Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
Speaker 1: And we continue with part two of our conversation with
Speaker 1: Deb Ellinger. Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors,
Speaker 1: we now return when I ask Deb how many houses
Speaker 1: she now has?
Speaker 2: So we have two yep, two at each two women
Speaker 2: at each house, and how many women?
Speaker 1: Two women in each house and the minute of bed
Speaker 1: opens up, you're trying to bring one more in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we usually I mean, I get calls all
Speaker 2: the time, do you have bedspace?
Speaker 3: Do you have bedspace? Because it's just a big need.
Speaker 1: And despite that, you're also every day on the street.
Speaker 3: Yeah, four days a week, four.
Speaker 1: Days a week. Where do where does where do all
Speaker 1: these supplies? Where does the money? How does this work? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So by volunteers and donations. So all of our finances
Speaker 2: come from private donors, churches, community organizations. All of our
Speaker 2: supplies to go on the street are usually packaged up
Speaker 2: or donated by different groups of people. We hand out
Speaker 2: like over two hundred food packs a week and that's
Speaker 2: all donations.
Speaker 1: How how did you get the word out?
Speaker 2: So part of it was from our community, my kids
Speaker 2: high school, when they were in high school, so we
Speaker 2: got the word.
Speaker 1: Out that way, no kidding, yeah cool.
Speaker 2: Which was really cool. And our church and other churches.
Speaker 2: So once our church got involved, I started just having
Speaker 2: opportunities to speak at other churches. So we get a
Speaker 2: lot of support from different churches and lots of different schools.
Speaker 2: But my kids' school has been a tremendous support to us.
Speaker 1: And so you're out there hustling it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, you have to be.
Speaker 1: So. On the one hand, your houseold it up. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, you're in the streets given it away.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, you're having houses donated and you're
Speaker 1: I guess trying to furnish them and keep them clean, yep,
Speaker 1: and create some type of programming for these ladies to
Speaker 1: get clean, right. Can do you know the numbers of
Speaker 1: women you've had lived with you? So?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, we've had I couldn't tell you the exact number,
Speaker 2: but we've had over fifty women come in and out
Speaker 2: of our program for various reasons.
Speaker 3: We did short term stays.
Speaker 2: So if a police agency or law enforcement agency would
Speaker 2: do a raid and there was women there who were
Speaker 2: exchanging sex for food or anything, they would allow them
Speaker 2: an opportunity to come to our program and then help
Speaker 2: them get back to So we had some women from China,
Speaker 2: for example, and.
Speaker 1: So they what do you mean China.
Speaker 3: Oh, this is a whole thing. Yeah, well tell us
Speaker 3: about that all.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I learned that women were coming from China in
Speaker 2: exchange to work for somebody who was selling them for sex.
Speaker 1: And so just to get to America.
Speaker 3: No, just to make money, You're kidding.
Speaker 1: Did they know that deal coming in?
Speaker 2: They knew the deal coming in. But what happened in
Speaker 2: our area was a lot of these women had gone
Speaker 2: to high end places to do this. So Vegas was
Speaker 2: one I can use as an example. So they were
Speaker 2: staying at a really nice hotel, treated very well, given
Speaker 2: all the fancy stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, then they came to the area where we're at
Speaker 3: and it wasn't like that.
Speaker 2: It was a dirty hotel with multiple women in the
Speaker 2: same room.
Speaker 3: And then it got raided.
Speaker 2: And so then these women would come to us, and
Speaker 2: then we would help get them back so they could
Speaker 2: get their passport and get all that stuff and go
Speaker 2: back to their country. What I learned was they would
Speaker 2: come in and at my question was how did you
Speaker 2: know who was picking you? Up like at the airport
Speaker 2: when you got here. And one woman told me it
Speaker 2: was the color of her suitcase. So they had a
Speaker 2: very specific color of suitcase that they had to bring
Speaker 2: and when the ride would pull up, they would know
Speaker 2: that's who she was kidding. Uh, it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: And these did these girls end up addicted and stuff too?
Speaker 2: No, none of these women, because they weren't here long
Speaker 2: enough I see.
Speaker 1: But they still they got stuck.
Speaker 3: Oh they yeah, they were. I mean stop them.
Speaker 2: That getting or getting raided was probably the best thing
Speaker 2: that happened to them.
Speaker 1: Wow, were their passports taken from them? Yes, I've read that. Yeah, yep,
Speaker 1: which renders them basically helpless exactly. Unbelievable. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: you've had fifty people come through the homes of all
Speaker 1: walks and shape and backgrounds.
Speaker 3: And everything everything.
Speaker 1: Where are those fifty girls now?
Speaker 2: So some of them are doing well and living on
Speaker 2: their own. Our goal, our hope is that we would
Speaker 2: have a relationship with everybody, and we have for the
Speaker 2: most part. Even women that were from China had texted
Speaker 2: us in the beginning letting us know like they got
Speaker 2: home okay or something they know is.
Speaker 3: Really sweet that it was so cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then we have women that have relapsed and are
Speaker 2: still navigating the process of healing and we still yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: and we're still loving them through that. And then we
Speaker 2: have some women who have jobs that are now seeing
Speaker 2: their kids. I mean, we have a whole like I
Speaker 2: feel like gamut of but.
Speaker 1: Those success stories literally.
