Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome,
and it's time now for our community connection right here on King one,
though one you trust, and we've got Lighthouse Outreach Center. Errol, how
are you doing today? I'm doing great. Well, You're always doing great.
You got the power of the Lord behind you, man, and you
brought friends right all right. We got John in here today. We're gonna
hear from him in a little bit. How you doing today, young man?
Doing well? Thank you? Well, of course you are. It's
a great day to be around, isn't it. It's a plus day.
Oh boy, I tell you what. We've got a great concert coming up.
I don't know how you pulled this, saw, Errol, but you
spotted a nice duo when you were away at a conference that you believe.
Tell us a little bit about this dynamic duo. Our first heard Blake and
Jenna at Gideon's annuals Say convention in Oklahoma City a couple of years ago,
and I went up and visit with them afterwards at their booth and just really
connected with them, and I thought, man, it'd be great to tell
them to come to Bartlesville sometime. And then first Baptist Church scheduled them here.
They were here about a year ago at the First Baptists here in town,
and then they were scheduled in Pahaska. And I didn't get to go
to the concert in Bartlesville, but they were in Pasca about six months ago
at the Constant Theater. And went over there and heard them, and their
performance was wonderful. Again. And there's two things. Their musical ability is
amazing and yet their spiritual depth it's also it's a beautiful blend of talent and
inspiration. Wow, it all came from one place straight above. Now,
this is great. This is going to be a benefit concert for Lighthouse.
I understand correct right. It'll be this Friday night at seven o'clock at the
Oklahoma Wesleyan Lions Chapel. That's a smaller chapel there. And the purpose there's
threefold purpose, and I want to make it very clear to people. First
of all, it's a wonderful spiritual concert, wonderful and inspiring concert. Secondly,
to showcase to the community what God is doing in the lives of people
with the light. We have two people that will give their testimony of how
God has worked in life. There and then the third thing, it's a
fundraiser. We don't apologize for that. We want to raise money where our
goal is twenty five thousand dollars after everything's paid, so that will be used
to help operating expences. We get grants for building and buying vehicles and equipment,
but we don't get grants for operating expenses, so we have to raise
that other ways. And we just want to get people part with the chance
to be blessed by helping out. Also. Now, last time your year,
you had some astonishing statistics that came from a Lighthouse outreach, And by
any measure, that is success. When you have people who are turning their
lives around, giving their lives to Christ and going out and becoming productive people
in the world, not only for society, but for themselves and their own
families. That's a turnaround that words just can't quite describe, very very encouraging.
As I go through the community and I see former residents, I recognize
some of them. They come up to me and they identify themselves sometimes because
they're so different from what they were at the lighthouse, and it's wonderful to
see this transformation from being in a state of desperation to a place of flourishing
and really being a productive citizen and living for the Lord. Indeed, the
attitude changes, the gratitude changes, the heart changes, the mind changes,
the behavior changes. And it didn't happen overnight. It takes a while to
do that. And that's something that we've learned over the years. We're not
going to have a lot of overnight successes. In fact, somebody once said
it takes twenty years become an overnight success. It does. It does to
tell you it does. But the thing is with the changes in the lifestyle.
I once you're brought into the lighthouse and just the different way of living
that you might have not been, you know, sharing when you were living
elsewhere or maybe just kind of you know, living outside. It's a completely
different ballgame. As they say, it's got a lot of structure, right.
That's one thing that a lot of them have colimented later on. The
thing that helped them was structure. We have scheduled meal times and curve few
to get in classes at a certain time, and if you sign up to
go for a ride to the doctors over that you've got to be there on
time. And just things that just teach us. The life's got some things
we have to keep up with. Indeed, let's get back to the concert
here. The bull Lingers, right, Bulta Jacks. I'm sorry, sorry,
golly, there are two different groups that they're very similar. Yeah,
but anyway, the show is coming up on Friday, and we do have
a few seats left. How do we go about getting our ticket? We
have a few tickets left. You can get them at Fresh Start boutique here
in town. Oh good, or you can get them at the lighthouse.
Just give us a call and come by and pick up some. We are
getting down to a few, laugh, but we do have some available steel
and they're twenty five dollars a piece. And this is a relatively inexpensive concert
for the quality for sure. Oh indeed. I mean you're going to get
a top national act here, and it's going to be right here in your
own backyard, and it's going to go for a great cause too. Not
only are you going to get some enjoyment out of it, but there will
be a benefit here for a lighthouse to keep on going and keep on reaching
souls that may have been lost. Now, tell us a little bit about
it. We got started here. We had a young lady that started lighthouse.
