A Home for the Broken

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio.

We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. One of the key men I've got here, the president and CEO, we've got a lot of folks calling Pastor Rob.

He is Rob Tartt. Hey, brother Rob, it's good to have you with us on Truth Talk. Oh, it's great to be here. Thank you for the opportunity.

Well, I pulled in here. There's just a lot of character in here. There's meals being made down the hall in the kitchen. There's housing. There's all kinds of lives that have been transformed. I walk in to get on the elevator and I see this beautiful stone engraved plaque that says, 2 Corinthians 5.17, if anyone's in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. God's doing something here at the Durham Rescue Mission.

Will you talk about that? Oh yeah, we see miracles all the time at the Durham Rescue Mission. We're a homeless shelter. People wonder, what are you?

What do you do? Are you a church? No, we're not really a church. Are you a rehab place? No, we're not a rehab place, but we are an institution that works on homelessness. And in the middle of homelessness, there's a lot of addiction, which is why people think we're a rehab place.

But we see lives restored all the time. And I tell our staff all the time, you think this is normal. Other people look at this and they see miracles happening all the time. And we just need to appreciate that because it really is a special place. I wish everybody could come and take a tour of this place.

I don't think you can comprehend it till you see it. Oh, that's awesome. I would encourage that. We're going to tell you more about that. We're going to talk more about this community charity closet because I know our folks want to see how they can not just donate, but how they can give back, get back, all that good stuff. But tell us a little bit about the history of the Rescue Mission. Rob, how did this whole ministry come into being? Going back to the Genesis, how long have you all been here in downtown Durham, North Carolina?

Ernie and Gail Mills moved to Durham in 1973 and they got the Rescue Mission started in 1974. And he operated with two houses. Well, he lived in one house and they had another house so they could house 12 men.

Of course, that filled up so fast. So just a few years later, I don't know exactly four or five years later, just two blocks away, he saw this building we're in now, what at the time was Fuller Memorial Presbyterian Church. And he walked by it many times.

He said he saw the sign for sale out front and thought, well, it's just too much, too big, too expensive. But one day he walked around back. He went up to the wall. There was a crack in the wall. And he dropped a quarter in the wall and he knelt down and he prayed. He said, Lord, this quarter is my down payment on the building. If you want us to have the rest of it, if you want us to have this building of your ministry, you need to come up with the rest of it or something like that. And what's amazing about that, at our last banquet, I actually had some staff and some actually some hired people to come in to look into that wall. We found that quarter. We have that quarter on our wall with a plaque, with a picture telling that story.

It was started by Ernie Gilmills in 1974. And the Lord has just blessed it all these years. It's been wonderful. Well, very practically speaking, I don't know anything more confounding and confusing than when you're pulling up to the intersection, there's someone holding a sign. I need a place to stay or give me some money. We'll work for food. We've seen all these things. We can call it panhandling. We can call it begging. We may make jokes about them, but the answer to your prayer, friend, if you're sitting there at the intersection, is sitting right in front of me. The Durham Rescue Mission, you all are here to help those kind of people. Sometimes they don't want to go near here, right? But talk about how God's put this Rescue Mission and other godly Rescue Missions across the country to solve that very problem.

Right. Rescue Missions in general are in a unique place to reach out to that person because we're not just three hots and a cot. We are a holistic program trying to help them to meet. Our mission statement is to meet to the power of Jesus Christ, the needs of the whole man.

And then we list off emotional, physical, spiritual, academic, and all these different needs that people have. When you're helping a homeless person, it's so much more than just, they don't, just to look at them and say, you need to get a job. I mean, that's like spitting on them. I mean, that's just, you don't know that guy's story. He may be a veteran with PTSD. He may be, you know, he's got mental issues. He's got, who knows what he's been through. He's probably, I can't say for sure, but a very high percentage of them are in the midst, in the throes of addiction. You know, they probably didn't have very good family life.

Who knows what the story is. The only way to help that person is to reach out to them and to help them. What we found the best way for us to reach out to them is when the Lord sends bad weather. When the Lord sends bad weather, that's when they, you know, we praise the Lord for storms and bad weather and ice, because every time that comes, we realize that the Lord may be calling somebody else to the Rescue Mission. So, a simple answer to that sweet person holding a sign is, sir, I want to, you know, hop in. I'm going to take you somewhere. They'll find you a place to work. They'll give you the gospel.

They'll give you food and, you know, an opportunity. And some folks don't want that, but you're trying to be available. And honestly, Rob Tartt, when we talk about Rescue Missions, every one of us, every one of us that knows Christ is here because Jesus Christ came on a Rescue Mission for us. Yeah, you're getting ready to preach.

You're going to get me preaching here in a minute. But all of us are sinners. All of us are in need of redemption. And we had a staff training meeting just this morning, and I was trying to point out, hey, look, you know what's the difference between an addict and a non-addict? An addict has chosen a sin that is very visible.

The non-addict is probably distracted between many sins, and he's got sins that are easier to hide. But we're all sinners is the point. All in need of God's grace, all in need of his redemption and his edification and building up. And that's what we're trying to do at the Rescue Mission, reach out to them. I want to come back to that, Pastor Rob, toward the end, but I want to ask you about this very tangible way people can donate right now.

