Feeding the World...One Meal at a Time

In this episode, Kristine and Elsie sit down with Mark and Rose Crea, who served with Feed My Starving Children for decades. Learn why servant leadership has been their standard and how the impact is more far-reaching than we could ever know.

Mark Crea is CEO Emeritus of Feed My Starving Children and served as CEO from 2004 to 2025 as the Lord grew FMSC from 3 million meals to 460 million meals a year. Mark is passionate about helping the least of these in Jesus’ name. Mark has 45 years of management and fundraising experience in national nonprofit organizations. He and his wife, Rosanne, married in 1978. They raised 4 daughters (their eldest daughter, Noelle, passed away from breast cancer in 2016) and they treasure their 12 grandchildren.

Both Mark and Rose grew up in St. Paul. Mark is one of 5 children in a strongly Italian-American family with a tradition of great food and big family gatherings. He loves to fish and rebuild boats at their lake home up north. He’s a man of many talents and a helpful Mr. Fix-It kind of dad whenever there’s a project that needs doing. He is humble, positive, and a true servant leader, with a booming laugh and a way of genuinely caring about everyone he meets.

To donate or get involved with Feed My Starving Children; visit their website: https://www.fmsc.org/

Check out our Facebook page; find us on Instagram or send us an email at [e-mail].

Episode Transcript

Kristine (00:00):
This is the One Pebble Podcast.
I'm your host, Kristine.
Welcome to the One PebblePodcast.
Listeners, we are so excited.

(00:20):
Today is a special day, a veryspecial day for myself Thank you
so much for having me.

(00:43):
Mark and Rose, we're so excitedto have you with us today.
You drove all the way out toSpicer, Minnesota, and you're
supposed to be able to beretired, but here you are

(01:04):
furthering the kingdom, andyou're continuing to say yes,
and we're so excited abouttoday.
Thank you for being a part ofthis.
Thank you for inviting us.

Mark (01:14):
Yeah, we're excited to be here, and I don't think you ever
retire.
God just gives you anotherchance.
thing to do, but we areenjoying ourselves a lot.

Kristine (01:24):
Good, good.
Well, before we begin, I wantto read your bio, and we also
want to talk about yourretirement and sing your praises
and share in the celebration ofa new milestone in your life.
Mark was CEO of Feed MyStarving Children from 2004 to
2025.

(01:44):
As the Lord grew Feed MyStarving Children from 3 million
meals to 460 million meals ayear.
Mark is passionate abouthelping the least of these in
Jesus's name.
Mark has 45 years of managementand fundraising experience in

(02:06):
national nonprofitorganizations.
He and his wife, Roseanne,married in 1978.
They raised four daughters.
Their eldest daughter, Noelle,passed away from breast cancer
in 2016, and they treasure their12 grandchildren.
Both Mark and Rose grew up inSt.

(02:26):
Paul.
Mark is one of five children ina strongly Italian-American
family.
and they have a tradition ofbig family gatherings.
He loves to fish and rebuildboats at their lake home up
north.
He's a man of many talents anda helpful Mr.

(02:46):
Fix-It kind of dad wheneverthere's a project that needs
doing.
He is humble, He's positive.
He's a true servant leader witha booming laugh and a way of
genuinely caring abouteveryone's needs.
And Rose, I know you wellenough.
I'd say the same words aboutyou, Rose.

(03:07):
Thank you.
We are so excited again to haveyou here today.
We're excited to learn fromyou.
We're excited to be educated onyour life, on Feed My Starving
Children.
We're excited to be inspired.
And today, when this is over,we're going to have the
opportunity, people watching,people listening, to ask

(03:29):
ourselves, what can we do tomake a difference in the lives
of others?
But before we begin, I do wantto say that the biggest
congratulations to both of youfor serving.
And I'm going to lump youtogether.
I'm going to thank you bothbecause I knew, I know this was
a team effort.
You put 21 years in as leadersat Feed My Starving Children.

(03:53):
As I said at the beginning, andI mean this from the bottom of
my heart, please receive thesewords.
And I speak for countlesspeople.
Mark and Rose, You will never,ever be able to measure your
impact on this world.
You've changed lives.
You've saved countless lives.

(04:14):
I know you brought people toChrist and you're both so
humble.
We're so thankful that you saidyes to the Lord and behalf of
the community in Minnesota andAmerica and the world.
Both of you sit at the top rungof kingdom work.
And simply put, we could not bemore grateful.

(04:36):
So you're retired.
You're supposed to be retired.
But again, here you are drivingout to Spicer, Minnesota.
You could have your feet on thecouch today, but you said yes
to the One Pebble podcast.
You said yes to making adifference in the lives of
others.
Have you even had a day toenjoy retirement?

(04:57):
Absolutely.

Mark (04:58):
Yeah, we've had a day or two.

Kristine (04:59):
There are

Mark (05:00):
weekends, you know, sometimes.
But, you know, we don't look atthis as work.
This is just part of continuingto show Christ's love to people
around the world.
And it's exciting work.
And, you know, we really dolook forward to doing some other
things too.
But for me, it's just not, youcan't, it's a switch.

(05:24):
You just don't turn on and offand so on.
So we'll continue to do thesekinds of things and help.
I'm still helping feed mystarving children in just some
minor ways because we got a lotof kids to feed.

Rose (05:40):
And they're still there.

Mark (05:41):
And they're still there.
Whether we retire or

Rose (05:43):
not, we need to do what needs to be done.

Mark (05:46):
And this has been a team effort.
We talk so many times, themobile packing where we go
around the country.
I mean, that started...
you know, we were a smallorganization and we just, you
know, we'd say, hey, what are wedoing this weekend?
Okay, kids, we're all going tosomeplace.
Some church.

(06:06):
Yeah.
And we're going to pack mealsall weekend.
And they were the staff of whatwe did.
And they all grew up that way.

Rose (06:14):
And the strappers and packers.

Kristine (06:16):
Well, and servant leadership has been a way of
life.
And it's still a way of life.
Like you said, in retirement,you never fully retire.
God just, What words did youuse?
Yeah, he

Mark (06:29):
just gives you another task to

Kristine (06:31):
do.
He gives you another task todo.
And,

Mark (06:34):
you know, if you're open to it and you're paying
attention, which sometimes we'vegot to do, or he gets a little
harder

Rose (06:42):
and gets that two by four out.

Kristine (06:46):
Well, and I think that's what's so inspiring about
you two and really somethingfor us all to be sharpened by.
If we listen and listen to thenext task, we're able to throw
out the next pebble and have alarge impact on the world.
I want to say to both of youthat I want to tell a little bit

(07:08):
about my connection and whatyou have both meant And I want
to then allow Elsie to tell alittle bit about her connection.
The reason why I got connectedto you two and Feed My Starving
Children is through our familybusiness, Flatabow Advancement,
approximately 15 years ago.

(07:29):
My brother, Glenn, myself, andsome of our exceptional
colleagues have had the humblingprivilege of to walk alongside
Feed My Starving Children in afundraising consulting and
auctioneering role.
I have been able to help inChicago and Minneapolis on and

(07:52):
off as your auctioneer overmany, many years.
But as well as serving in thatrole, it's brought us tremendous
joy as a family to pack foodand And we've also had the
opportunity with two of yourfood partners, International
Care Ministries and Frabretto,to take our children to

(08:14):
Nicaragua, take our children tothe Philippines, and now to
Africa to see the work of FeedMy Starving Children and those
food partners and be hands onthe ground to pass out that
food.
Now, I don't say that for acompliment, but I know...
I know the work The other thingthat's been so fun for me, and

(08:54):
I believe that iron sharpensiron, over those approximate
last 15 years, I've watched youboth be humble servant leaders,
where you stand up at thesegalas, or maybe you're in Haiti,
Mark, and maybe, Rose, you'rehome doing the same equal
important work with your kids orgrandkids, or maybe you're with

(09:15):
Mark in Haiti, but I've watchedyou lead as humble servant
leaders.
And I think for myself and thelisteners, that is what is so
inspiring is you've said yes,you put your courage ahead of
your fear.
You might be wiped out andtired, but you keep saying yes

(09:37):
to the Lord.
We're going to come back tothat because I'm curious as to
some of those yeses.
But before I have you answer aquestion for me, Elsie, why
don't you explain to ourlisteners today your excitement
and your connection to Feed MyStarving Children?

