Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome
Speaker 1: time now for our community connection right here on K one,
Speaker 1: the one you trust, and today with the Lighthouse Outreach,
Speaker 1: we have Errol with us today.
Speaker 2: And how you been, young man. I've been in great well.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: You just look like you're the p knuckle of health
Speaker 1: these days. You must have been working out.
Speaker 2: Huh. I've been very blessing good health.
Speaker 1: You know, the Lighthouse has been with us for a
Speaker 1: good long time and we're thankful for it. And you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes we have people who just move into town and
Speaker 1: they're not familiar with everything quite yet. And then there
Speaker 1: are some folks who've been in town in all their
Speaker 1: lives and still not too familiar.
Speaker 3: So how long has a lighthouse been in operation?
Speaker 2: This is a thirty second year. We're born.
Speaker 4: We were started in nineteen ninety two Nao Milanier start
Speaker 4: found the Life House. God gave her a call to
Speaker 4: start a ministry like this, and this is back before
Speaker 4: we were aware of the need of it.
Speaker 1: I remember meeting her a couple of years ago on
Speaker 1: the thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 3: It was really good.
Speaker 1: Now in that time I imagined you served just a
Speaker 1: lot of people we have.
Speaker 4: It's hard to keep track of how many people we
Speaker 4: have served, but as I've gone through the files we have,
Speaker 4: I think about five five door files of people's information
Speaker 4: and folders, and I figured that over ten thousand people
Speaker 4: we've served in the thirty two years have been here.
Speaker 3: Wow, now, ERL.
Speaker 1: When we talk about having clients of folks staying with
Speaker 1: you here, how long is it that they usually stick around.
Speaker 4: It varies from person to person, and some shelters say
Speaker 4: you can only stay up to thirty days or maybe
Speaker 4: two weeks. We don't have a limit. Our guide. Our
Speaker 4: gauge for that is as long as they're making progress
Speaker 4: and working toward getting their life better, and as long
Speaker 4: as they need to still be there. My prayers that
Speaker 4: nobody leaves me before they should. And that's an issue
Speaker 4: because if they leave before they're really ready, they're either
Speaker 4: going to be back, or something happened that they don't
Speaker 4: even want to come back or aren't able to come back.
Speaker 4: So I just did a study the other day about
Speaker 4: about a week ago of the current residence right now,
Speaker 4: and the average stay is twelve months twelve and a
Speaker 4: half months long, and that varies from that's because some
Speaker 4: have been there four or five years. Some in there
Speaker 4: two three weeks, and so some people come they're just
Speaker 4: here for two three days and maybe that's all they
Speaker 4: needed to get on to the next stop. Some of
Speaker 4: them came and realized they didn't want to have to
Speaker 4: follow the rules of living indoors and so things like that,
Speaker 4: and so they didn't stay as long. So but the
Speaker 4: average I was interesting myself because I didn't know how
Speaker 4: long it would be. But it's about about twelve months
Speaker 4: average for everybody.
Speaker 3: And what you do there, it's not necessarily a hand out.
Speaker 1: It's a hand up trying to get folks to get
Speaker 1: themselves oriented with God's help.
Speaker 4: Aren't we really want them to get helping to me
Speaker 4: coming to independent Citizen, some of them come that are retired,
Speaker 4: they're disabled, and so they get a disability check, and
Speaker 4: so we urge them to start saving some of that
Speaker 4: money because the little bit of costs that we charge.
Speaker 2: Them fifteen percent of their income when they're living.
Speaker 4: There, but they've got that other eighty five percent and
Speaker 4: they should be able to save a lot of money.
Speaker 2: And some of them have several thousand saved ups.
Speaker 4: Some of them don't have any, and those who don't
Speaker 4: have any, we work with them because the best opportunity
Speaker 4: to save money is right there where they live in
Speaker 4: the lighthouse.
Speaker 2: Everything fruits provided, everything like that.
Speaker 4: So we give them opportunities to be able to.
Speaker 2: Have less money after they pay their fines and things
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: That you get paid off too. Oh yeah, so you
Speaker 1: get to restart almost right with that. Now, how much,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's fifteen percent right of their income here?
Speaker 1: How are you funded? How do you keep the doors open?
Speaker 1: It seems like a kind of a big undertaking here.
Speaker 4: It's a lot bigger than I thought it was when
Speaker 4: I started out.
Speaker 2: Recently.
Speaker 4: I begin at the end of every year, I figure
Speaker 4: out how much it costs to run the place and
Speaker 4: then divide that by the number of days. And last
Speaker 4: year it was one thing six and fifty eight dollars
Speaker 4: per day to operate the lighthouse.
