Feeding Souls and Bodies: Street Church with the homeless-ft. Soul Church Leon Birdd

In this episode, Pastor Wayne Walker, CEO of OurCalling interviews Leon Byrd, who shares his transformative journey from construction work to a life dedicated to faith and serving the needy. Byrd details his personal conversion and ongoing battle with old habits, his commitment to helping the homeless inspired by impactful encounters, and the evolution of his ministry, which includes regular large-scale food distributions and full church services for the homeless featuring multiple preachers and bands. He discusses overcoming logistical challenges and highlights the diverse community attending his services, from street prostitutes to affluent individuals, all united by their spiritual needs. The conversation also touches on the support from local businesses that has been crucial in facilitating his outreach efforts in stable locations.
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- **00:46-03:52:** Leon Byrd discusses his transformative personal journey, which began with a life-changing conversation about Jesus with a friend while doing construction work, leading to his decision to pursue a life of faith and service.

- **04:14-04:28:** After his personal conversion, Byrd discusses continuing to beat old habits while attending a Promise Keepers event, highlighting the profound positive change he experienced.

- **05:26-05:56:** Byrd shares the impactful encounter that spurred his dedication to serving the homeless, beginning with assisting a disabled man, which led him to feed the homeless regularly.

- **07:22-07:52:** He recounts an inspirational story of a man with severe brain surgeries who continued to feed the homeless despite his disabilities, influencing Leon to continue his work.

- **08:26-09:21:** Byrd begins to help other individuals directly involved in homelessness service, illustrating the start of a service-driven community and his own deeper engagement.

- **10:16-10:41:** His commitment expands as he organizes more structured assistance for the needy by delegating responsibilities to sustain the outreach efforts.

- **11:18-12:02:** Leon Byrd reflects on the realization that his challenges growing up were preparation for his calling to serve those in need, thus accepting and embracing his life’s purpose.

- **12:11-12:48:** Byrd discusses the growth of his ministry, emphasizing regular large-scale food distribution to various congregations and continuous personal involvement in direct aid and mentorship.

- **14:10-17:21:** He details the progression from handing out food and beverages from the back of a truck to hosting full church services for the homeless, involving multiple preachers and musical bands to create an enriching spiritual environment.

- **18:04-20:47:** Byrd highlights the diverse community that gathers at the church service, from street prostitutes to affluent individuals, all finding common ground in their spiritual needs and expressions.

- **22:20-23:51:** Discusses the logistical challenges and location changes of his ministry over the years, including interactions with authorities and community members due to legal constraints around feeding the homeless.

- **25:28-28:21:** Leon narrates a supportive anecdote involving a business owner who provided space for Soul Church services and other aid activities, fostering a long-term partnership that enabled continued service delivery in a stable location.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Wayne Walker

CEO and Pastor Wayne Walker serves as the CEO and Pastor to the homeless at OurCalling. In 2001, Wayne, along with his wife Carolyn, started serving the homeless community in Dallas. They founded OurCalling in 2009. During his youth, Wayne’s family actively pursued the scriptural commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” by modeling the life of Jesus to scores of foster children whose own origins represented generations of human brokenness, dysfunction, sexual exploitation, and abuse. Early exposure to these destructive forces set him on a path to recognize the long-term effects of trauma, which often lead to homelessness. While completing his Master’s Degree in Cross-Cultural Ministry from Dallas Theological Seminary, Wayne befriended and ministered to men and women in the homeless community. During that time he began to establish personal, discipleship-oriented relationships with homeless individuals, many in the same urban setting where he and his family continue to work today.

Editor

Orange and Teal Productions

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Designer

Sarah Katherine

What is OurCalling - Our podcast about homelessness?

A Podcast by OurCalling—the goal is to be a learner. What can we learn about serving those experiencing homelessness? Even though we have years of experience, can we step back, take a fresh look, and rethink everything we know? OurCalling is a Christian nonprofit (501 c3) serving the homeless community throughout Dallas County in Texas. Our team helps people get to know Jesus and get off the streets every day. Last year, we helped individuals exit homelessness over 1,300 times. We have a facility in downtown Dallas, and our street outreach teams visit over 4,000 locations throughout the county. We serve about 10,000 individuals experiencing homelessness each year. We partner with the most amazing organizations and recognize that we are stronger when we work together.

Wayne Walker: 00:00

Today on our callings podcast, we're gonna be talking to Leon Byrd at Soul Church. Been serving in Dallas for 29 years. We're gonna learn what is Soul Church and how they've been ministering well to our neighbors. Who is our calling? What does our calling do to help the homeless?

Wayne Walker: 00:18

The nonprofit. We care with dignity. Our calling Can't help but think about the definition of Christian We connect with intentionality.

Leon: 00:24

Called our calling To our calling. We build community with integrity. Our calling.

Wayne Walker: 00:31

This is our calling and our podcast, a word on the streets about homelessness. Today, I'm with my friend Leon Byrd, Soul Church.

Leon: 00:45

Soul Church.

Wayne Walker: 00:46

Soul Church.

Leon: 00:46

I believe.

Wayne Walker: 00:47

Yeah. There's a lot of people who've heard the the legend of Soul Church. It's got a huge following around the community. You've done this for a long time. How many years?

Leon: 00:59

29.

Wayne Walker: 01:00

29 years?

Leon: 01:02

How long have you been there?

Wayne Walker: 01:02

I'm not even 29 years old.

Leon: 01:04

Yeah. You could say

Wayne Walker: 01:05

that. 29 years. Wow.

Leon: 01:09

Uh-huh. And it's, seems like yesterday.

Wayne Walker: 01:13

Wow.

Leon: 01:13

Seemed like yesterday. Yes. Amen. But, hopefully, I got another 10 or 20. Okay.

Wayne Walker: 01:23

Yeah. Yeah. 29 years. Wow. Okay.

Wayne Walker: 01:27

So what's the history? What made Leon Byrd stop and whatever you were doing before and start doing Soul Church?

