ExclusiveI Was Stepping Over the Homeless Until God Sent Me a Message | Zach Southall

I didn't set out wanting to do anything with homelessness. I was stepping over homeless people. I didn't want anything to do with them. I thought they made bad decisions and they got what they deserved. Would you guys like some lunch? How are you doing? Thank you. God bless you. Oh, I have Subway too. You like Subway? Did something happen that made you look at the homeless people differently? We ended up having the whole world pulled out from under us. You know, we lost everything. I lost the company. I lost my house. I lost some cars. I lost all of my money. I lost all of my property. All of my great stuff, you know. It made me very sick. I got very sick. I couldn't speak. I was in terrible pain. I was in and out of consciousness. You know, they didn't know if I was going to make it. And you may not have believed in God before, but now you're praying with all your might to God. Please let me live. If you're real, reveal yourself. You know, like, save me. And then I'll be your guy. Whatever door you ask me to walk through, I will walk through it. God showed up. Big time. It was like, whoa. So then I was like, you're real, and I'm in big trouble. Because I'm kind of a jerk. You know what I mean? Like, I had changed my life. Zach, it's great to have you back on. Welcome back. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. You are out there helping the homeless. And in California and in a lot of other states, we have this issue with homelessness. And you got out of your day-to-day work, like you had your own life, and then you somehow ended up just going out there helping the homeless. Can you tell us your story? Yeah, well, God has a great sense of humor. I was very much very self-centered, very focused on wealth and generating wealth at a time in my life where I had my wife not working at home with our four kids, and I was in finance. And at that time, my goal was to buy a jet. That was my goal. What kind of jet did you want to buy? It was a G4, G5, whatever. And at that time, I was just so focused on all the wrong things, I think, is the safest way I can put that. I was blind in a lot of ways. And I think the person I am now looks back at that person, and I feel a great deal of sometimes embarrassment, but a lot of times just empathy for the person that I was and the things that I thought were very important, such as what kind of car I was driving, how big my house was, that jet I wanted so badly, those things. My watch collection, that was another big thing. That was a big thing for me, having all those pretty watches. But boy, when you start to take a step back and open your eyes, for me, it was all about my faith. So when God got a hold of me and changed my perspective and I opened my eyes, so to speak, I kind of looked up from this very narrow view, it was life-changing, immediately life-changing. So for me, it had everything to do with my faith journey. For me, it was all about Jesus getting into my life and getting a hold of me and changing that perspective. Can you tell us about those moments or the time where you decided to go from wanting a private jet to not wanting a private jet anymore? Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell us about those moments? Yes, absolutely. Oh gosh, some of this is so embarrassing. You know, I'll start here. I was struck with terrible, terrible insomnia, is what happened first, I think. Just really bad insomnia. And I thought I was losing my mind because I wasn't sleeping. So in a normal, like you were living your normal life? Living my normal life. I was going to work every day. I was doing my stuff, making more money. I worked very hard, you know. Constantly, my mind was constantly tick, tick, tick, tick, trying to come up with solutions for problems and that kind of thing. And how to maximize profits, that kind of thing is what I was concerning myself with. And in the midst of that, I had this recurring thought or this recurring, I would say, prompting from God that was just constantly partly look up and partly look out, look out for my children, take care of my children. And I did not know what that meant. I didn't set out wanting to do anything with homelessness. I was stepping over homeless people. I didn't want anything to do with them. I thought they made bad decisions and they got what they deserved at the time. And I really did. That was my thinking on it. They made bad choices. They're exactly where they should be. So to go from that to where I am now is miraculous, really miraculous. So at that time, I was, like I said, terrible insomnia, not sleeping, and I was just trying to ignore that voice in my head. And it got to the point where I just, I couldn't ignore it anymore. And I forget how it happened exactly, but I got it, it got across to me that this voice was talking about these homeless folks that I was seeing every day, you know, to and from work. And I started to look at them. I did, I did. It wasn't as, it wasn't as, this is 13 years ago, you know, this is a long time ago. So it wasn't, they weren't as prevalent as they are now as far as the homeless population, you know. It wasn't as big then, you know. But I started to notice them. I started to see them in a different way. So I started to look at them. They started to suddenly look to me like my brother, my sister, my father, my mother, you know. And that was just, oh, you know. They started to look to me made in the image of God and worthy of, you know, worthy to be treated as such, you know, worthy to be treated with