Peter McMullen - Executive Director of Lighthouse Mission | BeCause & Effect #123

Peter McMullen, Executive Director of Lighthouse Mission, shares his personal journey through addiction and homelessness. His story highlights how Lighthouse Mission transforms lives with compassion, hope, empathy, love, and a commitment to community.

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Host Nolan Bicknell talks to people about the Causes they care about and the Effect it has on their lives. BeCause & Effect is a podcast of The Winnipeg Foundation.

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and Effect podcast.

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My name is Nolan Bicknell.

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We are recording live from the CJNU Studios
in downtown Winnipeg.

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And my guest today is Peter McMullen.

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He's the executive director of Lighthouse
Mission here in Winnipeg.

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Peter,
thank you so much for joining us today.

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Yeah. My pleasure.

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So the first question I've been asking
everyone on this season of the year,

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this year of the podcast is
what is your story?

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We talked a little bit

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before we started recording,
but I'm interested to learn more.

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Peter, what is your story?

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Well, I have quite the story.

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getting in my path to being the,
executive director of Lighthouse Mission.

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I went through some pretty,
pretty dark places, actually,

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years ago, I was a business owner, and,
everything was going well in my life, and,

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there was

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some certain health circumstances
that came up that, threw me for a loop.

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and I guess emotionally,
I wasn't prepared for them.

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And,

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it looked

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like, where I went in actually,
for a regular bronchitis checkup.

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And the doctor had, you know, done
the X-ray.

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I insisted he do the X-ray
because I thought I had pneumonia.

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everything was fine.

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He sent me home with my antibiotics.
That was on a Thursday.

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And then on a Monday,
he called me and he said,

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or the office called me and said,
you need to come back.

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And I, “why? I was just there
Thursday, just bronchitis.”

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They says

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No, the radiologist
reviewed the X-rays and,

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there's something
that we're really concerned about.

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And they said, can you come in tomorrow?

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And I says, no, I need to come in now.

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I was terrified of a night asleep
after hearing that.

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Right.

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And I was already a person
that struggled with anxiety.

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little did I know.

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so, anyway, I went in that afternoon
and they told me very bluntly and quickly

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that they were investigating me
for double lung cancer.

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So, spots on my lungs
and all over the bottom and both lungs.

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And I remember going home that night and,
being terrified, thinking that, you know,

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why didn't you just
why couldn't it just be one lung?

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I have two young kids under four years old
at home.

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I have a job where I'm
the sole breadwinner.

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I'm on commission only job
in the financial services industry,

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and, I had
I was a social drinker at the time,

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but at this point, I started turned
alcohol a little bit to help me sleep.

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long and short of it.

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In a few weeks, we found out
it was not cancer, thankfully,

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but it was another potentially life
threatening condition called sarcoidosis.

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And at that point, they go through

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how they're going to treat it
and how they're going to monitor it.

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And, by this time,
I had already gone down a path

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where I was concerned
now, I was worried about my health,

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whether sarcoidosis
was going to proliferate in my body.

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And, like I said,
I was not equipped to handle it.

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And I, I turned, turned into a full blown
alcoholic,

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tried everything I could to get.

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Well,
I tried, you know, Alcoholics Anonymous.

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I tried, Union Gospel Mission.

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I tried, psychiatrist, psychologist,
all sorts of treatment programs.

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But, the alcoholism in
me was just way too powerful.

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disability ran out.

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I couldn't work, and eventually, I,

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there was a breakdown in the family,
as you might imagine.

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I mean, I love my wife and daughters,
but they they just couldn't do it anymore.

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I was getting on years
now that this was going on.

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And, eventually,
I got kicked out of the house and,

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some point in my journey, I even myself,
I ended up on the street for a period.

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So being, I'm a married business owner
with two young kids

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and a wife, going from having a great job

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and great opportunity
to now being on the street in alcoholism.

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And, I have no, no bad feelings towards
anybody for how I ended up there.

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No, it's it's it's a difficult
when people are struggling in addiction

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for loved ones to understand
how are we going to help?

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And they try and help
and they try and help.

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And for years and years,
it's a really lopsided story because the

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the person in addiction believes
that they are going to get better.

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And it's like, I just need this.

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I just need that, just this one thing
one more time.

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And we honestly believe
we're going to get better.

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And, the other person on the other side,
they, they,

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they're doing everything they can to help
and they end up enabling

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because that's
they're giving people what they asked for.

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And eventually that just breaks down.

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And, I believe at that point,
my family doesn't love me.

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My family believes at that time
that there's nothing they can do to help.

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But what I hear is I'm a failure.

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I'm nothing. I'm
never going to amount to anything.

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And everybody hates me.

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So, you go down this dark path, and,
I did end up on the street.

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I saw homelessness for myself.

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Brief period.

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But I did find out what it was like.

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I did somewhat
recover for periods in there.

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but, I always
ended up falling back into my addiction.

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And finally, six years ago,
I was actually, And in two weeks,

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we're coming up on the anniversary,
October 3rd of 2018,

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I walked myself to the front doors
of Adult and Teen Challenge.

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This was, briefly after my wife
and daughters had moved out of the house.

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They couldn't take it anymore.

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I had actually had a job before then, and,
I lost it.

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I was drinking on the job, and,
I tried to get better, and my

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E.I. ran out and I was not recovered,
so I actually,

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sadly, I tried to take my own life
at that point in time.

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And, miraculously, I woke up at 3 a.m.,
and I guess I called 911 myself.

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And, and my life, was saved.

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but after that, going to Adult
and Teen Challenge,

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I learned, that I needed to surrender
and that there was this great organization

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that was going to help me out.

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And I did the year long recovery program.

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and, I got a new life.

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as a matter of fact, that changed me
so much that I recognized

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that I could not go back
to the financial services industry.

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I didn't know what career would lie
before me because this is just amazing.

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After ten years of trying to recover
and experiencing this program

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and the freedom that was brought to me,
not sobriety, absolute freedom, that,

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I had to be part of this.

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So they had an option, at Adult
and Teen Challenge.

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And, it was called a surge program,
where it's an 18 month,

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leadership training program
where you can go and you can continue

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to learn and learn servant leadership.

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So I did that.

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And, as I was going through this
18 months, Adult and Teen Challenge

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actually was partnered
with Lighthouse Mission

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and had not had been a relationship
that had been around since about 2000.

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And in 2015, Daniel and Katie,
the leadership at Adult

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and Teen Challenge of Central Canada
really decided they wanted to invest

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in Lighthouse Mission and,
make sure that it was going to be viable.

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It was going to be a strong organization.

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It was going to continue

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to bring all sorts of love
to all the people that needed it most.

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And, in December of 2020,

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I was I had four months
left on my search program.

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they said, you know,
we need help at lighthouse.

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There's a staffing issues. So,

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what they did was they, they asked me
if I wanted to go there, and at that,

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at first, I.

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I really
didn't know what to think of that.

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I was actually driving a truck at the time

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for the organization, helping them
pick up donations for thrift stores.

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And, I saw Lighthouse Mission.

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And so what do you think?

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What do you think about Lighthouse
Mission?

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Is this one I don't know,
what do I think about Lighthouse Mission?

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When I was homeless,
I actually stayed away from this area.

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I was terrified, I -- the folks just--

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Yeah. Sorry. I'm going on here now.

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What were you scared?

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I was scared of the people
I didn't know. I.

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I saw the people that were high.

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They were drunk.

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I knew of gang stories,
so I, I was hidden homeless.

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I was in the back

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in the in the, back neighborhoods.

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I was finding apartments where people
were living in rooming houses.

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I would stay in there,
crawl into a window overnight

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where the guy would let me stay
until they.

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They got on to me,
and I had to leave that building.

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but it was terrifying
to be in a drug house in itself.

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But I was still scared
to come into this area.

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I was worried for my safety.

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So when they asked me,
what do you think, of Lighthouse Mission?

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I said, I don't know,
what do I think about it?

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I and, they says you know what?

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It's we need somebody there now.

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And whether this is long term
or short term, we don't know, but we just,

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you know, hoping you can go and help.

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And I said,
you know what? I'm happy to serve.

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So I went there and four months later,
in April, I finished my surge program.

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And they said, you like it?

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And, as a matter of
fact, I fell in love with it.

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at that
point, they asked me to be the manager,

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and, as the manager,
I really got to know the people.

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I got to all facets of the industry
or whatever.

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And after I learned about our friends
and our guests in downtown Winnipeg,

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and they certainly were not scary.

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I mean, you can see some pretty,
scary things driving through

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that appear to be scary
and they really aren't.

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And, as I said,
I fell in love with the place.

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And, became the manager.

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in January of 2022, they asked me
if I wanted to be the director.

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And, since then, I've been director of
Lighthouse Mission, so quite the journey.

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You said you fell in love with it.
What? What do you love about.

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What do I love about Lighthouse Mission?

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Well.

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There's no profit.

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all we're asked to do is to go

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be kind and and to serve, and,

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it's really not a lot we have to do,
when somebody comes in the door,

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we share this with our volunteers
that come in is,

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you know, when they come in the door,
there's one thing we know is that

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probably their day
started a heck of a lot worse than ours.

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And, what gift we have to offer

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is that when they leave,
they feel a little bit better

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about themselves
and what's going on in their day.

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And I don't know if there's anything
that can be more rewarding than that.

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Kindness and compassion.

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And, it's huge

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In the sector....

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There's a lot of that reciprocity of
you got the services.

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You were you were helped
by these organizations, that partner.

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And then

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did you feel that need to give back,
or is that just kind of a happy accident?

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It wasn't really a happy accident,
and I didn't feel a need.

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when the surge program at,
Adult and Teen Challenge

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is sacrificial servanthood.

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In other words, you learn to serve others.

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And, at that point, you you you serve

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and you see where it will go
and where God will take you with it.

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And and this
it took me to Lighthouse Mission.

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And in getting to serve our guests,

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not really a happy coincidence.

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It's just serving every day.

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There's a real there's a real output.

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I mean, you're not counting widgets.

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You're not counting profits.

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You're counting smiles and impacts.

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And, the thing that I.

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When I decided
to go into the surge program,

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I'd mentioned earlier
that I really wanted to be a part of this,

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and I suddenly realized
this is why I wanted to be a part of this.

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I wanted to help other men, other women

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who went through the same
ten year struggle I went through,

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and help them to see that
there is a way that they haven't imagined.

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I mean,

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the way you can look at
it is people who feel hopeless.

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And this can be any situation in anybody's
life, you see, no way out.

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You've tried left.

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You've tried right,
you've tried backwards,

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and you put your hands in the air and say,
there's nothing I can do about this.

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And then you realize that there is
something you haven't imagined yet.

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So we'll be sitting down
with one of our friends at lighthouse

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and they'll be talking about,
I can't do this anymore.

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I can't struggle in addiction anymore.

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And we'll say, well, you know what?

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Maybe we can help
you get into a long term program.

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Maybe you can change your life
and and they say, well, no, I can't.