Leon: 01:36

Oh, that's God. Because Well, what is it? Okay. 29 years ago, I I got saved. No, I was like Well, I got saved like 30 years ago.

Leon: 01:48

I was, I did construction. I was out at the Cowboy Stadium and doing construction. And a friend of mine, we'd been working together for like 2 months. We got up early that morning and went to work and was in the van, and we was rebasing some cocaine. And and he said he said, think of think of your worst sin.

Leon: 02:14

And I'm going, what are you talking about? Don't do this. I said, brother, you're gonna bring me down. And he had already he had already like, one day he had to come get me for I would say, I was in jail. I fell asleep in my car because I was drunk, and so he'd be He'd seen a bunch of stuff that I'd already done.

Leon: 02:32

And so he said that, and I said, where are you going with this? He said, well, Jesus will forgive you. And I said, dude, what are you talking Jesus for? Don't do this. He said, well, Jesus will forgive you.

Leon: 02:47

And I said, well, good for Jesus. Yeah. I said, he said, well, you don't believe that? I said, well, I'm not saying I don't believe it. I said, but, I can't forgive myself.

Leon: 03:02

And he said, oh, now you're saying you can't forgive yourself. I said, no. He goes, so you're more powerful than Jesus? I said, no. And I I'm not saying that.

Leon: 03:12

He goes, yeah, you are. I said, dude, what what are you doing? And so he, a couple of minutes went by. We talked about the Lord, and and I didn't know where this came from. I'm going, quit.

Leon: 03:24

And then it it struck me. It struck me that the lord was there. I could I could I felt the lord come in, and he took all that guilt and all the shame. Because I didn't care if I lived or died. You know, I've I was living on the edge.

Leon: 03:39

And so, and I felt felt him take all that shame and all that guilt out and all that pain. And it was a crazy day. It was a crazy day. And we cried and we laughed. I cried and laughed all day long.

Leon: 03:52

We never went into work. Okay? And so, oh, it was a rocked my world. A couple weeks later, I I called him up. I We He had a nickname.

Leon: 04:04

I called him Skid for Skid Row. Okay. And so, we went to Promise Keepers. And we was inside Promise Keepers, and he goes, hey, let's go out to the van. I said, okay.

Leon: 04:14

So we went out to the van, and, they stopped sparked up another bowl. I said, I'm good. He said, what? I said, no, I'm good.

Wayne Walker: 04:22

So this guy you're doing coke with

Leon: 04:24

Coke with, yeah.

Wayne Walker: 04:25

And y'all were talking about Jesus. Cocaine and Jesus.

Leon: 04:28

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. Because I I, you know, I could I could I I did a lot of partying.

Leon: 04:33

A lot of partying. But, and so, we went to we went to Promise Keepers, and we went outside. He started partying again. We start walking back inside, and he said, I'll be I'll be right there. I said, okay.

Leon: 04:44

So I went back in there, and it was amazing. You know, it was thousands and thousands of men praising the Lord. And I was I mean, when I got when that happened, the next day things were greener, life was different. It was beautiful. I I I figured it out, okay.

Leon: 04:59

Amen. And so the Lord is It rocked my world. And all of a sudden, I'm sitting there for hours and the dude never showed up. I'm going, wow, what happened to him? And this was back in the beeper days.

Leon: 05:09

And so, few days later, I call her, hey, skid a hat. And he goes, man, it's not fair. I said, you dissed me because it's not fair? What's not fair? He said, you know, I I helped you to come to know the Lord, and you got delivered, and I didn't.

Leon: 05:26

I'm going, dude, that's so wrong. And you dissed me. So, anyway, that's that's where it started. And then, it wasn't long after that. I was I was driving down the highway out to by Samuel Farbenz in Mesquite.

Leon: 05:41

There's nothing out there. And there was a guy walking. He do 2 step forward and one back, 2 forward, one back, and I'm going. And my truck was full of furniture, and I'm cruising in. I didn't know the Holy Spirit then when someone said, go back.

Leon: 05:56

I said, oh, man. I ain't got time for this. And then I go back. And I said, but I got 3 miles away. Go back.

Leon: 06:04

I'm, oh, quit. So I turned around, I'm thinking, oh, you know, he's he's not gonna be there when I get back there. So I I I did the u-turn, drove that those few miles back, and come up alongside him. And I guess I scared him. Because he jumped down in the bar ditch and said, leave me alone, I'm not drunk.

Leon: 06:23

Okay. I can relate to this guy.

Wayne Walker: 06:26

I'm not as stinky as you drunk,

Leon: 06:27

I am. That's exactly I said, I don't care if you're drunk. I said, you want a ride? He goes, yeah, I will ride. So I helped get inside the inside the inside the truck.

Leon: 06:38

And what's what's ironic is my stepfather, see, he was mean when I was younger. And then he got bit by a tick and he got Lyme disease, and I had to take care of him. And he couldn't talk right. And so this dude sounded just like him. But my stepfather, he passed away.

Leon: 06:56

We became good friends. And he passed away and the lord, you know, lord said I'm gonna send you a mentor. And so here's this dude. And so he gets in my truck and we're driving, and he talks he was talking about saying, yeah I used to be electrician. You know, he's talking funny.

Leon: 07:11

I used to be electrician. I'm going, mhmm, mhmm. And I used to do this and that. And then he said, and I feed the homeless. And I said, excuse me.

Leon: 07:22

I said, you can't walk or you can't talk. How do you feed the homeless? He goes, people take me. I said, really? He goes, I'm not having always been this way.

Leon: 07:32

I go, okay. What's up? He goes, he said, I had 5 brain operations. He took his head off and he was bald. He had all these scars.

Leon: 07:41

Mhmm. And so what he had was his tumor and he had that these five brain operations and and that that's what made him immobile.

Wayne Walker: 07:48

And maybe that's what made him talk like that.