Speaker 3: Safeloves for sure, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And then there's the alternative tell us about Marquita.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Marquita.
Speaker 2: So she was one of the first women that we
Speaker 2: met on the street and she would call me. So
Speaker 2: the phone number I give you guys, I would give
Speaker 2: them on the street, and they call me and text
Speaker 2: me and tell me where they're where I'm going to
Speaker 2: meet them because it changes. And so she would text
Speaker 2: me and call me and I would.
Speaker 3: Meet with her.
Speaker 1: What would you say?
Speaker 2: She would be like, can you bring me you know,
Speaker 2: tell me what she needs. But and so I do
Speaker 2: this with the girls. When they walk up to the car,
Speaker 2: they're like, I need da da da da, And.
Speaker 3: I'd be like, oh, how are you today? How is
Speaker 3: your day?
Speaker 2: We're going to have a conversation first, and so she
Speaker 2: eventually learned to do that.
Speaker 3: So we'd walk up to go how are how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm good, Marquita, how are you today?
Speaker 2: And we would talk and and she would just tell
Speaker 2: me about her day. But a man, we loved her,
Speaker 2: and then she was brutally murdered, shot and because shooting
Speaker 2: someone and killing them is not enough, you got to
Speaker 2: run them over too and set them on fire. So
Speaker 2: that's yeah, why I don't know.
Speaker 1: Was it a john or a pimp or.
Speaker 2: They think so, but they don't know. They shot her,
Speaker 2: They shot her, they ran her over, and then they
Speaker 2: burned her.
Speaker 1: M Do you think that's a statement trying to scare
Speaker 1: other girls? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's not the first. Like after that, it's
Speaker 2: happened a couple other times, minus the burning. So it's
Speaker 2: it's common to hear of a woman who got shot
Speaker 2: and then run over, whether that be because it's a
Speaker 2: drug deal gone bad or a date gone bad.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know I'm hearing you. But this is
Speaker 1: not supposed to happen in our country. This is not
Speaker 1: supposed to happen in our cities. But you say it
Speaker 1: almost like it's almost common.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: I mean, when I go on the streets and I
Speaker 2: haven't seen a girl in a couple of weeks or
Speaker 2: even a week, I start to worry, like, is something wrong,
Speaker 2: I'll ask and the instant I asked, they'll be like,
Speaker 2: I hope she's not dead.
Speaker 3: Did you check the Morgue.
Speaker 2: So now I've gotten into the practice of going on
Speaker 2: the Morgue's website and you can look up unidentified or
Speaker 2: unclaimed bodies is what it says.
Speaker 1: Have you identified any of it?
Speaker 3: We've had to do one.
Speaker 1: Oh goodness.
Speaker 2: And so I look on there and the hope is that,
Speaker 2: like I have their real name, because oftentimes it's a
Speaker 2: street name. I have lots of real names. But so
Speaker 2: I look through and so we didn't see somebody for
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, and one of our friends was like,
Speaker 2: I haven't seen her. Can you just check the Morgue
Speaker 2: real quick while you're sitting here talking to me? And
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, do you know a real name?
Speaker 2: And she's like yeah, and she's told me, and so
Speaker 2: I went and looked. I said, nope, not on here.
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, hopefully she's okay.
Speaker 1: And that's the reality of this world. It is, but
Speaker 1: the alternate reality is you're saving offs.
Speaker 2: Yeah I think so, and we're loving people really well, how.
Speaker 1: Do you balance your obvious faith and your morality as
Speaker 1: a result of your fundamental core beliefs with what you
Speaker 1: see every day.
Speaker 3: It's challenging, I bet because you can.
Speaker 1: I know you love the center and hate the sin.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and I try.
Speaker 2: I try to focus on that, but I'm I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't have it all figured out. I struggle going
Speaker 2: down there and like wanting to confront the men buying sex.
Speaker 2: How many times we've seen that and we pull up
Speaker 2: in there, you know it's happen and you're like, man,
Speaker 2: I got something to say, Like I want, I got
Speaker 2: things I want to say to this person, and and
Speaker 2: not get not to think. I don't want to think
Speaker 2: that everyone is like that all the time. And I
Speaker 2: can start I have to really check myself and make
Speaker 2: sure I.
Speaker 3: Go, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want to think that every guy pulling up
Speaker 2: in a car everywhere I go, I was buying sex
Speaker 2: from somebody, Like I don't want to think that. But
Speaker 2: so I have to check myself to make sure that
Speaker 2: I don't want I don't bring all that home, so
Speaker 2: I don't. I come from the street and whatever happens
Speaker 2: on the street. I leave on the street. I can't
Speaker 2: bring that home. I mean, I'll tell my husband and
Speaker 2: him and I'll talk about it, but then I have
Speaker 2: to go to bed and relinquish it and start the
Speaker 2: next day again do the.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that oftentimes the guys in those cars
Speaker 1: are just broken, is broken as the girls on the streets.
Speaker 2: And that's what I try to remember too. Like I've
Speaker 2: heard a couple of men tell me stories about how
Speaker 2: they watch their mom being sold, Like that really impacted me.
Speaker 2: I had one guy who said, I'm like, why.
Speaker 3: Do you do this? Like what what do you why?