There's a kind of a cool little history here and the way it's just
been propelling and moving forward, it's just been incredible. We had a nice
little sorry for a couple of years ago, right Naomi Lanier came from Idaho,
fell to call from God to start a homs shelter in Bartlesville in nineteen
well, actually the opened up in nineteen ninety one, so thirty about thirty
two to thirty three years ago the lighthouse was founded, and it was a
very modest beginning, three or four rooms at one time. After the first
year, so the maximum capacity for men it was about thirteen men and maybe
four or five women in families, and it's gone to where now we have
seventy five adults there. We have about twelve children there, and we have
expanded the facility. Several years back they built a men's dorm which moved us
from thirteen men to thirty five men, and then we've just continued to expand
and we're getting ready to do some more expansion in the near future. It's
amazing. And I remember as a resident here in town getting a letter from
the lighthouse during the summer with an appeal just to have enough money to keep
the lights to paate like to be paid. And it's moved from that to
where God has blessed us. We're not rolling in cash, but God provides
the money as we need it for the things that. It costs a lot
more to run things now too, and it costs about two thousand dollars a
month for electricity. Gas for the vehicles is way up there. Last year
it costs one thousand and six and fifty eight dollars a day to run the
lighthouse, so that's more they were spending a month when they first started out.
So, oh my gosh, it's amazing how God's provided. My goodness
sakes, John, how has this been for you? I mean, this
is you know, Errol's been with us a long while here and he's dedicated
his heart and soul, life and everything else to help in others. You're
one that's been helped. Yes, te us a little bit about your story.
Oh then the area that took it took me in. Like I repeat
what Errol said, it gives you structure. I've sent somely the staff,
I've got more responsibilities, some accountability, walking closer to God than ever right
now. I can't thank the lighthouse enough. Honestly, it's it's a blessing
and there's there's nowhere else around it in this area like it. You know
what I see when I look at you, I see confidence. Yes,
it's a very yes, they said, I've done on one eighties since I've
walked in the doors in October, and I have a I feel it and
I feel confident because it was pretty pretty desperate and back in the day.
I can only imagine a lot of folks have different kind of levels of desperation,
but they felt desperation before, and sometimes it can go to an extreme.
But when you came in here, I'm saying, well, there's a
fine young man. I would have never known that you ever needed help by
the way you carry yourself these days and the way your confidence is kind of
procedure. Yes, And I had a lot to do with the White House,
Like I said, provide everything for you if you just take it and
and just learn from it and learn from it. And and like there's rules,
there's structures, there's things. I call it like the boot camper Christ
it's I mean, funny, it's a it's a it's a very special place.
What what kind of led you to believe that this was catching on with
you? What what was the first thing that the first aha moment you had
to think, Oh this is good. Actually, the staff in an arrow,
he cares. He's not in it. It's you're not sitting in a
chair somewhere, is not doing it like it's like other outreach centers. It's
like he cares. He wants everybody to do well, and he wants to
see everybody in heaven. And that did it. Huh Well, he talks
to talk and he walks the walk. It's a leadership by example exactly.
It's a it's a very and he's humbling. Oh wow, he don't want
to thank you for sharing the story. It is an amazing place, all
right, But this is just one of probably a thousand stories that were folks
of done as you say, the one eighty. Yeah, it's what keeps
us going, is this seeing people and some people don't make it, and
that's sad and it's tragic. And there's some people still walk in the streets
that we weren't able to meet their needs at that time, and maybe they'll
come back and maybe they won't. But so it's not all success all the
time, don't We aren't guaranteed to do everything. But for those that we
connect with and those who let God work in the life, it does make
a difference. And this is one of the examples of many that are at
the Lighthouse now but out in the community also, And I want to just
say something to the community. Almost every day somebody comes up to me and
thanks us for what we're doing at the Lighthouse, whether it's a policeman or
a clerk in a store or somebody that we're dealing with. They almost always
wondering when I would to vote. The lady said there, said, I
just appreciate what the Lighthouse does for people, and that that keeps us going
knowing that you appreciate and you're supporting us. We couldn't do it by ourselves,
and we don't want to do it by ourselves. We want you to
be involved because you get the credit and the glory also and the red satisfaction
of seeing lives transformed. You know, when you see John walking around,
you sit there and you say, well, there's John, and yeah,
you'd have to ask John if you'd ever been someplace like the Lighthouse because you
wouldn't know it, but that smile and that confidence tells me that something happened,
something really good happened to you. Yeah so, and you wear it
well. By the way, thank you, And once again, how do
we get our tickets here for the big benefit concert coming up Friday night?
You can get him at the Lighthouse one for fourteen eleven West Hensley Boulevard.
We're also a fresh start boutique over here on third Street, okay, and
you got him right there, and they're only twenty five dollars and you're gonna
see a great show. And this duo will just knock your socks off.
It'll uplift your heart, raise your spirits. And of course we're gonna raise
a little bit of money here for the Lighthouse so they can keep the outreach
center going and going strong for a good long time to come. Gentlemen,
didn't we miss anything, did we? I think you covered it. I
think you covered it. See how humble he is. I can learn from
him? All right, gentlemen, thank you for being with us here on
our community connection right here on K one