TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:05.160
I got to tell you from my pure disclosure, full disclosure,
2
00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.119
I'm on the board at Meltrotter. What a blessing. And
3
00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:15.839
that's because after a turkey drop, the old CEO said
4
00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:17.679
thank you, and I said, whatever else you need, man,
5
00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:21.679
I'm on board. If you ever don't want to get
6
00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:25.280
on a board, that's something that you shouldn't say.
7
00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:26.239
Hey, you use the word.
8
00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:29.920
But I am so glad that I get to do.
9
00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:32.840
And what a great question about giving back. Shelby had
10
00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.399
a great answer. Volunteer, do you want to give some
11
00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:37.479
money today to help out? It's a great way to
12
00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:40.880
do it. Get involved any way you can. Let's bring
13
00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:44.439
into the conversation Chris Puluski again, who's the CEO at
14
00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:48.840
Meltrotter Ministries. Thanks for joining us again. Brother, You're still
15
00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:50.159
at celebration Centema North.
16
00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.799
I'm still here and I have to say I just
17
00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.880
heard Shelby talk and I hate to follow Shelby. I mean,
18
00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:00.000
she's so good and she's in the thick of it too.
19
00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.719
She knows the story, she knows the people, she knows
20
00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.280
just so much. But yep, still here with Shelby.
21
00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:09.879
When you were being interviewed. One of the things one
22
00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:13.040
of the terms that you used to talk about how
23
00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:18.120
you will minister to those that you minister to at Meltrotter,
24
00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:24.280
you said that your group will be gritty Christians. Frontline
25
00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:27.760
is really a term. You see some stuff down there,
26
00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:30.280
but you make a difference, right, and that's what it's
27
00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:32.959
all about. The folks that come out aren't the same
28
00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.680
people that go in. Give us a little on that, Chris.
29
00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:38.760
Sure, well, I'd even take two steps back and say,
30
00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:42.760
we try to keep people from becoming homeless, so you know,
31
00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:46.280
we'd diversey prevention. We've got a shelter when people do
32
00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:48.480
become homeless, and it's got five hundred and fifty beds
33
00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:51.560
and it's got great services. So we've got the clinics,
34
00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:55.519
we've got the mental health care, a lot of different services.
35
00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.640
We also have optional chapel, so we invite churches to
36
00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:00.799
Load full transcript
come in to be the church and invite our guests
37
00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:03.200
into the chapel. So we look at the physical and
38
00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.840
a spiritual wellbeing of our guests and then we try
39
00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:08.240
to help them to launch into the community again with
40
00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:11.560
affordable housing or transitional housing. Workforce development through next steps
41
00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:13.800
of the Skin, which is of our Workforce Development ARM
42
00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:16.560
so we try to look at the whole person at Meltrada.
43
00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.840
Can I interrupt there? You said optional when it came
44
00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:24.159
to chapel, and one of the things that a lot
45
00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:28.240
of organizations that are the hands and feet of Jesus
46
00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:35.000
have found is that when you exemplify your faith, it's
47
00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:38.159
a little bit better than demanding your faith. Right, so
48
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.400
there isn't a prayer component before somebody gets something to eat.
49
00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:45.520
And that wasn't necessarily always the case at a lot
50
00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:48.719
of places, right, yes.
51
00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:50.960
Some places required they want their people to go to
52
00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:54.039
chapel and Noltroter we want to encourage books and you know,
53
00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:58.159
we want to invite churches in to actually do chapel services,
54
00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.000
Bible studies and encourage our guests to become involved with
55
00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:03.240
them because Meltroter is not a church, but we are
56
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.639
a group of gritty Christians, so people on the front
57
00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.439
line serving in some of the most difficult places here
58
00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.400
in West Michigan with people who had, let's say, a
59
00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:13.240
speed bump in life or a difficult time or an
60
00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.199
indiction issue. But as far as chapel goes, you know,
61
00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:18.400
we want to encourage and in fact we want the
62
00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:22.960
Big Sea Church so different churches coming in and being
63
00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.120
the hands and feed of Christ, you know, preaching the
64
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:27.240
good news. But also we want to make sure that
65
00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:29.960
we're you know, obeying the great commandment, which is love
66
00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:32.240
your neighbor with all your hearts, love the Lord God
67
00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:35.599
with your neighbors yourself. Though, we want to do both
68
00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:38.319
at Meltrotter and not make it compulsory like you have
69
00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:40.520
to do this, but we want we want people to
70
00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:41.240
want to do that.
