Gospel Con Carne

As a budding songwriter in Nashville more than 30 years ago, our guest on this week's podcast, Vernon, once felt like he had it all. He wrote songs for Keith Urban and also had several other number one hits on the country music charts. And then, things changed. When friends in the music industry started disappearing and checks started getting smaller, Vernon entered a decades-long downward spiral of heavy drug use and spent years living on the streets. Just when he thought he had hit rock bottom, Vernon met his wife, Helen. The two have both overcome drug addictions and continue to pursue their passions in music and art, respectively, while living together in Community First! Village. Hear their journey of restoring relationships and walking away from drugs together, as they continue to see God show up in their lives.

As a missional neighbor in Community First! Village, this week's guest on the Gospel Con Carne podcast, Lori Nava, lives and serves alongside our neighbors coming out of chronic homelessness. In this episode, Lori shares her personal experience with the loss of a relationship with her father and the empathy this has given her for the many traumas our formerly homeless neighbors living in the Village have endured. She also shares her experience as a young, single woman living in the Village, and the sense of security she feels living amongst her neighbors. Lori also reminds listeners about the value of community and that, regardless of our backgrounds, we should never let our brokenness define us.

After thinking she had lost every family member she had ever known and loved, everything changed when this week's guest on the Gospel Con Carne podcast, Leatha, received a Facebook message from a man saying he was her father. For more than a decade, Leatha thought her father was dead, and she had been alone. After living on the streets for almost four years, Leatha's father, Gary, helped her move into Community First! Village where they now both live and earn a dignified income working on the farming team. Learn more about Leatha and her incredible journey—one that involves a second chance to change her life through a connection she thought was gone forever.

Many of the men and women we serve at Mobile Loaves & Fishes, whether living on the streets or in Community First! Village, suffer from mental health illnesses. This week on the Gospel Con Carne podcast, Alan has a conversation with Chris Roubieu, the program manager at Integral Care who works directly with our formerly homeless neighbors in the Village who struggle with mental health disorders. During this Mental Health Awareness Month, Chris shares his understanding that everybody, regardless of their background or life circumstances, has their own struggles. He also encourages listeners to strive to find a deeper level of empathy for individuals who are mentally ill by trying to see the world through their eyes.

On this week's episode of the Gospel Con Carne podcast, Alan is joined by Community First! Village's first formerly homeless resident, Sam. In 2005, Mobile Loaves & Fishes lifted Sam up off the streets of Austin and moved him into what was our first RV through our Community First! program -- at the time referred to as 'Habitat on Wheels.' Now, 16 years later, Sam is living in the Village where he is working on several projects connected to his passion for engineering, geology and photography. Hear Sam talk about the adventures he has been on sparked by his interest in God's creations, including photographing some incredible scenes that have been used in weather reports on the news! Above all, Sam shares the importance of following God's call to discover the gifts He has given each of us.

As the current dialogue around homelessness in Austin continues to intensify, Mark Hilbelink, lead pastor of Sunrise Community Church in Austin, joins Alan on this week's episode of the Gospel Con Carne podcast for a hope-filled conversation around serving our friends who are struggling to survive on the streets. On a daily basis, Sunrise Community Church welcomes and serves many men and women who are experiencing chronic homelessness, and through Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, provides resources to help support our homeless neighbors. Tune in as Alan and Mark discuss the importance of meeting people where they're at through the shared experience we all have with brokenness.

We are so excited to kick off season four of the Gospel Con Carne podcast with our well-known Community First! Village neighbor, Billy "Shorty" Joe—a man who carries quite a large presence around the neighborhood. No stranger to the streets, Shorty spent more than 30 years homeless in Austin before making his way home to the Village in November 2016. Although he was homeless himself, Shorty spent many of his years while on the streets focused on serving his fellow brothers and sisters who were looking for warmth and safety. To this day, Shorty's servant-hearted spirit has prevailed as he has stepped up to serve his community on a regular basis. With a heavy heart from many recent losses, Shorty shares his wisdom in trusting God's perfect plan for each of our lives.

We're excited to wrap up this season of the Gospel Con Carne podcast with our friend Chris Baker, founder of The Other Ones Foundation. In the midst of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, this conversation between two guys who have been serving men and women living on the streets of Austin for many years comes down to a simple approach toward healing the broken—just loving on people. Hear Chris talk about his childhood and what he feels could have easily led him to being chronically homeless himself by the age of 20 if he didn't have people in his life to support him. You'll also learn more about the servant-hearted work Chris leads with The Other Ones Foundation and his desire to be in fellowship with the men and women who need it most.

This week's Gospel Con Carne guest, D'Juan Davis, has learned a lot about leading and serving over the course of his life. He also exudes these two qualities every day as a member of Mobile Loaves & Fishes' culinary team in Community First! Village. Over the past several months, the culinary team has stepped up for their fellow neighbors by cooking and preparing fresh lunches daily. On the outside, the culinary team demonstrates hard work and compassionate customer service. Inside the kitchen doors, however, there's much more going on—there's a family. Hear D'Juan's journey and the advice he once received from a friend living on the streets that led him to finding home in Community First! Village. This advice, along with the many lessons D'Juan has learned, have taught him that "blood is what connects us, but love is what makes family."

We're celebrating volunteers this week at Mobile Loaves & Fishes, and our guest in this Gospel Con Carne episode is among the longest-serving volunteers to bless our organization! Host Alan Graham often talks about the powerful impact of an individual's halo in helping to grow Mobile Loaves & Fishes into the organization it has become since its founding 22 years ago. Mary Lou Batlan and her husband Bob have seen firsthand the halo effect in action. Mary Lou and Bob's interfaith marriage has brought both the Methodist and Jewish communities together under the goal of serving our homeless and formerly homeless friends. Serving those in need connects people in profound ways, and the Batlans have played a major role in bringing together different groups of people across the broader Austin community into a lifestyle of service. Hear some of the many memories Mary Lou shares in this Zoom interview from her time volunteering with MLF and the beauty of people coming together to be the hands and feet of their brothers and sisters in need.