Speaker 2: And he said, I watched my mom and my dad
Speaker 2: or her boyfriend at the time. It was her boyfriend
Speaker 2: sold her. And that's what I learned, and that's why
Speaker 2: I do it now. And that actual actually helped me
Speaker 2: understand like the pain that everyone was going through, men
Speaker 2: and women.
Speaker 1: You're bringing light to the darkest of dark places.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, yeah, yeah, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1: How's your life.
Speaker 3: Right now? It's good?
Speaker 2: I can say there's been plenty of times it was
Speaker 2: not good.
Speaker 1: How do you find it? How do you keep going back?
Speaker 2: I think I think for me, it's having a good
Speaker 2: community of people and focusing on the good things that
Speaker 2: we do, trying to see the good in every little
Speaker 2: interact that we do when I go out there, and
Speaker 2: then seeing the good in that environment, Like I refuse
Speaker 2: to go out to where we serve people. It is
Speaker 2: one of the poorest zip codes in the city and
Speaker 2: one of the most violent, But when I go out there,
Speaker 2: I really just try to see all the good things
Speaker 2: going on in that community and the good people and
Speaker 2: the good and everyone I interact with. Otherwise I wouldn't
Speaker 2: keep going out.
Speaker 3: I just wouldn't.
Speaker 1: So does it take a girl finally looking at you
Speaker 1: and saying, I don't want to do this anymore? What
Speaker 1: is it that makes you click that? Okay, it's more
Speaker 1: than given this one a sandwich? She's ready? Yeah, how
Speaker 1: do you know?
Speaker 2: I just bluntly ask really yeah. And sometimes women will
Speaker 2: say I'm ready to go, but they're not always necessarily
Speaker 2: ready to go, but I'll still engage in that conversation.
Speaker 2: So we have a woman right now who's on the
Speaker 2: fence every couple of days about going not going, but
Speaker 2: I always engage, like, hey, I'll come pick you up,
Speaker 2: like I'll And I went to her house to pick
Speaker 2: her up and she wasn't there and.
Speaker 3: She didn't go.
Speaker 2: But that's okay. It was like, it just strengthens our relationship.
Speaker 2: So I'll keep doing it. I'll keep texting back with her,
Speaker 2: and when she's ready, she'll she'll be ready. I ask
Speaker 2: women if they're ready. Sometimes they're ready and we take
Speaker 2: them and they weren't ready. So oftentimes I like them
Speaker 2: to engage that conversation with me. I don't want to
Speaker 2: push anyone to do anything they don't want to do,
Speaker 2: even treatment even if I know it's what's best for them.
Speaker 2: They have enough pressure and things being forced to do
Speaker 2: all day, so I won't do that.
Speaker 1: Dev you know, admittedly, I don't even suppose to understand
Speaker 1: what's going on in between the ears of some of
Speaker 1: these folks that you serve, and you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of what's what normal rational thinking would be for most
Speaker 1: of our listeners. The people you serve sometimes just can't
Speaker 1: even think rationally. I would assume. I remember there was
Speaker 1: a guy who no longer no longer works here, he's
Speaker 1: retired now, but he was making fourteen dollars an hour,
Speaker 1: and he was just did everything I asked him to
Speaker 1: do on time. Would come to work. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't even know if he ever missed a day or
Speaker 1: took sick days. Just a great guy. And in my
Speaker 1: mind he earned an opportunity. And I three or four
Speaker 1: times tried to advance him, and he would never take
Speaker 1: the rais of the advancement. He just wouldn't. He always said,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: And before retiring, he finally told me why. And he said,
Speaker 1: all I know is lost. All I know are people
Speaker 1: without jobs. And he said, I like my life where
Speaker 1: it is. And he said I would rather have what
Speaker 1: I have now than risk losing what I have to
Speaker 1: chase something bigger or chase something better. The fear of
Speaker 1: failure crippled him from allowing himself to think out of
Speaker 1: his current place. And it taught me such a valuable
Speaker 1: lesson about managing people and trying to work with people
Speaker 1: that you know the environment and the trauma and everything
Speaker 1: people come from. Fear of failure can can cripple someone,
Speaker 1: and the fear of the unknown can cripple someone and
Speaker 1: prohibit them from being able to advance. And this is
Speaker 1: a great guy, and he's retired happily now and he's
Speaker 1: got so security and whatever. He could have done so
Speaker 1: much more at my company, but he was so afraid
Speaker 1: of taking the chance or going to a place. He
Speaker 1: didn't understand that. He just was not able to think
Speaker 1: outside where he was in that world. And what does
Speaker 1: this have to do with you? Well, when you're thinking
Speaker 1: of rational thinking, you know, when I hear you say
Speaker 1: you've seen and developed relationship with these girls from your
Speaker 1: ice cream truck, and you're giving them food and stuff,
Speaker 1: and you're starting to tell them and now they're starting
Speaker 1: to see themselves as loved and valuable, at least in
Speaker 1: the five minutes that around you. Why in the world
Speaker 1: wouldn't they just say, Okay, I'll take the treatment. I
Speaker 1: hear you, I do want out. They know they're not
Speaker 1: going to get beaten anymore. They know they're going to
Speaker 1: have hot food, they know they're going to have running water,
Speaker 1: they know they're going to have electricity, they're not going
Speaker 1: to get raped, they're not going to get pimped. They're
Speaker 1: going to be able to get out, and that's what
Speaker 1: you're offering them. Why wouldn't every single one of them
Speaker 1: say I'll take it?
