Why Senior Adults Are the Church’s Hidden Treasure

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam, [00:00:30] Speaker B: Joanne Hickox, welcome to the Code Red studio. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Thank you. It's nice to be here. [00:00:34] Speaker B: I am. You know, there's a lot of different ministries that we've spotlighted here. We've had people from foreign missions, we've had local groups here. I don't think there are any that I'm as excited about as this one. Because you've tapped into something. You know, the sacred senior adult people of our communities are the fastest growing aspect. It's going to be the largest group of seniors we've ever had in our nation's history. And so you've heard a call and responded to a call to step into that arena and minister to that people group. And so how did that happen? How did you end up discerning that and. And stepping into that field? [00:01:22] Speaker A: Well, it started 30 years ago, which was interesting because it's taken 30 years to be prepared for the population group that's now growing. [00:01:33] Speaker B: Did you know it 30 years ago that this would be such a big need? [00:01:37] Speaker A: No, no, I didn't know the growth that was coming. I should have, but I didn't. [00:01:42] Speaker B: I don't think many of us saw that. You know, even in ministry, I've been doing ministry about the same time and it was all about the next generation. You want to reach the next generation [00:01:51] Speaker A: and it's always the younger ones, next generation. [00:01:54] Speaker B: And so I understand that and that's important. However, our biggest group that is going to spend eternity somewhere is over 60 right now. And so how did that happen? [00:02:11] Speaker A: And that group of people have spent the last 30 years of their lives sometimes dealing with church hurt. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Oh, that's true. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Sometimes dealing with so much pain that they didn't, they just buried it because they're a group that mental health was considered taboo to talk about. Right. And so I'm. This last 30 years I've been literally pouring my life out into them and getting. Earning their trust so that they would open up. [00:02:44] Speaker B: That's a good way to say it. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Some of the conversations that I have had would make your hair stand up, I bet. [00:02:50] Speaker B: And earning trust. I remember I did ministry to young people who were the children of military families and they would move around a lot and it was difficult. Nothing that worked anywhere else would work to break through to that group. And I find the same thing to be true now that I've never thought about it. But now that you mention it, when new senior adults show up in church, we're in a resort community and so people retire here very often. So thankfully we're Reaching a lot of young people, we're also reaching a lot of seniors. Some come in with health and they're ready to get started and serve. Others are a little more hesitant. And so that makes a lot of sense. They've been through a lot. They've seen a lot. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Well, and when I started, when I started 30 years ago, there was a big televangelist problem. [00:03:47] Speaker B: Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, all that seniors [00:03:50] Speaker A: were getting bilked out of money left and right. And my pastor sent me these four senior adults. And basically I'm calling them or writing them and saying, hi, I'm from your local church. And all they heard was, I want to take your money. It was nine months of phone calls and letters before Holy Spirit showed me how to break through to this. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Where were you at at that time? Were you here in Florida? [00:04:18] Speaker A: Jacksonville. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Okay, so your pastor sort of gave you an assignment, you stepped into that. Was that the beginning of what you're doing today? [00:04:28] Speaker A: Yes. Well, I was trying to get my master's in theology. And you had to have 500 service hours. Okay, and so that's a good idea. I never got my, I never got my master's, but I went into and said to my pastor, hey, you know, I'm an accountant from the movie business. I know how to do anything when it comes to numbers. What do you want me to do? And I figured I'd be doing filing in his office, you know, for 500 hours. [00:04:56] Speaker B: Okay. I've got to say this because you don't seem like a typical accountant. [00:04:59] Speaker A: I know it's, it is interesting. I have a split personality in that I can be absolutely to the penny [00:05:11] Speaker B: and then shut it off. [00:05:12] Speaker A: But I'm joyful and full of excitement and bubbly and for a season, I lived in this part of who I am. God created me to be very meticulous and my dad was a contractor, so everything had to be plumb line, you know, it had to be perfect. But this side of me over here is also a lot of fun. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Right brain and left brain. Yes. So let's tell the people who. I wasn't familiar with your work before I was introduced to it, and let's tell the viewers what it is that you do. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Well, for 27 years, I've taken older adults on day long mission trips. They can't go to Zimbabwe and build an orphanage, but they can go to a local nonprofit and work together as a team of people. Anywhere from 12 to 35 people will get together for a four to five hour window where we supply the best lunch ever. And they knock out a really huge project for that nonprofit. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Do you find that seniors don't see their potential for good? [00:06:29] Speaker A: They know they want to do it. They don't see the pathway to get there to be able to do it. And they don't know that it can be so darn much fun if it's done. Seniors on a Mission has existed to nurture the lives of senior adults. All, all of the work that we do for the nonprofits, that's a byproduct of loving on the older adults. My job is to create an atmosphere or an environment where the seniors are loved, where they're nurtured, where they can feel the pleasure of God and the work that they're doing, that they have fellowship. [00:07:11] Speaker B: That's so cool. [00:07:12] Speaker A: And by creating that and loving on them, but the work that they do, I mean, we've blessed. I say we, the senior adults, have blessed. Jacksonville and northeast Florida, we've come up here for a number of mission trips. [00:07:28] Speaker B: So I know that it was formerly Barnabas. [00:07:31] Speaker A: Yes. [00:07:32] Speaker B: Right, yes. So it's the same organization now, Seniors on a mission. [00:07:37] Speaker A: In 2010, we changed our name to Seniors on a Mission. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Okay, so we support Barnabas here. [00:07:42] Speaker A: Yes. [00:07:42] Speaker B: Is this the same one or did they split off or what? [00:07:45] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no. It's really funny. Barnabas International, Inc. Was its own and their Barnabas Ministries. [00:07:53] Speaker B: Different thing. [00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, totally different thing. [00:07:55] Speaker B: I was about to say I've heard of Barnabas International. I presume they were the same. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Well, Barnabas International also exists on the far side of this country to send missionaries to other parts of the world. [00:08:07] Speaker B: Gotcha. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Okay. So within a two month period, very early on, we were given a $2,500 check from the Jaguar foundation, but they sent it to Barnabas Minnesota. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Oh, I bet that happens. [00:08:21] Speaker A: And they cashed it thinking, yay, thank you, Jaguars. And a few months later, I'm like calling the Jaguars foundation, saying, hey Peter, I thought you were going to give us $2,500. And he said, we did. And you cashed the check. And when they did the research, they found it went up there. And then I got a check from a lady somewhere in Colorado for $250 to go towards this missionary. And I had to call her and say, thank you very much, but I think you've sent this to the wrong organization. And she said, oh, just keep it. I'll send another check to the other. I was like, thank you, Jesus. But it turned out that because of what we did we changed our name? I have the gift of encouragement that's of kind of. [00:09:05] Speaker B: So Barnabas makes sense. Yeah, but. But see, this really does describe what you're doing. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:10] Speaker B: In the. [00:09:10] Speaker A: In the domain, Seniors on a Mission was a re. It was just like, this is way. [00:09:16] Speaker B: Right? [00:09:16] Speaker A: This is the way we gotta go. [00:09:17] Speaker B: So you've been in Jacksonville for a while. Are you familiar at all with Hadassah's Hope? [00:09:21] Speaker A: No. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Okay, so this is. This is a ministry. My wife is on the board for this ministry. Hadassah's Hope is a ministry to. To adult clubs, like strip clubs. And so they go in and reach these young ladies who are caught up in that lifestyle. Many times they were trafficked. What would surprise people about Hadassah's Hope is the secret sauce, so to speak, that gets them into the club are senior adults. They go in. They call them the church ladies. And they go in with casseroles and home cooking. And these club owners, they build trust with these club owners. They let them in and, you know, one. I can't. I shouldn't go in and do that ministry, you know, as a man, but a lady perhaps could. But there's something disarming about the senior adults that they can go in, build trust with these girls, and they give them Christmas gifts at Christmas. They disciple and lead them to Jesus, lead them out of that lifestyle, which is very difficult to do, but it's the power base. Is the Holy Spirit working through senior adult ladies? Who would have guessed? There's so many things that a senior adult can do. This almost undercover work, you know, there's much more than that. But it's shocking to me when I found out that that's kind of how they. I'm like, how do you get. What club owner would let a ministry into their club behind stage to talk to these girls? And they said, well, senior. [00:10:56] Speaker A: Because most seniors are not a threat to anybody. [00:10:58] Speaker B: Right, right. They aren't to the enemy, though. That's awesome. That's awesome. So you began as Barnabas International. You changed the name. I was going through your website. Tell me some of the things that you're involved in. What kind of missions do you do? [00:11:16] Speaker A: Well, we partner with 130 different local nonprofit organizations. We've done everything from repairing clothing for the homeless. We partnered a long time ago with Stein Mart, and all of their samples that come over from a foreign country, they come in without tariff or tax. And so when they come in, they might be sampling pants. Well, they come in with this much missing off the bottom of the pant leg. So all of it is essentially garbage. Well, we take all of it. And together we worked with Presbyterian Social Ministries and desk Downtown Ecumenical Services. And we change those pants into shorts or to khakis and we'll rehem them. They might have a hole in an area. We patch them up. We gave. I think it was close to 900,000 pieces of clothing away from through, like, fixed that many. [00:12:17] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:12:17] Speaker A: And so that's just. That's clothing. We do a lot of race bag stuffing. And what is that? You know, for First Coast Women's Services, if they have a race, we stuff the race bag full of goodies. Now, a lot of those went electronic [00:12:34] Speaker B: kind of staffing support for these other ministries. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we become background support. We've donated four and a half million dollars worth of service to the local nonprofit sector. We work with Chet's Creek Church. They do an Easter outreach where they have a bag and they give it to and they share. You know, they have the gospel in it, they have instructions in it. And that little bag, we do 3,000 of those every Easter. And I mean, all these kinds of mailings. Oh, we got mailings down. We can. [00:13:10] Speaker B: We can do that. I need to plug you into that. [00:13:13] Speaker A: We have a seven. A number of organizations that have. It's seven steps. And if you get a bunch of teenagers in, they get to laughing and giggling, and all of a sudden they're not done in the proper order. So. And, you know, no, no, not slamming the teenagers. I'm not dishing teenagers, but senior adults, when we set it up, we have three or four people doing step one, so they can talk and giggle and laugh, which is the environment they need. And they only do step one, and then we take it over to step two table, and they're giggling and laughing and they're only. They don't have to think. They just have to do one step. And by the time it gets to step seven, it's perfect. [00:13:58] Speaker B: It's an assembly line. [00:13:59] Speaker A: It is. It's the old Model T version. And giggling and laughing is going on. But if it goes from here to here, and there's a problem, they come and get me. Because we've had situations where an older adult lost their husband the night before and they didn't know what to do except I gotta go on my mission trip. And they couldn't even stuff it properly because they were talking and they almost acted like nothing was wrong. But something reminded them and then something. Sometimes we've had situations where, you know, down here we're figuring out, okay, we've got another person that's having a challenge. They got onto a new medication and we'll know before the family knows that that medication's affecting them adversely. [00:14:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:48] Speaker A: So, you know, it's amazing just because we know them so well. [00:14:53] Speaker B: That's awesome. If you. How do. Do you do that at your headquarters or do you go to the site of the ministry or how you. [00:15:00] Speaker A: Depends. We are on the Florida blue campus and we have what we call the hive where they work busy bees. And so we have nonprofits that don't have the space. They bring their work to us. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Okay. [00:15:16] Speaker A: But if we have a unf, we did a huge turkey trot race and we did it at their location. And. And it was challenging because they thought they had enough space. [00:15:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:30] Speaker A: And they really didn't. So this year we're going to do it at our. [00:15:34] Speaker B: Well, you're almost an event planner as much as. Yeah. You have to. You have to do a lot of logistics in there. [00:15:40] Speaker A: Yes. And when you're working with senior adults and you're putting them first, it's a whole different experience. And most people, you know, a lot of non profits have done the typical. Here's. They had this big table that you're going around and you have to walk around the table and grab one item and put it in the bag. Well, we never walk around a table and do that. Senior adults don't. Thank you very much. We're sitting down in air conditioning and. And we're passing the work, not doing this. [00:16:15] Speaker B: So we've learned accommodate what they need. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:18] Speaker B: So is it distinctly Christian? Are you a. Not for profit. I understand. Are you distinctly Christian in that I know that you're a Christian lady is the ministry. [00:16:28] Speaker A: I'm an ordained Christian lady. [00:16:29] Speaker B: Right, right. And the reason I'm asking. Here's why I'm asking. This seems like it would be appealing to someone who's even not a Christian from any background to be a part of this. [00:16:42] Speaker A: It sounds fun and it's open to everyone. [00:16:45] Speaker B: So how do you. Do you find that your ministry is as much to the seniors or through the seniors? And I ask that, I ask if it's Christian for that reason. Are you trying to get any particular type of person to serve? [00:17:03] Speaker A: I'll take anyone over 55. We are. [00:17:09] Speaker B: Gosh, that's five years away. That's unbelievable. [00:17:12] Speaker A: Breathe, just breathe. It'll be gone. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Save me a space. [00:17:17] Speaker A: And I say 55 because the 55 year olds help me with the 75 year olds. I'm looking for anybody that'll breathe honestly. [00:17:28] Speaker B: And so you get them in there. Is there an onboarding process or. [00:17:32] Speaker A: You gotta hug me. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Let me say this. So we're a First Baptist church in a county seat community. We've got people who've been in the church for all their life. We've got people who are brand new. I have more difficulty with behavior with the people who've been there all their life, strangely. And what I mean by that is sometimes they don't have a filter. Nobody's ever said, you can't say that or whatever. How do you deal with that? Has that ever been a problem? [00:18:07] Speaker A: We pray for a lot of grace. [00:18:08] Speaker B: I was about to say, you just answered my question. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah. There. God's done something really amazing. We have a core group of people that are saved, spirit filled. You know, I've had to have, I've had conversations with a number of people, said you can't pray in tongues out loud at this point because I get it, I understand it and I've got. [00:18:37] Speaker B: Somebody's gonna forgive me. [00:18:37] Speaker A: I'm okay with that. But this lady that just walked in has no clue what's going on. So you want to do that under your breath. [00:18:48] Speaker B: We quote the verse, the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. You have self control. It's a fruit of the spirit. [00:18:53] Speaker A: Yep. [00:18:54] Speaker B: Zip it up. [00:18:54] Speaker A: Yeah, zip it up. But I'm glad that she felt like she had the freedom to do that. But I'm not freaking out this poor lady who's never come before. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Sure. [00:19:05] Speaker A: So onboarding is. [00:19:07] Speaker B: But that's a good problem. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:09] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking more of old sailors cussing and I've had to deal with that. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Yep, I've had a few of those. But I. The cool thing is a lot of the military men that have come are so impressed at the way we work. They're like, this is a well oiled machine. And I said, yeah, and you better stay in your place because you know, some of them, they're accustomed to ruling and reigning and I'm like, no, no, I'm the boss of you, so just calm down. [00:19:39] Speaker B: And they need that sometimes. Well, if they've had that their whole life, if they've been the boss, we all. You're a boss, I'm a boss. We've all, you know, we need something. Minister told me years ago, he said, have something that you're doing that's serving that nobody knows about. You don't get any acolytes for that you just go there and you're a servant. And I've always tried to keep something like that. Prison ministry was that for a long time for me, that nobody, I got no pats on the back for doing that. And I needed that as much as they needed me there. You know, I'm sure a lot of these men especially probably need that if they've been a boss outside. [00:20:17] Speaker A: Well, the wives that come with them are very thankful because they've never, they don't typically see women remind men, especially their military high up ranking person get a little zing to remind them they're human. [00:20:36] Speaker B: Corporals are the most difficult. That's been my experience. Above corporal, not a colonel. Colonel. Colonel has been my most challenging rank to deal with. Generals never tell me they're generals. And it's like I would have led with that. Why did you not do that? But we went to Israel and we found out we were there when the Hamas attack happened and we had a group, about 60 people trapped over there and we got a call from the State Department saying you have a high ranking general on your group, your group. And I'm like, I get off the phone, why did you not tell me you were general? He's like, it's not normal conversation. They're humble people typically. But yeah, colonels are just at that rank where they like to let you know they're colonels. And you know, I don't blame them, I do the same thing. But yeah, I can't imagine when you are bringing these people together, serving the community, the things that you must encounter. