.
And they just they are thosewords that I'm like afraid to

(48:51):
say cuz you're recording them.
My volunteers are retired. Andmy volunteers are a touch older
than I am most of the time, mostof them. And they're falling
into that demographic becausethat's it and listen to them
talk about it, you know, we'relike COVID could potentially be
very scary. And they are stillshowing up to serve. They are

(49:15):
still in my parking lot. Theyare face to face with our
clients, they are face to facewith our homeless population.
They are putting their health onthe line because they've decided
that the mission they're calledto is worth it. And I think we
need to not not forget that likeI think that needs to be heard.
Yeah, because they will fadeaway the face

Tim Stout (49:36):
of God in the community. That's really what
that is. I mean, it's thecorporal works of mercy, right.
They're hard at work. Eat thehungry. It doesn't get any more
simple than that.

That's one of the things I love about amen
knows. There's no creed, noreligion, no conflict. Except,
love your brother. That's it.
Love Your brother and sister andFeed them. No question s. And
that's it that's more simple,authentic Jesus that will get
imagined. so important to knowthat

Tim Stout (50:11):
awesome stuff. Where you got any final words?

Larry Oser (50:15):
Yeah, I got one final word I'd like to, as I do
every month on behalf of myselfand amen house. thank all the
people from St. Francis and St.
John's for their continuedsupport generosity. Please keep
up the good work because you'redoing a tremendous job.

Tim Stout (50:34):
Amen, amen. show any last words?

Thank you.

Tim Stout (50:39):
There you go. Simple as that.

Unknown (50:41):
Hey, man.

Tim Stout (50:43):
Hey, let's uh, let's go say to the day we do a little
thing at the towards the end ofthe show about saying of the day
cuz you know, we're Catholic. Sowe've got all these saints kind
of right here from St.
bobbleheads. I don't have thisone up front there. No, he's,
he's not there. This one's thisone goes all the way back to 250
ad. This is like, you know,third century real close to

(51:04):
probably knowing some of theapostles. people that knew the
apostle so you know, right,right there in a time. So, here
we are with

this Commedia saint of the day for October 9.
Today we celebrate St. Denis andcompanions. We know little about
today's saint, other than he wasborn in Italy. He was the
principal patron of France, andhe was the first Bishop of
Paris. Beyond that the facts areunclear. The best hypothesis is

(51:39):
that around the year 250. Dennisand several other missionaries
were sent by the pope toevangelize Gaul, which includes
modern day France. They were sosuccessful that they were
ultimately arrested, imprisonedand beheaded. This occurred
during the persecution of theRoman Emperor hilarious, who in
258, ordered all bishops,priests and deacons to be

(52:02):
executed immediately. The bodiesof Dennis and his fellow church
leaders were thrown into theriver, but later recovered, a
chapel was eventually built overtheir graves that centuries
later became known as the abbeyof St. Denis, many French kings
are buried there. What are we tomake of this mixture of fact and
legend about St. Denis, we canonly conclude that the deep

(52:25):
impression this saint made onthe people of his day, must have
resulted from a life of unusualholiness. So much so that the
church has never forgotten him.
There's more about the saintsalong with inspiration and
Catholic resources at ourwebsite, Saint of the day.org.
From Franciscan media. This hasbeen st of the day,

but unique the David Tate one unique about St.
Denis the nigs. Dennis, after hegot decapitated, okay. All
right. He carry his head for twomouths and preach the good news.

Tim Stout (53:03):
Okay, okay.

That's why we get the legend of the swordsman.
Atlas swordsman? edlen. HeadlessHorseman?

Tim Stout (53:11):
Yeah. I think it's amazing that the emperor of
hilarious wanted to execute allthe bishops, priests, deacons.
Let's get rid of all cleanedthem out. That's what we do. And
we we talk about it's hard to bea Christian in the us today.
Sorry, it's not that difficultcompared to what we've, we've

(53:33):
experienced. Hey, next week, wedon't have a guest yet. So we're
still working on that. But wecame up with pretty good guests
this week that Oh, yes. Awesome.
So thanks to Steve, our producerover there behind the technology
for suggesting Michelle isgreat. Great to have you here
today. We'd like to give ourguests just a little token of
appreciation. So I got to getfor both of you. Larry, I have

(53:53):
for you a Knights of Columbusrosary. Okay. And rugged rosary
form that you'll never needanother rosary and from show I
have for you just hot off thepresses. Sorry, this is a says
word on a word on fire Bible.
But it's actually just theGospels and this is by Bishop

(54:18):
Baron. You want to kind of maybeexplain Bishop Baron just a
little bit for people that maynot be Catholic that understand
what he does and what hisministry is.