dignity and respect and love and caring. And why was I letting this happen? Why was I letting this, these people suffer? You know, I needed to do something. No one else was doing anything. I needed to do something. So that was a, that was a big epiphany, you know, for me to suddenly see, see these folks in the image of God and go, oh my gosh. I, you know, I, why haven't I done anything already? You know, so it was one morning I woke up on a Saturday morning, I think, after another very sleepless night. And I remember, I remember it very vividly. I woke up, my wife was making, my wife was making breakfast and I was walking out the door and she goes, where are you going? And I go, I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna go to Walmart. I think I'm gonna buy some food, maybe some bicycles and I'm gonna drive around and I'm gonna look for homeless people and see if I can help them. And she goes, what are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? I go, yeah, I think I have lost my mind. I don't know what I'm doing. And, but I did it. I went, I got, you know, that I listened to that still small voice, you know, and I was at Walmart, I bought some stuff. I was driving around, I was scaring the heck out of homeless people because at that time nobody was engaging with, with folks. So I was driving around, look, hey, how's it going? You know, my name's Zach. Can I talk to you for a minute? And people, ah, you know, I was getting out of the car, I was scaring the, scaring the bejesus out of people. You know, I was walking up to them and just asking them how I could help them. And, you know, what they were, I think a lot of what I did was listen, you know, I was asking people, you know, what happened? Why are you here? What's going on? You know, and just talking to people. And then I found, because of my upbringing, you know, I grew up, my parents were divorced when I was 10 and just was very poor and I had aunts and uncles that were in and out of prison and, you know, and had issues with addiction and drugs and that kind of thing and was just around that a lot. So I, I learned a lot of stuff that I, that I thought was really useless and I wanted to just forget all about. But in hindsight, it was the most beautiful equipping. It was the most beautiful education I could have gotten to do this work that I do now. Because suddenly I was out talking to people and I, I understood and knew about maybe all the gangs in the area. I understood the world of drugs and addiction. You know, I understand that. I understood that really well. I could really quickly kind of do a visual assessment with someone and kind of know, well, this guy's on meth. This guy's a heroin addict. This guy, you know, is, you know, is got a real problem with alcohol. And this, this is what's holding back, you know, that kind of thing. And, and it just gave me a real, I don't know. It was like an instant comfortability being on the street and doing street outreach, you know, that I would call it, you know, where going and talking to people on the street just made it real easy. It made it really easy. It made it really easy to forge a relationship, you know, where I could, I could befriend people and they would, well, we'd have real conversation. They trust you. They trust me. Yeah, they would, they would, we could have a real conversation built on trust and they would tell me the truth. You know, they're not trying to, you get to the point, you know, every, initially everyone's kind of trying to hustle you, you know, understandably. To get some money. Yeah, yeah, the panhandling. And like, if I only had 10 bucks or a hotel room or $100 or blah, blah, blah, it would change my life. And then, you know, but I didn't, I wanted so much more, you know, than that for them. You know, I wanted, I wanted to see people rescued, restored, transformed. I wanted to transform lives right out the gate. I was like, there's no, no use doing this if it's just to make myself feel good. How long did you do the bicycle buying and going around on the weekends? It was a while. I did it for about three, four months of doing it by myself out there. And I was just very, very lucky. I, I, I ended up friends with a gentleman from Salvation Army. He heard about what I was doing and he wanted to introduce me to the head of their urban ministries at the time. His name was Mickey Jordan. He was a great, great man. And he was head of their homeless outreach here in Orange County. He had a methodology that he had put together or created when he was a missionary in Russia, in the Ukraine, actually. And he, you know, he spoke Russian, met his wife there when he was a missionary there. And it was, he had a system, basically, that he employed and created that kind of goes like this. You, you go out during the week and you do street outreach. You engage with people right where they're at. Try to forge relationships. You invite them to come and share a meal with you. You know, share, share a cup of coffee with you. So he would invite them to these weekly gatherings that he would have at a coffee shop. And over those gatherings, he would build even stronger relationships with people to the point that he could get to a place where he could have a pivotal conversation with someone where he could say, Seamok, I can't, I can't, we are friends. I cannot stomach the thought of you spending another night out here. You know, it breaks my heart. Can we put a plan together to get you out of here? You know, what does that look like for you? And from there, great things happened because you're having a real