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Well, I got a little story about a doctor. It was very early on in the ministry and he had a church, a team from his church that would always come and he'd never come. I mean he was a doctor and he was very well respected in his field. He had a stroke and it was a pretty severe one. And his whole world had just turned upside down and he did not know how to function. And one of the gals from his church begged him to come because we needed him to help with the Salvation Army. We were doing a 18,000 piece mailing and we needed all hands on deck. It was just one of those. And so I set him beside a lady who I knew could be chatty but not overwhelming. And, and I said, it's his first time, go easy on him. And all he had to do for her because she was stuffing the envelope with something, all he had to do was open the flap of the envelope and pass it. Now that is an absolutely from renowned doctor down to opening an envelope. That I knew had to be really hard on him, but I also knew it was something that he could handle. Doing the stroke because of the stroke. And at lunchtime, he started to warm up at lunchtime, and we had a great lunch. That's part of our philosophy, is we got to feed them really well, because some of them, it's their best meal of the week. [00:23:14] Speaker B: What do you feed them? I'm just curious. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Oh, it's always a. Never pizza, never dangerous. Every nonprofit wants to, you know, just slap some pieces out there because it's easy, and it is. It's a hot meal. It's a. It's. Sometimes it's a homemade meal. We have a Solomon salad, which is. You would be amazed, but it's hundreds of dollars worth of going through the fruit, nut, and vegetable section, and all we do is grab fruits, vegetables, and then we cut up meat to go on top, and then cheeses and all this sort of stuff. But it's a layer. We call it the Solomon salad, and it is layered with about 40 different things. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Oh, that sounds awesome. [00:23:58] Speaker A: And you take tweezers, and you go straight down because there's layers and there's a tiny little bit of lettuce at the very bottom. But it is one of the. [00:24:07] Speaker B: The. [00:24:08] Speaker A: It's the healthiest, but it's also the most desired salad because, you know, when you live alone and you're older, the last thing you buy is. Is fresh vegetables and fresh fruits and nuts, because they all go bad before you use them up. [00:24:23] Speaker B: Sure. [00:24:23] Speaker A: And they're from. A lot of them still are. World War II. People that have lived through, you know, the Great Depression, and they don't want to get rid of anything. So to have that kind of a fresh salad, I mean, it just knocks their stuff. [00:24:40] Speaker B: That's awesome. I was raised. So my dad was a baby of 12 kids. You're from a very large family. [00:24:46] Speaker A: My dad was also one of 12, [00:24:47] Speaker B: so dad was the baby of 12. And they all had five or six kids, so we had cousins everywhere. But my grandmother was the matriarch of the family. My grandfather on dad's side passed away when I was a year old. On my mother's side, I was raised by my great great grandmother. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Wow. [00:25:07] Speaker B: So when I was a child, I would stay with her. She was in her 90s, and she would read to me. You know, she was a godly Methodist lady, loved Jesus, poured into my life. I remember Mama Blanche is what I called her, but I remember her vividly. And then that was my grandfather's on my mother's side's grandmother and my grandmother's mom. I was with the other part. My mom worked, dad worked. My grandmother was the mayor of our hometown. So these ladies just watched after me. They really did. And so I had Mama Blanche and I had my Granny Berryman. And so they would. My Granny Berryman would cook for me. She would take care of me, taught me how to cheat at cards. I mean, the whole nine yards. Great, great time with her. But I think it helped me to, one, be kind of an older soul. But two, when I meet seniors today, it's really easy for me to connect with them because I probably heard the same music they've heard, the same history that they lived through, I've heard about. At least I'm familiar with it. And so I've always had a kinship with seniors. And I love them to death, but [00:26:22] Speaker A: I remember you love them to life. [00:26:24] Speaker B: To life. Good word. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Good word. [00:26:27] Speaker B: My Granny Bearman, my mother's grandmother. When dad came to Christ when I was a child, mother was a Christian, dad came to Christ, and we started attending church. Well, when you really get serious about your faith, you care about everybody in your family. First you want to make sure they're ready. And we would invite her to church. And like you said, she lived through the Depression. She was from a wealthy family. Her dad remarried, and basically all the kids were cut out of the inheritance. So there was a lot of mistrust ingrained in her. And so even though she was generous to me with her time and her love, she did not want to go to church. And when she. She said, all they're about is money. They're there to get my money. And when she stepped into that church, she would take her pocketbook and she would just clinch it the whole time. And I remember that so vividly. And she lived on. Back in the day, it was commodities, you know, she lived on government milk and government cheese and all that stuff. And was. It was like she didn't have anything. Nobody was trying to get her money, but that was her worldview. And she had a lot of mistrust from especially ministries and churches. Do you encounter that a lot? [00:27:47] Speaker A: A lot. [00:27:48] Speaker B: And we talked. We Talked about the 80s and the scandals that happened. I vividly remember that, dad, we would get up every morning and watch Jimmy Swaggart before we would go to church. And dad probably held those men at too high of esteem anyway. He loved the music. And I remember when they all fell, dad kind of took hold of Billy Graham, because he was the one minister that didn't have a scandal revolving around him. And I think the Lord used that testimony to kind of keep him, you know, in the church and serious about the things of God. But that was my father, who would be a senior today. His mother was a lot like my great grandmother. Just. Can I tell one story? [00:28:35] Speaker A: Go for it. [00:28:36] Speaker B: So Mamawe have different names for all of them. Mamaw was my dad's mother. The mother ended up had 15 kids. There were three we didn't know about that didn't make it. So when she passed away, we were going through her things. She went into assisted living. She had a little bitty home that she raised these kids in. We were going through her things, and we found just stacks and stacks of envelopes where she had donated money to James Robinson's ministry. Back then, James Robinson was on the television, on antenna television, three stations, but he was there every Sunday morning. That was her church. And so he was discipling her. He was pouring into her. She had given. It was $15 a time, $20 a time. But she had given to his ministry all those years. And at that time, we didn't know James. I have great respect for James today and have learned a lot more about his ministry. I'd love to meet him. But we didn't know any of this. We just presumed he was another one of these TV preachers that was taking advantage of my grandmother. And she was so, like, tight with money. She would plug her television in when she was ready to watch it because she didn't want it to run the electric bill up. That was just her nature. Never ran air conditioning unless she had company. Just that was her way. And we were like, you know, she gave all this money that she didn't have to give to this TV preacher. What was that all about? So we kind of filed it away. Well, years go by. I'll become a pastor. I move here to Amelia Island. I become the pastor at First Baptist. And when I took this church, it was $12 million in debt. Someone showed up. Nobody knew who he was, and he started giving large checks. I'm talking 25,000 a week, which was unusual for us at that time. It happens regularly now. But we've grown a lot at that time. You never saw that. And it was literally getting us out of debt as a church. And you have that awkward moment as a pastor. Do you say anything to the person? Because you want to be grateful, but you don't want to violate their privacy? And I didn't know this family. So these checks come in probably by the 8th or 9th one. I take the risk and reach out to the gentleman and say, hey, I know this is awkward for me. I'm sure it's awkward for you. But the financial office is excited because they knew about your giving, and they let me know because they were excited. So I just want to let you know we're grateful. It means a lot to us. It's meeting a real need in our congregation. And he received it well. We became friends later, and he was telling me, how did you come to know Jesus? And he said, well, I was at a James Robinson crusade. Now, I had that moment of what my grandmother faithfully sowed. That was $25. I'm reaping at 25,000. [00:31:49] Speaker A: What? And, you know, [00:31:53] Speaker B: it bothered somewhat. It bothered me. I knew better. But she didn't have an inheritance to leave. She divided it between her kids. And I thought, you know, I want to leave an inheritance for my grandkids one day. And I kind of just always thought, well, Mama was poor. She couldn't do that. But she gave more than anybody. What a story. You can't make that up, you know? And I'm sure you hear stuff like that or you see evidence of people sowing into ministry with their time and talent and treasure, that the next three generations will reap the harvest. They won't see it to the degree that somebody else will do. You get to see fruit from your [00:32:38] Speaker A: labor all the time. [00:32:41] Speaker B: Tell me about it. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Well, first, I'd like to finish the story about the doctor, please. Because we had gotten to lunch, and he was kind of okay. The day ended, and we were getting on the bus to go back to their church, and he grabbed me and he pulled me aside, and he looked, like, right into my eyes, and he said, joanne, I want you to know this is the best day I've had in months. And I was a bit shocked because, you know, he was very quiet. All he did was open up the envelopes, and he said, joanne, if I hadn't have come today, I would have sat alone at my dining room table, and I would have been picking up toothpicks on this side and putting them down on this side to get therapy. And he said, instead, I got to bless the Salvation army with my time. I got to be a part of a great group of people. People talked to me. The lunch was extraordinary. And he my heart, because I didn't know what was going on inside of this man, but I knew the backstory. So it's little stories like that that really capture your heart. Then there's the older man and woman that meet on a mission trip and fall in love. We've had a number of them get married after they've lost a spouse. And we've seen amazing love stories happen in 80s. You know, one in particular that I'm thinking about right now, she just lost her second husband and he was the absolute love of her life and he was 100. And she's in her mid-90s now. And you know, the, and the growth, like people have gotten saved. We've always joked if Joanne goes into the closet with somebody, something's going on. Because we always have a storeroom attached to the warehouse. And I've always made it clear to everyone and anyone if you've got an issue, you need prayer. You need to talk about something that you don't want the whole group to hear about. Just grab me. Somebody else will run the mission trip and we'll talk. And it's in those moments where they are so I mean, one lady just. Joanne, I need to understand baptism. Okay. Why? Well, a whole bunch of people got baptized and they, they went right under the water. Joanne, I've never seen that before. Am I missing out? I'm like, oh, okay, hold on here, let's back up into this one. And I have to ask a whole bunch of questions to be able to give them the right answer. [00:35:28] Speaker B: Do you ever have people. And this is just funny to me, I think especially in that age group. But we will have some players come into the group sometime. [00:35:36] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:35:37] Speaker B: And we have an established senior adult ministry. And every now and then we'll see a guy come in and like he thinks this is a dating service. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Yep. [00:35:45] Speaker B: How do you deal with that? [00:35:47] Speaker A: I make them work on a project over in the corner with another man. We have senior adults that because they've been in the ministry so long, they're like my undercover agents. [00:36:04] Speaker B: They can kind of have a radar for that sort of thing. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah. And they help me because there's a lot of them and it's myself. [00:36:13] Speaker B: How many, how many are you serving with? [00:36:15] Speaker A: Well, we have 300 on our mailing list that get our. And some of them have been on our mailing list. One, I just got a text. She just passed away on Friday. She was 102. Our oldest was 108. She stopped attending at 106. She used to take her three wheel tricycle to get to the bus pickup location. And she had a wickedly Good sense of humor. And she always pretended like she couldn't hear you. And then all of a sudden, she'd set a zinger into a conversation and we're all going to. Yeah, you can hear just fine. But, you know, senior adults are. You know, they often get described as children. At a certain stage, they become more like children. And I personally, I don't believe that to be true until they hit, you know, until they get to a place where maybe they're in dementia or something like that. But most of, like, everyone we deal with are independent. They live. They live independently. They might live in a home independently, but they. Most of them live in the house that they raise their four kids in. They're modest to middle income. And then we have a ton of people that live in HUD housing, but they all live individually. So we've had some very interesting groups of people. We have had a witch show up, and she was determined to destroy our ministry. And I don't know that she got saved, but she certainly got scooted out. Holy Spirit was like, nah, you're not. Nah. She had a nice time while she was there. [00:37:54] Speaker B: You think people outgrow those things, but they don't. [00:37:57] Speaker A: No. [00:37:57] Speaker B: Wow. Sin is. Sin is your staff, senior adults, the people that work alongside you? [00:38:07] Speaker A: No. [00:38:08] Speaker B: The reason I ask, but they're older. I know several younger people who have a heart for seniors, and I think they would love something like what you're doing. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Well, I will tell you that we have the most incredible group of interns from UNF that are going through an aging program. Oh, that's perfect. And I've had a number of stellar interns that we've got to know them. They've gotten to know us, and their eyes are opened because a lot of them see. See older adults as the frail and elderly. We've got some frail and elderly, but they still have spunk and they still live on their own, and they still dye their hair red or orange or whatever they need to be, you know, whatever they want. But, yeah, young. I'd like to get younger staff if I could, but they have to have a love of seniors that is beyond. I mean, next to Jesus, they gotta love. See yours, right? [00:39:12] Speaker B: Okay, so educate me as a minister, what are they dealing with personally? So I know I've seen quite a few in our congregation that are not in a good relationship with their children. Sometimes the kids have made very different choices about lifestyle than mom and dad were okay with. Is that common? How long does it take for them to open up? What else Are they facing that? You see as. Hey, every minister needs to know this. They're really. This is what your seniors are dealing with. [00:39:49] Speaker A: Isolation, loneliness and depression are the top three that I deal with. And the fourth one is financial abuse by their children or their grandchildren. And it's subtle. It's very subtle. And then it's. Then it can be outright. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Do most of your people, are they native to North Florida or are. [00:40:11] Speaker A: They're either native to Florida or they were brought here by the military. Okay. So we're starting to get people that have come here from other states because. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Retire. [00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, we're known as the retirement state, which is funny because the median age is 35, which I think is hilarious. [00:40:34] Speaker B: We jokingly say there must be a verse in the Bible somewhere that says at some point you have to move to Florida because everybody seems to do it right. [00:40:43] Speaker A: As a pastor, two senior adults, the church has a tendency to miss the mark. The church global in that they see senior adults as a Bible study and a potluck lunch. They don't always, you know, they've always got those two things in the church. But do they have the purpose component and purpose because of their age, they can't do the same things as younger people. You know, our ministry, we don't pull weeds in the middle of summer. [00:41:25] Speaker B: Sure. [00:41:26] Speaker A: We don't do a lot of stand up. [00:41:28] Speaker B: There's some that would. Some of the seniors that would. [00:41:30] Speaker A: Yeah, there are some that would. [00:41:31] Speaker B: We have to. More often than not with our senior men. We have to be the brakes, not the accelerator. And right now we're dealing with an issue with the government because they started tearing down bushes that were under federal protection that they didn't know about. And they just got a little aggressive. And we would go out as a staff and go, those guys are in their 80s. Please get out of the heat, you know. No, they were perfectly fine with it and they were not going to let us tell them what to do. And so. But you know what? It's worth it. It really is. I would rather see them take chances, take risk and within health, you know, healthy boundaries. But to get out and try things and show us how to live that stage of life. Yeah, I don't want to be. I don't want to resign. I don't want to die before I die. [00:42:27] Speaker A: Most seniors would rather die doing what they love to do. [00:42:31] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:42:32] Speaker A: Than cooped up in some hostage. [00:42:35] Speaker B: I don't blame them a bit. I feel the same way. We have a lady right now that either has to Get a lung transplant, a miracle, or