Leon: 07:50

That too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Leon: 07:52

And so he said, and then one day, the Lord has a has a sense of humor. Said, I was sitting on a commode and I fell out. And then I woke up in a hospital with my doctor's face over my head saying, Robert, you have a funny mark on your brain but your tumor's gone. And he, you know, he thought it was time to go home. Anyway, he said, it's the lord's fingerprint.

Leon: 08:18

Okay. And so, he said that people help. I said, okay, who helps? He goes, people do. You will.

Leon: 08:26

I said, I will? He goes, yeah. I said, okay, when? He said, Friday morning at 5 o'clock. I said, damn it.

Leon: 08:34

I ain't gonna 5 o'clock in the morning for nothing. Remember, I'm still this party and I just got saved. So I didn't get up that early in the morning. I used to go to bed at that time. But, so that weekend came and I drove back by his house.

Leon: 08:46

And I'm thinking, please, please don't be there. Don't be there. Don't be there. Don't be there. And I turn around the corner, the area is sitting on a curb with 10 gallons of coffee.

Leon: 08:54

I'm going, I grew up poor. When I got saved, I thought I would be a musician. Okay, or something something fancy. Okay? And so I grew up poor.

Leon: 09:07

I didn't I didn't want nothing to do with poor, okay? I had my fill of the poor. I wanted my pieces of pie is what I wanted. And so, so I pick him up, I take him downtown in the old resource center. And we pull up there and nobody else, it's dark.

Leon: 09:21

I said, see, God don't get up at 5 o'clock. He said, you young people, you're so impatient. I'm going, whatever. And so little by little, here comes this guy, here comes another one, here comes another one. And or he hadn't stopped by Dunkin Donuts because they they gave us a a basket of day old donuts.

Leon: 09:43

They did that for like 25 years. Anyway, we got the donuts, and they had the donuts in their coffee. And I felt ashamed of myself. Right? But I still didn't want to do it.

Leon: 09:54

I still didn't want to do it. So I did it for a while. And then,

Wayne Walker: 09:58

Like once a week kind of a thing?

Leon: 09:59

Yeah, once a week. Uh-huh. And so, and then the time came where he couldn't do it no more. And so I I I have I found a friend, I said, hey listen, what what happened was, he wanted to live in my barn with his whole family. I told him, man, you can't live in my barn.

Leon: 10:16

So I helped him find a place. And and so one day I went to him, I said, remember you said you always You you you owed me? He said, yeah. I said, this is what I want you to do. Every Saturday, go pick up this guy and take him downtown for you to come back.

Leon: 10:31

And so about after 6 months, he showed up at my work and he goes, okay, I'm done. I said, done with what? He goes, I'm done. I said, no, no, no, you can't be done. He goes, I'm done.

Leon: 10:41

And so we started doing it again. And, so Robert stick around for a few more years.

Wayne Walker: 10:46

So you pawned it off on somebody else?

Leon: 10:48

I sure did. I didn't want none of this stuff. Yeah. Okay. You know, I was used to doing other stuff.

Leon: 10:57

I I just When I I moved from Wisconsin being poor down here, thinking, man this is land of opportunity. There's work everywhere. And so, you know, I was I was ready for that. And then, I did that for a few years. And we we grew, we we started making food and having people go put it in their ovens and we pick it all up on Sunday mornings and we take it down downtown.

Leon: 11:18

And then, I remember I remember one day telling the Lord, I said, you know I don't wanna do this. And he said, what do you think all that was for? All that hurt and all that pain? You being a kid? Said, you can relate.

Leon: 11:40

I said, I can relate. And so, I've found my destiny. Okay? And so, this is what I was created for. Is to, to love how my homies and those less fortunate myself.

Leon: 11:55

Amen. So, yeah. I wouldn't change it for the world. I have the best life. Best life.

Leon: 12:02

Get up in the morning, know that you're gonna be about the Lord's will all day long. There's nothing like it. Praise God. So, yeah. That's it in a nutshell.

Leon: 12:11

So right now, we we we have, like today was a a food day. We pick up a semi full of food, and we distribute to the different churches and organizations, and they come get it, and take it to where they go. And and then, you know, the same stuff you do during during the week. You go run and help so and so over here, and so and so over there. And and, but yeah, it wouldn't change for the world.

Leon: 12:35

Sunday mornings are wonderful. You know, every every Sunday it's you you you have a service, and it's just like, ta da, miracles. Right? And then you say, okay, next weekend can't be better than that. But they are.

Leon: 12:48

Every weekend is like divine. It's so exciting. Amen. Praise God.

Wayne Walker: 12:54

Okay. So you went from came to know the Lord through cocaine

Leon: 13:00

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 13:00

And a guy leading you to Christ.

Leon: 13:01

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 13:03

And then to serving, people experiencing homelessness, a meal or coffee and donuts because somebody guilted you into it. Yeah. Then you pawned it off on the friend.

Leon: 13:14

Your turn. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 13:15

And then you got pulled back into it, and you feel that you have the greatest job in the world.

Leon: 13:21

I do.

Wayne Walker: 13:21

And then you started talking about church. So let's let's go back a little bit because what you guys do is not just serving donuts and coffee. Mhmm. You guys went from that to actually a church service Amen. On the streets Yes.

Wayne Walker: 13:38

For years. And it's a full blown church service.

Leon: 13:40

Full blown. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 13:41

You bring trailers. You've got first and second John. You got your toilets out there, the porta potties. Yep. And I love it.

Wayne Walker: 13:49

They they say that. 1st John, 2nd John.

Leon: 13:51

That's right.

Wayne Walker: 13:51

You set up all the chairs, the tents. Yep. And you guys went from donuts and coffee to actually a church.

Leon: 14:00

Yes.

Wayne Walker: 14:01

On and what what was that transition look like? How do you go from I'm just here to feed you physically to I want to feed you spiritually?

Leon: 14:10

Oh, back then we would get back up in the back end of my pickup truck, and we would give the word before before we gave out food.

Wayne Walker: 14:18

So you just stand on the back of the truck? Yeah.