Elsie (09:55):
Yeah, so I actually get to tell my story every day in a
small way to volunteers.
We want them to know why wework here, why we like to do
this work.
And for me, it does go back tothat time that I was in the
Philippines.
I didn't know what I would bedoing in my 20s or what where
God would take me for my firstjob out of college.

(10:16):
But at 13 years old, that waswhen we took that family trip to
the Philippines.
And I'll never forget, I hadnever seen a community that had
dirt floors, that had bamboowalls, that had cardboard roofs,
that no electricity, no runningwater.
And so the moment that stuckwith me from that time was when
I got back to the hotel inmodern infrastructure, expecting

(10:40):
dinner, expecting a shower.
And I think that that's just alight bulb moment for me of,
wow, like we should do somethingabout this.
And I turned to my dad, soJamie, which is my dad, her
husband, and just like, dad,what do we do now?

(11:01):
What do we do now?
And I think even at 13, Ireally, really, really wanted to
do something about what I hadseen.
But obviously I didn't knowwhere I would go.
I went to high school,graduated college, and all of a
sudden I was applying tononprofits in the Twin Cities,
and this was just the door thatopened.
But it's been an incredibleopportunity to just know that

(11:25):
you're a part of somethingbigger than yourself, and every
day you can leave knowing thatyou're feeding kids.
So no one's perfect.
We all are just showing up aswe are, but what an opportunity,
what a privilege to get toserve.

Kristine (11:41):
Thank you, Elsie.
And it's so fun for me asElsie's mom to hear her joy.
She'll call most days and say,Mom, Dad, Harris, her brother, I
get to be a part of something.
I'm so a teeny part ofsomething so much bigger than
myself.
I get to feed kids and thepurpose that she feels at Feed

(12:05):
My Starving Children, that weget to do something about this.
And so, Elsie, it's been so funfor our family to have you be a
part of something that we're sopassionate about.
Rose and Mark, I want to goback to you growing up and your
childhood and then kind of inyour adult life.

(12:25):
In approximately five minutes,And you can speak to your
childhood separately and then asyou got married.
And then kind of bring usthrough your life story to the
time that Feed My StarvingChildren found you and Christ
put that opportunity ahead ofyou.

(12:47):
And I think all of us listeningor watching, we have
opportunities and then we haveto decide, Are we going to throw
that pebble into that water tocreate that large ripple effect?
We might be scared.
We might be excited.
We might be something inbetween.
And both of you took on a taskthat very few people are willing

(13:14):
to take on.
And it's so inspiring.
And you've been humble, humbleservant leaders.
And so please don't be humbletoday.
We want to hear you.
Share whatever you'd like toshare, but your childhood,
getting married, then take us tothe point of where Christ said,

(13:34):
you're going to lead thisorganization and what that felt
like and what that yes was liketo lead FMSC.

Mark (13:45):
Wow.

Kristine (13:46):
No pressure.
No

Mark (13:47):
pressure.
But in so many ways, it's just,It's very simple.
It's very clear.
So I grew up, we grew up in avery wonderful Christian home,
went to church.
All of that was, you know,there wasn't a lightning bolt
moment for me doing that.
It's like, okay, this is whatwe believe.

(14:09):
This is what we do.
Here's how we practice it.
Both mom and dad, and I wouldprobably credit my dad for, even
more so for me and justwatching his example.
And he was just an incredibleman, but also very humble in
nature.
But today I would call it holyboldness.

(14:33):
So you can be bold as long asthe credit's going where it
needs to go, and that's to theLord.
But We did that through highschool and college.
And we met actually kind of inour senior year.
I went to Creighton HighSchool, an all-boys school, and

(14:54):
she went to an all-girls schoolacross the field.
And so I hung around with abunch of guys that knew her very
well.
And so we kind of watched eachother from afar.
And after high school, westarted dating and dated all
through college.
And...
Got married right aftergraduation.

(15:15):
The

Rose (15:17):
weekend after

Mark (15:18):
graduation.
The weekend after graduation,

Rose (15:20):
yeah.
Yep.
I went to grade school with allthose male people that he knew.
And I too, you know, veryhumble, very Christian home,
just normal, or what we thoughtwas normal.
I do remember when I wasyounger, I always want praying

(15:41):
to make a difference.
And I always wanted to make adifference.
And, you know, the best thingthat God ever did for me was to
bring him into my life, to bringMark in.
He's helped me grow and becomea lot stronger.
You know, my daughters havejust filled my life.

(16:04):
My grandchildren, they're sucha blessing.
And then we've gotgrandchildren all over the
world, sort of.

Mark (16:12):
Yeah, kind of.
We think of them certainly asour children and grandchildren.
Yes, we do.
Both of us very, veryservant-minded.
Rose was a nurse.
The work that I did mostly onthe nonprofit was in the
corporate world for a few yearsas well.
But that's the thing thatreally resonated or filled me up

(16:36):
was...
having an impact and helpingother people.
And so early in the career, Ispent 17 years with the Hazelden
Foundation in Center City,Minnesota.
So drug and alcohol andtreatment, a kind of a founder
in the world, a pioneer in theworld.
And so worked in a number ofdivisions there and then went

(17:01):
into the corporate world for afew years.
Success as a as the world woulddefine it, but not fulfillment
as I saw it.
And so after that, I said, youknow what, this isn't really
what's doing it for me.
So I went back to the nonprofitworld, and then we come up to

(17:22):
the time, well, let's talk aboutmarriage and stuff, and then
the beginning of FMSC for us.

Rose (17:26):
Okay, well, again, it was the best thing that I ever did,
usually.
I don't know.
Oh, and got married.
We had four beautiful girls.
Oh, we did.
And all the challenges that goalong with all of that.
We moved about an hour awayfrom our families to a small

(17:51):
harpy farm and raised, well,because he was working at
Hazelden, so we wanted to moveout that way more and raise the
kids out on the farm.
And they just absolutely lovedit.
It was the best thing we everdid for them.
Made us a very strong family.
Yep.

Mark (18:08):
Everybody had their chores.
We had cattle and things.
So the girls all, you know,what a great way to

Rose (18:14):
grow up.
Well, and we spent a lot oftime together.
Yeah.
You know, because it was achore to go to see friends or
whatever.

Kristine (18:21):
I didn't realize that you raised the kids in the
country.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's so wonderful.

Rose (18:25):
It was...
Again, the best.
I mean, we were shitty kids.
I thought we were nuts when wedid it, frankly, but it was the
best thing that we

Mark (18:33):
could have done.
Well, we are nuts, but that'sanother story.

Kristine (18:38):
I love how much fun you have together.
I've always noticed that.
You have so much fun together.
We

Rose (18:45):
like each other.
Yeah, we do.
We really do.
I'd rather be with him thananybody.
We've

Mark (18:51):
had great examples

Rose (18:54):
for us

Mark (18:55):
around us, have always looked to relatives, our
parents, but aunts and unclesand others that just said, not
that everybody does it perfect,but it would be like, oh, I
really like this part of how myaunt and uncle do it or how her
aunt and uncle do it.
And so you're kind of pickingshoes.
And

Rose (19:14):
I'm the youngest of five.
So I got to sit back and see,the mistakes my siblings made or
what worked really well andtook advantage of that.

Mark (19:25):
Yeah.
And I was in the middle of ourfamily and the middle kids are
always the best.
I love the middle

Kristine (19:33):
kids.
Yay! Middle child! I love it.
God knew what he was doing whenhe put you two together.
He really did.
I really do think so.
He absolutely knew what he wasdoing.

Rose (19:45):
Absolutely.

Kristine (19:46):
Did you grow up with And I think you mentioned this,
Rose.
Did your parents instill kindof this heart of service or
making a difference in theworld?
And it's fine if they didn't.
And for our listeners, noteverybody grows up with that.
No,

Rose (20:02):
I think more through example than anything.
Sure.
They showed me.
My father's family was veryreligious.
His brother was a priest.
He had two sisters that werenuns.
His other brother was a deacon.
And he always felt kind of likethe black sheep of the family.
Sure.
A little irreverent, but funand very much a humble, humble

(20:27):
man.
You wouldn't guess it to firstmeet him because he was very
loud and stuff, but he was anincredible example.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it wasn't still there.