conversation with a real friend. You know, you know, I love you. You know, I, you know, I know you love me. This is not a fake friendship. It's not a transactional thing. I'm not working for an agency and trying to, you know what I mean? Like you're a number. It's not my job. No, no, it's not a numbers thing. You know what I mean? And he was doing that for Salvation Army. They had a weekly Wednesday night gathering. I was just so happy that he had homeless people all in one place. I was driving around trying to find them. So I was like, I'll, I'll help you. You know, I'll do whatever you need me to do. I just need you to, I need you to equip me. I need you to teach me more about the things I don't know. I don't know how to do mental illness to the degree that I need to know how to do it. You know, I need to know where do I go? What do I do? How do I engage with mental health? And how do I, how do I be a bridge to these folks who are dealing with terrible demons and then terrified they're going to be locked up? And so to have a friend in between that, you know, in that relationship and be able to do a, do a warm kind of a handoff and stay engaged, you know, and become an ongoing community of support for that person. You know, it just, it changes everything. You know, when you have a real friend that's advocating for you to people who are friendless, you know what I mean? And so used to being ignored and so used to being, you know, not just ignored, but just avoided. You know, it's like you walk up to the, walk up to the restaurant, you see the guy or you're at the gas station, you see the guy and you're like, you want to go the other way? You know, so those folks, it's very disarming when you're like, go right up to them and you want, I want to be your friend. I want to know about you. I want to hear about your life. I want to know what brought you here. And, you know, and over time, you know, I want to develop a real relationship. It's a very, it's very disarming. It's very disarming. So I've taken, or we've taken at Trading on Wheels. We really took his kind of methodology, that initial methodology, and we've just expanded upon it. It's really, it's really what we've done. To give credit where credit's due, I am not some fantastic innovator. You know what I mean? It was really, you know, he's a very devout, faithful Christian man. He developed this system basically just watching what Jesus did with people and how he, how he engaged with people, how he discipled people. He did much of it over a meal. He did much of it over, you know, real, developing real relationship with people before he tried to speak into their lives. You know what I mean? He developed that emotional equity. He earned it first. You know what I mean? I mean, obviously, I'm not God or anything. I can't, I can't do what he did, but I can follow kind of his, I can follow that lead, you know, and love people. Was there a moment where you kind of, in this process, did you have a time where you had, did something happen that made you look at the homeless people differently? Well, I would say, I would say there was a, there was a series of things that happened, I think, that, that caused, it wasn't just homeless people. It caused me to look at everyone differently. I, I, we went through, I mentioned I was in finance. This was back in 2006, 2007. It was doing very, very well. I had a media marketing company, and I was president of a national finance company as well. And we had the whole, the whole mortgage debacle. Arrogantly, I thought, well, even if the, the finance company fails, I still have the, the media, the marketing company. I did radio and television advertising and, you know, web-based advertising and stuff. And I thought that would protect us. And I had, you know, lots of money, had lots of money in the bank. I was, I felt like I felt like, you know, I was not untouchable, but I felt like we were fine, you know. And we ended up having the whole world pulled out from under us. You know, we lost everything. We lost the company, lost my house, lost the cars, lost all of my money, lost all of my property, all of my great stuff, you know. And both companies failed, you know, because they were, my top 10 clients were related in some way to finance or mortgage. You know what I mean? There was a reason. And, you know, people didn't have the money. They were, you know, you were, if you were selling pools, you know, sudden people weren't putting in pools, you know. It was a different, it was a different deal. So all those clients, they, one after another, you know, they, they reneged, basically. They stopped paying, you know. A lot of the times we would be on 30-day, 60-day, 90-day net, you know, so you book, I booked $300,000 in media, and then you don't pay. And after three months, it's $600,000. You know, I was on the hook for millions of dollars at that time. You know what I mean? It was very stressful, very, very stressful. And, and at the same time, just having no money come in, you know, while you're just bleeding out, you know, it was, it was pretty brutal. And at that same time, during all this, my wife, you know, she wants to start going to church, you know, and, and we were, I was raised Irish Catholic. My wife's Mexican Catholic. She was, she didn't want to be Catholic any longer. You know, she didn't feel like we had a, a strong relationship with God. And she wanted to try something new. So she wanted to try a different church. I'd never been in a different church before. And, but, you know, it's your wife, you go along with what your wife wants. So I was, she