Leon: 14:20

Yeah. And so, that was more important really than the food. Because that's what brings them back. You know, you can get food anywhere. But, so, but now there's I have like 5 5 different preachers, one for every weekend, and then there's a different band every weekend.

Leon: 14:40

And, first thing you get up in the morning, they get there from 6 to 8 o'clock. It's coffee and ice cream. Coffee and ice cream.

Wayne Walker: 14:48

Ice cream in the morning.

Leon: 14:49

Ice cream. We've been doing ice cream now for years. But and then my ice cream my ice cream source dried up like a couple weeks ago. And, so then I had to go buy some. And, those big old tubs.

Leon: 15:06

And we could go through And you know, those 3 tubs, 3 or 4 tubs would go, you know, close to 2 hours. Well, we had to go buy ice cream. And well, if you're gonna buy ice cream, you're gonna mind as well buy flavors. Right? So now we got check, mint chocolate chip, Oreo, strawberry, and vanilla.

Leon: 15:25

And now the ice cream, the same ice cream, only lasts like 35 minutes. They love their ice cream. Even if it's cold outside.

Wayne Walker: 15:32

Coffee and ice cream for breakfast.

Leon: 15:34

First thing. And then, you know, someone usually comes with a sandwich or something. No big deal. And, 8 o'clock, shut everything down. No coffee.

Leon: 15:43

No nothing. Nobody gets anything else. You know, we do clothes. We have showers.

Wayne Walker: 15:46

Mhmm.

Leon: 15:46

And the laundry mat that comes. And,

Wayne Walker: 15:50

Now all this is comes to a parking lot area, a field now.

Leon: 15:54

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 15:54

But for years, y'all moved to different places. But everything comes, you said laundry, showers, meals, clothes, all of it comes there.

Leon: 16:06

Yeah. It was probably like 10 10 different trailers.

Wayne Walker: 16:09

Mhmm.

Leon: 16:10

A bunch of trucks. And, so we all we ask like I said, we set up at 6, 8 o'clock. Everything turns off because it has to be praise and worship time. Otherwise and you got people all over doing dope. You know how they are.

Leon: 16:22

Okay? But anyway, so, so 8 o'clock that shuts off, and and they all they all get in the service, and they all like I said, every weekend there's a different band, so it makes it exciting. And so, so we do our praise and worship, and then there's a word. And it, you know, sometimes they blow me away just you know, I got a a pastor from from, Lake Point out there, and then I got a couple other ones. And even some that I've mentored through the time, I don't preach.

Leon: 16:52

The lord said, I'm not a preacher. Okay? I'm just a pastor I guess.

Wayne Walker: 16:58

You're the you're the emcee.

Leon: 16:59

That's I'm the emcee. Yeah, exactly. Okay. And then, then we give the word, do the altar call, and and and like I say, hey, you know, you you can get up whenever you want to during service and go get in line. But I'm gonna tell you right now, we we Small portions in the beginning, and the good stuff don't come out to the end, okay?

Leon: 17:21

So they're going, I might as well wait. And then, then what do you feed on only 2, 300 people at least? And so, and it's, it's it's it's a beautiful thing. And we've we've made some great relationships. I don't know how many different kinds of churches come.

Leon: 17:37

The Lord has emphasized on me that it's it's all about the youth right now. It's all about the youth. You know, the the Jesuits kids come down and it's a different group every time and they're like, okay. This is a shock.

Wayne Walker: 17:52

But so they haven't been around that many people that don't look like them. They haven't been around a lot of poverty. I mean, Jesuit is a private school.

Leon: 17:58

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 17:58

You gotta you gotta have some money to get in there.

Leon: 18:00

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 18:01

Right? So they're getting a culture shock just by being there.

Leon: 18:04

Yeah. It's good though. I mean, everybody needs a little culture shock. Yeah. You know, you gotta get outside your little bubble or your hula hoop as your friend would say.

Leon: 18:11

Okay. And, yeah. It's in, the Lord is emphasized that get get these kids. And you know, we got them coming from Georgia, Oklahoma, small groups coming and staying at the house, and then then going out. And, they're they're they're loving it.

Leon: 18:27

And now I got a a young guy who's a a praise and worship leader. He's a sort of like a hippie kind of guy. He's a real cool kid, and everybody loves him. So the the youth is just like they come here and they have an experience that just blows them away. So it's a it's a beautiful thing.

Leon: 18:41

They really get to meet God in a special way.

Wayne Walker: 18:44

So you guys went from just serving meals on the streets to actually a church service.

Leon: 18:49

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 18:50

And what's the goal? Like, what what did at the end of the day, what are you hoping happens?

Leon: 18:56

The Lord rocks our world like he did mine. Wow. Yeah. I That would that would be my prayer that everybody would know the Lord better than I do. And I just, you know, I love the Lord so much.

Leon: 19:07

And so, it's Life ain't worth living if you don't know the Lord.

Wayne Walker: 19:14

Amen. Amen. And I love what you said there. You didn't say the goal was to serve a lot of food, to pass out a lot of clothes, that this number of people shows up or this number of volunteers shows up. The goal is for people's lives to be rocked by the lord.

Leon: 19:28

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. That's it. They definitely had got they gotta have an experience with the lord. And, what's what's what's what's so cool about this this this church or his church is that it's everybody.

Leon: 19:44

You know, it's the rich, it's the poor, it's just everybody. And so, yes. Jesus would be there if he was on earth for sure. So they say. And I like to think so too because it's, pretty awesome.

Leon: 19:58

And and and and and to see to see the miracles manifest before your eyes just it it's just it's worth living for.

Wayne Walker: 20:07

You know, it's so cool, Leon, because you have street prostitutes that are walking up in church. Yeah. And you have the Jesuit kids and their parents, you know, that are probably wealthy folks there.

Leon: 20:21

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 20:22

And then you've got some people there just because of social service need. They just think feeding the poor, you know, is what everybody needs, and and that's the biggest need. And in that melting pot, you know, you have the people Jesus hung out with.

Leon: 20:35

Amen.