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I've been through this.
I've been through that.

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And and it's never worked out.

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back on the street,
and I says, well, no. This is my story.

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And we have three staff members
that are successful, four staff

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members, three that are successful
graduates of that program.

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And they will share the story and say that
just because you can't imagine

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it doesn't mean there isn't a door
there waiting for you.

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Let's help you get to it.

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So not a happy coincidence.

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I ended up at Lighthouse Mission
because I wanted to give back.

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I wanted to help others
who went through the same struggles.

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Lo and behold, I didn't imagine it
when I was first asked, but here I am.

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How important is it for those in recovery
and not yet

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in recovery, to discover that sense
of purpose that you seem to have found?

00:12:52:06 - 00:12:54:26
In hopelessness?

00:12:54:26 - 00:12:57:29
we feel very alone in addiction.

00:12:57:29 - 00:12:59:42
You feel very isolated.

00:12:59:42 - 00:13:02:51
You shame everything that goes with it.

00:13:02:51 - 00:13:04:55
There's a shame. There's a regret.

00:13:04:55 - 00:13:10:33
There's, a feeling of inability
to do anything, almost a uselessness.

00:13:10:53 - 00:13:13:39
Because you can't do it on your own.

00:13:13:39 - 00:13:15:38
And what you quickly learn

00:13:15:38 - 00:13:18:52
is that just because you can't
figure it out doesn't mean you're alone.

00:13:18:52 - 00:13:21:03
There are other people that want to help,

00:13:21:03 - 00:13:23:49
but there's a part of you
that needs to surrender,

00:13:23:49 - 00:13:27:09
and you need to listen
to what other people have to say.

00:13:27:52 - 00:13:30:52
And here's the funny thing about addiction
it's not a funny

00:13:31:06 - 00:13:32:35
addiction isn’t funny in itself,

00:13:32:35 - 00:13:35:35
But the the lie that we believe,

00:13:37:21 - 00:13:39:05
is that if just this,

00:13:39:05 - 00:13:42:20
this one thing changes,
then it will all be better.

00:13:42:48 - 00:13:45:41
And what's what's strange about that is,

00:13:48:02 - 00:13:51:00
we want to get --

00:13:51:00 - 00:13:52:05
And that's not me anymore.

00:13:52:05 - 00:13:57:47
But folks in addiction who are seeking
recovery want to get free or sober,

00:13:57:59 - 00:14:00:59
whatever you want to call it, in a way
that's comfortable for them.

00:14:01:50 - 00:14:05:06
so that means you're not giving up a lot,
which means you're keeping

00:14:05:06 - 00:14:08:31
a lot of the stuff that brought you
to addiction in the first place.

00:14:09:38 - 00:14:11:33
and really, the way ultimately

00:14:11:33 - 00:14:14:40
that you have to get out of it is
you need to reinvent yourself.

00:14:15:11 - 00:14:16:32
You need to be recreated.

00:14:16:32 - 00:14:20:42
You need to be made a new creation,
which means erasing everything

00:14:21:14 - 00:14:24:12
and starting with a brand new perspective.

00:14:24:12 - 00:14:27:20
Yeah, you you've said
surrendering a couple times.

00:14:27:20 - 00:14:28:59
Now let's unpack that a little bit.

00:14:28:59 - 00:14:32:17
Like, are you surrendering who you are,
who you were, what you believe?

00:14:32:17 - 00:14:33:47
Absolutely. Yeah.

00:14:33:47 - 00:14:34:03
Yeah.

00:14:34:03 - 00:14:37:42
No, I mean, I thought, I could be

00:14:37:42 - 00:14:40:55
the creator of my own, my own destiny.

00:14:41:18 - 00:14:45:52
And then if it wasn't my way,
then, it wasn't going to work.

00:14:46:46 - 00:14:49:37
And there are so many people
that love. Relationship

00:14:49:37 - 00:14:51:30
is the strongest thing we have.

00:14:51:30 - 00:14:54:27
And that's probably more important
at Lighthouse Mission than a sandwich

00:14:54:27 - 00:14:55:15
or a soup.

00:14:55:15 - 00:14:57:50
Is the relationship
we have with our friends

00:14:57:50 - 00:15:01:19
the kind word and, a place to go

00:15:01:19 - 00:15:05:24
where you can talk to somebody
and feel vulnerable in a healthy way.

00:15:06:03 - 00:15:10:17
but surrendering, to understand
that there are other ways to do things.

00:15:10:17 - 00:15:13:39
I mean, when the illusion of control
in this world that you can control

00:15:13:39 - 00:15:16:55
all of your circumstances,
I call it the Kleenex in the wind.

00:15:17:35 - 00:15:21:00
If you can imagine, just out here in front
of this studio in Portage and Main,

00:15:21:16 - 00:15:25:57
if you watch a Safeway bag or Kleenex,
get caught in that vortex, it's

00:15:25:57 - 00:15:29:49
going all over the place, and that's us
trying to chase all of the things.

00:15:29:49 - 00:15:32:20
We're trying to control the circumstances
in our life.

00:15:32:20 - 00:15:33:41
We're going here, we're going there.

00:15:33:41 - 00:15:38:06
And then eventually the circumstances,
or the situations define us.

00:15:38:47 - 00:15:43:21
But when we relax and we sit back
and we understand that the situations are

00:15:43:21 - 00:15:45:18
what they are and we just deal with them

00:15:45:18 - 00:15:48:56
the best that we can, and all of a sudden
that anxiety, it goes away.

00:15:49:33 - 00:15:53:09
And, in relationship with others,
we realize we aren't alone.

00:15:53:54 - 00:15:57:20
And for me, that relationship is with God
and Jesus Christ.

00:15:57:20 - 00:16:01:50
But, for everybody else, there is a
support system of relationships.

00:16:02:13 - 00:16:04:55
Were you religious before this experience

00:16:04:55 - 00:16:07:55
when you were working
in the financial world?

00:16:07:59 - 00:16:11:00
I grew up, like a lot of, Canadians.

00:16:11:00 - 00:16:13:30
I grew up in a Christian home.

00:16:13:30 - 00:16:14:54
with really, no,

00:16:14:54 - 00:16:16:59
No commitment to Christianity.

00:16:16:59 - 00:16:20:22
You go as a kid, and then when Mom and dad
say it's okay as a teenager,

00:16:20:22 - 00:16:23:51
you stop going and, I believed in God.

00:16:24:09 - 00:16:27:48
I believed in a god, that,
you know, it was on my definition

00:16:27:48 - 00:16:30:47
and what I garnered
from being a child at church.

00:16:30:47 - 00:16:34:21
And I believed there was Jesus Christ,
but I had no relationship.

00:16:34:57 - 00:16:38:06
And in this,
I learned a relationship with Jesus Christ

00:16:38:38 - 00:16:42:27
and understood now that religion isn't
what everybody believes it to be.

00:16:43:12 - 00:16:45:47
It's not a church. It's not a building.

00:16:45:47 - 00:16:48:14
It's not an organization with rules.

00:16:48:14 - 00:16:51:29
It's a relationship with an individual
who just just loves you.

00:16:51:29 - 00:16:53:02
And wants the best for you.

00:16:53:02 - 00:16:57:02
And I mean, if anybody knew Jesus Christ
and did a little check on him in history,

00:16:57:18 - 00:16:59:22
they don't understand
that all he did was come to serve.

00:17:00:36 - 00:17:01:32
What are the

00:17:01:32 - 00:17:05:54
challenges of a religious approach
in a community

00:17:05:54 - 00:17:10:55
that probably has all sorts
of denominations and some non-practicing,

00:17:11:12 - 00:17:15:14
how do you deal with friends and clients
at Lighthouse

00:17:15:14 - 00:17:18:30
that don't necessarily
come in the door with the same,

00:17:19:37 - 00:17:23:06
belief system
that that you're hoping to teach

00:17:23:06 - 00:17:26:06
or hoping to, instill?

00:17:26:15 - 00:17:29:15
Belief system is irrelevant at Lighthouse
Mission.

00:17:30:23 - 00:17:32:29
are the two models we have

00:17:32:29 - 00:17:35:29
is everyone matters, and love
all and serve all.

00:17:36:59 - 00:17:39:59
Jesus Christ is important
for who we are as a team

00:17:40:05 - 00:17:43:41
at Lighthouse Mission,
which means we love and we serve.

00:17:44:07 - 00:17:47:04
You don't need to profess
any sort of religion.

00:17:47:04 - 00:17:49:32
You don't need to profess
any sort of sexuality.

00:17:49:32 - 00:17:51:21
When you come to Lighthouse Mission,
you are accepted

00:17:51:21 - 00:17:55:12
for who you are as you are,
and you get the same love no matter what.

00:17:55:26 - 00:17:57:56
That's not defined by a religion. I mean,

00:17:59:49 - 00:18:00:34
Lighthouse Mission

00:18:00:34 - 00:18:03:34
started as a church in like 1911
or something.

00:18:03:36 - 00:18:04:42
Yeah. That's right.

00:18:04:42 - 00:18:06:45
It's been a Christian organization
ever since.

00:18:06:45 - 00:18:09:52
But that dictates
how we serve through love.

00:18:10:05 - 00:18:14:26
It doesn't dictate who we serve,
and it doesn't dictate what they need

00:18:14:26 - 00:18:18:39
to do in order to access our friendship,
our relationship and our services.

00:18:18:59 - 00:18:22:32
Do you worry that there are barriers
that people have of preconceived notions

00:18:22:32 - 00:18:25:50
when it comes to Jesus and religion
and organized religion specifically?

00:18:25:59 - 00:18:30:25
I'm asking this because my best friend,
is a proponent of the 12 steps,

00:18:30:25 - 00:18:34:59
but the, give yourself to a higher power
step was very challenging for him

00:18:35:06 - 00:18:38:04
because of how we were raised
when it came to organized religion

00:18:38:04 - 00:18:41:04
and the baggage that came with what
a higher power was.

00:18:41:08 - 00:18:44:40
So do you,
sort of have programing in place

00:18:44:40 - 00:18:48:07
or strategies in place for, for people's
preconceived notions

00:18:48:07 - 00:18:51:03
when it comes to religion and things
that they may have from their past?

00:18:51:03 - 00:18:54:03
That might be a barrier to to recovery.

00:18:54:03 - 00:18:57:05
Everybody's entitled to believe
what they want to believe.

00:18:57:05 - 00:19:02:31
Everybody is entitled to,
their own thoughts on religion.

00:19:02:53 - 00:19:06:36
I don't I'm not here to tell anybody
to think or believe any differently

00:19:07:01 - 00:19:10:06
when when you're truly serving in Christ,

00:19:10:24 - 00:19:14:27
what it is, it's reflected
not in what you do or what-- sorry,

00:19:14:27 - 00:19:17:35
It's not reflected in what you say or,

00:19:18:21 - 00:19:20:45
convincing other people
to become Christian.

00:19:20:45 - 00:19:22:15
It's all through acts of service.