she's just got a very limited time. But she said the same thing. She says, you know, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a hospital not being able to see my grandkids and no quality of life. I don't blame her. I totally agree. We're going to pray for a miracle. But I would make the same choice probably if I were her, you know, so loneliness, isolation, are they. Do they let you know that or are they. [00:43:09] Speaker A: No, they don't. And typically they can be in a room full of people and still feel alone. [00:43:15] Speaker B: Explain that [00:43:18] Speaker A: there's fewer people their age. They're dealing with circumstances that are an embarrassment to their age group and they don't want to share. [00:43:32] Speaker B: They [00:43:35] Speaker A: maybe they're just an introvert. And that's, you know, that didn't go away. That doesn't go away. And so they'd rather not even show up because they can't connect. Seniors on a Mission is really cool in that I get three or four people to work together so an introvert can feel like part of it. And they can let the extroverts talk, talk, and they'll just chime in when they want to, and we don't push them. Extroverts that typically running a program roll right over introverts. I mean, that is a problem in any society. Typically only 25% of the society is an introvert. They are sometimes the most needed of people because they are so oriented towards detail. But they don't always express themselves well. And some people will take that as either they're being rude or they're not in a bad mood or whatever. And no, they just. That's who they are. That's how God created them to be. So senior adults also, they need socialization. They need to be heard, but they also want to work, you know, so lunchtime is a great time because they giggle, they laugh, they talk. [00:45:06] Speaker B: Do they complain very much? [00:45:10] Speaker A: It's interesting when we get a senior adult who's been known as a complainer, they come into the ministry and they get plopped down with people who don't complain. And they complain until they realize, oh, this really isn't an acceptable conversation here. And they latch onto, you know, when you're in a room, the energy level, whoever has the highest energy level, people come up to that energy level. It's the same with conversations. If the conversation is gracious and kind and gentle, this complainer will learn very quickly either to be quiet, and then they learn I can bounce off of their joy. I can grab a hold of that. I didn't see my situation that way. [00:46:09] Speaker B: They're like thermostats. They set the moral and cultural climate of the room. [00:46:15] Speaker A: The ones that have been there before know to do that. [00:46:19] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:46:20] Speaker A: The ones that are new rise up to that level. [00:46:24] Speaker B: We compare them to thermostats and thermometers. [00:46:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:26] Speaker B: You know, the thermometer kind of reacts to the thermostat. And so you always want to have the right thermostat. And if you get a bad thermostat, you have a problem. [00:46:34] Speaker A: Well, and I will say my staff are all trained. I don't care if you've just been in a car accident 10 minutes ago. You walk into that room and the joy of the Lord is what is on tap. [00:46:44] Speaker B: You know, that's something I think seniors could teach young people because authenticity, you know, young adults. And I consider myself middle aged if I live to be a hundred. Right. So. But I find that with young adults on staff, often they really value authenticity being real. And it's difficult for me to teach them that. That's great, that's awesome. However, consistency is also a great value. And if you go to have a surgery, you want that surgeon to be consistent. And if he had a bad day or bad week or whatever, you don't want him to bring that up in the middle of your surgery. You want him to do his job and do it well. That's what he gets paid to do. And so as a staff, when we're going on stage ministering to people, and thankfully we've been blessed with that. We've got everybody that does stage ministry at our church. I know what they've been through. They've been through some gut wrenching experiences, but you wouldn't know it on Sunday morning. They show up and they're consistent and they're faithful and they give the body what it needs at that moment. [00:47:54] Speaker A: And it's not about being fake. It's about choosing to take that higher road, choosing to trust God in the [00:48:02] Speaker B: middle of pain and then walk off and bleed, cry whatever it is you need to do. And we try to accommodate that and be there for them as well. But that's such a. Such a great. That generation has such a great consistency that they value. And I think the younger folks could really learn from that. With you. I'm curious about this because of your background. So you were in Hollywood. You worked for all the major. Talk a little bit. Tell us a little bit about that. We talked before. [00:48:35] Speaker A: Well, I was a farm girl in Canada, and when I told my dad I wanted to go in the movie business, you would have thought, oh, man, I was gonna go be a prostitute or something. He was just like, you gotta be kidding me. And I went and I studied, and turns out, because of my ability to have two personalities, you know, my. I was a really good production manager. I could organize. I could do a day out of days. And so there was a big contest. And all of the people that were up there for this contest were directors or writers or, you know, they were. They were that kind. And I walked in with my little production board and said I could be a production manager. Well, there was a production manager that was one of the guys on the panel to judge who was going to get this award. And I didn't get the award. A director did. A potential director. But the production manager came over to me and said, hey, I got a job opening for a pa, A production assistant. Like, you know, the lowest of the low. I'd like you to take this job. And I took the job, and I literally zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom. And one of the shows that I got onto, the producer walked up to me and said, can you add? I said, of course I can add. What do you mean? He said, well, the production accountant had. Has a $300 petty cash float and can't keep it straight. So you're the new accountant. I went, oh, great. I wish I would have listened to my dad because he told me to go into accounting. And so I took a 101 accounting class, and I learned that when you spend money, you put it in this column. When you get money, you put it in that column. And I went from that show to being the assistant accountant on Popeye Doyle, the French Connection. I don't know if you remember that picture. [00:50:34] Speaker B: I know the show. [00:50:35] Speaker A: Okay, well, I was working for 20th Century Fox, and then I went on to another show. And all of a sudden, it was three months after that show, I got a phone call from, I think it was Aaron Spelling. I mean, biggest of the big. And I'm like, hello? And so he said, joanne, I'd like to know a little bit about. You were working as an assistant on that picture? And I said, yeah. And he said, did anything strange happen on that show? And we had a situation where the accountant got furious with me because I had recounted some petty cash stuff and it was off. And, you know, to me, if it wasn't to the penny, it wasn't right. Well, I Found out that the man was stealing. We, everyone found out he stole something like $300,000 through petty cash. So it was a real eye opener for me because I was from the farm, I thought everybody was honest. I had no idea how horrendous it was in the movie business. Well, from there I went to. I met my husband on a show [00:51:44] Speaker B: and he was a producer. [00:51:45] Speaker A: He was the producer. And the show was called. Oh my gosh, what was it called? It was with Patty Duke, Jerry Lewis and Morgan Freeman and it was a fabulous TV movie. And. Oh, and I had done a picture with John Ritter called Let God or Let Go. Letting Go. And oh, that was, that was another wonderful story. But anyway, I fell in love. I met Brian and within six days, I mean, I was in the process of divorcing my first husband. And, you know, as much of a mess of a human being I was at that time, we sat down and I showed him my warts. He showed me his warts. And in Canada, I don't know if it's true here in the United States, but in Canada you have to be legally separated for a year before you can get a divorce. Well, I met Brian two days later. I got the legal paperwork done because we had been separating and we knew we weren't going to be married anymore, but the legal paperwork hadn't been started. So I got the paperwork started and one year to the day, I married Brian. And that was 40 years ago. [00:52:55] Speaker B: Wow. And it's. So it's worked out pretty well. [00:52:57] Speaker A: Ah, yeah. [00:52:59] Speaker B: The reason I broached the subject, one of my favorite actors producers is Clint Eastwood and he is probably. [00:53:07] Speaker A: He worked with his son. Brian's done a movie with his son. [00:53:10] Speaker B: I gotta tell you this, his son, which also is an up and comer that's really doing well now. And his son, I watched him on a podcast last week and Rogan or somebody asked him, what supplements do you take and what does. And then he said, well, let me tell you what my dad takes. And I'm like, write that down because he's been productive all these years. And so I ordered Clint Eastwood's regimen and it was expensive, but I'm taking the same stuff that he's been taking for 50 years. But. But do they have heroes? Because they've outlived most of their heroes, I would presume. I'm curious, who do they look to as a role model? Because you think about role models in work, you think about role models at school, but when you're going into those senior Adult years. Are there certain people that inspire them that they can look up to and say, okay, if they can do it, I can do it. I'm sure you've got people in the community that are that. But do they look at someone like Eastwood or just a great Alec, a dolly that just passed away, and say, if they can be productive and have a voice in their latter years, so can I. Do you see that happening? [00:54:26] Speaker A: I don't see that happening for Hollywood. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Why is that? [00:54:34] Speaker A: Because it's so far out of their reach. I see it more in their local community when they see young people coming up and doing something extraordinary, whether especially business people that have given. They're sold out for Jesus, but they're still in their calling. In the business world, people relate more to the people that if it's a young colonel, they see that person and respect them because they're walking in their faith doing it in the secular world. [00:55:18] Speaker B: That's so cool. [00:55:20] Speaker A: I've become a bit of a. I'm actually not a hero, but I am certainly a daughter to them. And they love to pour into me, but they love what I pour back into them. So a good doctor in their lives is someone that they look up to. [00:55:40] Speaker B: That's true. [00:55:42] Speaker A: You know, it's people that are a part of their life that are typically younger than they are, not older. Wow, they're there. [00:55:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:54] Speaker A: They don't necessarily need lessons, but they need reminders on how precious they are at the age they are at. How, like when they walk into the room, I don't. They all have a disability of some sort, but I'm tuning into their abilities. What can they do? And then I push them, make them do a little more than they think they can do. And they're dead tired when they go. They're alive tired when they go. [00:56:24] Speaker B: Catch. We have a gentleman that is now in his early 80s. He still runs his company. Very productive. [00:56:33] Speaker A: Good for him. [00:56:34] Speaker B: And he is a threat to a lot of people who need threats in the sense that if he wants to shut the whole city down, he can. He knows how to do it. He knows where everybody's buried, their skeletons, all that stuff. And, you know, I just pray. I don't know what I'll do if the Lord takes him home because he's such an asset to the kingdom and I have no idea what he gives. I'm sure he's generous, but I'm talking about just by being who he is. And I can't verify this, so if somebody in the comments checks me on it, it may not be accurate. I remember it from when I was a teenager. Paul Harvey remember the name Radio. So rest of the story. He told the story years ago when I was either in high school or college and heard it, never forgotten it. That retirement began in China and one of these emperors came in and he wanted to eliminate all of his threats. So he made mandatory retirement at 65 because he saw the people over 65 as his biggest threats. The people who knew how to get him out of office and knew how to take over right when they were getting smart. He mandated they can no longer be in the workforce, they can no longer be a CEO. And you know, our country has adopted it thankful that they have Social Security and all of these things to provide for seniors. But sometimes it's right in those years when they're potentially have the most to offer, not the least, but the most to offer to society and the kingdom that we kind of put them over on the side sometimes. [00:58:11] Speaker A: Oh, I've watched way too many younger and when I mean younger, I mean 55 and below kick older adults to the curb and it's like you don't know the treasure that you're throwing to the curb. [00:58:25] Speaker B: Oh, totally. [00:58:26] Speaker A: It's ridiculous. And I'm not just talking about Florida. I'm talking about the entirety of United States, Canada. No one has the honor do senior adults that they should. [00:58:42] Speaker B: That's right. [00:58:43] Speaker A: I mean, and even if you truly honor senior adults, you got to do it even more. [00:58:48] Speaker B: Well, and we say we can validate this. If we lose a senior adult or a couple moves away, whatever it is, it will take. It used to be three under 55 couples to replace them. Today it's around five. Because when a senior adult goes to church, they go to church every Sunday. They come on Wednesday nights, they give, they serve. They're all in. [00:59:16] Speaker A: They're all in. [00:59:17] Speaker B: 20 something is not so much. You know, if you get them one Sunday a month, they consider themselves faithful to your church. And we consider them a prospect at one month. But it really is, it's so irreplaceable what they bring to the table. [00:59:33] Speaker A: You know, senior adults have lived enough of life and have seen God be faithful through so many seasons of their life that they can't do enough to give back. And I don't mean that in a works manner. I just mean that they live and breathe Jesus. And for those that maybe are hurt or that need ministry, when they get on fire, they're on fire. And it doesn't take a whole lot. It takes maybe A year of honest, trustworthy care without asking for anything short of help us on a volunteer project. You know, and that's. You can change a senior adult's perspective through love. I mean, you can change anybody's perspective through love. But loving older adults is. Well, first of all, in the Bible, I think it was Jesus said to Peter, you know, take care of my sheep, right? Nurture my lambs. [01:00:49] Speaker B: At the end of Luke, I think Luke or John somewhere in there, right at the end. [01:00:53] Speaker A: But I don't know if you noticed that he. Twice he said sheep. Once he said lambs. Lambs are young sheep. So in that command, he was telling Peter to take care of the elderly twice, where he was only saying take care of the lambs once. [01:01:14] Speaker B: You know, in that same passage, when I'm ministering to people who have lost their ability to make their own decisions, often where they're going to live, what they're going to eat, it's made for them and they're not happy about it. And I don't blame them. I wouldn't be happy about that either. But I show them that right after that, Peter's a little upset with Jesus because he says, well, what about John? It's at the end of John, it's the last chapter of John, and he's a little upset with Jesus because Jesus in that same passage says, well, what about John? You're so nice to John. Basically, you're giving him all of these things. And Jesus says, peter, when you're old, people will take you places you don't want to go, and they will do things with you you don't want. Which we know how Peter died, and that's what he was referring to. But he said in this. Glorify me. In this stage of life when you can't make decisions for yourself, you can still bring glory to Jesus and to me. That's almost a motto for senior adult ministry to show them that in a nursing home. I've made it the habit when I visit seniors in the nursing home or if they're shut in the oldest member of our church, it was get a little emotional, talk about it. But Cassie had 109 member of our church, lived about two blocks that way. And when I first got here, she took a liking to me. She couldn't come to church. She would watch us on television. And I drove a little motorcycle at the time. And I would ride over to her house, which she hated the motorcycle. She said, the pastor has no business on a motorcycle. I sold it, but I would go over and spend time with her. And she would just speak into my life, and it was so sweet. And I had the honor of preaching her funeral a few years later. And I remember she would say, you know, consider the sparrows. They're not hustling. They're not, you know, performing. But he saw his on them. That was a text I chose for her funeral. But we talked about last week on another episode, a gentleman who would. He was an engineer with Von Braun. [01:03:41] Speaker A: With what? [01:03:42] Speaker B: Von Ron. Up in Huntsville. So I'm from Huntsville. It's where my previous church was at. It's where I was raised. 70% of our guys in our church were former engineers. And this gentleman, Edsel, was so encouraging and so kind. And I saw him. He had just had this gift where he would find something to encourage in you within 30 seconds. And it wasn't flattery. It wasn't put on. It was sincere. He got Alzheimer's. And when Alzheimer's kicked in, you know, the record kind of gets stuck. But it got stuck on encouragement. And he would. He would re. Encourage people things they've heard a thousand times or whatever, but he would forget. So it would be like, you know, I just want to tell you, Pastor, you did such a great job today. That was a wonderful sermon. And he would walk away and forget. He told me, and he'd come back and tell me again. He'd do it three or four times on a Sunday. And I thought, man, I fear my teenage years coming out when I get that age, you know, because I don't want to be this guy who's in the nursing home cussing everybody, because that's how I was as a teenager. But Edsel, the record got stuck. But it was a good place. And what an example. [01:04:59] Speaker A: You know, we had a man in our congregation that I attended years ago, Bob. And Bob would sit on a swinging chair in his front yard, and he would be out there with a cup of coffee. And you would often find young people that would walk down his street and would sit there and just talk with him. And he nurtured their lives while they were swinging on us. That swing became holy ground. Yeah. [01:05:30] Speaker B: And you'll find such amazing insight. We had a Senior adult man, Mr. Rouse, that was in one of the churches I preached at frequently. And he would come up and I would preach a sermon, and he would come up and say, well, I like, he wasn't showing off. He was just making conversation. But he would say the chapter after that is where it says. And he would just quote 15 verses and found out later he couldn't read or write. He sat around and listened to audio cassette tapes of the Bible until he pretty much had it memorized. It was unreal. And so