Wayne Walker: 20:35

Right? You have the wealthy tax tax collector. Yeah. You know? You have the prostitute.

Wayne Walker: 20:40

Yeah. You know? You have some criminals. Yeah. You have some people that, you know, were once lost and now found.

Leon: 20:46

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 20:47

The people that think they're smarter than everybody, probably some religious folks who think they're brilliant, you know, and God's gift to the world. And and yet in that moment, God mixes them all together to meet their needs and puts us all on an even playing field that we all are desperately in need of Jesus. Amen.

Leon: 21:03

It's it's it's Like you said, a culture shock. You see you see, I can't imagine what's going through people's heads. Let's say they're from Highland Park, let's say. Okay? But when they when they get down and you see these homeless people and they're praising the Lord and they really mean it, they they love them.

Wayne Walker: 21:20

They're on their knees.

Leon: 21:21

They they're Yeah. They're just They're they're they're they're giving it their all. They leave it all out there. And it's like, how come I don't act that way? You know?

Leon: 21:31

So, amen. It's it's it's a beautiful thing. Beautiful thing to see Jesus at work. It's a He's a he's a There always, always, always, always. It's a When a Sunday morning's when I was driving downtown, it's the best time of my life.

Leon: 21:44

Because I know it's fixed to happen. So yeah.

Wayne Walker: 21:47

So what time do you guys pull up to start setting up?

Leon: 21:50

We get we get down at about 6, 6:30. And everything gets put put out right away. Mhmm. And, the haircuts and all that stuff, that starts right away. And they they everyone that comes down with their goods, like the ice cream, the coffee, the all that stuff, they know they only have till 8 o'clock.

Leon: 22:07

Yeah. And so, so they get there and we even had like I don't know. One lady just showed up 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago. I forgot what it was. She goes, hey, do you mind if I do a dog ministry?

Leon: 22:20

I said, a what? She goes, a dog ministry.

Wayne Walker: 22:23

She's gonna say dogs or something?

Leon: 22:25

I said I said, what are you gonna do? She goes, I'm gonna bring all the supplies that they need. Mhmm. And so she comes down with tables full of dog food, bones, collars, scars, beds, the whole works.

Wayne Walker: 22:38

Wow.

Leon: 22:38

And so, I thought, man, who would have thought, right? Wow.

Wayne Walker: 22:41

And then

Leon: 22:41

this week, she come back and she goes, I got another idea. I said, whatever it is, yes, go ahead. So yeah. And then and then that too, watching people get plugged in and finding their their purpose, it's it's surprising how, like our bus driver

Wayne Walker: 22:57

Mhmm.

Leon: 22:57

He used to sleep behind a behind a dumpster down here. And he his his goal in life is to pick up as many people as he can from downtown and get them over there. And so, yeah, it's pretty cool.

Wayne Walker: 23:09

So y'all have coffee, ice cream, shut it off at 8, have church.

Leon: 23:15

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 23:15

And then you have lunch.

Leon: 23:16

Yes.

Wayne Walker: 23:17

You have a big meal at the end.

Leon: 23:19

Yeah. And it's usually really tasty.

Wayne Walker: 23:20

Oh, yeah.

Leon: 23:21

We've we've had, you know, salmon, Alaskan king crab legs, you know, the whole works. I'm going, it's not for me but it's okay. But yeah, they eat real well. They eat real well.

Wayne Walker: 23:31

Now over the years, you guys have been in lots of different locations.

Leon: 23:35

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 23:36

Walk with me through some of those locations and maybe some of the good and bad of being there.

Leon: 23:43

Okay. First, when I first started, I was in front of the day resource center, which what used to be the Day Resource Center.

Wayne Walker: 23:49

Erve and Cadiz. Right?

Leon: 23:50

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 23:50

Yep.

Leon: 23:51

Yeah. Yep. And,

Wayne Walker: 23:52

We were both. I was doing bible studies there. Yeah. Serving meals on Friday nights. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 23:56

Yeah. David Timothy, Sue Band started there about the same time.

Leon: 23:59

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, it started there and then, I moved around to probably like 6, 7 different parking lots until, they started to come out with the fines for feeding people.

Wayne Walker: 24:14

Yeah. It became against the law.

Leon: 24:16

Yeah. It was against the law.

Wayne Walker: 24:16

To distribute

Leon: 24:17

food. To distribute food.

Wayne Walker: 24:18

They're homeless.

Leon: 24:19

And I'm thinking, what are you gonna do? And, I'm thinking Did you

Wayne Walker: 24:23

get tickets?

Leon: 24:24

No. But, Big Heart did. And, No

Wayne Walker: 24:28

that was another ministry Yeah.

Leon: 24:30

That served on there. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I'm and I'm thinking, well, I guess I'm going to jail. Because I gotta do what I gotta do.

Leon: 24:38

I mean it says so right there. Okay. And it because, you know, it is not the government's job to do this. It's the church's job. Okay.

Wayne Walker: 24:45

The only people that are told to love their neighbor

Leon: 24:48

Oh, no.

Wayne Walker: 24:49

Is Jesus' people. Right?

Leon: 24:51

I think it said I think, 271 times it talks about the poor in the Bible. That evidently, that means a whole lot to somebody. Okay? Yeah. Yeah.

Leon: 24:59

Yeah. I'm saying? And so, and so we went around to that was like a week beforehand. And the police came by and they said, next week. I'm going, Oh, I know.

Leon: 25:13

And so, that week, mister Millett contacted one of our members and said, hey, here's a key.

Wayne Walker: 25:21

And so He let you use their parking lot.

Leon: 25:23

Yeah. And and and I went to see him. He said, tell you what, you can use it till I don't like you no more.

Wayne Walker: 25:28

I said, that's fair. Dan was a great guy.

Leon: 25:31

He was a great guy. He said, I've got cameras everywhere. He said, I've been watching you. You're crazy. He said, and the best part about you is is when you're done, you go up and down all the streets and clean stuff that's not even yours.