Speaker 2: Because they're scared of the unknown, they're scared of what
Speaker 2: a treatment program would look like. They know the rules
Speaker 2: on the street, they know the rules at the drug house,
Speaker 2: they know the rules on the block. Those rules they
Speaker 2: can follow, but giving them a whole new set.
Speaker 3: Of rules that they don't know.
Speaker 2: I think, in addition to a lot of women have
Speaker 2: said the detoxing portion of a treatment program is awful.
Speaker 2: It's miserable. So you're detoxing off of a drug and
Speaker 2: it can be five days and all you're doing is
Speaker 2: throwing up and sick the entire time.
Speaker 3: So that's also scary.
Speaker 2: So the unknown of that and just the unknown of
Speaker 2: the whole environment is really really scary. And a lot
Speaker 2: of women have actually said to me they're addicted to
Speaker 2: the lifestyle on the street, like the way they live
Speaker 2: their life.
Speaker 3: They're addicted to that.
Speaker 1: They're addicted to the lifestyles.
Speaker 4: Though, Yeah, what.
Speaker 1: What does it say that a woman would prefer rape
Speaker 1: and beatings to a clean life. Yeah, that they've been
Speaker 1: so conditioned by this environment that they're more afraid of
Speaker 1: a clean life than they are the sickness and the
Speaker 1: darkness that they're living in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it shows the sadness of the environment.
Speaker 2: But the need of more people to step up and
Speaker 2: do things. I just it's it's always been mind boggling
Speaker 2: to me when I hear a woman go, I just
Speaker 2: kind of like it out here because I know what
Speaker 2: to expect. Even even getting beat up, they actually start
Speaker 2: to expect that. That's not a big shock to them,
Speaker 2: and so they expect that. And then the other thing
Speaker 2: I've heard women say is like, when they come to
Speaker 2: our program, there's no chaos, and they've only experienced chaos.
Speaker 2: Most of them from childhood that has been their life,
Speaker 2: has been experiencing some type of chaos. And so what
Speaker 2: we notice in our program is when you come, you
Speaker 2: start to create chaos because that's the only way you
Speaker 2: know how to live. The streets provide that. The streets
Speaker 2: provide chaos, and a treatment program does not.
Speaker 1: Typically, isn't it ironic in addition to everything else, we
Speaker 1: have to simply teach peace.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is ironic.
Speaker 1: Peace, yep, simple peace.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'd read that not only do you feed over
Speaker 1: you feed over two hundred people each month. But it's
Speaker 1: not just girls, it's drug dealers and pips as well.
Speaker 1: It is the very people that you despise the most.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do that.
Speaker 2: He didn't want to do it. I didn't want to
Speaker 2: do it. I really was like, we're going to do women.
Speaker 3: And that was it. And then.
Speaker 2: I met this guy and I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: he's just so broken too.
Speaker 3: He was so broken.
Speaker 2: And had just had so much trauma, and he honestly
Speaker 2: just changed the way I saw all of all of
Speaker 2: the people.
Speaker 1: Do you think you're changing him at all?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's four years clean and we just had
Speaker 2: lunch with him on Saturday.
Speaker 1: What yeah, the story, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: He's so great. Yeah, yeah, so he was. He would
Speaker 3: say both, he would say both.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, and he we there was a girl who
Speaker 2: got killed and he was there when it happened.
Speaker 1: What do you mean he was there when it happened.
Speaker 2: They were at a drug house and it was a
Speaker 2: drug deal gone bad and she got shot and so
Speaker 2: he called nine to one one.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Everyone knew him on the street.
Speaker 2: I had only met him maybe one time, but like,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have been able to pick him out on
Speaker 2: the street. I had only seen him once. And he
Speaker 2: calls me like two days after that happened, and he goes,
Speaker 2: you don't you don't know me, but I got your
Speaker 2: number and I'm done. I'm done with this out here.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, can you want me come
Speaker 2: pick you up? And he was like yep. So I
Speaker 2: picked him up in front of an abandoned house, put
Speaker 2: him in the car, took him to a treatment program,
Speaker 2: and we helped. So, if you're in a treatment program
Speaker 2: and we've taken you there, we'll also like drop off
Speaker 2: cigarettes to you, drop off some spending money. Those things
Speaker 2: are gold and a treatment program to have your cigarettes
Speaker 2: and a little bit of spending money. So we do
Speaker 2: that and then we're available if you want to call
Speaker 2: us and just chat. And so we did that. He
Speaker 2: was in that program for thirty eight days, I believe,
Speaker 2: and then he got done with the program.
Speaker 3: Here's a big gap in our system.
Speaker 2: And they're like, okay, well we have transitional like another program,
Speaker 2: another level of program for you to go to. But
Speaker 2: there's gonna be three to four days of downtime.
Speaker 1: What did they do right?
Speaker 3: Exactly?
Speaker 1: They're forced back right.
Speaker 2: So he's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: for three or four days. I was like, okay, we
Speaker 2: got to think of a plan. He's like, well, my
Speaker 2: cousin has this house, I could stay there. I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: is there like anybody there? Does it have running water?