people like that, you know, there's gold and then there are pews. You know, there's people out there that have so much to bring to the kingdom. And it's our job, you know, when it says it's the glory of God to conceal a matter, and it's the glory of kings to search them out, Sometimes they're concealed in people. And it's our job to search out those gifts and strengths. And you've done such a great job with that. Tell me about your book. [01:06:30] Speaker A: Well, it's called G3. And me giving God glory is. Now I will say. Can I backtrack and tell you a little bit about my mom? Eight and a half years ago, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. And it was an emergency situation. [01:06:48] Speaker B: Was she in Canada? [01:06:49] Speaker A: Yes. And my sister was actually at my place place at the time. She was helping me with an 80th surprise birthday party for my husband. And she was about to go home that day, and we got the call from dad saying, mom's in emergency surgery. They don't know if she's going to make it out. It's bad. And so we rerouted my sister and she got to go up there. And for the next five and a half years, I would drive up. Even through Covid, I would drive up and spend a month and relieve. And then my sister flew in from Vancouver and she would relieve dad. So dad kind of had us for at least a month, sometimes six weeks. And then he was on his own for one month. And as I was driving, a lot of my seniors were calling me, saying, Joanne, 19 hours is a long drive. Are you okay? You know, you're getting older. And it was like they were. They were very concerned about me. And I. And I would just say, don't worry about me. I'm with G3. I gotta go. Love you. [01:07:57] Speaker B: Bye. [01:07:57] Speaker A: And I'd hang up. And I always considered I was traveling with God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit. But I. My nickname was G3. And so when they heard G3, they. They didn't know that I was like. They couldn't really hear it, but I was hanging up, but I was with somebody. So for five and a half years, I traveled 19 and a half hours straight every month, every quarter with G3. [01:08:26] Speaker B: Wow. Before you get into that, the great title, what is your take? So as my Mother, I don't want to say her age. I'm 50, so you can guess somewhat. Mother is healthy, sharp, all that. But I'm looking ahead. I'm looking 10 years ahead, 15 years ahead. I drive a Tesla. It's my wife's car, but I borrow her car quite frequently so I can put in where I'm going. It takes me there. I can listen to a podcast. I can make phone calls. I love it. What is your take on seniors in tech as far as. Are they. Are they hesitant? Because she's not been a big fan of talking about getting a Tesla. She doesn't trust it. How are the people that you minister to? [01:09:21] Speaker A: Okay, well, let's go. Let's wind back to Covid. [01:09:24] Speaker B: Okay. [01:09:26] Speaker A: In Covid, seniors were. I mean, personally, I feel like this country was killing seniors. [01:09:32] Speaker B: I can't imagine how they dealt with that. [01:09:34] Speaker A: I had spent 25 years of my life trying to get them out of isolation, loneliness and depression. And in one day. [01:09:41] Speaker B: So, you know, we took off. We closed our services just for a few weeks, maybe five weeks that we didn't have service. And the seniors demanded, pastor, we need church. I'm like, well, it may kill you. [01:09:55] Speaker A: Well, it's their fellowship. [01:09:56] Speaker B: It may kill you. And they said, it's fine, we gotta die sometime, but I gotta have my church. And so we opened back up. Sometimes people say, man, you are really aggressive in your conservatism and your values and social stance. I'm like, they did that to me. I didn't do that to them. They made me that way, you know, but it was. It was like they led in that first people back. Young people were. It took them a while. Seniors were back day one, and they were thrilled. [01:10:27] Speaker A: Well, and we were an organization where, like you said earlier, we throw events, you know, and it's big, it's. So we. We opted to get a mobile unit. It was a 40 foot and it popped out on both sides. And we thought we were going to do mini mission trips. The seniors hated it. They were like, we want 25, 30 people. I said, legally, we can only have five. And so they were like, all right, change it. All of our children are giving us smartphones and tablets and we don't know how to use them. [01:11:03] Speaker B: That's so true. [01:11:04] Speaker A: So we changed the whole paradigm around and we started teaching one on one. And we wore our masks inside of this mobile unit. We could fit four, five people with trainers. So we were way over the limit. [01:11:20] Speaker B: And I'm sure you still do some of those things. [01:11:22] Speaker A: We still do it. [01:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So in our congregation we saw that emerge. I'd never seen that before until probably right around Covid. I hadn't put that together. But we would have people show up and they would say, I can't find the sermons, I can't do that. Or I'm locked out on my smartphone. And so we found there was one young person on staff that was really good at that, that could work with them well. So that was kind of became the go to tech guru, put them with her, she'd walk them through it, kind of give them a little class on it. I've never thought about expanding that, but that could be a, at least a one day where you could sit down. [01:12:01] Speaker A: Well, and that's what we do. We go to a location where there's a lot of seniors and we work with whoever is the person at that site. And they set up 20 opportunities for people to come in a four hour window. And we bring four or five trainers and we will sit one on one and help the senior. Because every phone has a different operating system. Every phone has a different level of where they're at. So whether it's a iPhone or Android, they all, you know, so. [01:12:35] Speaker B: And my grandmother never moved from flip phone. She wanted her flip phone, she liked it. [01:12:40] Speaker A: And they've got a new flip phone now, so. But the problem is a lot of younger folk have iPhone or they have the Android and the family tends to go that direction. So the older adult has to get what they have to be able to communicate. [01:12:56] Speaker B: Right. [01:12:56] Speaker A: And they want to communicate, they want to be a part of it. But a lot of times we'll see where they're in the text threads. So grandma is in the text thread, but grandma never responds. Grandma just reads what's going on because she doesn't know how to do that. [01:13:15] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [01:13:16] Speaker A: So we get them into the conversation and then they learn how to send. Like the kids are always sending pictures to grandma. Well, grandma's got things going on that she would like to send pictures back. How do I do it? So we're training them. We spend 45 minutes one on one, teaching them what to do. All they have to do is bring their device charged and bring their passwords in a separate thing. Don't tell us what your passwords are, but have them. Because sometimes you can't do certain things because you're not upgraded enough and you have to have your password to upgrade. So we bring WI Fi with us so we can be in the middle of the desert and we can train People. [01:13:59] Speaker B: Okay, so two things come to mind I'm curious about. First of all, I ask everybody this because it's one of my favorite movies. And you're from. You worked in Hollywood. Have you seen Jewel? [01:14:10] Speaker A: No. [01:14:10] Speaker B: You have to watch Jewel. [01:14:11] Speaker A: Okay. [01:14:12] Speaker B: Okay. Working with Senior Adults. It's the most precious movie about everything that you're dealing with. And it's about three senior adults come together. One has an alien land in his backyard and nobody will take him serious. So he goes to city hall complaining about this same thing every week. He goes and he says, look, the crosswalk here needs a red light. I want to change the motto of the city. He tells the same thing over and over and over. And then one day he shows up and I've got an alien in my backyard and I don't know what to do. And they kind of brush him off. Another senior adult comes up to him and says, you, you've got to quit saying that because they won't take us seriously. We need them to take us seriously. He's like, I am serious. So it's adorable. I mean, it's an awesome, insightful movie. But check it out. It's on Amazon Prime. I'll give them a plug. Second question. Senior adults feel strongly about their politics. [01:15:07] Speaker A: It's not allowed at Seniors on a Mission. [01:15:08] Speaker B: I wonder. You're Canadian, so you kind of have a. Out there. [01:15:14] Speaker A: You know, the seniors that I. We've had occasional visitors that that's what they come and that's what they want to talk about it. And I gently put my hand on their shoulder and explain to them, we are a politics neutral zone. [01:15:28] Speaker B: Gotcha. [01:15:30] Speaker A: You love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your might, and your neighbors as yourself. [01:15:35] Speaker B: Gotcha. [01:15:36] Speaker A: If we can get that right, then we'll talk about that. [01:15:38] Speaker B: That's not a bad rule. [01:15:39] Speaker A: So if you can't get that right, you can't talk politics. [01:15:42] Speaker B: I wondered how you dealt with that. [01:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we just have to. You know, I had one church who wanted to know how I dealt with abortion. And I'm like, we don't talk about abortion. [01:15:52] Speaker B: We're not having a lot of abortions. [01:15:54] Speaker A: Probably at that age, our grandkids and how much we love them. [01:15:56] Speaker B: Right. [01:15:58] Speaker A: You know, we're showing pictures. We're not, you know. Now do we help First Coast Women's Services? Absolutely. You know, are we in that space sharing? Absolutely. [01:16:12] Speaker B: Well, you got to be careful because