Leon: 25:42

You clean up the streets. He said, so unless I don't like you, you can you can stay there. And so we were there for maybe 12 years at least. You were there.

Wayne Walker: 25:51

Yeah. Listen. Let me pause real quick. So Dan Millett Yeah. Millett Print Company.

Wayne Walker: 25:55

Yeah. Long time family business over there. Loves the Lord. They've been connected with a lot of ministries in town. Mhmm.

Wayne Walker: 26:01

Dan invited you in. Yeah. Their property is actually near the bridge, across the street from the bridge.

Leon: 26:07

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 26:08

And he would let you come because y'all not only picked up the trash from the meals you served, but trash that was around from other people. Yeah. So many people come down and serve food and leave trash everywhere. It's such a mess.

Leon: 26:19

It is.

Wayne Walker: 26:20

But y'all would clean up, and he saw the stewardship of what you were doing, the quality of how you cared for people, and how you were caring for the community by picking up the garbage. And so he invited you onto their property. Mhmm. And he's, you know, funny way said, you're here until I don't like you anymore.

Leon: 26:35

That's right. That's right. Yep.

Wayne Walker: 26:37

And so you were there for 12 years?

Leon: 26:39

Yeah. Till he passed.

Wayne Walker: 26:41

Until he passed.

Leon: 26:42

Yeah. Till he passed. And and you know, there was a couple he had a couple of close calls. He he got sick there for a little bit, and then he got better and everything like that. Yeah.

Leon: 26:51

I remember one time I went in there, and, oh, I I got that big food trailer and it's long. There ain't no way I could get up that steep hill. And I said, hey, can can I cut those bars over that razor wire so we can pull it? And he goes, no, you ain't gonna cut my bars. I said, I want I want a pretty new food trailer.

Leon: 27:09

And he goes, sorry about your bad luck. He said, and ever since you blew up my my my cameras, no. I said, what? He said, yeah, you blew up my cameras. I said, how'd I do that?

Leon: 27:21

He said, oh, I don't know. And so I said, well, I wanna pay for them. How much are they? He goes, I don't know. Call my maintenance guy.

Leon: 27:28

So I called this maintenance guy. And he said, it's like $10,000. And I said, well I guess I ain't gonna pay for those.

Wayne Walker: 27:37

Never mind. Yeah.

Leon: 27:38

I guess not. And, and then, an opportunity arose. And I went in there one day, and I said, I said, mister Millett, I said, it's crazy, what are you doing to my office? I said, hey, I'm here, I'm gonna write you a check. He goes, for what?

Leon: 27:55

I go, for your for your cameras. He goes, you gonna write me a check? I said, yeah. He goes, you know how much it is? I said, yeah.

Leon: 28:02

And he said, now you won't. I said, yeah, well, god said so. He goes, ask her who's the boss. I said, what? He goes, ask him who's the boss.

Leon: 28:12

I said, point being what? He goes, I'm the boss. I ain't take no check from you brother. I said, okay. And so, I just had to go buy me a generator.

Leon: 28:21

And we moved He gave us the extension to the other parking lot. So it was it was wonderful. Awesome man of God. Awesome man of God.

Wayne Walker: 28:27

Yeah. We used their parking lots on Saturdays

Leon: 28:30

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 28:30

Outreaches. Later in the day, you guys Oh, Sunday night

Leon: 28:33

or video morning. Night shows or something. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 28:35

We show the Jesus film way to night on big screens and

Leon: 28:38

Do you do that here?

Wayne Walker: 28:39

We show all kinds of movies here.

Leon: 28:41

Are you?

Wayne Walker: 28:41

Yeah. All kinds of stuff. Hallelujah. Of course, most people would rather watch westerns. Right?

Wayne Walker: 28:46

Bonanza.

Leon: 28:47

Well

Wayne Walker: 28:47

But, yeah, we bible, we have church here, you know, of course, every week and bible studies here every week.

Leon: 28:52

And, you

Wayne Walker: 28:53

know, back in the day, we were going to liquor store parking lots and showing Jesus the whole side of the building. It's out of the building. You know? And, there's a motel not far from here that you can rent, you know, the room by the hour, and we would we

Leon: 29:05

would Rent the wall for by the hour.

Wayne Walker: 29:07

Oh, I went to the owners and I said, hey. Can we set up in your parking lot? We're gonna serve meals and show a movie. And they're like, great. What movie is it?

Wayne Walker: 29:14

And I said, the Jesus film. And they said, okay. But we don't wanna watch that.

Leon: 29:17

And they don't wanna watch it. Okay.

Wayne Walker: 29:19

And so we would show it, man, and have people come and just give their life to the Lord. And

Leon: 29:22

Amen.

Wayne Walker: 29:23

Course back then, we would grab somebody. They wanna go into detox to take them over to Green Oaks back when they did that. Yeah. Man, it was so much fun.

Leon: 29:30

It was. Oh,

Wayne Walker: 29:31

yeah. I remember one time we were shown the Jesus film in front of the right across from Lew Starrick Jail. There's a liquor store there next to Elmer's or Elmer's. I can't remember the yellow one, but there's one that says, Trinity Liquors.

Leon: 29:43

Okay.

Wayne Walker: 29:43

And, I guess they were had a sale or something. So they had a sign that said cheap trinity, but the word liquor went out. So we were showing the Jesus film inside in front of a sign that said cheap trinity.

Leon: 29:55

No. And I just

Wayne Walker: 29:56

thought, this is beautiful. And I remember one

Leon: 29:59

of the sense of humor.

Wayne Walker: 30:00

Scene in the movie where Jesus is on the cross. He's being crucified. And this guy coming out of the crowd and just dropping to his knees, screaming, Jesus, save me. Hallelujah. He starts confessing all these sins that he's done.

Wayne Walker: 30:14

I mean, some bad stuff. You know? We're like, okay, brother. Yeah. You know?

Wayne Walker: 30:18

But it was so much fun.

Leon: 30:19

Amen. Amen. Good old days, You don't get out there very often anymore, do you?