Mark (20:38):
Yeah.
And just caring.
I mean, growing up in bigfamilies, growing up in a big
Italian family.
I mean, all my aunts, you know,I had like seven moms.
And so, you know, you justcouldn't get away with stuff
much.
But it was really care-focused.
You know, they were alwaysdoing things to support each

(20:59):
other and help each other.
And my dad, you know, justworked so hard.
seven days a week, six days aweek, just taking care of his
family.
And that wasn't uncommon whenwe grew up, but the focus was
clearly there.

Kristine (21:17):
Yeah.
Well, and you grew up workinghard, putting your head down,
and you couldn't think too muchabout yourself because there was
too many people and too much todo.
Who cares

Speaker 01 (21:29):
what you want?
You couldn't

Kristine (21:30):
think too much about yourself.
Now bring us to Feed MyStarving Children.
When you, did you find them?
Did they find you?
And then what did it look likeas you had this opportunity in
front of you?
I'm so intrigued by people thatsay yes to that big of a

(21:53):
calling.
But it's clear to me thatChrist chose both of you for
such a time as this.

Mark (22:02):
And I think...
At a time, and I can look backnow and say, oh, this is the
path the Lord had us on.
Here's the things we learned.
Here's the things we liked ordidn't like.
So I would go back a little bitin time to when I thought I

(22:23):
understood what I needed for mycareer, for what we were doing.
And so kind of pursued thefor-profit.
Nothing, you know, this is thegreatest country in the, in the
world.
But for me, it was like, okay,Lord, I got this.
I'll get back to you when Ineed you again, right?

(22:45):
And so pursuing that forseveral years, saying, okay, the
world would say, oh, this is agreat success.
But it wasn't.
I mean, inside, it wasn't theright thing.
And we knew it.
We felt it.
And so it was, I think, animportant and necessary lesson
for the Lord to say, okay, Smartguy, you know, figure it out

(23:08):
yourself and see how well.
And on the other hand, Godgives us all our talents, right?
And if we're in alignment andwe're using them for his
purposes, your life is going tobe so much better.
And so coming up to Feed MyStarving Children, this goes
back to what I call their bornagain moment as an organization.

(23:34):
So started as this littleChristian organization, started
to grow and feed more kids.
And then the organization madea decision that said, you know,
we're this little growingChristian organization and gee,
we don't want to offend anybody.
And we want to solicitcompanies for donations.

(23:59):
And so we're just going to puta nice secular foundation Look
on the organization.
This is how we're going to,we'll be a Christian
organization.
We just won't tell anybody.
And nothing wrong with that.
But that's what theorganization did.
And they pursued that for 10years.
And in that 10 years, so theorganization had about 3 million

(24:20):
meals a year.
And 10 years later, so this was93 to 03, the organization was
still at 3 million meals a allthe new things that we would do.
So, hey, let's do a newmarketing plan, new strategy.
New CEO.
New CEO, new CEO, new CEO, newCEO, you know, a whole

(24:43):
succession of people who kind ofdidn't work out.
And at that point, the boardwas pretty exhausted.
Good people, but a small coregroup of, I would say, really
passionate Christians who said,hmm, we've been trying
everything here.
And it doesn't, we just can'tseem, the need is great.
We just can't seem to respondto that need.

(25:07):
Volunteers have a good time.
Maybe it's something, it's timefor a bold and risky decision.
Like, let's trust God.
And that's what they did.

Speaker 01 (25:24):
Yeah.

Mark (25:25):
And that's, and that's, and so the board just said, you
know what?
We're going to tell peoplewe're going to put Christ back
in the center, actively in theorganization.
This is why we exist.
This is what God tells us to godo this work.
And so that's what the boarddecided.
And then they said, okay, nowwe got to go look for a new

(25:46):
leader.
And so they hired a company todo the search and everything.
And that person happened toknow me and approached me and
said, hey, I think I gotsomething that you might like.
And so that began the process.
That was in the fall of 03.
And you go through that wholeprocess and a bunch of

(26:07):
candidates.
And maybe they said no to acouple of hundred people before
they...
Or a couple of hundred peoplesaid no to them.
I don't know what it was.
But I was fortunate that theboard just saw something they
liked in me.
And for me, it just fulfilledso many things.

(26:28):
One is...
I mean, who doesn't want tofeed starving kids?
I mean, everybody wants to dothat.
But why we're doing it mattereda whole lot.
Kind of the skill sets that theLord had given me.
And at a time, we talk aboutthis in our marriage, where,
okay, the kids were a little bitolder to do this job when they

(26:51):
were all little.
Boy.
It would have been hard.
Yeah, I just don't think thatwould have been.
But it's like, okay, I thinkGod prepared both of us And this
is the time.
And so, all right, we're goingto go for that.
The organization made thatdecision.
And what I will tell you,though, is in the months between

(27:13):
the board making that decisionof rededicating and going
through all of the search stuffand then coming on board, the
moment the board made the firstdecision to rededicate the
organization, God began to blessthe organization.
So it wasn't, oh, Mark'sarrived.

(27:33):
Now the Lord's going to blessyou.
No, the Lord began blessing theorganization.
And so when people, I call itthe hockey stick of growth, when
people see this 10 years offlat and then this rocket, this
exploding, and they look and go,oh, well, that's when Mark
showed up.
Oh, that's the answer.
Oh, you couldn't be more wrong.

(27:54):
You just couldn't.
This is what God did.
how many doors, how many timesdid we face things where I would
just, I had something calledthe God box on my desk.
This sounds kind of weird.
And it was the things that Iwould say, okay, Lord, I got to
turn this over to you.
This is beyond me.

(28:14):
And I'd write whatever it is.
And I'd stick that note in thebox.
And through the years, it gotfuller and fuller.
But to just say, this is whatit was.
What we saw was, And how weevolved as an organization.
Okay, we worked hard.
God brought us really goodpeople.
I got Rose there.
She would kid me because I'dsay, okay, I'm leaving the

(28:37):
office.
I'm on my way home.
And two hours later, I'd arriveand she'd look at me and not
yell at me or not be good.
Say, oh.
Did somebody ask you a questionon your way out?
Somebody said hi.
Yeah.
Okay.
Somebody, yes, somebody did.
And so we were, I was tellinghim about Feed My Starving

(28:57):
Children.
But it began, it just exploded.
The rededication I sawfirsthand, whether it was
pastors or others that said, welike Feed My Starving Children.
It's fun to go there.
And when we rededicated that,You look at all of the pieces of
the organization, thevolunteering, and they do this

(29:20):
and this, and we send food overthere.
None of that really changed.
What was the only thing thatchanged?
What was the only pebble thatgot tossed into the pond?
It was putting Christ at thecenter of the organization.
My goals in 21 years that wewould review, and I was always a

(29:42):
firm believer of using Christgood business practices to run
the organization to say, if youjust do things really well,
we're going to do more of it.
We're going to feed more kidssimply.
So let's do this really well.
And so when we did that and theorganization began to grow, it

(30:02):
was an amazing thing to watch.
All of miracles, lots and lotsof trials and, you know, we work
in very, very difficult places.
We're in a hundred countriesnow around the world.
This food goes to missionariesand they're doing the hard work.
Oh my gosh.
People go, oh gee, what a, whata great thing you're doing.

(30:23):
It's like, well, let me tellyou who does the hard work, who
every day risks an awful lot tobe the hands and feet of Christ.
And if we can take that, helpthem walk side by side and say,
well, Okay, you can do all thesethings, but this food, this
nutritious food is going to bethe foundation of your programs.

(30:44):
Then you can go in and reallyhave an impact on a community,
on a village, on a family.
And we've just seen hugedifferences.
And then you get to travel andspend time.
And that for me was one of thebest times.
One is, you know, watchingmovies.
New people like Elsie get hiredand come on board.
That's exciting because thathelps.

(31:06):
That starts and recruiting thevolunteers.
But then you, like you haveseen, that's the other side of
the bag.
This is our side.
The other side is the people inthe field.
It's the children being fed.
And so many children that weknow that are adults now.
that they're healthy, thatthey're pastors and teachers and

(31:28):
nurses and, you know, that'swhat's going to make a
difference in their country is aperson that's grown up, that's
educated, that's healthy, thathas a great set of values.
And that's the ripple effectthat happens over and over
again.
And again, we don't know.
So we've distributed 4.7billion, with a B, billion meals

(31:53):
throughout the world.