Speaker 2: Does it have electricity? It didn't have water, and I
Speaker 2: can't remember if it had electricity, but I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, I'll pick you up and we'll go there.
Speaker 2: So that we did, and it was it was not
Speaker 2: like it didn't have furniture. It wasn't like that was
Speaker 2: literally where he had there was a table, he had
Speaker 2: a toaster oven, and we brought him water and some
Speaker 2: clothes and socks and those types of things. And then
Speaker 2: we spent the next three or five days doing things
Speaker 2: with them. So we took them to meetings. He went
Speaker 2: to church with us. Yeah, he went to lunch with us,
Speaker 2: He went to breakfast with us. He did all the things,
Speaker 2: and then got to his program that opened up. And
Speaker 2: now he's four years clean and he's a pure recovery coach.
Speaker 1: What's he doing though, Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: He helps other people struggling with addiction and coaches them, sponsors,
Speaker 2: does meetings and he's like people's sponsor.
Speaker 1: That one story alone is worth all the work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. He's amazing human being.
Speaker 1: And it's not even a woman.
Speaker 4: No, no, how many volunteers do you have?
Speaker 2: Gosh, we have about fifty to sixty volunteers. Some are outreached,
Speaker 2: some help at the house, some pack up hygiene kits,
Speaker 2: some pack up food packs.
Speaker 3: So yeah, about fifty that is.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just I've envisioning you running around down here
Speaker 1: talking to these people and the changes that the life make.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you ever just wake up? And I mean,
Speaker 1: are you fully aware of what you're doing? I don't.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think I am. Honestly, Even just sitting
Speaker 2: here talking to you, I was like, wow, yeah we
Speaker 2: do that. That seems kind of crazy, So no, I don't.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes we talk to people, we get emails, we get
Speaker 1: phone calls, we get everything. Alex Fields a bunch of them.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I filled a.
Speaker 1: Bunch of them. Alex Fields a bunch more of them.
Speaker 1: In fact, we're gonna I don't even want to say this,
Speaker 1: everybody keep emailing. We're going to keep responding. I don't
Speaker 1: care if it's a thousand a day, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's it's getting to be a lot.
Speaker 1: And it is an absolute honor, okay, And I'm humbled
Speaker 1: and privileged that we're reaching and people are reaching out
Speaker 1: just like you did, right. So much of what I've
Speaker 1: learned is that people's reticence to get out and get involved,
Speaker 1: people's reticence to be part of the quote army of
Speaker 1: normal folks to actually engage is they have inhibitions, they
Speaker 1: have fears, or their timing's not right.
Speaker 4: Yea.
Speaker 1: And the beauty of the stories that we continue to
Speaker 1: tell on army of normal folks. To me, one of
Speaker 1: the beauties is I haven't found a single person that's
Speaker 1: done any work. They didn't have their own struggles. They
Speaker 1: weren't doing what they were doing because everything perfect aligned
Speaker 1: in the world, and they had all the money they
Speaker 1: needed in the perfect world, and everything was found in
Speaker 1: their life, and they just went did something. Rather, they
Speaker 1: did amazing work in their communities. They engaged their discipline
Speaker 1: and passion where they saw opportunities because it was the
Speaker 1: perfect time or they had the perfect circumstances. But very
Speaker 1: much the opposite, despite the difficulties, you just got over
Speaker 1: a difficulty. Yeah, I mean, it cannot be lost on
Speaker 1: this story that you started this when you lost your
Speaker 1: own home and you were you started just giving hot
Speaker 1: chocolate to people at a bus stop when you just
Speaker 1: lost your home and you didn't even have enough money
Speaker 1: to pay your own bills, and yet you were scrounging
Speaker 1: together money to make hot chocolate for people. And that
Speaker 1: your first home that was donated to you, you gave
Speaker 1: to the girls you were serving when you didn't even
Speaker 1: have your own home. Yeah, and you never quit through
Speaker 1: another struggle that you just shared with me that you
Speaker 1: just got some good news on. Yeah, tell us about
Speaker 1: it that.
Speaker 2: So I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, and since then I've gone through masectomy, reconstruction, chemotherapy, radiation,
Speaker 2: and now I'm cancer free.
Speaker 3: So this is all good news.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you didn't quit through all this. No.
Speaker 2: I still, even in the midst of chemo, if I
Speaker 2: was feeling good, I would go and do outreach. And
Speaker 2: there was days of course I didn't feel well and
Speaker 2: I couldn't go, like literally couldn't go. But if I
Speaker 2: was feeling good, I'd get in the van and I'd
Speaker 2: go down there.
Speaker 1: And do the people on the streeting of this. Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I was very humbled when people some women
Speaker 2: cried when I told them I had cancer.
Speaker 1: Some of the hardest women you'd ever be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, They're like, we can't, like, you can't die. And
Speaker 2: I said, well, that's not up to me, that's up
Speaker 2: to God. So I don't get to pick that. But
Speaker 2: so it was very humbling.
Speaker 1: Are Jake and the kids all right, Mom, enough, chill
Speaker 1: out right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I don't know.
Speaker 2: But honestly, being on the street fills my cup up
Speaker 2: so much, Like my love for these women is beyond
Speaker 2: what I can even understand sometimes, and so I would
Speaker 2: when I go out there, I come home and I
Speaker 2: just like, I feel better, like because I've got to
Speaker 2: meet with my people that I love. Those are my people,
Speaker 2: and I want to be able to see them.