00:19:22:15 - 00:19:27:12
And when people see that, I,
we have a video that we share of our Jason.

00:19:27:12 - 00:19:29:29
He's, he's our minister to community.

00:19:29:29 - 00:19:33:39
And, sometimes people come in
and for no reason, they do strange things.

00:19:34:01 - 00:19:37:43
We have a table with coffees on it,
and this person just came in and swiped

00:19:37:43 - 00:19:41:11
their arm across the table
and hit Jason in the face with 14 coffees

00:19:42:41 - 00:19:43:53
instead of him.

00:19:43:53 - 00:19:47:42
Everybody in the room saw this and chance
for it to turn the other cheek.

00:19:47:42 - 00:19:49:57
Moment
perhaps. Well, well, it's what it is.

00:19:49:57 - 00:19:52:32
I mean, we don't know. Like,
how can he be mad at her?

00:19:52:32 - 00:19:54:26
He has no idea what's going on.

00:19:54:26 - 00:19:57:16
everybody's
expecting him to throw her out the door,

00:19:57:16 - 00:19:58:44
to yell, to scream, to do whatever.

00:19:58:44 - 00:20:01:23
And instead, all he did was
he wiped his face.

00:20:01:23 - 00:20:05:09
And after about five or 10s, he took a sip
of his coffee and he didn't even flinch.

00:20:05:47 - 00:20:10:41
In that moment,
everybody saw what was in his heart,

00:20:11:17 - 00:20:14:58
and I'm sure a lot of people said, whoa,
I couldn't do that.

00:20:15:18 - 00:20:17:35
what's different about that guy?

00:20:17:35 - 00:20:21:09
So when we have our strategies
as far as people who maybe don't,

00:20:21:29 - 00:20:25:28
they might, put, Christianity in a box.

00:20:26:19 - 00:20:28:41
I can't convince them any differently.

00:20:28:41 - 00:20:32:29
It's it's in how we act and and what
we believe in our, in relationships.

00:20:32:51 - 00:20:38:08
And it's it's how we share our time,
and ourselves with other people. So,

00:20:40:24 - 00:20:42:14
I did want to go back a little.

00:20:42:14 - 00:20:43:17
Please, please, please.

00:20:43:17 - 00:20:45:54
Because,
there are people that will come in

00:20:45:54 - 00:20:46:14
and this

00:20:46:14 - 00:20:47:58
this is a bit of a challenge for us

00:20:47:58 - 00:20:51:39
when maybe when we're having
a funding discussion and some agencies

00:20:51:39 - 00:20:56:11
will ask the specific question, do
people need to participate

00:20:56:11 - 00:21:00:02
in a religious service to access your,
you know, lighthouse sandwiches and soup?

00:21:00:20 - 00:21:03:20
And the answer is no. But,

00:21:05:35 - 00:21:08:29
Whatever they bring to the table
and believing

00:21:08:29 - 00:21:12:14
what religion in, in Christianity is,

00:21:12:44 - 00:21:15:36
I can't convince them any different

00:21:15:36 - 00:21:18:36
other than, it's something we do.

00:21:18:36 - 00:21:20:51
It's not something
anybody else needs to do.

00:21:20:51 - 00:21:23:44
It's what drives us to to love
and to serve.

00:21:23:44 - 00:21:25:23
That old adage of show, don't tell.

00:21:25:23 - 00:21:28:37
Don't
just say what Christianity is, but be.

00:21:29:00 - 00:21:31:37
Be it like, live, live the belief.

00:21:31:37 - 00:21:32:58
That's all we can do.

00:21:32:58 - 00:21:35:40
Can you help paint us a picture

00:21:35:40 - 00:21:39:07
of the current situation
in and around Lighthouse Mission?

00:21:39:14 - 00:21:42:14
we have listeners
who probably don't come downtown

00:21:42:14 - 00:21:45:39
too often, and maybe or drive through and,

00:21:45:39 - 00:21:50:09
and make those preconceived notions or
those presumptions about the community.

00:21:50:09 - 00:21:51:21
So can you just paint me a picture

00:21:51:21 - 00:21:54:47
of, of the community
and what you see on a day to day basis?

00:21:55:17 - 00:21:55:46
Yeah. No.

00:21:55:46 - 00:21:58:47
Lighthouse Mission, and the area,

00:21:59:33 - 00:22:03:25
if you're driving through, you're going to
you, you maybe you have a minute or two

00:22:03:25 - 00:22:07:50
and you see maybe somebody standing
beside your door, maybe looking for help.

00:22:07:50 - 00:22:12:21
maybe you see somebody
who's, experiencing, you know,

00:22:12:21 - 00:22:16:06
they're high on drugs, maybe meth,
and they're acting, erratic and bizarre.

00:22:16:59 - 00:22:19:03
and you look at it
and you say, this is chaos.

00:22:19:03 - 00:22:22:41
And,
you know what is ever going to change?

00:22:22:41 - 00:22:25:06
This will never, never be changed.

00:22:25:06 - 00:22:28:50
reality, downtown in the area,

00:22:28:50 - 00:22:32:08
it's it's the center
of most of the shelter services.

00:22:32:38 - 00:22:34:06
Most of the people we serve,

00:22:34:06 - 00:22:37:51
aren't what we would call homeless,
as in living outside.

00:22:37:51 - 00:22:41:09
They're living in the shelter system,
and they come and they see us each day

00:22:41:36 - 00:22:42:34
for hot meals.

00:22:42:34 - 00:22:45:34
and yes, there are a lot of people
that are intoxicated,

00:22:45:34 - 00:22:47:33
but they're really no different than me
and you

00:22:47:33 - 00:22:49:50
other than they've hit some hard times.

00:22:49:50 - 00:22:53:02
And, drugs is, it's not a party.

00:22:53:13 - 00:22:55:44
Drugs and alcohol. It's a way to escape.

00:22:55:44 - 00:22:56:54
And I know that personally.

00:22:56:54 - 00:23:00:12
I never drank for fun
when I was an alcoholic.

00:23:01:05 - 00:23:05:02
I drank, the way I equate it is,
I never understood.

00:23:05:02 - 00:23:07:24
Somebody says, you know, hey,
why don't you have a beer?

00:23:07:24 - 00:23:11:52
And they'd say to me, I again, I'd say,
you should have a beer.

00:23:11:53 - 00:23:12:39
Makes you feel good.

00:23:12:39 - 00:23:14:47
And this is. No, I don't like the way
it makes me feel, actually.

00:23:14:47 - 00:23:18:25
And I never understood that
until I realized I had an anxiety

00:23:18:25 - 00:23:21:25
in my entire life. And beer or a drink.

00:23:21:27 - 00:23:25:46
taking the edge off, as they say,
a little bit didn't make me feel good.

00:23:25:46 - 00:23:26:58
It just made me feel less bad.

00:23:26:58 - 00:23:32:42
And so when you're already feeling good,
and you have a drink or you maybe partake

00:23:32:42 - 00:23:36:16
in some other intoxication, it's
going to make you feel less good.

00:23:36:34 - 00:23:38:51
And that's where I'm at now,
and I understand that.

00:23:38:51 - 00:23:44:38
But all of the folks downtown are using
drugs and alcohol just to feel less bad.

00:23:46:51 - 00:23:50:04
they they
come in, they don't want to be there.

00:23:50:10 - 00:23:53:04
and when they're looking for money,
whether it be for drugs

00:23:53:04 - 00:23:56:22
or alcohol, people feel inclined to say,
I'm not giving them a five bucks.

00:23:56:22 - 00:23:58:03
They're going to use it on a beer.

00:23:58:03 - 00:23:59:00
That's like, well,

00:23:59:00 - 00:24:02:00
at least they're going to feel less bad
for an hour or two, right?

00:24:02:11 - 00:24:06:20
Not saying it's right, not saying
it's wrong, but... Reducing suffering.

00:24:06:34 - 00:24:08:54
Yeah. That's right.
And it's not the right way to do it.

00:24:08:54 - 00:24:10:26
And that's why we do what we do.

00:24:10:26 - 00:24:14:29
And we're actually changing our services
to try to help those a lot better.

00:24:14:29 - 00:24:15:41
So let's talk about that.

00:24:15:41 - 00:24:19:51
from what I understand,
we just need more beds.

00:24:19:51 - 00:24:20:53
We need more detox.

00:24:20:53 - 00:24:23:18
We need more, we need more of it.

00:24:23:18 - 00:24:24:07
Everything. Right.

00:24:24:07 - 00:24:28:06
So just tell me as far as,
like, structures and processes

00:24:28:06 - 00:24:31:06
and, and, resources are concerned.

00:24:31:10 - 00:24:31:55
Where are you?

00:24:31:55 - 00:24:34:01
Where's Lighthouse
and where's the community?

00:24:34:01 - 00:24:36:11
Sort of, standing right now.

00:24:36:11 - 00:24:38:57
Yeah. I, I got to live this first hand.

00:24:38:57 - 00:24:43:37
I've been through the detox services
in Winnipeg.

00:24:43:37 - 00:24:45:30
I've been at the Health Sciences Center.

00:24:45:30 - 00:24:47:53
I've been at the Main Street project,
and they're fantastic.

00:24:47:53 - 00:24:50:04
They take care of the people really well.

00:24:50:04 - 00:24:53:38
but the reality is,
if anybody looking for a long term

00:24:53:38 - 00:24:54:25
change in their life

00:24:54:25 - 00:24:57:29
looking for a long term program
and they want to get free from addiction,

00:24:57:57 - 00:25:01:08
every program requires a period of detox.

00:25:01:17 - 00:25:05:38
You can't have people going into treatment
that are high, jeopardizing

00:25:05:38 - 00:25:08:09
other people in recovery.
there's a safety issue.

00:25:08:09 - 00:25:10:21
There's a health safety issue.

00:25:10:21 - 00:25:15:41
so, when people are so excited
to find out that we've got an application

00:25:15:41 - 00:25:18:48
for them to go into a long term
program like Adult and Teen Challenge

00:25:19:51 - 00:25:21:27
and or,

00:25:21:27 - 00:25:25:42
other programs, maybe the Addictions
Foundation of Manitoba

00:25:26:15 - 00:25:30:23
or Bruce Oak
or the Behavioral Health Foundation and,

00:25:31:01 - 00:25:34:50
we we go through the application process
and they say, okay, I'm ready to go.

00:25:34:50 - 00:25:35:22
I'm ready to go.

00:25:35:22 - 00:25:37:42
I says, okay, well, let's
you have to detox first. And they say,

00:25:37:42 - 00:25:38:35
okay, let's do it.

00:25:38:35 - 00:25:42:07
And, we'll find out that,
it's it's better now.

00:25:42:07 - 00:25:45:21
But at the time, we'd find out
there might be a

00:25:45:21 - 00:25:48:21
6 to 8 week
wait to get a bed in the detox.

00:25:48:30 - 00:25:51:58
and what that means is,
if I'm in addiction, I.

00:25:52:02 - 00:25:53:22
I'm not gonna.

