Gospel Con Carne

There are only a handful of people who have been with Mobile Loaves & Fishes since its very first day 25 years ago, and Alan's guest on this season finale of the Gospel Con Carne is undeniably one of them! Alan is joined by his daughter and Mobile Loaves & Fishes' Director of Community Empowerment, Taylor Graham, for this 25th anniversary special edition episode. You may be surprised to learn that being part of the family business wasn't always in Taylor's plan. Hear Mobile Loaves & Fishes stories from Taylor's perspective, and each of their reflections from their recent six-week journey in Spain on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. Whether it's serving our homeless neighbors over the past quarter century or walking 500 miles across Spain, Alan and Taylor agree there is one key takeaway found in each of these unique journeys: keep putting one foot in front of the other.

In this special episode of the Gospel Con Carne podcast, your host Alan Graham sits down with Brian Walsh, an author of one of Alan's favorite books, "Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement." When asked about the inspiration behind Community First! Village, Alan frequently references Beyond Homelessness as a book that helped him gain a rich understanding of the true meaning of home. Alan also often explains how Mobile Loaves & Fishes intentionally uses this framework of home in the design of the Village. This year, on the book's 15th anniversary, Brian and his co-author, Steven Bouma-Prediger, have launched a new edition that includes a postscript in which they discuss the evolution of their ideas and share true stories of home and community built anew.

In this special edition of the Gospel Con Carne podcast, Alan is joined by two community-driven individuals who we consider part of the Mobile Loaves & Fishes family. Sherwynn Patton is an MLF Board member and one of the founders of Life Anew, which practices restorative justice in Community First! Village. Joe Bland is the leader behind Joe Bland Construction, a family-owned business whose team has handled the infrastructure development of the Village. On Monday, August 28th, at 9:00am on the south steps of the Texas Capitol, the entire community is invited to honor 60 years since Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Tune in to hear more details from Sherwynn and Joe about the event and its relevance to this day, as we are reminded of a concept introduced to us by Jesus Christ—to invite people from all walks of life to the banquet table as we love and care for our fellow neighbors.

Growing up on a ranch with her family in West Texas, Community First! Village neighbor Eddie Jean learned what hard work looked like at a young age. Today, she continues this strong work ethic and earns a dignified income by creating beautiful paintings and ceramic pieces through our Art House program. Eddie Jean's story, however, hasn't always been a palette of bright colors. After encountering a series of deaths in her family, Eddie Jean ultimately ended up homeless and living out of her car. Despite immense grief and loss throughout her life, she has always seen the light in her circumstances and leans on her past to share unconditional love with everyone around her.

When Mobile Loaves & Fishes first began moving neighbors up off the streets of Austin and into permanent homes in Community First! Village in 2015, the neighborhood was a small, close-knit community. Now, with almost 350 formerly homeless men and women living in the Village, it takes more of an effort to really get to know your neighbors. Alan's guest on this episode of the Gospel Con Carne, Bowie, has been living in the Village for just over a year, but this is the first time the two of them have met! After alcohol consumption controlled his life for many years and eventually led to his time living on the streets, Bowie is now almost 20 years sober. Today he finds hope in his relationship with God and enjoys sharing this joy with the rest of his neighbors in the Village.

Gospel Con Carne host Alan Graham often describes Community First! Village as a peaceful place with a side salad of tension—and when many of these moments of tension arise around the neighborhood, the team knows just who to call. Michelle Ates helps our neighbors resolve conflict through restorative justice. Growing up as one of the only black people in her school classes, it wasn't until Michelle went to a Historically Black College that she realized her upbringing had been more privileged than the majority of her classmates. She uses her experience to help our friends transitioning out of homelessness to transform stereotypes they had of people who don't look like them, and ultimately helps us all to realize that we're not so different from one another.

A self-proclaimed free-spirit with a merry laugh, Alan's podcast guest and neighbor, Kate, grew up in the UK where she and her mother gardened every day, spending much of her time in nature. After traveling to the United States and later divorcing her husband in search of freedom, Kate eventually found herself living under a bridge. Although she enjoyed being surrounded by the creatures of nature that she loves, Kate chose to adjust her living situation and made her way home to a place of permanence in Community First! Village. Today she stays active gardening throughout the Village as part of the property beautification team, and also enjoys painting and writing poetry again. Facing adversity at several points along life's journey, Kate has learned how to best overcome challenging times simply by never giving up.

Our guest on this episode of the Gospel Con Carne goes by 'Sippi' – short for Mississippi – and has been a neighbor in Community First! Village for just more than a year. While it's easy to realize where Sippi's roots originated, he made his journey west to Austin, Texas as a young adult where he encountered a more challenging season of life in and out of homelessness for the greater part of a decade. Growing up as a star athlete with access to things that could get him into trouble, Sippi says he quickly learned that "there's a bad guy in all of us." Even during the dark times he experienced, however, Sippi kept his faith in God's plan, listened to His call and feels that he has now found the place he can call home.