Kristine (31:55):
Absolutely incredible.

Mark (31:57):
Yeah.
The most nutritious food.
And you'd look at that and go,okay, looking at where we're
sending this food, how much ofthat food do you think really
gets there because of all theproblems and all the danger and
all the difficulties?
Well, we, of course, track allthat through the years.
And our number is a number thatmakes no sense.

(32:18):
99.8% of the food, that $4.7billion, has gotten to the
tummies of those kids around theworld.
That doesn't make any sense.
You can't rationally come upwith a model that says, oh, I
know how I can accomplish this.
No.
And then we get to see God'shand because we pray over the

(32:41):
food, right?
I'll see every time we prayover the food when we ship it in
a container and God protectsthis food and God wants his kids
fed.
And we watch God.
We're good.
Our partners are really good.
That doesn't take you to 99.8%.
I don't know what takes you tosomething short of that.

(33:01):
And then God's protection doesthe rest.

Kristine (33:05):
Something that I just love about both of you.
And by the way, I'm going toget a God box.

Speaker 01 (33:10):
I'm giving myself a God box.

Kristine (33:11):
I was just thinking I need one too.
But you two, you could be allthese statistics and growth
figures.
you could be giving yourselfcredit for that.
And instead, you're thecomplete, humble servant leaders
that I know.
You give all glory to God.
You've worked tirelessly, bothof you as a team, for the last

(33:36):
21 years on this effort.
And here, still at the end ofthe day, you say, all glory to
God.
And I just...
thoroughly admire that aboutboth of you.
And I think with thatleadership, Christ has said, I'm
going to continue to bless thisorganization, bless this.
You have modeled and within theorganization, you have an

(34:04):
amazing culture where you prayover the food and all glory to
God.
Something I want you to explainto the listeners or viewers
that Maybe if they knew nothingabout Feed My Starving Children,
pretend that you were in anelevator for two minutes or
less.
How would you tell them, Elsieknows, I know, you know, but

(34:29):
we're so close to theorganization.
How would you tell yourlisteners about this amazing
organization?

Mark (34:36):
So Feed My Starving Children, as a relief
organization around the world,is very, very unique.
unlike most relieforganizations.
So Christ is at the center.
So if Christ isn't beinghonored, if it's not about that,
then nothing else we domatters.
So it starts there.
Then it makes sense because wecombine things.

(35:00):
I describe it in car terms.
Sorry.
So we could build a nice 1970Chevy.
Nice car.
Or we could build a 2025 Camry.
Both cars, but very different.
And so let's first start withscience and all of the nutrition

(35:23):
that said to give amalnourished or starving kid
some rice or beans might maketheir belly feel good.
It's not what they need.
It's not enough.
So Scientists have put togetherthis formula that has all of
the things that a child needs todevelop physically,
cognitively, muscles, nerves,all of those things.

(35:43):
Then we're going to usevolunteers, 1.2 million
volunteers in the United Statesthis year, half of them young
people.
Wow, there's a cool thing.
Let's engage them and producethat.
And then we're going to givethis food to missionaries
everywhere.
And NGOs around the world,we're not going to go through

(36:06):
any of the governments.
We're not going to go throughthese.
You know what?
That's fine.
We're not going to do it.
We're going to get it in thehands directly of the people who
are caring for the kids.
Now, it might be a schoolfeeding program.
It might be an orphanage.
It might be a clinic.
However it's happening, they'rethere on the ground and they're
delivering this food.
And they're bringing then theother things that in the United

(36:29):
States we'd say are, oh, thesustainable things.
Well, how can I build a church,build a school, put kids in
school who haven't eaten inthree days?
Who cares?
They're not going to learn.
Let's give them 29 cents a mealof this highly nutritious meal.
And then we just see this.

(36:51):
JJ, our new CEO, was recentlyin Uganda up in a refugee camp
in the northern, close to theSudan area.
And this is a refugee camp ofpeople, mostly Sudanese who've
fled Sudan and South Sudan.
And they're eating our food.
So just in that camp alone,we're feeding 20,000 kids a day.

(37:12):
They're eating our food andthey're going to school there
and they do the government testslike everybody else.
Well, these kids who most ofthem didn't speak the language
that are coming here that are ina refugee camp, guess what?
They're testing among thehighest students in the country.

(37:32):
The government looks at that.
I know this is more than, it's

Speaker 01 (37:36):
a long elevator ride.
I love it.
I love the passion.
You keep going.
It

Mark (37:42):
does.
So the government looked atthis and went, oh my gosh, we
mistakenly must have put thebest teachers in the country in
this refugee camp.
This doesn't make sense.
So they pulled all the teachersout and put them in the regular
public schools and put some newones in there.
And guess what happened?
Nothing other than the kidsbeing top performers.

(38:04):
So maybe it wasn't theteachers.
Maybe it wasn't the curriculum.
Maybe it wasn't.
It was the fact that these kidswere healthy.
So they could concentrate.
So they could just do, theycould study well.
And all of those things led, toa development, a progress that

(38:27):
is possible or so difficultwithout the right nutrition.
And so you look at all of thosethings.
I describe this as being weirdas an organization, but it's a
great, powerful thing.
And again, the glory, when Iwould bring food somewhere, so

(38:48):
you're in Sudan or you're in,the Philippines or in Laos or
wherever you are, and you putthis food in the hands of a mom
who are so powerful for me.
Moms are just like the force onthis earth.
And now she has food for herkids, which is almost always her

(39:11):
top concern.
How do I feed my kids?
How do I keep my kids alive?
And you do that.
So, If you don't do that, youjust go in there and say, you
know what?
God loves you, and I'm going togive you my best sermon.
Not likely you're going to hearme because of your
circumstances.
Now, let's go in there, beChrist's hands and feet, and

(39:34):
let's meet your basic needs andfeed you and your family.
Then that opens the door.
Our partners say all kinds ofwonderful things like, your food
is the little key that opensthe big door.

Speaker 01 (39:49):
You

Mark (39:50):
know, things that just, for us, allow us to be that
catalyst.
And then God comes in.
And this is an amazing thing towatch.
When a mom looks at you,because her babies are now
alive, and said, God bless youfor feeding my babies.
I didn't feed her babies.

(40:10):
That's what the volunteers did.
That's what the people whodonate so we can buy all these
ingredients did.
we're just the catalyst.
And then the partners are doingthe really, really important
work.

Kristine (40:25):
You have incredible passion.
Just this past January, myhusband's son and I were in
Africa with International CareMinistries passing out Feed My
Starving Children food.
And I can't even articulate butecho what you said, Mark, when
those moms or dads said, Whenthose kids get that food, the

(40:47):
look in their eye, their joy,their excitement, their hope, it
is a feeling like none other.
And I just, I have like ahundred questions I want to ask
you, but Elsie, I'm going togive you an opportunity.
What question would you like toask Mark and Rose?

Elsie (41:08):
Well, it's just been so fun for me because even now in
the background, our listenersprobably hear the forklift
running.
I've heard a lot of beeping inthe background and I can hear
lots of people out there.
And what's cool is that you'retalking about the hope on the
ground, but this is amultifaceted thing where I've
gotten to see that volunteersfind hope in this work.

(41:29):
And it's just a continualripple effect of when people
walk through the door, somepeople walk through the door,
not even wanting to be here andthey leave knowing that they
made a difference and so i justhave found it so unbelievably
unique that it's truly aministry on both sides of the

(41:51):
funnel on We say that because onthis side, the volunteers are
the ones that are packing themeals.
And then people like Mark,people that work in the
international programs, they getto see what's going on on the
ground.
And just truly remarkable thatboth sides are being able to see
and kind of get a glimpse ofwhat hope means.

(42:13):
So I know you touched on this,but just we talk about hope
starts with food.
And like, explain that a littlebit more.
When people do get a glimpse ofhope, when they start to see
hope through food, how do theystart envisioning their future
differently and the trajectoryof the rest of their life,

(42:35):
really?

Mark (42:36):
It is really obvious.
I would tell you in a lot ofways, it's certainly verbal, but
it is all of the other things.
So when you see a mom standingin line and it's 100 degrees
out, And you see the angst onher face.
And then you put a box of foodin her hands.