71
00:03:41.879 --> 00:03:44.319
Chris,
when we hear you talk with such passion about
72
00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:47.879
that it creates community, doesn't it. Do you see that
73
00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:48.919
among your guests.
74
00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:52.759
Yeah, they do have community and they know each other.
75
00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:57.000
We also try to work with churches so that churches
76
00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:02.319
will almost adopt families, individuals, so that they have an
77
00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.080
on road to a community. So when they leave the shelter,
78
00:04:05.159 --> 00:04:07.120
because we don't want to have people stay there, well,
79
00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:09.439
when they leave the shelter, they have a network of
80
00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:11.759
people that can help support them to get on with
81
00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:12.800
the next of the life.
82
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.800
Is that a vehicle backing up that I hear in
83
00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:19.319
the background that's loaded with turkey?
84
00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:23.879
I wish it was in celebration the cinema and they're
85
00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:28.879
getting ready to pop the popcorn. So that's just as good.
86
00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:33.519
We were worried a little while ago about the person
87
00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:37.160
that is the mascot for the event in the big Turkey.
88
00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:41.759
Does everyone know that that's the big Turkey helper and
89
00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.000
not something that should be thrown in a cooler. We
90
00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:47.560
just don't need those headlines, Chris, I.
91
00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.639
Will note that right down. In fact, I'm writing it down.
92
00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:52.480
Hey, Chris. One of the things that we asked you
93
00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:55.839
about this morning, and Mark alluded to this, Mark Meyer,
94
00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:59.000
is how this thing started and how it's grown. Talk
95
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.360
about when people make it donation, they drop off a
96
00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:05.920
frozen turkey, where that turkey goes, and what it's involved with.
97
00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:09.279
Because you guys have that big Turkey dinner downtown, which
98
00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:11.480
is part of the process, but there's so much more
99
00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:13.279
than that we do.
100
00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:16.360
So the turkeys go to help seed folks at the
101
00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:19.480
mission for a turkey dinner, we have a Thanksgiving meal,
102
00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:22.800
we have a Christmas meal, but also we're partnering with
103
00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:26.839
Feeding America West Michigan, and what they do is they
104
00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:30.759
take those turkeys and they distribute them to food pantries
105
00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.079
throughout West Michigan to make sure that families and needs
106
00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:36.759
are able to access well a turkey for a turkey
107
00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.920
dinner during this holiday season. So it goes all throughout
108
00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:42.839
West Michigan and it also helps out our guests don
109
00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:43.279
the shelter.
110
00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:46.720
When we take a little commercial break here and get
111
00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:48.959
to bottom of the hour news. When we come back,
112
00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:51.240
we will talk to can of Stelle again, who is
113
00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:57.720
the Feeding America West Michigan President and CEO. So I
114
00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.399
think we can give a little update about where we
115
00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:04.240
stand with the numbers. And when I look at Meltrotter
116
00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:09.199
dot org and the Turkey Drop events, turkeydrop dot org
117
00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:11.279
will get you there too, as well as wood Radio
118
00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:14.879
dot com. It appears as if we have officially gone
119
00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:23.240
over two thousand turkeys and are let's do this. We
120
00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:25.040
got a long way to go, and we're getting to
121
00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.040
that part of the day when folks unfortunately have to
122
00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:31.120
work and they might not be paying attention. So Chris,
123
00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.959
we're going to talk to you again before noon. Thank you.
124
00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:36.879
We will see you at celebration a little later on
125
00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:39.720
to Chris Puluski's the CEO at Meltrotter. God bless you,
126
00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:41.319
Thank you,