Wayne Walker: 30:25

Oh, we have team members going out every day

Leon: 30:27

You.

Wayne Walker: 30:27

But not late at night.

Leon: 30:28

You.

Wayne Walker: 30:28

No. I don't I don't I don't know. Unfortunately, they keep me like a mushroom in the cage. They keep me a bunch

Leon: 30:35

of mess.

Wayne Walker: 30:35

Yeah. Oh, man. But I do miss it. I do miss it. Just going out and loving people that are hurting.

Wayne Walker: 30:42

It's really cool here because we have so many people that hurt to come to us.

Leon: 30:46

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Wayne Walker: 30:47

But our teams are still going out. I mean, they'll visit 4,000 locations a year. Yeah. We don't do those big events in parking lots anymore. We have a lot of partners, you know, that do in different places, although I know now it's a

Leon: 30:58

lot harder. Mhmm. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 30:59

You know, a lot of businesses will say, no, you can't do that in my lot. And, you know, you can't block traffic, you can't block the street, you can't block a parking, you know, a sidewalk, and it can get get kind of cumbersome.

Leon: 31:11

Yeah. And constantly moving.

Wayne Walker: 31:13

Yeah. Yeah. Now you guys are But

Leon: 31:15

there ain't nothing like being able to get out there and give, you know, give hugs. Yeah. Jesus squeezes.

Wayne Walker: 31:20

You don't call them hugs, you call them Jesus squeezes.

Leon: 31:22

Jesus squeezes. Amen.

Wayne Walker: 31:23

Now when did when did y'all come up with that?

Leon: 31:26

After I got saved, somebody was in my car. And remember there's a slug bug game?

Wayne Walker: 31:31

Oh, yeah.

Leon: 31:31

And yet, bam. I'm out

Wayne Walker: 31:33

of luck.

Leon: 31:33

Big old bruises on your arm. And, and God said, quit. He said, that's that's violence. Why would you teach a kid violence?

Wayne Walker: 31:41

Yeah. Would

Leon: 31:41

you teach him something nice? Yeah. That's the old man. I said, okay, okay, okay. So, you know, when when you're driving So he said, find something else.

Leon: 31:50

Find a find a cross. And when you see crosses, then you just reach over and say, hey, give me Jesus squeeze, give me, you know, I love you kind of deal. And after a while, you you get tuned out. You you find the churches and all the crosses when you're driving. And, then it it transformed to, you know, whenever Everybody loves hugs.

Leon: 32:08

Everyone loves hugs. Is that there's no better way to to have somebody get broken and give them a good hug, and they'll just lose it because, they've been hugged since a long time.

Wayne Walker: 32:19

Yes. So many of our friends, haven't heard someone say their name Oh. That doesn't have a badge on. Yeah. That just says, hey, Leon, I love you, man.

Leon: 32:28

Hey, man.

Wayne Walker: 32:29

I care for you to take that moment.

Leon: 32:31

Yep.

Wayne Walker: 32:32

And and then to embrace them. Yeah. Not to stand aside because you smell funny. Yeah. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 32:37

Walk over there. But just to embrace someone and have that human touch is so important.

Leon: 32:41

Oh, it is. It is. It's probably the most important. Yeah. Because that that fights off a whole lot of stuff.

Leon: 32:47

You know? A lot of judgment, a lot of prejudices. Give them a hug, and that changes everything. Wow. Praise God.

Leon: 32:55

Thank you, Jesus.

Wayne Walker: 32:57

Amen. Soul Church has moved from place to place to place. I know you've had other groups try to ask you guys how to do a church street church kind of ministry. I know.

Leon: 33:06

And they do.

Wayne Walker: 33:08

And, and you don't do this alone. Your lovely bride is there with you. Absolutely. Jennifer.

Leon: 33:13

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 33:14

You and Jennifer have been doing this for years. One day, we need to get you and Jennifer, Carol and I together to talk about the chaos of doing ministry as a married couple. Oh

Leon: 33:22

my gosh. That that day or night will never end. Hallelujah. My wife will find someone that can relate. Oh, yeah.

Wayne Walker: 33:32

Oh, yeah.

Leon: 33:32

We you and I would go home, go to bed, come back the next day.

Wayne Walker: 33:36

Those 2 we commensurate about craziness.

Leon: 33:38

Yeah. Right. Hallelujah.

Wayne Walker: 33:40

But, you know, you guys have been doing this for years. And besides Sunday morning service, which is now just a part of what you do throughout the week, you guys are doing a lot of food distribution. Yep. I guess you're picking up semis of food from different places, a food bank and other places, Or do you have just partners that bring you food?

Leon: 33:59

No. We go we go to to organizations and get food, not the food bank. And but, so in in in like I said, like we're just talking, you know, you get your calls. I don't know if you leave your phone on all the time or not but like the other month, 2 o'clock in the morning, I get a face FaceTime and, and so it's it's always on because you never know.

Wayne Walker: 34:21

Someone has needs.

Leon: 34:21

You never know. Yeah. Because it could be it could be life or death.

Wayne Walker: 34:24

Yeah. So

Leon: 34:25

you have to leave it on. But, so yeah. It's it's always something. And it keeps you busy. Keeps you, I mean, 247.

Wayne Walker: 34:33

As a

Leon: 34:33

matter of fact, you was you were you were having an interview with your friend about going to the mountains and doing all that stuff. And I think the Lord said that I need to go do have a mountaintop experience.

Wayne Walker: 34:44

Go, yeah.

Leon: 34:45

Take my wife with me.

Wayne Walker: 34:46

Okay? You gotta get away,

Leon: 34:47

man. It's time.

Wayne Walker: 34:48

You gotta there's only one person on the planet that can love your wife like Christ loves the church. Lord. There's a 100 people that can do my job and yours. It probably a lot better than we can.

Leon: 34:59

Maybe better. Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 35:00

But there's only one person that can love our wives like Christ loves the church. Amen. There's no backup. Mm-mm. Uh-oh.

Wayne Walker: 35:06

Man.