Of course, you'll take checks for any amount because we know where it's going. It's going to help homeless people. It's going to help feed and, you know, jobs.

It's going to help people get back with God. And what you're doing here, an amazing thing at the Durham Rescue Mission. But will you tell us a little bit about this community charity closet? You mean to tell me I come and donate a bunch of stuff.

There might just be something coming back my way at my church. Yeah, what we're trying to do is we're trying to reach out to the churches. We realize here at the Durham Rescue Mission that the church can reach so many places that we can't.

Not everybody's homeless, but there's a lot of people out there that aren't far from homelessness. And hopefully we can keep them from going into homelessness, if you will. And so what we want to do is connect with churches. And if the people in the churches, when they come to the Durham Rescue Mission, we've got five thrift stores. And those thrift stores make up about half of our budget. We really depend on those thrift stores to keep our doors open. But if you come to our thrift stores and donate and just let us know the church you're associated with, then we're going to do our best to connect with that church and give a percentage of the donation that you gave back to the church. And our hope is that when I say back, I mean in the form of gift cards to the church. And what we want the churches to do is to use those ever how they see fit. You know, we're not going to ask the church how they use it, but we're hoping you're going to give some next time somebody calls your church and say, I need help with the light bill.

I need help with this and help with that. Well, we can help you. We often have churches call us and I would open this to churches out there now. If you have someone in your home, in your church, rather, that's in need, they need clothing, they need pots, pans, whatever it is they need. We've got everything in the thrift store but food. You know, we've got, who knows what we've got there.

Stuff comes in all the time. But we help fire victims and other victims that for whatever reason that churches come in, missionaries. We've helped many missionaries come in through and they didn't have, they didn't have modern clothes or they didn't have clothes that fit for their children or whatnot. We would love to help the churches and we just want to connect with the churches in this way. So if you're, the people of the church will donate to the mission, let us know what church you're with and hopefully help us connect with your church, then we will be glad to share back with your church.

I love it. A great way for you to give, you know, you don't just bring your broken down junk. I mean, give stuff.

If you haven't worn that shirt in two years and it's still got the price tag on it for Pete's sake, bring it in here. And who's going to receive it, by the way? This is really practical. Someone who once was dead in street, no one loved him, no one cared about him, they might be ringing the cash register up. They might be serving some of the wonderful listeners listening to me right now to come to the Durham Rescue Mission in Durham, North Carolina, right? Right. I tell our people all the time, you know, when we have guests come to the Durham Rescue Mission, you can't tell who's on staff and who's in the program because the program guys are dressed as good as anybody.

That's because of what's happening at our thrift stores. Now I'm going to give the website. Can I do that, Pastor Rob? DurhamRescueMission.org, and wonderful friends and partners with the Truth Network.

I'm in Durham, North Carolina. I'll come wherever you are if you got a story to tell, but I'm sitting here right here in your conference room. There's a Bible study coming up.

We got to get out of here in a second, and awesome things happening. The Lord's working here at the Durham Rescue Mission. I love your slogan, restoring families and giving hope. Take us home with just a challenge to everyone out there about getting involved and doing something to bring others to Christ just as He came after us on Rescue Mission.

Yeah. One of the things that people don't understand is that we all have a calling in this world. Most people don't comprehend that they have been called by God to do what it is that they do. I think a lot of people understand that my pastor's been called to be a pastor or a missionary has been called to be a missionary. But, you know, I tell my son who's 19 right now, you know, that God can call you to drive a truck. God can call you to work. Well, God can call you work wherever.

And if you're willing to do what the Lord has called you to do, Martin Luther put it this way. He said, he quoted the Lord's prayer where it said, give us this day our daily bread. And then he asked the question, how does God give us our daily bread? Well, He calls a farmer to plant some grain.

He calls a miller to grind it. He calls a milkmaid to, you know, when a man is doing what God has called him to do for God's glory, he is serving God. Well, here at the Rescue Mission, we need volunteers. We need helping hands. We need people to come here at the Rescue Mission and help our people. They need to learn trades.

We actually have an employment agency where if you need an employee, we can supply that employee through our agency from the Rescue Mission. And so, I mean, there's just a lot of things going on here and it's religion with feet on it, prayers with feet on it, if you will. And again, I encourage everybody out there to come and look at this place. You will not believe it until you see it.

You can't comprehend it. That's the voice of Rob Tartt, the President and CEO of the Durham Rescue Mission. Love to see the hands and feet of Christ at work. So many gifts in the body. And you listening right now, let's ask God how He can use your gifts to come plug in to a wonderful place just like the Durham Rescue Mission. If you're in Durham or North Carolina, wherever you are, God can use you to make a difference in someone's life. And thank you, Jesus. I see these thank you, Jesus signs all over your property. Thank you, Jesus, for coming on a Rescue Mission for me and for awesome Mark Reed, one of our wonderful team members here in Raleigh-Durham and even for Rob Tartt. Amen. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for what Truth Network does and how you're helping us. Thank you.