Speaker 1: The other thing we talk about often is the secret sauce.
Speaker 1: The payoff is you get so much more out of
Speaker 1: it than you put into it.
Speaker 3: So true, talk about it. It's so true.
Speaker 2: I mean there was times when I was I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously during chemo you're just a hot mess physically and emotionally.
Speaker 2: And going down and just seeing how much actually those
Speaker 2: women love me as much as I love them has
Speaker 2: just been a gift to me, honestly, And I guess
Speaker 2: I never realized how much they do love me until that,
Speaker 2: until those moments happened and I would go down there
Speaker 2: and they would just they would light up. They would
Speaker 2: just be so happy, and they were always worried that
Speaker 2: I wasn't going to come back because something happened.
Speaker 1: So we'll be right back. I may have told this
Speaker 1: story once before, but I'm going to do it anyway
Speaker 1: because it's so appropriate right now. I like shrimp, okay.
Speaker 1: More importantly, Lisa loves shrimp. Okay, So if Lisa loves.
Speaker 3: Shrimp, you're eating shrimp.
Speaker 1: Got a girl, that's right. So I was on a
Speaker 1: business trip some years ago and I was down on
Speaker 1: the golf coast and Lisa said, you're coming home, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said, go to Walmart, go to a cooler, go
Speaker 1: to the gas station, get some bags of ice, go
Speaker 1: down the docks and get some fresh shrump and bring
Speaker 1: it home. We're gonna have a shrip ball tomorrow. And
Speaker 1: I mean, i'd been working. I didn't feel like doing
Speaker 1: any of that, but Lisa said, go get shrimp. So
Speaker 1: I'm sitting down there. I don't have you ever been
Speaker 1: to like seawater docks before? They reek all right, it's
Speaker 1: fish as it's stagnant surf water. It's I mean, it's gross,
Speaker 1: it really is. I'm sure they have places like that
Speaker 1: on Lake Michigan, don't they.
Speaker 3: I would think I've never visited. Well, it's stinks, I
Speaker 3: believe you.
Speaker 1: All Right. So I'm down there toward the end of
Speaker 1: the day. The sun's starting to go down and it
Speaker 1: just reeks. There's flies, it's just stagnant, like harbor waters. Gross,
Speaker 1: it's revolting. And but I'm there with my cooler ice, right,
Speaker 1: and the boats come in and I found the one
Speaker 1: thing more vaulting than the dock. The fishermen. They're coming
Speaker 1: in on the well. They've been up that they were
Speaker 1: out when the sun was down. Yeah, sun came up,
Speaker 1: sun went down. They've been twelve hours on the salt
Speaker 1: and the surfer and the mist. And you know, a
Speaker 1: toothbrush and toothpaste is more of a suggestion than a
Speaker 1: daily reality. And they probably smoke a couple of packs
Speaker 1: of marble reds, right, And so they're sunburnt, they're sweaty,
Speaker 1: they're covered in the sulfur of the sea. And then
Speaker 1: fish guts and bait.
Speaker 3: And sounds awful.
Speaker 1: It is awful. It's disgusting, and so the whole place
Speaker 1: and the people in it, the fish, the fish, they're
Speaker 1: just but it didn't matter because I had to get shrump.
Speaker 1: So I get my shrimp and I'm gone. And Jackson,
Speaker 1: Mississippi is about halfway between in the coast and Memphis.
Speaker 1: As I'm driving home, and it dawns on me that
Speaker 1: that's exactly who Chris surrounded himself with. Yeah, the stinky,
Speaker 1: nasty fisherman. And he washed the feet of prostitutes.
Speaker 3: Yeah he did, he did.
Speaker 1: It can't be lost on your story as a Christian.
Speaker 1: Just how christ like you're being going into this neighborhood
Speaker 1: every day. Has that ever dawned on you?
Speaker 2: I don't know that it really has. Honestly, I feel
Speaker 2: like I just don't think of it. I think of
Speaker 2: it like that. I feel like sometimes I struggle with
Speaker 2: my own value and worth.
Speaker 3: I guess if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1: And explain that, I think.
Speaker 2: I don't see myself. We often don't see ourselves as
Speaker 2: other people see us. I realize that, But I think.
Speaker 3: I just question.
Speaker 2: Just who I am sometimes I think, really, yeah, and
Speaker 2: so with that can come like I can be I
Speaker 2: feel like I have a humble heart because I don't
Speaker 2: realize who I am. But then sometimes I don't acknowledge
Speaker 2: like all the good that God is doing in my life,
Speaker 2: Like all the good things that I do come from Him.
Speaker 2: There aren't anything I'm doing. But I feel like I
Speaker 2: have a hard time acknowledging.
Speaker 1: That I get the humility I do. But it's okay
Speaker 1: for me to say it. You're amazing, no thanks, And
Speaker 1: you're doing something for people in our world that get
Speaker 1: very little from our society and our community, and you're
Speaker 1: serving We always talk about what could our world be.