00:25:53:22 - 00:25:55:39
I can't white knuckle it for 6 to 8 weeks.

00:25:55:39 - 00:25:57:56
No kidding. I'm on the street.
I'm surrounded by it.

00:25:57:56 - 00:25:59:42
I know what the reality is.

00:25:59:42 - 00:26:03:30
leaving this appointment right now from
signing the application, I'm going out

00:26:03:30 - 00:26:05:49
and I'm going to find some alcohol,
or I'm going to find some drugs.

00:26:05:49 - 00:26:08:51
And the moments of courage
to actually get yourself there and,

00:26:08:53 - 00:26:12:34
you know, admit you have a problem,
whatever it's called, have the will

00:26:12:36 - 00:26:17:06
to start that journey and then be told
that, oh, no, we'll see you in two months.

00:26:17:24 - 00:26:20:24
Yeah. It's very upsetting. Yeah.

00:26:20:33 - 00:26:23:02
And when we'll take the name
and we'll put it on, put them on the list,

00:26:23:02 - 00:26:25:24
we'll get the call and say,
hey, John, your bed's open.

00:26:25:24 - 00:26:27:05
And they'll say, no, I'm good.

00:26:27:05 - 00:26:31:28
Now he's either drunk or high or he's
got money and he has no need right now.

00:26:31:28 - 00:26:33:56
No, no desperation to to to recover.

00:26:33:56 - 00:26:35:38
And like you said, that moment is golden

00:26:35:38 - 00:26:38:08
when when somebody
is willing to surrender.

00:26:38:08 - 00:26:41:29
And,
so the, the buildings we have at six,

00:26:41:29 - 00:26:44:38
six, nine and six, six, seven Main Street
where we've been since the 70s,

00:26:45:07 - 00:26:48:47
there was three, six stories
total, right.

00:26:48:59 - 00:26:50:49
Three of those floors were unused.

00:26:50:49 - 00:26:54:57
So we had the two main floors were being
used as one was our meal service program.

00:26:55:24 - 00:27:00:05
Second one was a drop in and the third
floor being used was administrative floor.

00:27:00:47 - 00:27:04:14
And for years there was a talk about

00:27:04:26 - 00:27:07:26
the various leaders at Lighthouse Mission,
what to do with this space.

00:27:07:56 - 00:27:11:20
and they talked about making it
a usable community space.

00:27:11:20 - 00:27:15:11
Maybe people could use it for filling out
applications, a computer lab,

00:27:15:11 - 00:27:17:04
whatever it might be.
And that was back in the day.

00:27:17:04 - 00:27:18:11
Computer lab.

00:27:18:11 - 00:27:18:50
The good old days.

00:27:18:50 - 00:27:19:42
Yeah, yeah.

00:27:19:42 - 00:27:23:53
And, they just couldn't
get any momentum with it.

00:27:23:53 - 00:27:27:09
And then, Daniel LeMond, leader, he's
the president,

00:27:27:09 - 00:27:30:09
volunteer president at Lighthouse
Mission and CEO.

00:27:30:20 - 00:27:34:59
He said,
why don't we look at putting in a detox?

00:27:35:17 - 00:27:37:08
Five beds for men, five beds for women,

00:27:37:08 - 00:27:39:32
And we thought, wow, what a great idea.

00:27:39:32 - 00:27:42:03
So we, started in earnest.

00:27:42:03 - 00:27:44:42
I remember writing my first letter,
taking me about three weeks

00:27:44:42 - 00:27:47:42
to write, sending it off to a donor,
and sure enough, getting a check

00:27:47:58 - 00:27:50:58
for $10,000 and pretty exciting.

00:27:51:20 - 00:27:53:42
And then I realized at the time, we'd

00:27:53:42 - 00:27:57:47
estimated the project
to be at least $2.5 million.

00:27:57:59 - 00:27:59:54
And I said, this is a drop in the bucket.

00:27:59:54 - 00:28:01:30
What's going to happen?

00:28:01:30 - 00:28:04:15
So, we did find some other applications.

00:28:04:15 - 00:28:06:39
We put one in
and we thought it had died in the wind.

00:28:06:39 - 00:28:09:39
And sure enough,
we heard back from the federal government

00:28:09:47 - 00:28:14:22
and we received a grant, we were approved
for, a $3 million project.

00:28:14:22 - 00:28:17:22
That's what our costs had gone
to at the time.

00:28:17:40 - 00:28:20:44
they agreed to 80% funded a $2.4 million.

00:28:21:47 - 00:28:22:53
So that

00:28:22:53 - 00:28:26:06
really got the momentum
going to to do our detox.

00:28:26:06 - 00:28:28:51
But we still weren't there yet.
Ready to start the project.

00:28:28:51 - 00:28:30:39
So where are we at now?

00:28:30:39 - 00:28:31:35
where are we at now?

00:28:31:35 - 00:28:33:39
We've been we've been able
to raise more money.

00:28:33:39 - 00:28:36:57
There was some funds
that were raised in previous years

00:28:36:57 - 00:28:39:59
before we had,
the definition of the project.

00:28:41:04 - 00:28:43:35
so we're sitting at,
we were at fully funded

00:28:43:35 - 00:28:46:35
at one point was $3.5 million.

00:28:46:57 - 00:28:51:00
The project expanded from 3 million
to 3.7 million

00:28:51:27 - 00:28:54:45
and all the way up to 4.7, with the

00:28:55:37 - 00:29:00:54
with the program,
taking time and design and engineering

00:29:00:56 - 00:29:05:54
and actually the funding
to come through, we,

00:29:05:54 - 00:29:09:14
we recognize that inflation
and especially post-Covid,

00:29:09:14 - 00:29:13:01
supply chain issues,
everything everything is more expensive.

00:29:13:10 - 00:29:13:51
Yeah.

00:29:13:51 - 00:29:16:41
We were forced to cut the scope
a bit on the project, and we're back down

00:29:16:41 - 00:29:21:05
to 4.2 million, which leaves us
probably about 700,000 short.

00:29:21:29 - 00:29:24:14
But, we have strong faith
that that's we're going to be able

00:29:24:14 - 00:29:28:08
to find some good partners
who see the value in this project,

00:29:28:33 - 00:29:31:33
you know, maybe to create more stories
like what happened in my life,

00:29:32:05 - 00:29:34:39
we have four dedicated people
that have been down

00:29:34:39 - 00:29:37:48
that road who are working everyday
serving these individuals,

00:29:38:27 - 00:29:41:49
to help get some people off the street.

00:29:41:49 - 00:29:44:53
So, it has actually started

00:29:44:53 - 00:29:47:54
the renovation. There’s another part
of that story, too.

00:29:48:30 - 00:29:51:00
Let's hear it. We got time. Oh, yeah.

00:29:51:00 - 00:29:52:20
All right. So,

00:29:53:44 - 00:29:57:21
in as we're going
through the development of the project,

00:29:57:38 - 00:30:00:38
our contractor, we're working
with the Bockstael Construction.

00:30:00:54 - 00:30:04:32
They had, we had talked about

00:30:06:18 - 00:30:09:04
shifting our service through the buildings
to dodge the renovation

00:30:09:04 - 00:30:12:04
that was happening that would allow us
to continue to serve our guests.

00:30:12:39 - 00:30:16:10
But as we got closer and closer
to the commencement of the project,

00:30:16:10 - 00:30:19:30
we realized that this was going to be
a more and more difficult proposition.

00:30:19:30 - 00:30:24:56
So, in March of this year, Bockstael
actually said, there's no way

00:30:25:14 - 00:30:28:23
that we can do this renovation
in a costly and time effective way

00:30:28:35 - 00:30:31:35
to keep these costs down
with you guys in the building.

00:30:32:00 - 00:30:32:54
But in the background,

00:30:32:54 - 00:30:37:03
there was another story happening,
across the street at 676 Main Street.

00:30:37:03 - 00:30:39:54
There was an organization
that had been there since the 80s.

00:30:39:54 - 00:30:41:56
It was called Our Place Chez Nous,

00:30:43:01 - 00:30:46:05
and that's French for our place,
for those who don't speak French.

00:30:46:05 - 00:30:49:55
and they had served
the people on the street

00:30:50:08 - 00:30:51:27
for a number of years faithfully.

00:30:51:27 - 00:30:53:53
There were a number of volunteers
from, the arch,

00:30:53:53 - 00:30:57:34
I think it was the Archdiocese of Saint
Boniface, the Catholic Church, regardless.

00:30:58:03 - 00:31:02:36
And what had happened is,
the volunteers, were getting to the point

00:31:02:36 - 00:31:05:38
where they were older, Covid,
they shut down because there was

00:31:05:38 - 00:31:07:39
concerns for health and safety.

00:31:07:39 - 00:31:11:00
And, they had scaled their operations
back to two days a week,

00:31:11:00 - 00:31:12:14
only three hours a day.

00:31:12:14 - 00:31:15:48
And, July of 2023,

00:31:15:57 - 00:31:19:17
they decided,
can we continue to do this anymore?

00:31:19:50 - 00:31:23:20
And they had a split decision vote and
their board was, well, we have to sell.

00:31:23:20 - 00:31:25:05
We can no longer continue this.

00:31:25:05 - 00:31:26:45
We have a small impact.

00:31:26:45 - 00:31:28:14
We're duplicating services.

00:31:28:14 - 00:31:31:30
So let's just sell and try
to put the money back in the community.

00:31:32:04 - 00:31:34:30
Well, they were already dear
friends of ours during Covid.

00:31:34:30 - 00:31:34:55
They shared

00:31:34:55 - 00:31:37:59
all of their food resources with us
when they weren't serving the public.

00:31:38:24 - 00:31:41:24
And, they actually called us and said,
what do you think?

00:31:41:29 - 00:31:42:20
What would you like?

00:31:42:20 - 00:31:44:27
You know, we have food, we have clothing.

00:31:44:27 - 00:31:46:46
Anything you want in the building
we're going to donate to Lighthouse.

00:31:46:46 - 00:31:48:41
And we were so grateful.

00:31:48:41 - 00:31:54:47
Well, we we we received their donations
and accepted those things gratefully.

00:31:54:47 - 00:31:56:09
And,

00:31:56:09 - 00:31:59:22
and all of a sudden, out of the blue,
the board of directors of Lighthouse

00:31:59:22 - 00:32:01:33
Mission says,
so what's happening to the building?

00:32:01:33 - 00:32:03:51
And I says, you know,
I never asked the question.

00:32:03:51 - 00:32:06:56
I'm not sure if they were leasing
or renting, but I'll ask the question.

00:32:06:56 - 00:32:10:08
And sure enough,
there was interest from five organizations

00:32:10:28 - 00:32:14:08
to use that building space,
but again, in a more administrative way.

00:32:14:45 - 00:32:19:01
So, they said, no, we want to do this
to continue to serve the public.

00:32:19:01 - 00:32:21:07
So they says are you guys interested?