(42:58):
And that might be enough for amonth for her family.
She has never had in her life,likely more than a day or two's
worth of food ever.
And you see joy erupt on herface.
And, you know, you can hear thewords too, but if you just
physically, it's...
Their features are altered,honest to gosh.

(43:21):
And they can come home because,you know, they're in survival
mode.
They're not thinking abouttheir kids in school or they're
not thinking about, you know,how to have a better life.
They're just trying to survive.
When we did a big program onthe Philippines in Miranduke, we
did a celebration at the end ofthis program.

(43:41):
We reduced malnutrition on theisland.
from about 18,000 children downto about 1,200 over a period of
a couple of years.
So drastically altered theisland, which allowed them, once
they were healthy, to do wellin school, to do other things.

(44:03):
And at the end, the Philippineslove to have big celebrations.
So we had a big celebration.
And I had two people at twotimes during the day, because
you're going to celebratefrom...
7.30 in the morning until 9o'clock at night.
But this mom came up early inthe morning and she thanked me.
She said, I just want to thankyou because my kids are eating

(44:24):
this food in school every day.
And she said, I never thoughtmy kids were smart.
And now they come home and theytell me what they're doing in
school.
They show me the work they'redoing.
And she said, my kids are sosmart.
Of course they're smart.
You know, that hope, thatchanges everything for her.

(44:46):
Later on in the day, a dad cameup and they had started these
community savings programs andpeople would pool their money
together so people could startbusinesses.
And like ICM, you know, theywould, the partners would have
kind of like ready startbusinesses, different kinds
people could do to just help.
If you can take them from adollar a day to $3 a day, you've

(45:10):
transformed their life.
Husband came up, this dad cameup and said, I've got to tell
you, before this whole programstarted here and the feeding, he
said, I didn't care aboutanybody else.
I didn't care about myneighbors.
All I cared about is how do Itake care of my family today?
That's where my focus was.
He said, now I care about myneighbors.

(45:33):
If my neighbor has a childthat's sick, I want to do
something to help them.
And that's the hope.
That's the change that's said.
It's gone from, I'm just, youknow, blinders on.
I'm just focused here tosaying, okay, what can I do?
The people, you know, justgoing to the Lord because

(45:57):
they've seen what the Lord isdoing for them just gives them a
whole different perspective.
It's so really, reallypowerful.
You know, stories are soimportant for us And they tell
what we do in so many betterways.
And for us, so we've got anumber of stories.
She's giving the wide leg,which one are you going to tell?

(46:19):
So this is when we were in ElSalvador after a hurricane, 55
inches of rain in three days.
I mean, just it washed all thecrops away.
It was just devastating.
And I love the Salvadoransbecause they're beautiful.
They're very community-mindedpeople, but they're very much,
please come and help us.
We need your help.
And then when you're done,thank you very much.

(46:42):
Get out of our way.
You know, it was a wonderful.
And so we were in a village andit was very much elder men,
elder women.
That's how they ran thevillage.
And Rose and I were standingthere with this group of the
elder women and maybe eight, 10women there.
And I got our food and I'mexplaining the food to the

(47:04):
ladies.
Now, I've been married a fewyears here.
And as a guy- Guys, you'll knowthis.
I know what the look is, right?
And so as I'm explaining andthis young Salvadoran woman is
translating for me, I'm lookingat these women and they are all
giving me the look.
And it's like, uh-oh, I saidsomething and it got translated

(47:26):
into maybe something like you'reall ugly or something.
You know, I'm thinking, oh,this is not good.
So I turned to the Young woman,I said, did I offend them?
Because they don't look happywith me.
She goes, oh, I don't think so.
I'll ask them.
Then she gives me the look.
And I'm thinking, oh, I'm so introuble

Kristine (47:45):
here.
I love it.

Mark (47:46):
And she looks at me and she goes, Mr.
Kriya, they appreciate thisfood.
They appreciate what it will dofor their families.
But you're basically tellingthese women how to cook.
And they've been cooking beforeyou were born.
So why don't you leave yourwife

Speaker 01 (48:06):
here and go

Mark (48:07):
hang out with the men?
We kind of don't, respectfullydon't really need you.
And so I was happy to leavethem with my wife and go join
the men.

Rose (48:19):
We had a very nice time.

Mark (48:20):
Yes, I bet you did.
Because the guys were gone, so.

Kristine (48:25):
You both have been on countless trips overseas and
given of your hearts and timeand lives and effort.
And I would love to ask you forthe next three hours about all
of those trips.
Okay.
Elsie, I want to give you theopportunity.
Mom has a lot of questions thatI'm excited about, but Elsie,

(48:47):
you go ahead.
I know you have a lot on yourheart today.

Elsie (48:50):
Yeah, there's so many things you could say because
I've gotten to see more of FMSCthe last nine months.
There's just you know, hundredsof questions you could ask.
And I love hearing what youshared about the rededication
back to the Lord, because that'sso evident.
That's so evident.
Like when I work a shift, weget to pray five times with

(49:11):
volunteers because we have fivesessions a day.
So if you're local to Minnesotaor other states that we are
located in, come in and it's anincredible opportunity to feed
kids.
And then you are invited to anoptional prayer time after.
So That was just truly a greatreminder for me that everything

(49:33):
we do here It's reallyintentional that we want to
dedicate it back to God.
And that's been such a greatexperience.
But I think for our listeners,we would like to share other
ways that people can getinvolved.
And I just wanted to say this.
This is so random, but I'mwearing the new donation
t-shirt.

(49:53):
So the only reason I wanted tosay that is...
You can feed a child for a yearwith $106, and there's so many
ways to get involved.
I know that you can share moreas well, Mark, but it's just
incredible that this is anopportunity to be a part of
something bigger than yourself.
And yeah, what a privilege.

(50:13):
So we want to inspire othershow they can get involved with
FMSC.

Mark (50:19):
I would go back to what this podcast is about, and that
is the pebble that said, whatare all the ripples?
What happens there?
And it's everything from thevolunteers coming in and
actually doing the work, butthen helping us, whether it's,
boy, if I could feed my kidsevery day for a year for $106 or
$108, I'd be happy.

(50:41):
And then this nutritious meal.
It's just an incredible pieceto have for people to come in
and do this work.
People look to the food alwaysto say, wow, that's really
powerful.
I agree.
But you know what?
Equally powerful is, we call itfeeding the body, feeding the

(51:02):
spirit.
It's feeding the spirit of thevolunteers and others that come
and help us every day becausethey leave impacted.
Maybe it's a short-termimpacted, or maybe it's
something like Elsie that said,hey, we have so many staff who
grew up coming and packing food.

(51:22):
And some would say, I'm goingto work here someday.
And others would just say,okay, now what do I want to do?
I want to make a difference inthe world.
Well, come on here.
And you can do that.
And the need is great.
You know, if we just kind ofmention the numbers a little
bit.
So it's 29 cents to feed a kidfor a day, this highly

(51:44):
nutritious meal.
That's crazy.
When people say, well, are yougood stewards?
Are you good if I give you adonation?
Yes, we are.
We're rated one of the topcharities in the United States.
19 years plus Charity Navigatorfour-star rating.
That just doesn't happen outthere.
You might win one once in awhile, but not 19 years in a

(52:07):
row.
But we work hard at thatbecause we know if we save
another 29 cents, we're going tofeed another kid.
The need in the world is unlikeI have seen in 21 years now.
It's significant.
So for a long time, the worldwas whittling down the

(52:29):
starvation, the number of kidswho were dying every day of
hunger until COVID hit.
And then everything got turnedupside down.
And so now, if we're going todo 400 million meals in a year,
our partners request how muchfood our existing partners from

(52:49):
us every year.
And so we make that commitmenta year in advance.
And they want 200 million mealsmore than we're going to
produce.
That's a tragic number.
The good news is we've got theprocess, the ability to produce

(53:09):
more.
The biggest factor is can weraise enough funds to buy enough
ingredients?
And like everybody else, thecost of our ingredients in the
last four years has gone up alot.
And so It's kind of like buyinga dozen eggs, but for us it's
rice and vitamins and thosethings.

(53:30):
So we've had to deal with thatand try to produce more food.
The second thing is because wehave become so recognizable or
more successful because people,other missionaries would look at
the goal.
Why are your kids so healthyover there?
What's going on?
And they'd say, well, here'sthis food we're feeding.
Okay, well, can I get some ofthat?