Speaker 1: Think of what this country could do if all of
Speaker 1: us just saw a place of need and use their
Speaker 1: passion or discipline to fill that little place of need
Speaker 1: and just do it to serve someone that's not as
Speaker 1: advantaged as you are. Yep, Well, you're serving the least
Speaker 1: advantaged and make it a difference and saving lives. And
Speaker 1: you're doing it in the most humble ways. And I
Speaker 1: can't think of a better example of what we're looking
Speaker 1: for in an army of normal folk. And the thing
Speaker 1: is these streets. Heck, in Detroit, there's probably two or
Speaker 1: three other areas of the city that could use this.
Speaker 1: In Detroit, Yeah, for sure, you're serving one area in Detroit,
Speaker 1: there's got to be more than one. There is, absolutely,
Speaker 1: So if there's three or four in Detroit, how many
Speaker 1: areas like this are in the United States that desperately
Speaker 1: need some to stand up for them say I love you,
Speaker 1: here's something you need, and most importantly, you need that
Speaker 1: you are worthy of love and you are valuable and
Speaker 1: if you're ready to turn your life around, we're here
Speaker 1: to help you walk through it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what would that do for our country?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we would be living in a much
Speaker 2: different world that is for sure.
Speaker 1: Far less broken than it is today, far less broken.
Speaker 1: So what's next?
Speaker 2: Well, someone just asked me the other day at a
Speaker 2: speaking event I was at. They're like, what do you need?
Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, I'm glad you asked, because I'm
Speaker 2: going to boldly ask for another house. And so now
Speaker 2: I'm telling people because I would like to do what's
Speaker 2: called a drop in center. I would like to have
Speaker 2: a house or a small apartment complex in our outreach
Speaker 2: area and have it be a place where women can
Speaker 2: come and get a shower, a hot meal, a place
Speaker 2: where we could help them get an ID. So a
Speaker 2: lot of times I help women get their ID while
Speaker 2: we're sitting on an abandoned porch on my computer, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to get them an ID, because no one has
Speaker 2: an ID, and its gold to have an ID that
Speaker 2: says your name on.
Speaker 3: It, who you are.
Speaker 2: And you can't go to many treatment centers without an ID.
Speaker 2: So Salvation Army will take you without an ID, but
Speaker 2: most places won't, so you have to have it. So
Speaker 2: it be a place where we could get that. We
Speaker 2: could just be a place for them to relax and
Speaker 2: not have any pressure or stress in a couple hours.
Speaker 1: Yes, so you want a small apartment complex, So anybody
Speaker 1: in Detroit listens, This is really simple.
Speaker 3: What's the area called seven and Chalmers.
Speaker 1: That area there has got to be some dilapidated, empty
Speaker 1: apartment complex that has very little value that could change
Speaker 1: people's lives. And dev is married to a guy who
Speaker 1: can fix it up. So as long as the bones work, yep,
Speaker 1: deb can make it work.
Speaker 3: That is correct.
Speaker 1: Or anyone listing wants to donate, yeah, oh, or if
Speaker 1: someone wants to stroke a check.
Speaker 3: We will accept that graciously.
Speaker 1: How's your house now great?
Speaker 3: My personal house great? It's so it's so great. We
Speaker 3: now have a house.
Speaker 2: We've been there for five years, so yes, it's very good.
Speaker 1: And we tell me about what the kids are doing.
Speaker 2: So my oldest lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and she's
Speaker 2: twenty five and has a big girl job in marketing,
Speaker 2: and I know that's what we call it, big girl job.
Speaker 2: My other daughter just got married and is looking for
Speaker 2: a job in teaching or social work.
Speaker 1: Are your grandma yet?
Speaker 3: Not yet, but man I can't wait.
Speaker 1: I'm not. But Lisa wants to be so.
Speaker 3: Bad to me too.
Speaker 1: We were hard on our kids, like we were the
Speaker 1: parents that our kids are like, why can't you just
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, no, you're cutting the grass. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: not going to know you're going to do this, you're
Speaker 1: going to So we fought. I mean we had four
Speaker 1: and four years, right, So for twenty six years we
Speaker 1: fought children. Right, I want grandchildren because I'm ready to
Speaker 1: spoil children.
Speaker 3: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: I know our kids are going to hate when their
Speaker 1: children come home after hanging out with me because I
Speaker 1: was spoiled a.
Speaker 3: Crap out of It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: Chocolate cake for breakfast.
Speaker 3: Yes, ice cream too, yes.
Speaker 1: Absolutely right. So the second we just got.
Speaker 2: Married, Yes, second just got married, living not far from us,
Speaker 2: like ten minutes cool. And then I have a daughter
Speaker 2: at U of M Dearborn, she's a senior. And then
Speaker 2: my son just graduated high school and he is working
Speaker 2: at Starbucks, trying to figure out what he's going to do.
Speaker 1: What's next.
Speaker 2: Give me that house and I'm going to make a
Speaker 2: drop in center and hopefully just keep loving on the
Speaker 2: community and hopefully get my husband to say we can
Speaker 2: move there too.
Speaker 1: Do the Well, that's the second time you've mentioned it.
Speaker 1: I think better pay attention.
Speaker 3: I think so too.
Speaker 1: Do you have a corporate sponsor? Do you have it? Don't?
Speaker 1: It's literally normal folks, high school parents, local people just
Speaker 1: donating a little bit. It is what could a big
Speaker 1: sponsor do for you?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. I feel like we could change that
Speaker 3: whole seven and Chalmers area. I really do.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would be open to buying more places
Speaker 2: and just being I just think there's so much power
Speaker 2: by living in the community that you serve and being
Speaker 2: there all the time. Like I don't want to be
Speaker 2: the person that just comes and goes right. I want
Speaker 2: to be there for the long haul.