00:32:21:07 - 00:32:24:56
Because suddenly they perked up and
they wanted us, to look at the building.

00:32:24:56 - 00:32:27:03
So they gave us a price
and we said, you know what?

00:32:27:03 - 00:32:28:48
We're just going into a major renovation.

00:32:28:48 - 00:32:31:10
We can't afford to take debt to buy this.

00:32:31:10 - 00:32:34:37
We thankfully, you know, we
we thank you for that that great offer.

00:32:34:37 - 00:32:35:45
But we can’t and they says

00:32:36:48 - 00:32:38:00
maybe

00:32:38:00 - 00:32:40:39
would you consider if
we gave you a couple of thousand a month,

00:32:40:39 - 00:32:43:39
maybe we can afford that out of the budget
that we could use the building,

00:32:43:50 - 00:32:45:16
and that maybe after a year

00:32:45:16 - 00:32:48:16
when we're in a better position,
we can consider like a rent to own.

00:32:49:01 - 00:32:49:59
And this is.

00:32:49:59 - 00:32:53:24
But the good news is, instead of six hours
a week, we'll be 40 hours a week

00:32:53:24 - 00:32:56:44
helping the public and, you know, helping
those same friends you were serving.

00:32:57:14 - 00:32:59:00
And, that was on January 4th.

00:32:59:00 - 00:33:00:14
And then a week later,

00:33:00:14 - 00:33:02:49
they come back with a counterproposal
and they said, you know what?

00:33:02:49 - 00:33:05:49
here's the new sale price, $1

00:33:07:21 - 00:33:08:53
forever.

00:33:08:53 - 00:33:09:43
They sold us.

00:33:09:43 - 00:33:11:54
They they sold us the building
for a dollar.

00:33:11:54 - 00:33:12:47
It's a pretty good deal.

00:33:12:47 - 00:33:16:15
So the reason,
when I talked about March and Bockstael

00:33:16:15 - 00:33:19:51
saying you can't be in the building,
we took, that was on March 21st.

00:33:20:17 - 00:33:23:00
On March 15th,
we had taken possession of that building,

00:33:23:00 - 00:33:25:10
and that came out of the
blue that we needed to move.

00:33:26:20 - 00:33:28:24
So they said, you got to be out by May.

00:33:28:24 - 00:33:31:24
And miraculously, by May 15th,

00:33:31:50 - 00:33:36:03
we moved our entire operation
across the street, moved our entire food

00:33:36:03 - 00:33:40:46
preparation operation to another center,
and we actually only closed for one day,

00:33:40:46 - 00:33:44:56
you know, and, now we continue
to serve our guests in the new building,

00:33:45:18 - 00:33:49:12
and we've knocked some construction
costs down and they're renovating.

00:33:49:12 - 00:33:53:22
Six, six, nine, six, six,
seven and detox beds are on their way.

00:33:53:27 - 00:33:54:36
So ten beds.

00:33:54:36 - 00:33:56:15
Is that also a drop in the bucket

00:33:56:15 - 00:33:58:39
or is that going to be like,
obviously it's gigantic.

00:33:58:39 - 00:34:00:16
Ten lives are going to be changed.

00:34:00:16 - 00:34:05:04
And is the detox period
the how long like bring bring me through

00:34:05:04 - 00:34:08:45
the process of when someone gets a bed to
when you can send them on their way.

00:34:09:34 - 00:34:11:08
I'm going to rewind a bit.

00:34:11:08 - 00:34:14:40
When you asked about driving through
downtown Winnipeg and what you might see,

00:34:15:38 - 00:34:17:27
it could be an overwhelming situation,

00:34:17:27 - 00:34:20:56
and you people would look at it and say,
there's nothing that can happen here.

00:34:20:56 - 00:34:24:36
This is just way too, devastating.

00:34:25:08 - 00:34:26:36
What can be done in this?

00:34:26:36 - 00:34:28:39
What can I do in this?

00:34:28:39 - 00:34:30:21
Well, here's the thing.

00:34:30:21 - 00:34:32:38
The detox stay that I that

00:34:32:38 - 00:34:35:26
for somebody would be coming into
the detox program.

00:34:35:26 - 00:34:38:26
We're going to be
what's called a recovery based detox.

00:34:38:43 - 00:34:40:30
So they're going to come into the program.

00:34:40:30 - 00:34:41:47
Their stay could be ten days.

00:34:41:47 - 00:34:43:23
It could be two weeks.

00:34:43:23 - 00:34:44:58
And what's happening
while they're in there

00:34:44:58 - 00:34:48:47
for ten days to two weeks
is that we're going to talk to them.

00:34:49:12 - 00:34:51:57
Well, I mean, a lot of the detox
that you see in Winnipeg

00:34:51:57 - 00:34:52:55
right now, it's really good.

00:34:52:55 - 00:34:55:23
Like I say,
they take amazing care of people.

00:34:55:23 - 00:34:56:56
They get them safely detoxed,

00:34:56:56 - 00:35:00:25
and when they're done their program,
they're on their way to whatever's next.

00:35:01:00 - 00:35:03:36
but for a lot of people,
they don't know what's next,

00:35:03:36 - 00:35:05:38
especially the community we serve.

00:35:05:38 - 00:35:09:28
So our job is to sit down with them and
say, hey, listen, have you ever thought

00:35:09:59 - 00:35:11:49
about something
that's going to change your life?

00:35:11:49 - 00:35:15:41
This is what happened in our lives,
and this is what we can do for you.

00:35:15:50 - 00:35:18:34
We're going to introduce them
to opportunities for programs.

00:35:18:34 - 00:35:20:58
We're going to do applications
for the programs.

00:35:20:58 - 00:35:23:58
We're even going to be able
to take some of our guests for a dinner

00:35:24:41 - 00:35:27:45
at the Adult and Teen Challenge
Men's program so they can sit down,

00:35:28:06 - 00:35:31:30
reach and touch other men
who are in recovery, and learn

00:35:31:30 - 00:35:35:02
that this is a great and safe place
where they too, can find freedom.

00:35:35:35 - 00:35:41:06
So, doing the math on that,
that's going to be about 350

00:35:41:06 - 00:35:45:16
lives, a 300 to 350 people
that are going to experience our detox.

00:35:45:39 - 00:35:49:33
That's going to be 300 to 350 people
that are going to be introduced

00:35:49:33 - 00:35:52:53
to the concept of a long term recovery,
life changing program.

00:35:53:26 - 00:35:54:56
Let's just say 20 people

00:35:56:17 - 00:35:57:12
get into a long term

00:35:57:12 - 00:36:00:27
program, 350, that's 70 people.

00:36:01:23 - 00:36:03:45
I think the population,

00:36:03:45 - 00:36:05:53
of the folks
that are in downtown, I'm going to just

00:36:05:53 - 00:36:08:53
take a nice round number
and say 700 wouldn't be far off.

00:36:09:09 - 00:36:11:13
How many people are using the services?

00:36:11:13 - 00:36:15:16
Well guess what, that's 10% every year

00:36:16:17 - 00:36:19:06
getting into a program
where their lives could be changed.

00:36:19:06 - 00:36:22:06
That's 10% a year that are now going to be

00:36:22:28 - 00:36:25:28
have the ability
to be healthy mothers and fathers.

00:36:25:32 - 00:36:28:32
That's 10% a year
that are going to have families

00:36:28:32 - 00:36:31:08
that are safe
and growing up in circumstances

00:36:31:08 - 00:36:33:57
that aren't going to lead them
into addiction. Yeah.

00:36:33:57 - 00:36:35:09
And you do the math on that.

00:36:35:09 - 00:36:38:17
It doesn't take long
before that that ship starts to turn,

00:36:39:12 - 00:36:41:58
but it's going to start
with one soul at a time.

00:36:41:58 - 00:36:47:00
It's going to start, where you have
somebody who cares can explain

00:36:48:05 - 00:36:49:35
that hope beyond where their

00:36:49:35 - 00:36:53:18
imagination ended and share it with them
in a way they can imagine it.

00:36:53:38 - 00:36:54:09
Yeah.

00:36:54:09 - 00:36:57:09
So they can see the change is possible.

00:36:57:57 - 00:37:02:58
There are so many layers and elements
to a healthy recovery.

00:37:03:00 - 00:37:07:15
There's housing, there's education,
there's employment, there's relationships.

00:37:07:37 - 00:37:10:42
There's the substance use itself
to to curb that.

00:37:10:42 - 00:37:12:25
There's the therapy that's required.

00:37:12:25 - 00:37:16:06
What do you think is the sort of hierarchy
of needs in a way like what are

00:37:16:08 - 00:37:20:33
what what do you see as being
the most important down on the line?

00:37:20:47 - 00:37:22:28
And follow up question to that,

00:37:22:28 - 00:37:26:26
how is collaboration with other
organizations vital to that work?

00:37:26:26 - 00:37:28:57
Because you can be all to all people.

00:37:28:57 - 00:37:31:21
You have to collaborate and partner
with others.

00:37:31:21 - 00:37:34:21
So what is the most important thing
that we need to

00:37:34:23 - 00:37:37:14
to get someone on their recovery journey
and keep them there?

00:37:37:14 - 00:37:41:49
And then how do you partner with
other orgs to ensure that that can happen?

00:37:45:07 - 00:37:48:07
Probably
the single most important thing is

00:37:48:39 - 00:37:51:39
the relationship
you have with an individual,

00:37:51:50 - 00:37:56:36
where they can share with you
what their they want to do.

00:37:56:38 - 00:37:58:24
A lot of people
will hide in their addiction.

00:37:58:24 - 00:38:00:39
A lot of people will be in that isolation.

00:38:00:39 - 00:38:01:28
They won't share.

00:38:01:28 - 00:38:05:22
So when we're able to connect,
they feel safe with us.

00:38:05:38 - 00:38:07:10
We can talk about that.

00:38:07:10 - 00:38:10:10
And then they'll also be open to ideas
we have.

00:38:10:21 - 00:38:12:59
They'll they'll hear our stories
and our testimonies and understand

00:38:12:59 - 00:38:15:59
that we've walked that road.

00:38:16:26 - 00:38:19:15
then once that's happened,
I mean, there's

00:38:19:15 - 00:38:23:22
there's some really strange barriers
that people, wouldn't understand.

00:38:23:22 - 00:38:26:02
do you have an ID? Yeah.

00:38:26:02 - 00:38:29:02
Somebody needs a criminal record
check to get into a program.

00:38:29:22 - 00:38:32:58
And an example of a conversation
would be, do you have an ID?

00:38:33:05 - 00:38:37:59
No, I don't okay, well, can you go down
to this agency and get yourself an ID?

00:38:38:29 - 00:38:43:23
Yeah, I can meanwhile, this person
has never had to do that before.

00:38:43:55 - 00:38:48:11
I might as well be asking them
to go get a PhD, and I'm not down

00:38:48:11 - 00:38:51:47
speaking down to anybody, but let's just
say somebody doesn't know where to begin.

00:38:51:48 - 00:38:52:26
Yeah.