Speaker 2: And we're funded by individuals.
Speaker 4: We do a mail out every month with a direct
Speaker 4: mail service, and we get.
Speaker 2: Letters from there's a man in Sedan, Kansas.
Speaker 4: He sends us a dollar every month and that helps
Speaker 4: just cover the posted to that. But then we get
Speaker 4: some many with the five a dollar check. Some people
Speaker 4: twenty five dollars every month. Some churches have put us
Speaker 4: into their budget. They've been for years been giving so
Speaker 4: much a month, and we were breast that way. People
Speaker 4: donate in variety of ways, right.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: One thing that I noticed too is that you guys
Speaker 1: aren't afraid to go out and have big old yard
Speaker 1: tail every now and then.
Speaker 4: We do have a lot of furniture and dishes donate
Speaker 4: to us, and clothing and we do the garage sale to.
Speaker 2: Help raise money.
Speaker 4: Also, we do clothing while we don't need access that
Speaker 4: we after giving the residents those that needs to clothes,
Speaker 4: we bag them up and we sell them to a
Speaker 4: wholesale place that they they distribute them to different thrift stores.
Speaker 4: Some of them goes to missions, and then some of
Speaker 4: the clothes that are unusable or recycling in the rags
Speaker 4: and we get about five thousand dollars for semiload for that.
Speaker 2: We've done that about four or five times now. So
Speaker 2: access clothes.
Speaker 4: There's so many we got all of us have so
Speaker 4: many clothes that there's such an access. But here's some
Speaker 4: good coming out of that if you needed a place
Speaker 4: to get rid of some of that.
Speaker 2: So we appreciate that very much.
Speaker 1: This is called the kindest form of recycling, right it
Speaker 1: truly is now eron what are the safeguards that you
Speaker 1: guys have in place there at Lighthouse Outreach to assure
Speaker 1: the public that the money's being handled properly, because people
Speaker 1: will make a donation, but they'll always have that houses handled.
Speaker 4: And that's a very good question because we hear from
Speaker 4: time to time of somebody that was taking money from
Speaker 4: an organization, some fund that was used to help people
Speaker 4: with then the money was being siphoned off in different ways.
Speaker 4: And so we're a member of the Evangelical Council of
Speaker 4: Financial Accountability ECFA, which the nationwide is like the good
Speaker 4: Housekeeping Seal of Approval, and there's all two ministries in Bartlesfield,
Speaker 4: but I remember that voice the artist and us and
Speaker 4: which we have a set of guidelines. And one of
Speaker 4: the things we have in place is when the donations
Speaker 4: come in, two people open those envelopes and record it together,
Speaker 4: so that way there's an accountability there. The bookkeeper doesn't
Speaker 4: sign the checks, someone else signs the checks. We do
Speaker 4: periodic audits and annual reviews voluntarily. We were not being
Speaker 4: forced to being audit, but we do that just to
Speaker 4: maintain our integrity, because it's very, very important that people
Speaker 4: recognize the money being given is being used as it
Speaker 4: was designated.
Speaker 2: We have people that designate funds.
Speaker 4: We got a grant not too long ago for a
Speaker 4: stroke rehabilitation because some of our residents come they've had
Speaker 4: a stroke, but they have no help. They're still limping,
Speaker 4: they're still not fully functional, and many of them could
Speaker 4: have been if they had got it soon. If some
Speaker 4: of them is too late when they come to us.
Speaker 4: Some of them were good doing that, but that money
Speaker 4: is earmark for that. We have a grant for eyeglasses,
Speaker 4: which is a wonderful opportunity because the most place it's
Speaker 4: hard to get free eyeglasses place. Now that we can
Speaker 4: use that, we keep a close account of that and
Speaker 4: we keep it separate in the books, and so as
Speaker 4: an account is used, it's Disney.
Speaker 2: That way.
Speaker 4: We had someone that gave money for children, and we
Speaker 4: set aside that for that.
Speaker 3: So every dollar has its name. Right. Wow, that is great,
Speaker 3: That is great.
Speaker 1: What's your current population there at Lighthouse Outreach today?
Speaker 4: I think we had seventy two people there and you know,
Speaker 4: we're gonna have homelessness all around us, and I wanted
Speaker 4: to sell. Sharon ill Strats hared years ago there was
Speaker 4: a man walking down the beach after a high tide,
Speaker 4: and there's a bunch of starfishes that had floated out
Speaker 4: into the sand and they're going to die out there
Speaker 4: in the sand because they have no way to mobility
Speaker 4: other than being in the water. And there was a
Speaker 4: man walking down the beach and he was picking up
Speaker 4: these starfish and throwing it back into the ocean.