Speaker 1: We always talk about what can we do to fix
Speaker 1: the proverbial it. We also understand that each of our
Speaker 1: communities are only as strong as the weakest link. We
Speaker 1: also talk about what can we do to clean up blight?
Speaker 1: What can we do to clean up rampant theft and
Speaker 1: murder and all of the things that we're talking about
Speaker 1: we need to fix and make our country better. How
Speaker 1: many deab ellingers are there out there that are willing
Speaker 1: to immerse themselves in those communities to fix them. And
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be about the money or the property. It's
Speaker 1: about the army, it's about the foot soldiers. It's about
Speaker 1: the people willing to do the work. And there you
Speaker 1: are with how many volunteers that you've gotten around fifty,
Speaker 1: We've got a fifty person strong army in Detroit working
Speaker 1: where we need the work to be done the very most,
Speaker 1: and all they need is support.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 1: You're going to quit it. Nope, this is it?
Speaker 3: This is it.
Speaker 1: Maybe if you could get some of that money to
Speaker 1: really do some of those things, we could get Jake
Speaker 1: to move there too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 3: Poor Jake, he just said it. Maybe we'll persuade them.
Speaker 1: That is phenomenal. Tell me. Now I'm gonna ask tell
Speaker 1: me your favorite success story. Let's end on a real positive,
Speaker 1: hy redemptive note.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, I mean I would say, even though it wasn't
Speaker 2: a female, it was Sarge, the person I talked about. Really, yes,
Speaker 2: and I think.
Speaker 1: His name Sar that's how appropriate. I know.
Speaker 2: You know, he's definitely he inspires me and his enthusiasm
Speaker 2: and passion for serving and loving people. And he would say, well,
Speaker 2: that came from all the love you gave me, and
Speaker 2: it showed me how to love other people. That's what
Speaker 2: he said to me on Saturday when I saw him.
Speaker 2: That's just inspiring to me.
Speaker 1: Do you need any more verification for what you're doing
Speaker 1: in your life than.
Speaker 3: You're Probably not? Probably not one thing too.
Speaker 4: Sarge goes over to her house for Christmas and things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like he's been to our house for graduation parties,
Speaker 2: and he's like family. He is like he is like family.
Speaker 2: If you were to ask him, he'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're my family, You're my people.
Speaker 1: That is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So someone's sitting around in another city thinking this is
Speaker 1: hard work, but I want to do it, and they
Speaker 1: want to hear more. How do they reach you.
Speaker 2: They can email me at Ellie's house three one three
Speaker 2: spell that E L L I S H O U
Speaker 2: S E three to one three at yahoo dot com.
Speaker 1: Great and uh, I am certain that you would be
Speaker 1: more than willing to tell everybody how they could do
Speaker 1: this in their own community.
Speaker 2: I would love to tell all of people how to
Speaker 2: do this in their community, because they can do it.
Speaker 1: You need a bigger voice, you need more people need
Speaker 1: to know this story, and I hope somebody is listening
Speaker 1: that record is the depth of the work you're doing
Speaker 1: and the lives that you are truly changing and saving of,
Speaker 1: I mean the most desperate situations in our country. I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't be to sensitized to what this is. Are
Speaker 1: you hearing that we have twenty year old women selling
Speaker 1: their bodies for food or a twenty dollars bill, living
Speaker 1: in dilapidated, vacant homes that don't even have water or electricity.
Speaker 1: Therefore they can't bathe, they can't take care of their
Speaker 1: basic hygiene. And it's worse than a third world country
Speaker 1: for sure. Yep, in the shadows of amazing wealth all around,
Speaker 1: and it's happening right under our nose and it's unacceptable
Speaker 1: that we allow it to happen.
Speaker 3: I agree it is.
Speaker 1: And you're doing all you can to fix it. I
Speaker 1: am with an ice cream truck and fifty volunteers.
Speaker 3: Yeap, ice cream truck and fifty volunteers.
Speaker 1: I love that it has been my distinct honor to
Speaker 1: meet you and to help tell your story. And you
Speaker 1: know you couldn't. You're the daughter of a bus driver
Speaker 1: and a JC Penny's worker who grew up in a
Speaker 1: blue collar Detroit area, who married a carpenter and had
Speaker 1: four kids and lost their house during the housing crisis
Speaker 1: to foreclosure, and has fat breast cancer and in the
Speaker 1: meantime been a light in a very dark place. You
Speaker 1: are an amazing human being and I just can't tell
Speaker 1: you how much I appreciate you coming to visit with
Speaker 1: us and tell your story.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I feel privileged
Speaker 3: to be here, and.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us this week. If deb or
Speaker 1: another guest has inspired you in general, or better yet,
Speaker 1: to take action by starting something like Ellie's House in
Speaker 1: your own city, by donating Dellie's House or something else entirely,
Speaker 1: please let me know. I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 1: You can write me anytime at Bill at Normalfolks dot
Speaker 1: us and I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: please share it with friends and on social Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: at normal Folks dot us. All these things that will
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Speaker 1: Light Labs. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.