00:38:52:26 - 00:38:54:20
And they, they're
maybe they're too embarrassed

00:38:54:20 - 00:38:57:34
to say they walk out the door
and that person is lost.

00:38:57:59 - 00:39:00:20
There's a real importance
to hold somebody's

00:39:00:20 - 00:39:03:32
hand through the process
and have that soft hand off.

00:39:03:32 - 00:39:06:05
So, when we when

00:39:07:08 - 00:39:09:18
we find out that person needs the ID,

00:39:09:18 - 00:39:12:00
we might even take them down to the place
to get the ID

00:39:12:00 - 00:39:15:00
will walk them through the process,
will help them get the ID

00:39:15:18 - 00:39:18:27
if there's an application process
that needs to happen to get them to

00:39:18:27 - 00:39:22:21
the next agency, we're not just going
to fill out an application and fax it off.

00:39:22:41 - 00:39:25:05
We're going to communicate
with the second agency and say,

00:39:25:05 - 00:39:28:42
hey, listen, we have John here
and he's looking at changing his life.

00:39:29:04 - 00:39:30:21
This is what we're doing.

00:39:30:21 - 00:39:31:39
This is what he shared with us.

00:39:31:39 - 00:39:34:15
And this is this is a plan
we're putting together for him.

00:39:34:15 - 00:39:36:38
Can you come alongside us and help it?

00:39:36:38 - 00:39:38:33
And it's the soft handoff like that.

00:39:38:33 - 00:39:39:30
And then at that point

00:39:39:30 - 00:39:43:15
we call, we follow up and we make sure
that it moves on to the next step.

00:39:43:26 - 00:39:46:30
Then after that maybe it's
going to be second stage housing.

00:39:46:30 - 00:39:49:06
We've done this specifically
with individuals.

00:39:49:06 - 00:39:51:47
We talk to the second stage housing
and we commune--

00:39:51:47 - 00:39:55:21
to get them to communicate
with the recovery, center

00:39:55:32 - 00:39:58:24
and say, okay, from here, he's
going to go to there.

00:39:58:24 - 00:40:00:41
Can you make sure this is done?

00:40:00:41 - 00:40:03:00
how I like to put it is

00:40:03:00 - 00:40:06:25
if there's a crack, no matter how small,

00:40:06:56 - 00:40:09:41
and we allow that person to walk near it,
they will fall through.

00:40:09:41 - 00:40:14:20
There's a lot of people that really need
to be supported and helped.

00:40:14:51 - 00:40:19:10
And, we can't assume that somebody
is going to be able to do it on their own

00:40:19:35 - 00:40:23:42
and in the most gentle way
is this to to walk them down that path.

00:40:24:09 - 00:40:27:52
So, communication between the agencies,
there's a lot of partnership

00:40:27:52 - 00:40:32:09
we have with all of the other agencies
in the CARE area, good friends with

00:40:32:09 - 00:40:36:34
Siloam, good friends with Salvation Army,
Union, Gospel Mission, all dear friends,

00:40:36:57 - 00:40:39:38
and we all work as closely as we can
together.

00:40:39:38 - 00:40:41:26
I mean, I'll phone Mark,

00:40:41:26 - 00:40:45:02
the executive director from Salvation
Army, on a Friday night at 8:00

00:40:45:16 - 00:40:48:27
because somebody called our line
and the phone comes through to me at home

00:40:48:54 - 00:40:51:54
and, one time
it was a Ukrainian immigrant.

00:40:52:12 - 00:40:55:30
And, good thing Sasha, who cooks for
us, is Ukrainian.

00:40:55:57 - 00:40:56:36
He spoke.

00:40:56:36 - 00:41:00:11
I got Sasha to talk to the individual
and we were able to connect them to Mark

00:41:00:11 - 00:41:03:03
so that he could get a bed that night
at Salvation Army.

00:41:03:03 - 00:41:06:02
So these relationships
where we're all rowing the boat

00:41:06:02 - 00:41:10:33
in the same direction, we all understand
what each other needs, is essential.

00:41:10:37 - 00:41:13:01
Yeah. It's priceless. It is.

00:41:14:47 - 00:41:16:44
Can I ask you about

00:41:16:44 - 00:41:21:25
if you were obviously there's
going to be a shift in your opinion

00:41:21:25 - 00:41:25:48
and your, idea about what it means
to be homelessness before experiencing it

00:41:25:48 - 00:41:30:02
and after, but can you kind of paint
a picture of the effect

00:41:30:02 - 00:41:33:02
that it has literally walking
in those shoes,

00:41:34:23 - 00:41:36:50
because it's hard
for people to even fathom

00:41:36:50 - 00:41:40:15
until it happens to them in a lot of ways,
and not just about homelessness

00:41:40:15 - 00:41:40:41
or anything.

00:41:40:41 - 00:41:43:03
You know, it's it's
I think a lot of human beings

00:41:43:03 - 00:41:46:55
have a tough time empathizing if they
if it doesn't directly affect them.

00:41:47:02 - 00:41:51:16
So can you just speak to your mindset
before and then your mindset after

00:41:51:16 - 00:41:54:43
when it comes to having that experience
and how it changed you?

00:41:56:17 - 00:41:59:44
Yeah, that's that's a really tough one.

00:41:59:44 - 00:42:02:44
but it's really important.

00:42:02:49 - 00:42:05:24
I remember in one of the houses
I stayed at,

00:42:05:24 - 00:42:08:40
there was with two other individuals,
and I was hungry.

00:42:09:20 - 00:42:11:33
I knew what true hunger was,
not eating in days,

00:42:11:33 - 00:42:13:48
not having a nickel in your pocket.

00:42:13:48 - 00:42:16:14
And I reached, I had a phone.

00:42:16:14 - 00:42:19:14
Unfortunately, at the time,
that's the only thing I did have. My.

00:42:19:37 - 00:42:22:39
Even though I was estranged from my family
and my wife continued to pay

00:42:22:39 - 00:42:25:47
my phone bill, and I called the

00:42:25:47 - 00:42:29:11
the the time it was Winnipeg
Harvest now Manitoba Harvest.

00:42:29:11 - 00:42:30:50
And I said, I need help.

00:42:30:50 - 00:42:33:50
And I remember walking three kilometers

00:42:33:50 - 00:42:38:18
down there to get a box of food,
and they sent me out with as much food

00:42:38:18 - 00:42:41:18
as I could carry, probably
about 30 pounds, 40 pounds of food.

00:42:41:18 - 00:42:44:18
And I walked three kilometers
back in my flipflops.

00:42:44:22 - 00:42:47:44
I went back into this rooming house
that I wasn't even a tenant of,

00:42:47:44 - 00:42:48:48
and I sat in the kitchen.

00:42:48:48 - 00:42:52:06
I cleaned the kitchen and
I had to cook food for the three of us.

00:42:52:06 - 00:42:56:24
That food was gone in two days, and I knew
I wasn't eligible to get food again.

00:42:56:47 - 00:42:59:02
At the Winnipeg Harvest,
I said, can I volunteer?

00:42:59:02 - 00:43:01:30
Is there anything I can do to get food?

00:43:01:30 - 00:43:04:33
I remember one night
staying at the Main Street Project

00:43:04:33 - 00:43:08:00
shelter, sleeping on the mat on the floor
and getting up in the morning

00:43:08:53 - 00:43:09:54
and being hungry.

00:43:09:54 - 00:43:12:03
And sure enough, I woke up and there was a

00:43:12:03 - 00:43:13:51
there's a soup and a half sandwich there.

00:43:13:51 - 00:43:17:47
I was starving, I ate that, it was just
a little styrofoam cup of Campbell's

00:43:17:47 - 00:43:18:32
tomato soup.

00:43:18:32 - 00:43:21:00
It was the most delicious soup
I'd ever had.

00:43:21:00 - 00:43:23:25
And I remember thinking, well, that's it,
I get no more

00:43:23:25 - 00:43:24:52
and I just couldn't take it.

00:43:24:52 - 00:43:28:03
I went up and I remember asking,
can I have a second one?

00:43:28:39 - 00:43:29:58
I was scared they were going to say no.

00:43:31:53 - 00:43:32:44
so now

00:43:32:44 - 00:43:35:44
we have people that we get to serve each
and every day.

00:43:36:00 - 00:43:38:00
I can see it from their side.

00:43:38:00 - 00:43:41:00
And, there's a humility.

00:43:41:00 - 00:43:46:03
We must have an understanding
that nobody wants to ask for help.

00:43:46:50 - 00:43:48:47
But some people have to.

00:43:48:47 - 00:43:52:05
And,
it's the most humbling experience to be

00:43:52:05 - 00:43:55:05
that that's
where the word humiliation comes from.

00:43:55:08 - 00:43:59:51
But humility, to understand
that we're serving somebody who doesn't,

00:43:59:51 - 00:44:02:51
it's it's almost an admission, maybe,
that they can't do it themselves.

00:44:03:47 - 00:44:06:47
So your heart has to change to understand

00:44:07:32 - 00:44:10:08
that these folks, just like me and you,

00:44:10:08 - 00:44:13:08
I was there,
I understand it, they need help.

00:44:13:42 - 00:44:16:08
And when we offer help,

00:44:16:08 - 00:44:19:08
they understand that somebody cares

00:44:19:28 - 00:44:21:12
when volunteers come down to lighthouse.

00:44:21:12 - 00:44:22:54
So I share with them that,

00:44:24:38 - 00:44:26:44
it's not about you handing out a soup.

00:44:26:44 - 00:44:28:41
It's not about you handing a sandwich.

00:44:28:41 - 00:44:31:41
It's not about
you washing a dish or mopping a floor.

00:44:31:42 - 00:44:33:00
Those are all important things.

00:44:33:00 - 00:44:36:00
But what do the folks
on the other side of the table see?

00:44:36:52 - 00:44:39:25
They don't see the regular folks
who work at Lighthouse Mission.

00:44:39:25 - 00:44:45:11
Every day they see somebody new who's
come in and they're sharing their time.

00:44:45:23 - 00:44:45:59
They're sharing

00:44:45:59 - 00:44:49:14
their personal time with them because
they think it's important to come down.

00:44:49:51 - 00:44:53:31
That is so valuable. Relationship.

00:44:54:05 - 00:44:55:06
The brain is wired.

00:44:55:06 - 00:44:58:06
Actually,
the single greatest physiological drive

00:44:58:15 - 00:45:01:15
is to be in relationship
with others beyond all.

00:45:01:39 - 00:45:04:08
And when somebody comes down
and volunteers,

00:45:04:08 - 00:45:07:08
our guests
see that they want to share that time.

00:45:07:17 - 00:45:10:26
that is the most moving thing
for our guests.

00:45:10:53 - 00:45:14:24
So, I don't know if that answers
your question.

00:45:14:24 - 00:45:14:51
It did.

00:45:16:03 - 00:45:16:28
Yeah.

00:45:16:28 - 00:45:20:29
Especially nowadays when,
our attention is so

00:45:22:14 - 00:45:23:53
at a premium,
whatever you want to call it.