Speaker 2: And somebody came up and says, what are you doing.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm throwing back the starfish.
Speaker 4: He says, no, that's gonna make a difference. There's millions
Speaker 4: I'm out here, and that's gonna make a difference. The
Speaker 4: guy stopped, looked at him and reached down, picked out
Speaker 4: and made a difference to that one.
Speaker 2: And that's the way the light is. We're not able to.
Speaker 4: Give each everybody in the community, but everyone that we help,
Speaker 4: it makes a difference in their life.
Speaker 3: And you got a lot of things that are going on.
Speaker 1: I got to tell you there's a lot of motion
Speaker 1: and emotion that happened to at Lighthouse.
Speaker 3: What do you have.
Speaker 4: Well, in addition to the daily helping people get out
Speaker 4: of a deep hole they found themselves in. We're doing
Speaker 4: some construction, remodeling all the rooms upstairs. We've got a
Speaker 4: wonderful grant from several different organizations to foundations to pay
Speaker 4: for it, and we've got about five rooms done so far,
Speaker 4: then the process of working on two more, and then
Speaker 4: we've got about three more to go. So I maybe opportunises,
Speaker 4: but I think we're about halfway done or maybe a
Speaker 4: third done.
Speaker 2: But everything's in turmoil.
Speaker 4: I've said we had to move people from different rooms,
Speaker 4: and so we have moved some to our transitional house
Speaker 4: right now. But it's moving along and it's exciting and
Speaker 4: we're gonna have some really nice renovation to get a
Speaker 4: new furniture. We had several grants given for specifically for furniture,
Speaker 4: so it gives me going quite well. And so that's
Speaker 4: one thing. We're getting ready to build a house across
Speaker 4: the street. We bought a house for a transitional house.
Speaker 4: It was full of termites. We had to have it
Speaker 4: torn down, and now we've got the grant all the
Speaker 4: money to pay for it.
Speaker 2: We've got signed the contract a.
Speaker 4: Couple of days ago to build a two bedroom home there,
Speaker 4: which housed four people for transitional housing. So a lot
Speaker 4: of good stuff going in the construction area, but also
Speaker 4: just every day people get in their lives together.
Speaker 2: A man came to my office just excited the other day.
Speaker 4: He'd gone up to Great ben Kansas to meet with
Speaker 4: a judge about getting.
Speaker 2: His daughter back out of a bad situation.
Speaker 4: And the judge says, so that he gets his own house,
Speaker 4: his own place.
Speaker 2: And he'll be able to get his daughter back. So
Speaker 2: those are exciting things happening too, there are.
Speaker 1: And you know, you've seen all these miracles that happen
Speaker 1: pretty much every day, and that has to be, you know,
Speaker 1: what keeps a lot of things going.
Speaker 3: It's got to be that matter of the heart.
Speaker 2: It's very very encouraging.
Speaker 4: And you know, in addition to what we see going
Speaker 4: to right now, one thing that really blesses me.
Speaker 2: I'll be out of the community and some come up
Speaker 2: to me and.
Speaker 4: Say, I was at the lighthouse two or three years ago,
Speaker 4: and I don't even recognize them because they've changed so
Speaker 4: much or did such a long long time. And so
Speaker 4: some of them are managers of stores here in town,
Speaker 4: restaurants here in town. A wonderful story of a lady
Speaker 4: that's managing a fast food place right now. In fact,
Speaker 4: she's coming to the Lighthouse and hiring residents there, and
Speaker 4: so it's been great to see that. And people in
Speaker 4: the committee are so wonderful. I'll be at a store
Speaker 4: checking out buying something and they'll talk about the Lighthouse,
Speaker 4: how much I appreciate what we're doing. And it's the
Speaker 4: community has given us such good support encouragement. It keeps
Speaker 4: us doing the difficult work that we're called to do.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, Errol, what are some of the current needs. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of some renovations. You got things,
Speaker 1: you got pieces and parts moving all over the place.
Speaker 1: What are some of the needs that you have right.
Speaker 2: Now or one of them in the remodeling right now?
Speaker 4: In the contract, you put everything in there for them
Speaker 4: to do except painting the rooms, and so we're having
Speaker 4: to do that ourselves. And so if there's any painters
Speaker 4: would like to come in and help out, you know,
Speaker 4: for a day or whatever, just let us know, because
Speaker 4: that's the need we have right now. We're always needing
Speaker 4: paper products, paper towels, toilet paper, and napkins.