Ontario Lake, Ontario is going to be on their radar. So you're going to have to answer that at some Point Gulf of America. So tell me about the book. [01:16:24] Speaker A: Last fall, it was Thanksgiving weekend and I had Covid of all things, and my staff said to me, because you, you know, my husband is 25 years my senior, so the. When I get sick, I'm in lockdown, no matter what it is, I don't want to share it with my 88 year old. And they said, why don't you start writing your book? And I was like, what do you mean writing my book, Joanne, you need a book. And I was like. So I had done a podcast and one of my staff members took that podcast and made it into a chapter. How cool. And he sent it to me. He said, here you go, here's one of your chapters. Go. So I worked for eight days and then I, I was so into it and it, I finished on Easter of this year. [01:17:17] Speaker B: Wow. [01:17:17] Speaker A: And I had shingles for three weeks until I got the book finished. So it was a true work of pain to, to go from this place in Thanksgiving to finishing in Easter. But it's the story of G3. The father, the son and the Holy Spirit and me. But it's the story of. From the moment he created me in my mother's womb, I had a purpose. And my purpose was senior adults. I was burst into a family where I was the oldest of 86, now 86 grands and great grandchildren. I was the oldest of them. So I didn't have children to play with. I had all my aunts and uncles, they were all 20 to 25 years older than me and then my grandparents. So I like you, I was birthed into a family of older people and I was an old shoe before I was 12. And then when I went to high school, I didn't have a whole lot of friends in high school because I was really weird. I mean, I was weird, which most teenagers are. But I took my weirdness to a whole new level. And the teachers, the professors were my friends. And then same thing, when I got to college, I was into the teachers, the professors, I knew all of them, but the students, not so much. And then I moved into the movie industry and I kind of put all of that into this book. But I also put into this book I am an honest to the core person. If you ask me something, I'm going to tell you what I truly believe. And in this book, my experiences with God, good, bad and ugly, I describe them in here. I'm truly honest about my walk with the Lord. And it isn't always roses and peaches and it's ugly sometimes. And so I kind of walk through how God prepared me for seniors on a mission which was essentially a three decade training for what's next. I mean, I am about to start the next chapter of my life, probably my final chapter. But the chapter is going to be hopefully 30 years long. I'm 63 right now. [01:20:06] Speaker B: You live in Florida. So I, when I, when I came to this church and it had so many. Today it's pretty equal the age breakdown of our church at the time, the senior adults made up a large portion of our congregation. But they would tell me, you know, we're in Florida and so we're not your typical senior adult. We're Jimmy Buffett senior adults is the way they would describe it. I'll never forget that, that we're still cool, you know. But it is what really they say, whoever they is, they say in the next 10 to 15 years there's going to be some major breakthroughs in aging and lifespan is going to continue increasing and it's already the largest group. There's threats to Social Security. There's all those things that's got to be figured out. But you know, yeah, you, you may have a, that last chapter may be a long chapter. [01:21:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm hoping it. And God told me a number of years ago that this ministry that I have been training in for 30 years needed to become a lifestyle. And that's where it's called the G3 village. Giving God Glory, Purposeful living. [01:21:23] Speaker B: So we have a lot of senior adult viewers. Part of that's because they have time. Yes, they're home and they're fascinated. They're a little preacher. They're watching everything that I do and they're so supportive. And so they're going to see this, they're going to share this. How can they learn more? We'll put all the links in the bio, but how can they learn more about getting involved personally? You sold me like, you're welcome. I would hire you tomorrow. I mean, I'm on board. I would love to see you engage our seniors in what you're doing. I would love to see them plug in and people support what you're doing. How can they do that? [01:22:03] Speaker A: Well, seniors on a mission would absolutely love to send up our technology team to engage your seniors so that they can be more connected with the world. We can always have a mission trip [01:22:16] Speaker B: and oh, I've got ideas. [01:22:19] Speaker A: Yay. Because it's also an outreach to people outside of your church. I like to do each one, bring one. So we create we have a huge mission trip, even if we've got two or three nonprofits and a large space where we can work on different projects at different times. But if you. It enables your seniors to bring someone to a church atmosphere. But it's not church. But they feel the love of God and they feel his pleasure and they recognize that, hey, maybe church ain't what I thought it was. And if they come once or twice, then all of a sudden they own it and it becomes their mission trip. And then all of a sudden they come to church. [01:23:05] Speaker B: That's awesome. [01:23:05] Speaker A: So. So they get to be an evangelist without bringing people to church. So that's a great way to partner. G3 village is in its infancy. Basically, it's a 20 acre, 25 acre plot of land that we have designed. You got to put in the website G3 Foundation. You know how it's usually.org or.com. this is the letter G as in [01:23:35] Speaker B: God three, as in between three or the word three. [01:23:39] Speaker A: No, the number three. So G3 dot foundation. [01:23:43] Speaker B: Okay. [01:23:43] Speaker A: And go to the bottom of the page. You'll see a picture of my mom at the top who's now in heaven. And at the bottom you'll see an interactive map. [01:23:54] Speaker B: Is it literally like a village? I mean, are they. Do they live there? Yes, that's. That's. I'm told that's one of the number one needs in Florida right now. [01:24:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And it is. It's a place. It's an agrivillage. It is a homestead. It is where rotational grazing takes place. If we don't grow it and we don't raise it, we're probably not going to eat it. [01:24:14] Speaker B: Is that in Jacksonville? [01:24:16] Speaker A: I'm actually hoping for Nassau. We're looking at land right now. [01:24:20] Speaker B: So you haven't built it yet? [01:24:22] Speaker A: We have not built it yet. And we will probably build it in stages in that we'll have a school and all of the farming established first because people have to really learn. Is this truly a place I want to live? [01:24:35] Speaker B: Right. Because. [01:24:36] Speaker A: And they need to learn. How do I milk a cow? You know, there are children that are going to come to this place and realize that peas don't come out of a can. You know, and there are adults that have had that skill, but they've long left it go. And there are new ways of. There'll be no pesticides at all on this piece of land ever. And if people just learn, like if they eat better, they will be healthier. And if. Anyway, it's a great place, I'll Introduce [01:25:13] Speaker B: you to a couple of people that could be helpful. Nassau Health Foods. Do you know those guys? Matt Tortore? [01:25:18] Speaker A: I don't. [01:25:18] Speaker B: He's a member of our church. He owns Nassau Health Foods. That would be a good connection. You'll understand why later. But we've got people that could help financially with it as well. That's an amazing vision, and I'd love to see it in Nassau County. This is one of the few places you can buy that. [01:25:34] Speaker A: Hilliard and that area is kind of what we're looking at. The city of Hilliard absolutely wants this in their town because there's no land over here. Jacksonville, we've been approached. Understand that we have received a. We have in the pipeline a state appropriation for half a million dollars to go towards the agriculture of this product, this living product. And when I went there to explain to everybody, because they were voting on something, they had no clue what it was. So I asked every one of the senators and the House representatives, give me five minutes just to tell you what it is. And they all looked at me and said, with the exception of one human being, they all looked at me and said, okay, we will vote for this to be in North Florida, but we want to be the second one. So there's 63 counties in Florida alone. Tennessee's called us. You know, Oklahoma's called us. We're getting calls, and I'm like, guys, just help me get the first one built. [01:26:41] Speaker B: Well, I know where some land is. I'll tell you about that off camera. We've purchased acreage off 17, and I'll tell you where it's at. But we're planting our campus there. But this could be an adjacent ministry. We'll have to explore it. Dream a little bit. So G3 foundation and then Seniors on a Mission. [01:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah, seniorsonamission.org can we get your book there? The book actually is on. Is at Amazon. [01:27:08] Speaker B: Amazon. Okay. [01:27:09] Speaker A: And there are, like, 35amazing reviews already. So it's and it's like $12.73. It's not a. It's not an expensive book. And occasionally Amazon puts it on sale for 10% off, so. But this is your copy. [01:27:24] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:27:25] Speaker A: And enjoy it. I've been told it's a great read. [01:27:29] Speaker B: If we could get more copies, we'll buy more copies for. For our bookstore. That would be great for that. So, Joanne, thank you for joining me. It's been a pleasure. It really has been encouraging to me today. I look forward to seeing what the Lord does with you in the days ahead. [01:27:44] Speaker A: Go God. [01:27:44] Speaker B: Amen.