00:45:23:53 - 00:45:27:21
It's so taken in so many different ways,
and so many people want our time

00:45:27:21 - 00:45:30:47
and attention to just be able to look
someone in the eye and have a real human

00:45:30:47 - 00:45:33:47
interaction and, you know, a handshake
or a hug or whatever.

00:45:33:47 - 00:45:36:47
That's that's, that's powerful.

00:45:37:14 - 00:45:39:21
You know, I want to share one quick thing,
a little story.

00:45:39:21 - 00:45:40:56
When I first started at Lighthouse,

00:45:40:56 - 00:45:41:49
and I mentioned

00:45:41:49 - 00:45:43:28
I didn't know how I was going
to handle it,

00:45:43:28 - 00:45:46:28
seeing a lot of these people
that I was scared of,

00:45:46:33 - 00:45:48:56
I looked at the three when I.

00:45:48:56 - 00:45:52:44
What I deemed is the three toughest
or meanest looking people in the building.

00:45:52:44 - 00:45:54:50
And I said, I'm
going to be here for a while.

00:45:54:50 - 00:45:56:38
I'm going to make those three my friends

00:45:58:14 - 00:46:01:14
in a day, or throughout the-- just however long
it took

00:46:01:26 - 00:46:04:28
right they’re
three of my dearest friends, and

00:46:05:13 - 00:46:06:57
they still carry
the same look on their face.

00:46:06:57 - 00:46:09:57
But I'll tell you what,
they're gentle, kind spirits

00:46:10:03 - 00:46:11:31
and they have their story too.

00:46:11:31 - 00:46:15:09
So what we see
as we go through Winnipeg, the story.

00:46:15:09 - 00:46:17:40
It isn't represented by the cover.

00:46:17:40 - 00:46:20:42
Everybody has a story, and there's
a reason they are where they are.

00:46:21:57 - 00:46:24:42
And, it's always good to ask why.

00:46:24:42 - 00:46:25:14
I've.

00:46:25:14 - 00:46:26:20
I've heard it

00:46:26:20 - 00:46:30:07
framed and framed it myself as like,
everyone was a baby at some point, right?

00:46:30:07 - 00:46:33:36
Everyone was a harmless,
innocent, beautiful child.

00:46:33:48 - 00:46:37:03
And at what point do you look at them
and be afraid?

00:46:37:03 - 00:46:39:07
Like, at what point does someone get fear

00:46:39:07 - 00:46:42:36
from another human
being based on what you know?

00:46:43:12 - 00:46:44:42
Man, I don't really know what I'm saying.

00:46:44:42 - 00:46:47:35
All this to say
is no, it's really important.

00:46:47:35 - 00:46:50:35
It's to to think about these things. Yeah.

00:46:50:56 - 00:46:51:25
Because

00:46:52:42 - 00:46:55:46
it's I hold no grudge against anybody

00:46:56:09 - 00:47:00:21
who would drive through,
Winnipeg and say, you know what? Why?

00:47:00:32 - 00:47:02:29
This person looks able bodied,
they look fine.

00:47:02:29 - 00:47:05:08
Why don't they go get a job?
I've heard it.

00:47:05:08 - 00:47:08:20
And I don't begrudge that person,
because I'll tell you

00:47:08:20 - 00:47:10:24
what you're driving through.
You have a few minutes.

00:47:10:24 - 00:47:16:21
You look at the depth of the problem,
the depths of despair that you might see,

00:47:17:24 - 00:47:19:48
and to try to process

00:47:19:48 - 00:47:22:48
that in five minutes is impossible

00:47:22:53 - 00:47:26:06
to bring it home without being able
to go out and talk to that person.

00:47:26:33 - 00:47:29:11
It's going to be easier to just say,
you know what that person looks like.

00:47:29:11 - 00:47:29:42
They can work.

00:47:29:42 - 00:47:33:41
I wish they could go find a job, because
then you don't have to think about it.

00:47:34:19 - 00:47:36:34
And that's that's okay.

00:47:36:34 - 00:47:39:34
I'd like I say I don't begrudge anybody,
and I'm happy to do.

00:47:39:44 - 00:47:40:59
We're all we love what we do.

00:47:40:59 - 00:47:43:59
We're happy to do what we do
and do it on behalf of others

00:47:43:59 - 00:47:47:20
to learn those stories
and and to try to help where we can.

00:47:48:40 - 00:47:51:30
How do you think

00:47:51:30 - 00:47:54:32
people can best help that are listening
right now and be like, I want to help.

00:47:54:45 - 00:47:56:35
How can they help?

00:47:56:35 - 00:47:59:49
Well, I think it's not going to surprise
anybody.

00:47:59:49 - 00:48:02:49
When I asked for financial support,
at Lighthouse Mission,

00:48:03:06 - 00:48:07:23
awareness is
is is the most powerful thing we have.

00:48:07:37 - 00:48:12:30
knowing that there is a problem, sharing
that there is a problem.

00:48:12:54 - 00:48:16:44
And when you see that there is something
that's going to move towards solving it,

00:48:17:11 - 00:48:21:02
share that this is something
that is going to move towards solving it.

00:48:21:09 - 00:48:24:59
Share the good news, that

00:48:24:59 - 00:48:27:59
that it can be changed, for us,

00:48:28:05 - 00:48:32:22
we can't turn up the widget
making machine, sell more widgets.

00:48:32:22 - 00:48:34:50
We can't create increase our revenue.

00:48:34:50 - 00:48:36:43
Operational budgets are going up.

00:48:36:43 - 00:48:39:48
Lighthouse Mission in itself
is now putting in a detox,

00:48:39:48 - 00:48:42:34
which means I'm going
to be doubling our staff or not. I'm not.

00:48:42:34 - 00:48:46:50
We will be doubling our staff, sorry, and
we will be doubling our budget at least.

00:48:47:09 - 00:48:52:03
we also mentioned we have
a financial shortfall with our renovation.

00:48:52:11 - 00:48:55:08
there's an easy way to help.

00:48:55:08 - 00:48:58:39
And I strongly encourage
anybody out there who's listening

00:48:58:39 - 00:49:02:13
and they have any questions or thoughts,
please reach out to me personally.

00:49:02:20 - 00:49:03:50
Call me on my cell phone.

00:49:03:50 - 00:49:06:02
If you're call the Lighthouse line,
it'll go to my cell phone.

00:49:06:02 - 00:49:07:28
If nobody picks up

00:49:07:28 - 00:49:11:15
or send me an email, I'll be glad
to answer any questions and tell you

00:49:11:15 - 00:49:14:15
anything you need to know about
what's going on and how you can help.

00:49:14:31 - 00:49:15:57
Do you sleep?

00:49:15:57 - 00:49:18:18
I, I, I sleep like a baby. Good.

00:49:18:18 - 00:49:21:03
I have joy in my life
and none of this is a burden.

00:49:22:28 - 00:49:23:13
Beautiful.

00:49:23:13 - 00:49:23:56
Beautifully said.

00:49:23:56 - 00:49:28:05
Thank you for sharing your story
and your your vibes and your

00:49:28:28 - 00:49:31:42
your mantra and your ideas because,

00:49:31:42 - 00:49:34:42
this is the,

00:49:35:20 - 00:49:38:18
issue of our lifetimes,
I believe, like, we

00:49:38:18 - 00:49:40:53
addiction is only going to go up

00:49:40:53 - 00:49:44:17
and resources are only going to be spread
more thin.

00:49:44:17 - 00:49:47:17
And we're in a time
where everyone has to kind of help out.

00:49:47:17 - 00:49:50:00
I think. And your
your story is incredibly inspiring.

00:49:50:00 - 00:49:50:49
So thank you.

00:49:50:49 - 00:49:52:17
Yeah. go ahead.

00:49:52:17 - 00:49:54:25
I was just going to say,
just for everybody out there.

00:49:54:25 - 00:49:56:22
There is hope for sure.

00:49:56:22 - 00:49:59:45
So at the end of our time together,
we do a section called Just Because

00:49:59:45 - 00:50:01:55
for the BeCause & Effect podcast,
where we talk about

00:50:01:55 - 00:50:04:55
the causes you care about
and the effect that it's had on your life.

00:50:04:59 - 00:50:06:54
Do you want to go through those with us?
Yeah, sure.

00:50:06:54 - 00:50:07:12
All right.

00:50:07:12 - 00:50:10:41
Question one is what is the very first
cause you even remember caring about?

00:50:12:52 - 00:50:14:45
I'm going to answer that two quick parts.

00:50:14:45 - 00:50:17:45
And number one,
I grew up in a small town, remember?

00:50:18:23 - 00:50:19:03
Pine Falls?

00:50:19:03 - 00:50:20:13
Okay. I'm from Russell, so.

00:50:20:13 - 00:50:20:30
Yeah.

00:50:20:30 - 00:50:23:08
never seen a homeless person in my life.

00:50:23:08 - 00:50:24:29
It was a private company town.

00:50:24:29 - 00:50:26:22
And then when I was probably about

00:50:26:22 - 00:50:29:22
12, 13 years old,
there was a homeless person in town.

00:50:29:42 - 00:50:31:30
he had phone books keeping him warm.

00:50:31:30 - 00:50:33:21
And I was shocked and horrified.

00:50:33:21 - 00:50:36:38
And me and my best friend at the time
wanted to go pull together

00:50:36:38 - 00:50:39:39
our allowance just to go
buy this individual some socks and mitts.

00:50:39:39 - 00:50:42:43
And I was
my heart was devastated to see that.

00:50:43:17 - 00:50:46:44
But, really, one of the before long

00:50:46:44 - 00:50:49:44
before I came to Lighthouse Mission
or Adult and Teen Challenge,

00:50:49:56 - 00:50:52:28
Meals on Wheels
always struck me as something important.

00:50:52:28 - 00:50:57:02
And, I guess I always loved
the idea of people having a relationship

00:50:57:02 - 00:50:58:05
and not being lonely.

00:50:58:05 - 00:50:58:37
Yeah.

00:50:58:37 - 00:51:01:51
My, late
grandfather had the Meals on Wheels lady.

00:51:01:51 - 00:51:02:18
Every.

00:51:02:18 - 00:51:05:08
I don't know if it's weekly or daily or
what, but, yeah, that's

00:51:05:08 - 00:51:06:34
absolutely lifesaving.

00:51:06:34 - 00:51:09:25
And, life improving for sure.

00:51:09:25 - 00:51:11:03
Relationship 100%.

00:51:11:03 - 00:51:14:27
so question two if money and politics
and logistics were no issue at all,

00:51:14:27 - 00:51:16:14
you could just snap your fingers
and something would happen.

00:51:16:14 - 00:51:18:34
What would you do in support of,
Lighthouse Mission right now?

00:51:19:42 - 00:51:20:40
Well,

00:51:20:40 - 00:51:23:56
first of all, I'd fully fund our
renovation, and,

00:51:23:56 - 00:51:27:02
I'm going to steal a little of Winnipeg
Foundation thunder here.