Yeah, talk to me.

Bishop robber baron was a systematic
theologian by Professor actuallyfrom in Chicago. And his passion
is study deep, how to evangelizeto a new culture, social media
for him. In order for us tostrive conversation, we have to
look at the beauty of what Godis beauty in each other. And

(54:53):
then we have stock compensation.
That Bible is very unique. Mostof his interpretation is in it.
Beautiful inscription writing alot of commentary and
commentary, his writing, hedeveloped an institute called
the word on fire.org. And thatalso happened institution at the
institute right now actuallyhelped people educate deep into

(55:14):
the Christian understanding andfaith, dealing with evangelized
the modern culture that we faceright now. So heed right now the
assistant, bishop to the Dioceseof LA, Los Angeles, Los Angeles,
I think

Tim Stout (55:33):
you'll enjoy it. It's a it's a really good gospel.
Just read the introduction,it'll tell you a little bit
about it. It's for it's forpeople that are looking for
answers. And Aren't we alllooking for answers? Right,
especially during COVID? I mean,yeah, we need answers. I think
you'll enjoy

the $2 million line from within and here

Tim Stout (55:51):
it is, you you'll you'll get the answer inside
there. And he's he puts a lot ofartwork in there too, because he
believes that the mystical partof church through its art is is
God. God is in the art in

the art taught leave you to the divine mystery.
So so.

Tim Stout (56:11):
So if you're, if you're watching us, you need to
go to the Facebook and look fora man house like Damon house
page so you can stay up to datewith all their current events.
Right?

Unknown (56:20):
That sounds perfect.
Yep. And we're

Tim Stout (56:22):
gonna go first. And then if there's anybody that's
watching us from Damon housepage, and you want to know more
about our ministry at St.
Francis, john, come to our pageand like our page, we we
reciprocate, whether you listento us on on a podcast, if you're
listening to us on YouTube,subscribe and like but most of
all, show your support todayMadhouse and also show your
support to the ministry. We'redoing here at St. Francis, a

(56:44):
john ssF, j.org, that's es es fj.org. Where you can contribute
any way you want.
electronically, no touch, wedon't want to touch your
dollars. We want to doeverything electronically. So so
you support us. And we thank youfor that support. Just like

(57:05):
Larry said, we thank you for thesupport for the men house in the
past and in the present, andespecially this weekend.

Unknown (57:14):
Alright, Father, how about a blessing sound like a

gracious guy we give you thanks for the
wonderful ministry that your soncall all of us, especially the
service of the amen house, toserve humanity, family,
neighbor, desperate need forfood as you continue to
strengthen Michelle area in hisministry and all of us that we
could get to the glory in thework that we entrust to us by

(57:42):
your son Jesus Christ. We askedto Christ our Lord, Amen. May
almighty God bless you, theFather and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen, man.

Tim Stout (57:51):
Hey, until next week, I'm Deacon Tim and father Lin.
Oh, wait a minute. Wait aminute. Wait a minute. Wait a
minute. We're supposed toannounce something. Oh, wasn't
it somebody's anniversary?
That's right. Sherry, Dallas,Dallas Dallas. Yeah, we almost
forgot Dallas. Oh, yeah. Yes. Hewanted to wish his wife 39th
Happy 39th wedding anniversary.

Happy 39 anniversary, Shami. Anybody that

Tim Stout (58:15):
can put up with Dallas for 39 years, you need a
lot more than just a cake ornight out on the town. You need
like a week's vacation at thebeach. So Dallas, get with it.
Take care of that beautiful wifeof yours who puts up with you.
So until next week, Dallas willbe back. I'm Deacon Tim and
fatherland. Good night,everybody. Good night.

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#25 - AMEN House Version - Michelle Carlisle and Larry Oser

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#25 - AMEN House Version - Michelle Carlisle and Larry Oser