Leon: 35:07

They will let you know. I'll tell you what.

Wayne Walker: 35:10

Yeah. Carolyn's planning our next trip now.

Leon: 35:13

Yeah. Amen. Good for you. Good for you. I don't, that army that's sitting back there.

Leon: 35:18

You know, I think I wanna go to like you know, I I I've been all over the world. But, you know, I haven't seen the United States. I haven't I haven't been to Yellowstone Park. I haven't seen Mount Rushmore. All these different things.

Leon: 35:30

And, and that our reefs are sitting there. So I think we're gonna take it for a cruise.

Wayne Walker: 35:34

There you go.

Leon: 35:34

So Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 35:35

Just gotta find somewhere you can go fishing. That's kinda on my mind. Oh.

Leon: 35:39

Yeah. Yeah. Praise God. Do some fishing.

Wayne Walker: 35:42

So what's next for Soul Church?

Leon: 35:46

You know, and I'm not I don't know. I don't know. You know, you know, as as you think of what's down the road. What's 10, 20, 30 years down the road. And so I

Wayne Walker: 35:55

mean, in other people

Leon: 35:55

leaving a legacy.

Wayne Walker: 35:56

Other people will replace us. That's fine. Yeah. But what are they gonna do with it?

Leon: 36:00

Right.

Wayne Walker: 36:00

Right?

Leon: 36:01

And so, in in with things to come, you don't know what what what's yet to happen. So I'm thinking, I don't know, a farm maybe? Just making raising produce and stuff like that because who knows what the the, what's yet to come? What's in the cards? You know, it might be hard to get food one day.

Leon: 36:21

Yeah. And plus I wouldn't mind being that. Fresh food. Yeah. Yeah.

Leon: 36:24

Fresh food. Hannah, Bobby's wife, she's she started a garden in the backyard and like, it's crazy. And and we got a few acres she could do it. She just got a little spot. But so I may I don't know what they they would like that I think.

Leon: 36:39

Mhmm. And since they'll probably take it over.

Wayne Walker: 36:42

Amen. So you work with a lot of churches

Leon: 36:45

Mhmm.

Wayne Walker: 36:45

That come and partner with you. Mhmm. Most of those good relationships?

Leon: 36:49

Yeah. Very good relationships.

Wayne Walker: 36:50

The few of them, they're probably a little get a little weird. We have a few churches that come around here, we're like, yes, probably not a good fit. Yeah.

Leon: 36:57

They'll tell yeah. They'll come, you know, a lot of people do that. You know, they come and they'll stay for a week or 2, and then they're gone. And it's not for everybody.

Wayne Walker: 37:05

Well some groups want to come down and they want to treat it like a petting zoo, you know? Yeah. Or a safari of poverty. They wanna see 1, touch 1, take a selfie with 1, or bring the cameras out and look what we're doing. But not really build relational equity with people.

Leon: 37:17

You need to come down and adopt somebody as, you know, even if it's just a phone number.

Wayne Walker: 37:22

Yeah. You know what

Leon: 37:23

I'm saying? And and we we have I've got people in Waco

Wayne Walker: 37:27

Mhmm.

Leon: 37:27

That sort of adopted somebody and said, no. Take care of that person for me, will you? Yeah. We got it. So Yeah.

Leon: 37:33

Just come adopt somebody. If everybody did that, we wouldn't even have this problem.

Wayne Walker: 37:36

So you mean adopt someone, you're talking about kind of a long term relationship with somebody.

Leon: 37:41

Yeah. I'm not saying you have to pay their bills or nothing. But you do, you know, befriend.

Wayne Walker: 37:44

Yeah. You

Leon: 37:45

know, befriend somebody outside of their circle. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So that's a that's that's a concept.

Wayne Walker: 37:53

What would you say to someone that wants to start a church service on the streets or in a parking lot somewhere else? I know you get asked that all the time.

Leon: 38:00

Do it. I'll show you how. Come and see. I'll help you. You know?

Leon: 38:07

There's not there's not enough love out there as it is.

Wayne Walker: 38:09

Mhmm.

Leon: 38:10

So, we just this last weekend, we had somebody from McKinney. They're doing an outreach, but they're not having a service.

Wayne Walker: 38:17

Yeah.

Leon: 38:18

And so they came last weekend and they went, and so yeah. Come on. Do it. Do it. Call if God's called, just do it.

Leon: 38:26

Do it. You know, can't hurt. Right? Wow. And then steer him over here so he can get a home.

Wayne Walker: 38:34

We'll get him in rehab. He's got some Christian discipleship program.

Leon: 38:38

I catch the fish. You clean it up.

Wayne Walker: 38:40

There you go. Okay. There you go, man.

Leon: 38:41

That's awesome. That's fishing.

Wayne Walker: 38:43

Well, man, thanks for being here. Appreciate you. Love the heart behind what you do.

Leon: 38:48

How long have I known you?

Wayne Walker: 38:52

Man, I don't know. We've been, we've been we were serving at the Day Resource Center 20 in 2020, 2001. Really? So 23 years ago. 20 minute?

Wayne Walker: 39:04

Yeah. 23 years ago.

Leon: 39:06

Praise God.

Wayne Walker: 39:07

So I probably met you down there somewhere.

Leon: 39:09

I'm sure. Because

Wayne Walker: 39:09

I think y'all were in the parking lot behind the city city hall for a minute for a little while. Yeah. And then I remember when the city passed those ordinances and made it illegal to serve meals and

Leon: 39:19

Did I meet you through John?

Wayne Walker: 39:21

Maybe.

Leon: 39:22

I think so.

Wayne Walker: 39:23

At Hands and Hearts Ministry.

Leon: 39:24

Yeah.

Wayne Walker: 39:24

Yeah. Miss that brother.

Leon: 39:26

Me too. Me too. And the Lord called him

Wayne Walker: 39:28

home. Yep. Well, it's good to spend time with you today, man. You too. Brother.

Leon: 39:31

I love you too. Thank you, Lord.