was dragging me to church every Sunday, and I was not enjoying it. And I was trying to come up with good reasons not to go. Every weekend, you know, every Sunday morning, I'd come up with some excuse. Oh, I'm going to clean the backyard. You go, I'll, I'll see you when you get back. Just not interested in it. Not interested in the people that were there. I just. This is the time you're losing everything. Same time. Yeah. I was just, I got to work. I got to, you know, I don't have time for this, you know, and that kind of thing. And, and these folks, you know, my wife just kept pushing and prodding, and I wanted nothing to do. I wasn't learning people's names. I didn't, I didn't want nothing to do with these people. And, and there came a time when the stress of it all, it, it, it, it made me very sick. At that time, I got, I got this, this thing on my vocal cords. I, I, I was still again, filled with pride, filled with arrogance in that I thought, okay, the finance companies failed. The, the, the marketing company is still going, but you know, it's under duress. It's really tough. I could always just be hired as a CEO or a, or president of another company because I can lead really well. And what you forget is that you need your voice to lead. And I was, I had this thing and I didn't want to go to the doctor and I was, I was struggling. It was harder and harder to swallow, you know? And then all of a sudden it got to the point where one morning, my wife was like, you have to go to the hospital. And on the way to the hospital, it got to the point where I was, I could hardly breathe. It was closing my windpipe. It had grown so much. So we got in there and they found this thing. They put me, they didn't know what to do. They put me on a IV antibiotics. Couldn't speak. I was in terrible pain. They put me on an IV drip of a Dilaudid, really powerful drug for pain. And I was just for weeks, months, I was in and out of consciousness. You know, they didn't know if I was going to make it, you know, I lost 30, 40 pounds or something. And I was just, and I remember I was in, I was in hospital bed. I would wake up, my wife would be there. My children would be there. And I couldn't speak to them. For a while, I was strong enough to write stuff. But then after that, I wasn't strong enough to even communicate. So they would just be there for a little bit. And then I'd, from the Dilaudid, it was so powerful, I would, I would just pass out. And then I'd wake up, it'd be the middle of the night. I'd be all alone in the hospital. And then I'd wake up to be the next day. My father, my mother, someone would be there and pass out. You know, like it was just kind of that. And in that moment, being with yourself alone, I was doing a lot of what we call a foxhole prayer. When you're in the, when you're in the foxhole and the bullets are flying, and you may not have believed in God before, but now you're praying with all your might to God, please let me live. You know, I was doing a lot of that. It was a fox, a lot of foxhole prayers. Oh, please, Lord, if, if you're real, reveal yourself, you know, like save me and then I'll be, I'll be your guy. Whatever door you asked me to walk through, I will walk through it. So that was very profound. This was a very big deal. And they had flown in a different specialist, transferred me from St. Joe's to Saddleback Hospital. And, and this guy took over and about that time and during those foxhole prayers and, and I got better. I got better. I got better just in time to come home and have the notice on my door that my house had been foreclosed on. Right. And then I was, I was so weak, I couldn't lift up this cup, you know, and we had to move. And it was, it was just very traumatic. My poor wife with all our little kids trying to pack boxes and I couldn't help. I was wrapped in a blanket, you know, just kind of couldn't even move really much. And, and it came moving day. You know, we had, luckily I found a place for us to move and, you know, I didn't, I had no job, lost my companies. I luckily had squirreled away some money to get us to the next, you know, but this was before foreclosure was fashionable. Nobody would even rent to us. I had to pay someone off to rent me a house. You know, it was brutal. And it was like, we went from this house to this house, to this house, to this, you know, over time, you know, that's, that's a bigger story. But I was sitting there on my porch, praying to God to, Oh Lord, show up and save me. Like my poor wife, we have this huge house and all this stuff and moving trucks are here and no one's helping. There's no one here to help. And she's doing this like all by herself. And right about the time I said that prayer, all these people showed up. It's like all these cars just started rolling down the cul-de-sac and started helping, you know, packing things, moving things. Is it old friends? No, it was all those dang people from the church that I had been so like not kind to. The people that I had not been very nice to the whole time, they just parachuted onto my lawn, moved everything, took my kids to school, brought us meals, did, I mean, did everything. Like it was crazy. It was crazy. It was like, it was very overwhelming. You know, even now it makes me teary. I think about it. They just, God showed up big time. It was like, whoa. So then I was like, oh man, whoa, you're real and I'm in big trouble because I'm kind of a jerk. You know what I mean? Like I had changed my life. You know what I mean? I'm so selfish and, oh, and I'm focused on all the wrong things, you know. So it was just, you know, that was the moment I think really where it was like, I was like, oh gosh, I got to, I have to change my life. You know, I have to, you know, I'm in big trouble. You know, I got to, I got to, I got to change my life. And that, that was the, and there was baby steps after that, you know, training wheels, you know, and then the homeless thing was, you know, seeing those people differently. That's when that all started to happen. It was just, it was, the scales were removed from my eyes. I was just, I could see suddenly. Anybody can be there. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And that was, and that was a big part of it too. It's like, you, you know, he's, he's been forgiven much, loves much, you know, and I've, and I needed to be forgiven for a lot of stuff, you know what I mean? And I was, and I, it was just grace that I was given. This incredible grace, miraculous grace that was just poured over me. And so much so that it was overflowing that I needed to give it out or I was going to explode. You know what I mean? Like I had been just, I had just been given such a, such a gigantic gift or gifts, you know, so many. And I could suddenly see things clearly. And it was like, oh gosh, I got to go out and I got to go, I got to go help. I got to go help my brothers and sisters as best I can with whatever I can do. I got to start somewhere. I can't just use the excuse of, oh, it's such a big, that's such a big problem. Someone ought to do something about that. You know what I mean? I was like, now it was like, oh, well I'm someone. I got to do something. I should do something about that. You know what I mean? Like no one's doing anything. I better do something, you know? And it was like, so it was just making that decision to act, you know, to not be afraid, to step into the gap, to go, all right, I don't, I might not be qualified. I might not have all the resources in the world, but I, it's like the journey of a thousand steps. It begins with one, right? I have to just take one step. Like, so maybe I can't save everyone, but maybe I can save this guy, you know? And that was how it started. That was really how it started, was just going out, making mistakes, you know, and, you know, stumbling, you know, stumbling forward, though, and not coming off the path, you know, consistently going forward. So what was it like? You said you figured out that people sometimes wanted to take advantage of you. Oh, sure, yeah. What was it, what was the point where you figured out that, how to mitigate that? Or was there a point where you realized this is not working? People are just, you're just giving things to people. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was another, that was a huge epiphany later, too. Like after probably, you know, within months, initially you get this, this high because you're, you're, you're, you're feeling very good about yourself. You're like, oh, I'm, you know, like I'm, I'm a great guy. I'm doing great stuff. You know, I'm giving these people stuff, you know, and it's, and they're very appreciative of that. And it's making me feel good. You know what I mean? But then over time, you start to, well, I started to realize I was like, well, I'm not changing anyone's life. These people are exactly where they were at three months ago, six months ago from when I found them. They're, they're doing the exact same thing. I'm helping them to live a little bit more comfortably in their squalor. So is that really loving them? Is that what I would do if it was my brother on the street? It's not. It's not what I would do. I would do more, you know, I would do a lot more. And so that was a big epiphany to realize like, well, is this about me or is this about them? You know, like, am I just want to feel like I'm a good person? Don't want to post it on social media and people think I'm, you know, I like those accolades. Oh, it makes me feel good. Oh, you know, hey, look at me. I'm with a homeless guy. Hey, you know what I mean? Like, that's horrible. You know, when you come to the realization that you're just enabling people, you're not really helping them. If you really wanted to help them, you would have hard conversations with them. You know, you would be more challenging. You know, you would challenge them to, you know, and we do it through relationship, but you would challenge them to change their lives, right? To make different decisions, you know, and you would show them that it could be done. You know, that they, you would be their, the cheerleader that they needed. You know, some people just need somebody to believe in them. You know, someone who just, nobody, a lot of these folks, they don't have, they don't have anyone like that. So when you show up and you are that for them and you are, you're like, you're advocating for them. You are truly their friend and you are, you truly want the best for them and they know it. They, they start, they start to believe it. You know, they start to see maybe what you see, you know, like you see the potential, what they could be, where they could, where they could be, what they could be doing. And they, they don't believe it at first, but over time, I think they start to, they start to see it. I think that's a big part of it. They start to see who they could be and they start to believe it, you know, and then, and then from that belief, great things happen. You know, I think, you know, but it does take, it does take a lot of time, you know, it does take a lot of time to build those relationships and, you know, have that ongoing community of support, you know, it's so