(53:50):
So in the last three years, Neworganizations, not our existing
organizations that we'resending 400 million, but new
ones, we have had to say no over3,000 times.
The 3,000 organizations in thelast three years because we

(54:12):
simply don't have enough food.
So can we impact the world evenmore?
Yes, we can.
We're poised.
We're ready to do that now.
How do we do that?
Well, the right kind of supportwill allow us to feed more of
God's kids.
We know he wants them fed.
We know what he does to protectthis food and the difference it

(54:32):
makes for kids, for peoplearound the world.
And so that's our charge.
And through the years, I don'tcare what kind of a roadblock or
what kind of obstacles or theHaiti earthquake.
I mean, you can look at allkinds of events in the world.
Ukraine, we went from 2 millionmeals a year for refugees

(54:58):
before the war broke out to 33million meals going just to
Ukraine, just to the refugeesthere.
And so our ability to respondto tragedies around the world is
significant.
And so that's what we do.

Kristine (55:15):
Well, and once you say Mark and Rose, Much work has
been done, but there istremendous, tremendous
staggering need.
And for the listeners, we'reasking you to, number one,
consider praying for

Speaker 01 (55:33):
this amazing organization.
We

Kristine (55:35):
need your prayers most for the organization.
The organization is doingamazing, but they believe in the
power of prayer.
They've been significant forChrist and his kingdom because
of the power of prayer.
So if we can partner with youlisteners in praying, we're also
encouraging you to go pack foodwith Elsie and her team.

(55:59):
Absolutely.
Whenever you desire.
Whenever you desire.
If you hear some backgroundnoise, Elsie is at Feed My
Starving Children in Coon Rapidsright now.
And you can hear the forkliftin the back.
You can hear the volunteers inthe back.
You can hear the buzz in theback because people are excited.
They can do something.

(56:20):
So for you listeners, what youcan do.
is we really want to encourageyou to throw your own pebbles,
make your own ripples, go make adifference.
You can go pack for an hour anda half or days on end.
And when you leave that place,I love the feeling of packing.

(56:40):
You know that you've beensomething, you've been a part of
something so much greater thanyourself and we all can do
something to make a difference.
So we're asking you to considerpraying number one, packing,
volunteering, giving money,going and seeing the work on the
ground.
And Mark and Rose, something Iwant you to speak to, I think a

(57:05):
lot of people here in the US,and there'll be people listening
across the world, and we'remindful that you might be in
difficult situations and noperson is better than the next.
Every person...
earns the right for equaldignity.
And so whether someone has apenny to their name or a million

(57:30):
dollars to their name, Jesusloves you all the same.
And everybody is equallyspecial in this world and
everybody is equally importantto the kingdom.
But something that I strugglewith here in the U.S.
is how do we get the messageout, Mark and Rose?
Unless someone talks to afamily like your family and they

(57:54):
hear what it means to be partof the ultra poor or they talk
to another nonprofit and learnwhat it means to be ultra poor
or they go see the workthemselves.
I can't blame people, a lot ofpeople in this country, and I
don't take lightly that we haveour own poverty here in America,
but unless someone talks to youtwo or other organizations or

(58:17):
goes to see the work, it'sreally hard to understand.
Mark and Rose, if you couldarticulate and put it into
words, what does it look like tolive in an ultra poor village,
but I just got to say one thing,and I don't want to paint this
with too wide of a brush, and itmakes me emotional.
Every time I spend a little bitof time with the ultra poor, I

(58:42):
don't sharpen them, they sharpenme.
And when I come home, I'mreminded to have joy in the
Lord, to have joy in that onemeal a day, to have joy in
family.
And I'm not insinuating thatthese times are, aren't tough.
I can't imagine they're a wayof life.
But what I've learned most istheir gratitude and their joy.

(59:05):
Can you paint a picture for thelisteners that haven't
experienced poverty, what thatmight look and feel like on a
given day?

Rose (59:15):
Well, I was just going to say, I think in traveling, going
to some of these countries,seeing the way they live, the
thing that hit me the most wasthe smells.
Because you see the pictures,but the smells are just
horrendous.
And I've never experienced, Imean, we wouldn't, most of this

(59:37):
country would not let their dogslive the way these people live.
It just breaks my heart.
I wish, the one thing I wishfor every donor, every
volunteer, everyone that'sinvolved with FMSC is the
ability to hand a bowl of foodto someone else that needs it.
It's

Mark (01:00:00):
life-changing.
It is.
Probably the best words are thewords that come directly from
the people we're serving.
And so when you look at thedifference, I mean, we have
terms like, oh, this is firstworld problems, right?
You talked to somebody thatsaid, this isn't about...

(01:00:24):
gee, what are we going to eattoday or how many times are we
going to eat today?
But when are we going to eatnext?
And so I've been in so manysituations where people would
just say, if we eat two, threetimes a week, that's good.
I mean, nobody eats more thanonce a day.

(01:00:45):
In Haiti, they would say, well,you're rich if you eat twice.
every day or you eat, you havetwo things a day that you can
eat.
It's just not part of what theydo.
If you're earning just a littlebit of money for whatever
you're doing, how do you takethat and buy something to eat

(01:01:08):
for your family.
You're not going to, you know,you got to live somewhere.
You're going to have to likelypay some of that.
Well, how about water?
Water's very difficult.
Do you have to buy water or doyou have to walk five miles to
get water?
School might be free, but yourkids need uniforms and they need

(01:01:29):
notebooks and things.
Well, even if that's $5 amonth, that's, you don't have
that.
Your kids don't go to school.
For four girls, one of thethings that impacted me over the
years around the world is wewould go to places where a
family would likely make asacrifice and say, we will send

(01:01:50):
the oldest boy to school, but wecan't afford to send any of the
other kids, especially thegirls.
They don't need to go toschool.
And then you bring this foodinto a village or into a school
and they'll say, What?
The kids are eating every dayat school?
They'll send all of the kids,even the girls, send them to

(01:02:13):
school.
Then what happens?
Well, of course, the girlsaccelerate.
They're going to kick the boys,you know what, scholastically
and do well.
But they're getting thenutrition.
They're getting educated.
They're just going to be betterat life.
You know, there's all kinds offactors.

(01:02:34):
Whether that is just eating,whether that's healthcare,
whether that's education,whether that's having a roof
over your head, clean water, allof those things are factors.
And another thing that'sdifferent about us is we focus
on food.
That's what we do.
We do it very well.
Well, how about all those otherissues?

(01:02:56):
How about the best farmingpractices?
Yes, those are important.
It's not something we're goingto do.
We're going to work with otherorganizations that do that, but
we're going to continue.
We're going to be veryvertical, if you use that term,
to say we're going to do thisfood.
We have multiple formulas thattake care of certain issues,

(01:03:16):
certain different issues in theworld nutritionally, but that's
just going to make the bigdifference.
If you don't have that, havinga roof over your head might be
nice.
Talk to a mom.
That's not the thing.
When we were in...
in Ukraine and in the refugeecamps and talking to all these

(01:03:38):
moms, because it was moms andkids.
That's what you saw there.
And lots of young moms who arein a situation they've never
been in in their life.
And the first word out of theirmouth is, I need something for
my kids.
I need to feed my kids.
Yes, I'd like safety.
Yes, I'd like shelter.
Yes, I'd like those otherthings.
But that wasn't the first thingthey mentioned.

(01:03:59):
So take care of that.
And then other things canhappen and do happen.
And so that's a difference.
And we just don't.
If I'm hungry, I could walkaround our neighborhood and find
a dozen places to say, couldyou make me a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich?
They don't have that option.

(01:04:20):
They don't have anything.
There's no safety nets.
There's no, go to the pastor.
He doesn't have anything.
You know, so it's...
It's a thing.
Your neighbors are as hungryand poor as you are.
And so how do you make thatdifference?
Well, that's part of what wefocus on because we know

(01:04:40):
fundamentally that's thefoundation that other things can
be built on.

Kristine (01:04:47):
You said that so well.
Elsie, I'm going to let yousign off, but Elsie's starting
her shift in a couple minutes.
And you know what excites me?
I can just hear you.
Welcome to Feed My StarvingChildren.
But Elsie, we're excited aboutyour impact and your passion for
FMSC.
You're literally at FMSC rightnow.