Speaker 2: That's something that doesn't sound a very exciting thing to do,
Speaker 2: but really helps us out.
Speaker 4: We spend quite a bit of money each month on
Speaker 4: that to volunteer to help out, maybe come in and
Speaker 4: help serve a meal. If churches want to take on
Speaker 4: a meal and serve a meal. We've got about in
Speaker 4: nine churches that every month they fix a meal, bring
Speaker 4: it and serve it.
Speaker 2: That's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 4: Way to get involved with the people in the White House,
Speaker 4: but also to help us out. Also, the biggest one
Speaker 4: is prayer, because we're in a spiritual battle. We're trying
Speaker 4: to rescue people from a lifestyle that's very destructive and
Speaker 4: there's enemy forces against that. So always need prayer for
Speaker 4: the director, for me and wisdom and discernment. And sometimes
Speaker 4: I have difficult decision to make and it's almost like
Speaker 4: which way do I turn because neither one looks like
Speaker 4: a good answer, but something's got to be done. So
Speaker 4: wisdom for prayer for wisdom is a very important thing.
Speaker 4: And for the staff, they work hard, they don't get
Speaker 4: paid very much and it's difficult for them, but they're
Speaker 4: coming out of themselves. They know what it's like and
Speaker 4: how much it helps them. We also recycle aluminum cans
Speaker 4: they help support kids in other countries. If you have
Speaker 4: lumin cans you want to bring by, we'll be glad
Speaker 4: to take those.
Speaker 2: And scrap metal. We take scrap mail out and sell
Speaker 2: it by the pound.
Speaker 4: And we had someday gave us about twenty air conditioners
Speaker 4: the other day and we're going to take those apart
Speaker 4: and get some money out of those.
Speaker 2: So things like that help us out. Just a variety
Speaker 2: of ways.
Speaker 4: If maybe I didn't mention something that affects you, then
Speaker 4: give us a call. We had a man moved from
Speaker 4: Greed to Colorado came by and wants to start doing
Speaker 4: a Bible study. So he did a Bible study Wednesday
Speaker 4: morning from six thirty seven before breakfast as.
Speaker 2: A Bible study there for the residents. So just variety
Speaker 2: of way. Just come by and see what We take
Speaker 2: a tour and see what we can help. How you
Speaker 2: can help us.
Speaker 3: Speaking of that tour, where can we find you?
Speaker 4: We're at fourteen eleven West Hensley Boulevard, the quarter of
Speaker 4: Hensley and Bucy, right across from the Salvation Army.
Speaker 3: And do you still do those once a month things?
Speaker 4: You know, I had no idea to her. We haven't
Speaker 4: done them. This summer because of construction. Oh yeah, but
Speaker 4: I talked to Linda, our director at Wellment, said, I
Speaker 4: think when you go and do it, even with the
Speaker 4: construction things, see what's going on. We've got about full
Speaker 4: rooms then we can show. So probably in September we'll
Speaker 4: start having those again. Those are wonderful oputy to get
Speaker 4: to see what the lighthouse is about.
Speaker 1: To I understand that you always have a pretty full
Speaker 1: crowd for nice because everybody's kind of curious as to
Speaker 1: how the lighthouse works and how they can help.
Speaker 3: And that's really a good sign here in Archamunity.
Speaker 4: It's a blessing also to meet with people who maybe
Speaker 4: don't realize what all goes on there. And one thing
Speaker 4: that Naomi did when she started the lighthouse, she wanted
Speaker 4: to ice keep it neat and clean. Didn't have much money,
Speaker 4: but you can be neat and clean when you're poor,
Speaker 4: and so she kept that going and so we tried
Speaker 4: to maintain that. And you walk in it's a bright,
Speaker 4: pleasant place, no foul smells. It does look like a
Speaker 4: very inviting place. Our chapel especially, we have it very
Speaker 4: well decorated and it's accommodating for it brings hope you've
Speaker 4: been in darkness.
Speaker 2: It brings light.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, that's why it's the lighthout. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: brings it in man hey, and thank you very much,
Speaker 1: and you know, God be with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: And I want to also express I appreciate the radio
Speaker 4: saying you guys have been great by helping us with
Speaker 4: projects and giving us getting the word out to people.
Speaker 2: So we appreciate it very much. Thank you.
Speaker 3: We're more than happy to do that. It's it's in
Speaker 3: need that everybody needs to know about. Thank you again.
Speaker 1: Folks, you've been watching and listening to our community connection
Speaker 1: right here on K one, the one you trust