important, you know, and it takes a village too. And I've got a major volunteer. The first one that, first person that you were able to kind of get to and help them, like, was there one that comes in mind? Oh, there's a, there's a ton. I'm so blessed. I'm so lucky. I get, I get to be, I've gotten to be the hero in someone else's story a bunch of times. So many times that I've, I forget, I forget, I get, you know, sometimes I get people will reach out and, and people I haven't seen in years and will tell me what I did mattered, you know, and it made a difference in their life, like a significant difference, like it changed the course of their lives. And, and I'm shocked at how many times I, I can hardly remember the person anymore because I, I, I sometimes get in this rut. I know it's not a good thing, but I just, I'm thinking about the next person and the next person and the next person. And I don't want to rest on any accomplishment maybe that I've had, or that we've had, you know, any successes that we've had. I don't want to rest on them. You know what I mean? And I just, I want to get as many, I want to save as many folks as I can, you know, I want to rescue as many people as we can and transform as many lives as we can. So I, I sometimes don't, I sometimes don't take a breath and recognize and be thankful for the people that we've helped, you know? So, but if there was one guy, like, uh, there's a, there's a, there's a gentleman that I just love. His name's Ed. Ed, if you're watching, Ed texts me every day. He texts me every single day, even, even today, every day, every day since I've known him, this is, I've known him probably 10 years, 12 years. He's so encouraging, so encouraging. He sends me messages of encouragement every single day. He is such a wonderful man. And he's a guy I met in La Palma Park in Anaheim, you know, living on the streets. You know, he initially was very closed off, you know, cause the streets are a dangerous place, you know, and, and I know he had just had a brutal time of it, you know, and, and, uh, had nothing, the clothes on his back, basically. He started coming to one of our Wednesday night gatherings, just blossomed, just, you know, just came out of his shell over time, you know, with a building relationship with, uh, with me, with, uh, other folks, other volunteers of ours and started with a job. He started working security. He got a job, he got his guard card and he started working security for the shopping center that was like right across the street from the, from the, uh, from the park, I believe, which is kind of funny. Cause then he would just go back to the park at night, you know, but he's still living in the park. Yeah. And then he got a car and, uh, then he, uh, we helped him start his own, uh, little business. He, uh, he started washing cars. He had this, he has this, he had this great name for it to one way wash, you know, pointed up one way. There's only one way. And, um, and, uh, started doing mobile detailing out of his car, you know, started building himself up. Then he got, then he, you know, got into a place and, you know, the rest is, he was living in the car. Yeah. He was living in the car. Yeah. Uh, first the parked in the car, then he got his place. Um, then he can, he consistently worked, uh, security and had his, uh, his business as well that he would, that was building and he just did great. He's doing great. He's doing great now, you know, and he's like, even now me talking about it, I don't think I've given myself enough time to really be thankful and celebrate that man's life, you know, and that, that, that, that, uh, miraculous transformation, you know what I mean? What he's accomplished is incredible. Like, cause I don't think of it in terms of like what we did. I think of it in terms of what he did and what, like what perseverance to pull yourself up like that. You know what I mean? I mean, I'm glad we had a hand in it, you know, and we got to be, uh, we gotta be, we got to be good instruments for God's glory. You know what I mean? Like he played us well and we did our job, you know what I mean? Which was to, which was to engage, which was to, which was to love and encourage and, um, and fill in gaps where we could, you know, when things got tough, you know, a bill needed to be paid or a car broke down or this kind of thing, you know, to have something to fall back on, you know what I mean? A lot of folks just don't have what we would call like a, a good family foundation to where like, if something happened to you and you lost your job and you needed a place to stay for a little bit till you got on your feet, you have that, you know, I have that and that family, a lot of folks don't have that. And that's a lot of times the difference, you know, you, you were, you were doing fine. Um, then you lost your job. Then maybe you got depressed. So it took you longer to find another job. Um, in the meantime, you lost your apartment. Then you stayed at some, a friend's house. Cause he didn't have family to fall back on. The friend got sick of you staying there, you know, wanted you out. Then you find yourself a couple of nights sleeping in your car. Then your car got ticketed. Then your car got taken. Now you're in the park. You know, that's how fast it happened for some people, you know, that, that, that I know that I've heard that story lots of times was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm living in the park. And how did this happen? You know, that's, that's crazy. And that, and then, and then also to hear the, the, the terrible stories of folks who never had