(01:05:07):
You're going to meet with thevolunteers.
You're going to see the hope,the food in action, the packing,
the praying over the food.
Elsie, inspire our listenersand then we'll continue the
conversation for a bit.
But what would you like thelisteners to know?
And give us two lines of youropener so people can get excited

(01:05:27):
to pray, to volunteer, andpossibly donate.

Elsie (01:05:31):
We actually covered almost everything that we share
about who we are, what we do.
The one thing that we bring uppretty much immediately is just
truly the reality that theleading statistic of world
hunger is that across the globe,one person dies every four
seconds due to hunger-relatedcauses.
So I think that just kind of itputs you back like mentally of

(01:05:57):
like, how critical is this?
And I try to challenge people.
If you can think of anythingmore critical to human life than
food or water, let me know.
But you, I just, I know thatpeople walk out the door knowing
they're saving lives, knowingthat like what Mark was sharing,
you can start focusing on otherthings when you have food, but

(01:06:19):
that's the basic need that we'retrying to help people receive
and help them.
So yeah, I'm excited that I getto be here and I'll probably
hop on the forklift later todayand move some pallets of rice
and soy and get to chat withvolunteers and pray with
volunteers.

(01:06:39):
And so it's truly a greatopportunity, but thanks for
having me on.
It's awesome that you guys madeit all the way to Spicer and
I'm sure I'll see you soon.
So thank you.

Mark (01:06:50):
Thanks.
Thank you,

Kristine (01:06:52):
Elsie.
I want to bring up somethingthat is really difficult.
I think a parent's worst fearis losing a child.
Rose and Mark, you're walkingin shoes that I can't even

(01:07:14):
proclaim to understand.
You're living through my worstfear.
Noel is with us.
Absolutely.
She will never be forgotten.
She was a beautiful womaninside and out with a tremendous
impact.
And still today, her impact isher ripple effect.

(01:07:38):
Noel from heaven cannot bemeasured.
My heart and sympathy go out toboth of you for losing a child.
And we can't, most of uslistening might never experience
or feel the pain.
For us that haven't lost achild to say that we understand,

(01:08:02):
you'd have to walk in that painto understand.
And our deepest sympathy in ourhearts.
And we couldn't have been moreproud of the parents that you
were to her, the grandchildrenthat you have.
the beautiful daughter inChrist that she was.
And I want to say again, Noelwill never be forgotten.

(01:08:24):
And to this day, I just knowwith all my heart that Noel
continues to carry a rippleeffect.
I've got goosebumps thinking ofNoel that can never be
measured.
But I want to equate that aswell.
And I don't say this lightly.

(01:08:45):
As Elsie just said, I think thestatistic is, you correct me if
I'm wrong, approximately 20% ofthe ultra-poor will lose a
child.
I believe it's about 20%.
Is that right, Mark, of theultra-poor?

Mark (01:09:03):
Yeah, and you know, it can vary a lot throughout the
world, but it's rare that, andmissionaries would tell us that
they would go into a villagethat was ultra-poor and not find
a a mom, a woman in thatvillage who had not lost a
child.
And, you know, it might havebeen to sickness, but the

(01:09:25):
sickness, it was the result ofsomeone being so, you know,
malnourished, so susceptible tothat.
In a weird way, it did make itmore real for us to, Just sit
there and talk to another momwho had lost a child.

(01:09:46):
Now, we lost a child to cancer.
She lost a child to starvation.
That's curable.
That shouldn't have to happen.
And that's why we're here to dothat.
Nonetheless, that loss to say,okay, I understand that.

(01:10:08):
that loss that you have, atleast our version of it.
And that shouldn't...
And then to say, oh my gosh,it's because you didn't have any
food.
When you were talking aboutthat, there's always...
My problem is there's thingsthat just flash in my head all
the time.
Go back to different trips,different stories.

(01:10:30):
And I remember being in thePhilippines and being in a
garbage dump, which is anexperience...
even beyond the ultra poor.
It's like, you're not on planetearth and you're, and you're
seeing this, this very, verydifficult stuff.
And we were walking in and thepaths are narrow and Filipinos
are short.

(01:10:51):
So I'm having to walk like thisbecause there's, there's closed
lines and all kinds of stuffrunning across from, and it's
just little hut next to littlehut all the way.
And it's, And it was like aspider web.
And so we walked in and therewas a pastor and a program at
the center of this garbage dumpwhere he was feeding the kids

(01:11:11):
every day.
And then we walked out adifferent way.
I mean, I don't know how manyins and outs there were, but
what just shocked me was on theway in, as we were walking in,
we walked by one of the littletin huts and here was a mom with
a dead baby in her arms.

(01:11:31):
And so the missionary stoppedand said, okay, what's going on
here?
What happened?
Well, my child just got sick,had a fever.
And you looked at that childand you just said, well, you
know what was a problem?
She didn't have the food, themedicine.
You know, we'd go to themedicine cabinet or urgent care

(01:11:52):
and it would have been fixed.
On the way out, we encounteredanother mom.
with a dead child.
This one was in a little tinycasket, had died a couple of
days earlier, a day or twoearlier.
And I just thought, if we spentthe day walking in and out of
all of the, you know, how manydeceased kids just now are here

(01:12:18):
in this one place, on this oneisland, in this one country?
And it just gives you pause tosay, this is not...
This is daily occurrences.
This is something so manypeople, moms and dads, brothers
and sisters, this is part oftheir life.
You know, the thing whereparents don't name their child

(01:12:42):
until they're several months oldbecause why name a child who
likely won't survive?
Well, oh my gosh.
We just don't have to thinkthat way or worry about those
things.
And how does that, going backto the hope, How does that
interrupt or keep hope fromhappening?
Because that's not physically,mentally, anything spiritually

(01:13:07):
where you can be.
And then you fundamentallyswitch that and all the other
things can start to happen.
And you just start to see thathope, which results in, and
people, you know, Thinkingabout, okay, now what do I want
for my children other than tokeep them alive today?

(01:13:29):
Well, that's kind of now beingtaken care of.
So now I can think maybe moreabout the things that you and I
think about, and that is we wanta better life for our kids.
We want them to do well.
We want them to, again, thegarbage dumps, if you just look
at the people there, that's whatthey do.
They spend 12 hours a day in agarbage dump trying to, you

(01:13:53):
know, as salvagers trying tofind plastic or aluminum or
whatever or something that theycan eat or something that they
can sell.
And they'll make maybe a dollaror two for 12 hours work.
I don't know how you survive onthat.
It's very difficult.
The pastors in some of thecountries in the Far East, when

(01:14:14):
we would talk to them, theseyoung guys, one of them we've
been praying a lot for, theywere earning $30 a month.
I don't know how you survive onthat.
And so what can help?
And if you give them somemoney, they're going to give it
to somebody poorer.

(01:14:34):
I mean, that's the other thing,because they're all walking
saints.
And so let's do something thatdoes help them.
If we can fix their motorcycle,if we can give them some money
for gas, whatever it takes.
Because they're doing the hardwork every

Kristine (01:14:53):
day.
Mark and Rose, you haveincredible passion.
The passion just runs throughyour veins for the kingdom and
for Feed My Starving Childrenand for the lives, the precious
lives of people.
I want to share with you why Ibrought up Noelle.
And I bring her up because...

(01:15:13):
I think of her often.
I think of your family often.
She'll never be forgotten.
I have tremendous reverence fora pain that you're walking
through.
Noel had a immeasurable impacton earth.
I believe that Noel continuesto have an immeasurable impact

(01:15:36):
from heaven.
But do you guys know a painthat Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You know a pain, and when yousit face to face with the

(01:16:14):
ultra-poor, you are in the boatwith them.
Afner Noel passed away, andshe's right here with us today,
and those beautiful threechildren.
But were you able to haveconversations with the
ultra-poor as to your situationand being able to hear their

(01:16:36):
hearts and share thatcommunication together.

Mark (01:16:39):
Absolutely.
It's something that you just, Imean, it's there.
It's not like, well, let metell you.
No,

Rose (01:16:47):
one of the most moving things was, we went to Africa
right after Noel died.
And I just sat and cried with awoman.
We didn't understand eachother.
She had lost her child.
And to just share that momentwith her, I will never forget

(01:17:12):
that moment.
And to be able to touch eachother, it was a God moment.
Of which we've had many throughthe years, but it does.
It changes who you are.
And that's okay.
We're who we're supposed to be.