00:51:27:25 - 00:51:31:23
I love the idea of an endowment
or of a foundation.

00:51:31:23 - 00:51:33:54
I know what it's like
each and every year.

00:51:33:54 - 00:51:35:44
not for profits.

00:51:35:44 - 00:51:40:10
Watch the calendar year shift
and the donations change based on season.

00:51:40:37 - 00:51:43:46
And it's hard as a leader
to watch those numbers go up and down

00:51:43:46 - 00:51:47:29
and wonder if the budget is going to land
where it's supposed to.

00:51:47:53 - 00:51:50:35
I'd set up an endowment
so that future leaders at Lighthouse

00:51:50:35 - 00:51:53:42
Mission would never, ever have to worry
about the budget being covered.

00:51:53:47 - 00:51:55:08
We talk about that constantly.

00:51:55:08 - 00:51:58:01
Like, what percentage of your time
are you doing administrative,

00:51:58:01 - 00:52:01:06
you know, money related things
or what percentage of your time

00:52:01:06 - 00:52:04:15
are you doing the work that you're purpose
and that you're here to do?

00:52:04:15 - 00:52:08:13
Right, like it's
an ongoing conversation for sure.

00:52:08:13 - 00:52:10:01
But yeah, great answer.

00:52:10:01 - 00:52:13:10
Question three what's the biggest misunderstanding or stigma about your cause?

00:52:15:16 - 00:52:17:08
Well, I you touched on one thing.

00:52:17:08 - 00:52:20:08
number one,

00:52:20:33 - 00:52:22:53
we are not,

00:52:22:53 - 00:52:26:20
religious in a way that we exclude people.

00:52:26:38 - 00:52:29:17
people, all people are welcomed.

00:52:29:17 - 00:52:32:49
Any orientation, any nationality,
any religion.

00:52:33:16 - 00:52:36:14
It's just about serving, people who need

00:52:36:14 - 00:52:39:14
friendship and love.

00:52:39:18 - 00:52:42:03
the folks that we have downtown,
we touched on it

00:52:42:03 - 00:52:45:47
earlier in the podcast,
is without knowing their story,

00:52:47:09 - 00:52:49:12
These folks finding a new leg up in life

00:52:49:12 - 00:52:52:12
isn't as easy as they believe.

00:52:52:32 - 00:52:54:13
Yeah. I mean, like you, you.

00:52:54:13 - 00:52:57:14
If somebody who says
they should go get a job and I.

00:52:57:14 - 00:52:59:44
Yeah. I'm not being little facetious, but.

00:52:59:44 - 00:53:01:30
Okay. We'll send them over to your office
tomorrow.

00:53:01:30 - 00:53:02:17
You do the interview.

00:53:02:17 - 00:53:04:41
Have the the bootstraps conversation.

00:53:04:41 - 00:53:05:56
I've brought up pretty frequently

00:53:05:56 - 00:53:10:19
on this podcast and it just it's,
it's just ignorant at this point.

00:53:10:19 - 00:53:11:31
Yeah.

00:53:11:31 - 00:53:14:38
Question four what is a recent victory,
personally or professionally,

00:53:14:38 - 00:53:18:12
that you can share
with us? Recent victory.

00:53:19:24 - 00:53:21:03
well,

00:53:21:03 - 00:53:24:03
what's
happened in in the lives of my family

00:53:24:45 - 00:53:27:09
six years ago, as I mentioned,
my family had left me

00:53:27:09 - 00:53:31:08
and I was on the couch in the basement
with the zero hope in my imagination.

00:53:31:08 - 00:53:33:17
I saw no way out of where I was.

00:53:33:17 - 00:53:39:07
this year, my oldest daughter,
after all the financial difficulties

00:53:39:07 - 00:53:42:11
we may have had back then, my oldest
daughter's in her third year university.

00:53:42:47 - 00:53:45:56
My youngest daughter's an honor student,
and she just bought her first car.

00:53:46:28 - 00:53:51:48
And if I had traveled back in time
and, went and sat beside myself

00:53:51:48 - 00:53:54:30
and said, don't worry, in six years,
this is what it's going to look like.

00:53:54:30 - 00:53:56:26
And they said, there's no chance.

00:53:56:26 - 00:53:59:26
So, the way my,

00:53:59:40 - 00:54:02:39
my family has,

00:54:03:50 - 00:54:07:33
transformed in six years is by far
the greatest victory.

00:54:07:33 - 00:54:09:49
Congratulations. It's beautiful.

00:54:09:49 - 00:54:10:57
question five.

00:54:10:57 - 00:54:13:57
What's the best piece of advice
that you've ever been given?

00:54:14:26 - 00:54:17:26
in short, I'll explain it.

00:54:17:26 - 00:54:19:26
It was. Shut up.

00:54:19:26 - 00:54:22:48
I when I was in the Adult
and Teen Challenge program, one of the,

00:54:23:04 - 00:54:26:35
the phase managers,

00:54:26:35 - 00:54:29:35
the leaders
that guide the men through the program.

00:54:30:20 - 00:54:34:32
I was talking about an issue I had, and,
I thought pretty highly of myself.

00:54:34:32 - 00:54:36:48
I hadn't been humbled yet enough,

00:54:36:48 - 00:54:39:32
and I thought I was in this program
doing everybody a favor.

00:54:39:32 - 00:54:42:30
And I had a lot to teach
all of the other men in the program.

00:54:42:30 - 00:54:44:58
And, Chuck was like, I don't know

00:54:44:58 - 00:54:48:03
if everybody knows Sam
Elliott from the movies, man.

00:54:48:03 - 00:54:50:02
A few words, great wisdom.

00:54:50:02 - 00:54:53:36
He was carbon
copy, spoke the same look the same even.

00:54:53:36 - 00:54:54:19
And,

00:54:55:17 - 00:54:56:44
I was sharing with him this struggle

00:54:56:44 - 00:54:59:02
I was having with some of the other men
and what I was trying to do.

00:54:59:02 - 00:55:02:27
And he just stopped, and he looked at me
and he said, why do you.

00:55:02:27 - 00:55:05:27
Hey, Peter, why do you think

00:55:05:31 - 00:55:08:31
everybody needs to hear what
you have to say?

00:55:08:44 - 00:55:10:55
And it was a gut punch.

00:55:10:55 - 00:55:13:03
I was humbled from a man

00:55:13:03 - 00:55:15:25
who had such great respect.

00:55:15:25 - 00:55:20:31
And from that point I stopped talking
and I started listening.

00:55:21:18 - 00:55:24:18
And when you start to listen,
all of a sudden you start to hear.

00:55:24:59 - 00:55:27:47
And instead of trying to interject
all the time,

00:55:27:47 - 00:55:30:09
people say
what you were going to say anyway,

00:55:30:09 - 00:55:32:00
and you find out
you were already in agreement.

00:55:32:00 - 00:55:34:33
And, for me,

00:55:34:33 - 00:55:37:01
learning to listen and hear and to be

00:55:37:01 - 00:55:40:01
more humble
was the greatest piece of advice.

00:55:40:14 - 00:55:42:20
And it came through, a roundabout.

00:55:42:20 - 00:55:43:50
Shut up.

00:55:43:50 - 00:55:45:34
Brilliant, I love it.

00:55:45:34 - 00:55:48:20
Question six what advice
would you give your ten year old self

00:55:48:20 - 00:55:51:03
if you could go back in time
and speak with him?

00:55:51:03 - 00:55:51:47
You're never alone.

00:55:54:18 - 00:55:54:41
I lost

00:55:54:41 - 00:55:57:47
my father at a young age
and probably around 10 or 11.

00:55:57:47 - 00:56:00:56
it's actually just around the time
where my, my mother

00:56:00:56 - 00:56:03:56
got remarried, so I'd spent from 4 to 10,

00:56:04:18 - 00:56:07:10
as a young boy
without a father figure in my life.

00:56:07:10 - 00:56:10:03
And at that point in time,
I didn't see any problem with that.

00:56:10:03 - 00:56:12:29
You don't know.
You have no comparison, right?

00:56:12:29 - 00:56:14:08
And I sought approval.

00:56:14:08 - 00:56:16:37
And that's
probably where my anxiety came from.

00:56:16:37 - 00:56:19:06
And I look for guidance.

00:56:19:06 - 00:56:23:36
And I, by ten years old, if I was trying
to figure out things how to do it myself.

00:56:23:58 - 00:56:26:51
And that's pretty lonely place
for a ten year old.

00:56:26:51 - 00:56:30:52
So I would tell myself, don't worry,
you're not alone.

00:56:31:15 - 00:56:34:28
Beautiful.
Thank you so much for your time.

00:56:34:28 - 00:56:37:06
Congratulations on the six years
coming up in a couple of weeks.

00:56:37:06 - 00:56:39:43
I think you said
the last question is the hardest.

00:56:39:43 - 00:56:41:29
what do you want to be remembered for?

00:56:42:57 - 00:56:44:53
Oh, gosh.

00:56:44:53 - 00:56:45:38
Told you.

00:56:45:38 - 00:56:46:06
Yeah.

00:56:46:06 - 00:56:49:06
No. not.

00:56:49:57 - 00:56:51:45
That's actually easy.

00:56:51:45 - 00:56:54:23
I just want to be remembered as a friend.

00:56:54:23 - 00:56:56:29
That's it. I don't
I don't need any legacy.

00:56:56:29 - 00:57:00:45
I just, people to have warm thoughts
that they had a friendship with me.

00:57:00:45 - 00:57:02:58
That's all.

00:57:02:58 - 00:57:06:12
Peter McMullen, Lighthouse Mission
executive director of Lighthouse Mission.

00:57:06:12 - 00:57:11:51
You can go to Lighthouse Mission, dot CA.
all one word to find out more information.

00:57:11:51 - 00:57:14:25
where else can people get Ahold of you?

00:57:14:25 - 00:57:20:42
we we do have, I think it's
at lighthouse 669, lighthouse mission 669.

00:57:20:42 - 00:57:21:29
We have Twitter.

00:57:21:29 - 00:57:24:27
we have,

00:57:24:27 - 00:57:27:00
Facebook, which is just
you look up Lighthouse Mission.

00:57:27:00 - 00:57:29:31
you can call me personally.

00:57:29:31 - 00:57:33:32
it's called the the six.

00:57:33:32 - 00:57:36:47
Was it, 943-9669.

00:57:36:47 - 00:57:38:53
And if you look for the options
to speak to somebody,

00:57:38:53 - 00:57:41:42
you can talk to me directly
and send me an email.

00:57:41:42 - 00:57:45:45
Peter, at Lighthouse Mission dot CA.
Peter, thank you so much for your time,

00:57:45:45 - 00:57:48:03
for your expertise,
for your wisdom, for your story.

00:57:49:17 - 00:57:50:35
I'm incredibly grateful.

00:57:50:35 - 00:57:53:35
Appreciate it. Thank you.