(01:17:32):
we went to Heart for Africa.
And they're an organizationthat adopts, takes in abandoned
children, basically, or childrenin need under 12 months.
And when we were there, theywere waiting for a baby to be

(01:17:53):
born.
And it was going to be a littlegirl.
And so Janine asked me if itwould be okay if they named her
Noelle.
So we have our Noel in Africa.
We're going to go see her.
We have seen her a few times,but we're going to take Brad and
the kids next year.
It'll be Noel's 10thanniversary and take the kids

(01:18:15):
there to meet her.
It's, you know, blessings andsorrow and some wonderful things
have come out of it.

Kristine (01:18:31):
May the Lord continue to hold you too tight, so tight.
Someday, God willing, I want togo to Heart for Africa.
I want to meet that Noel.
And Rose, I want to thank you.
The woman that you cried with,you could understand each other.
But thank you, Lord, fortouching her and crying with her

(01:18:51):
and being the hands and feet ofJesus in that moment.
Well, Mark has already told meand Rose, they're supposed to be
retired.
He said at the end of the day,they're going back to feed my
starving children.
He's the CEO emeritus.
And instead of putting theirfeet up on the couch, this

(01:19:12):
warrior team for Christ, youcan't even stop them.
So it's brought me tremendousjoy.
This is beyond an honor.
An absolute privilege, and Idon't say this loosely, please
receive my words.
I know I speak for countlesspeople.
In my 51 years of life, knowinga lot of people across the

(01:19:35):
world, you two sit at the toprung of reverence that I have.
You have done impactful kingdomwork.
Like I said, when we opened...
your ripples, the differenceyou've made in the lives of
others, you too, the livesyou've changed and saved.

(01:19:55):
You don't have a clue what Godhas done through Mark and Rose
Crea.
And the Rose and Mark that Iknow, they're just humble
servants for the Lord.
They just get up day in and dayout, and they just keep loving
on people and doing kingdomwork.
And so...

(01:20:15):
Praise God that you said yes tofeed my starving children.
He picked you out and I believeyou were anointed.
Anointed.
I know you were to do thiswork.

Rose (01:20:29):
It has been a blessing to be able to do this.

Kristine (01:20:33):
We're just extremely thankful and we celebrate your
work.
retirement, but we know you'renot even retired.
You continue to march on.
There's just one other thingthat I want to ask you before we
end today.
And I did a little bit ofresearch on this.
The United Nations has 17sustainable development goals to

(01:20:59):
transform our world.
The number one goal of theUnited Nations is no poverty.
The number two goal is zerohunger.
Again, so much work has beendone and there is so much work
to do.
Mark and Rose, what would youwant to say to our listeners as

(01:21:29):
far as If we all do something,we can all do something.
We can all, we just need to, weneed to continue to roll up our
sleeves and to work hard atthis.
Yes, the need is grave.
But at the same time, We canwrap our arms around this.

(01:21:50):
We can put a larger dent.
We can save more lives.
We can make a differencetogether.
And we're so thankful for allthe work that's been done.
We celebrate that.
We don't want to take lightlythe meals that have been sent,
the work of the Feed My StarvingChildrens of the world, the
leaders.
Thank you.
Thank you for all the Mark andRose Creas of the world, all the

(01:22:12):
way down to the prayerpartners, the volunteers, you
know, All the people, tremendouswork has been done and we're
grateful.
There's so much more work to bedone.
Your work can be go see Markand Rose, whatever stories,

(01:22:57):
statistics, whatever's on yourheart left to share that you
didn't get an opportunity toshare.
And then help me with a call toaction for Feed My Starving
Children.
Get involved with thisfaith-based organization that we

(01:23:17):
could not be more proud of.
And Mark and Rose Crea, Godbless you.
God bless your work.
May the Lord richly bless yourfamily.
We are so thankful for who youare in the kingdom work that you
have done.
You two throw out the lastpebbles.
No pressure.

(01:23:38):
What would you like to leavewith our listeners today?

Rose (01:23:41):
One thing that comes to my mind, my youngest daughter,
when we started all this, hergoal was, was to correct
everyone that said they werestarving, that she came across.
I love that.
No, you're not starving.
You're hungry.
But just that acknowledgement,that mindset that starving

(01:24:03):
really is not what we experiencein this country for the most
part.
Just keep in mind that thereare people starving.

Kristine (01:24:15):
Thank you, Rose.
I love that.

Mark (01:24:19):
God put enough food on the earth to feed everyone.
So it's not like, oh my gosh,we couldn't do this even.
No, we can.
God put that there.
He just left it up to us to bethe caretakers of that.
And so I would just tell you,man screws up an awful lot

(01:24:42):
around the world and doesn't dothat very well.
And so You know, for people whosay, ah, it's crazier.
Oh, the younger generation.
Oh, no, no.
Have faith that this all ishappening and can have an ever

(01:25:04):
bigger impact.
So, first of all, pray.
We're just, as an organization,as a couple, prayer just
centers our life.
You just simply can't prayenough.
Give us your hands for a couplehours, for an hour and a half.
Come on in and volunteer.
And we have mobile.

(01:25:25):
So if you're around the UnitedStates, we have mobile packs.
So you can go on our website,look and see when it's coming to
Cleveland or when an event'scoming to Denver or whatever.
If you're where our sites are,we've got eight of them right
now.
We're going to open some morearound the United States.
you get lots of opportunities.

(01:25:46):
If you're in the Twin Cities,if you're in Chicago or Phoenix
or Dallas, we're open six days aweek, 12 hours a day, session
after session.
Elsie just said it, fivesessions a day.
Come on in and volunteer.
Bring your family, bring yourchurch, bring your work, bring
your Boy Scout troop or yourhockey team or whatever.

(01:26:08):
We get all of that.
That's just a wonderful way todo that.
And then help us financially.
Anything.
It is the widow's might here.
29 cents.
I love it when kids will comein and they'll have a lemonade
stand or they'll just haveraided their piggy bank and the

(01:26:28):
parents are standing behind themwith big smiles on their faces
because their kids said, here,here's three bucks.
I want to just feed some kids.
And the parents are like, It'slike, well, mom, dad, you did a
good job.
You exposed this kid to thingsthat are important and look at
the impact.
Look at how they're thinkingabout this.
And that difference is sopowerful.

(01:26:52):
In a lot of very difficult,oppressed places around the
world, this is the light thatbegins to shine.
This is the difference.
I don't know, maybe the pebblegets to be a little bigger or
something, but the ripples areWe have seen them in the most
remarkable ways and thedifference it makes for people.

(01:27:14):
And so big impact here.
Just help us and even doing alittle bit is going to make a
big difference.
You know, feed one kid thisgreat meal for a day.
Wow, if everybody just didthat, we'd be feeding a lot of
kids.
We're feeding over a million aday right now, 1.2 million.

(01:27:37):
In the next couple of years, wewould like to be feeding at
least a million and a half aday.
Now, still a lot more work todo, but those partners, those
places in the world are ready.
I think our job is tough.
Our partners, thosemissionaries that are out there
that are saying, here's who I'mfeeding here, but I don't have

(01:28:01):
enough food to feed them here.
And so I'm saying no andwatching people suffer.
And if I had, they'll take us.
We'll be someplace withmissionaries.
And somewhere along the line,usually it happens sooner than
later, we'll get this, look,we'll be seeing something or

(01:28:22):
we're hiking through the bush togo somewhere.
And they'll stop and go, nowlet's talk about more food.
How do we, can you give us somemore food?
Because, and they're so sincereabout it, but it's like, We're
ready to do more.
Can you help us do more?

Kristine (01:28:42):
Rose and Mark, on behalf of myself, Elsie, all of
the listeners, we have beeneducated greatly.
We've been inspired.
We have been encouraged to gomake a difference.
Thank you to both of you fromthe bottom of our hearts for
your service all these years,your entire lives.

(01:29:03):
And we know that you're goingto continue to serve.
Yep.
Thank you to both of you.
We are so grateful.

Mark (01:29:14):
Happy to do this.
Thank you.

Kristine (01:29:18):
This has been the One Pebble Podcast.
One pebble, so many ripples.
What will you do to make adifference?