any addiction issues until they got in the park, then you're really depressed. Then you're really sad. And then what do you turn? You know what I mean? And you got nobody to fall back on. You got no friends, you got no family. And you're in this, you're in this, this dark place, you know, and you're, and you're sad, you know, and where do you go? Where do you go to, to find any relief? You know, a lot of times it's bottom of bottle, you know, it's in, it's in the drugs, it's in whatever, you know, it gives you some sense of, you know, some, some bit of relief, you know, a bit of comfort, you know, when you're suffering at that level, you know, I understand why people turn to that sometimes, you know, and that, and we see that over and over again too, you know, maybe you had a little problem with addiction and it became a really big problem once you got down there at the bottom, you know, and that's, that's tough too. But anyway, yeah. So I would say, Ed, you know, I just love that man so much. Um, but I mean, I could, I could, I could give you so many examples, you know, that, that, you know, the ones for me that are the most impactful for me is when, uh, you know, we, we, we work a lot with, um, single moms, uh, with kids, you know, living in and out of hotels and stuff, you know, they, they can afford the hotel for a little bit and then they can't anymore. So then they have to, they all have to sleep in the car for a few nights and then they can go back to the hotel, you know, and that's their life. You know, you're going around trying to find the, find the cheapest hotel in town, you know, motel in town, um, and getting the kids to school and working hard and doing all these things and trying to get ahead when you're on that teeter totter, you're on that tight rope, you know, and something goes wrong, the car breaks down or, you know, you, you can't get to work. So you're not going to get paid. So you're not have less money than you had even before. And then, then what happens, you know, catastrophic at that point, you know, so I have, so when I think of the families that we've engaged with and, and have been able to play a part in their redemption story, you know, like their recovery story and being able to get them into a place, a better job, you know, whatever it was, you know, there's different, different, different things that we've been able to help them with, but also to be that safety net just in case, you know, during that period when you're transitioning from here to here, you know, it's a very, it's a very sensitive spot right there in the middle, you know, where something, one thing could just train wreck everything, you know, like I said, like a car repair, uh, you know, unforeseen bill, something happens, you know, or you lose a job, whatever it, then you're just, you're totally train wrecked. But to see, to look back and talk to the people that we've helped that had children. And then to realize that that was, that those children's lives have been changed to such a dramatic extent. You know, like I wasn't even thinking that at the time, you know, I was just thinking, I got to get these people, you know, out of this car and into this place and, um, and make it so that that that's all sustainable. But now you look back and you're like, wow, that was just a pebble in a pond. That's that ripple effect that's going to have on that family, those children, you know, it's, you really did change the trajectory of someone's life and that's incredible. You know, when you think about that, you know, uh, more than just individual, but when you, when you're talking about families, that's really, it's really moving. You know, I think maybe I don't let myself think about it because it's, it's over too overwhelming. You know, it'd be too emotional. I gotta, I gotta kind of keep those that at bay so I can keep working, you know, on the next one. So. We are honored to be sponsored by Shen Yun. I've been attending Shen Yun performances every year as they change the choreography and music. Shen Yun takes you back in time to the magical world of ancient China with unique blend of brilliant dancing, beautiful costumes and legends coming to life. Overall, it's a very meaningful performance with a lot more than just entertainment to offer. Make sure to go see it this year. Go to Shenyun.com and book your tickets today. I highly recommend it. People nowadays go to the doctors, the psychiatrist, for pills, for antidepressants. This, this is the antidepressant. The best. I knew it was going to be good. It's a billion times better than I even thought it would be. I've heard people say, you don't want to miss this. And I would fully agree. I'm going to tell everyone to come see it. You have to. Definitely going to come back next year. Totally inspirational. You have to go see this. It's a once-in-a-lifetime must-see that will change their lives forever. You said that people really need something, really. What's big to them, when you mentioned, is believing in them. Yes. People need people to believe in them. For the public, for us, people that may not be able to do what you're doing. Yeah, yeah. What do you recommend to the general public? What can we do when we are doing our day-to-day life and we see the crisis that we have here? Absolutely. I think there are a lot of great organizations out there that you can plug in with us. I think ours is unique. I don't know how many organizations are like ours, whereas we have no full-time staff. All the resources that we get, we are devoting to the people in need. The mentality is different. It's not a job. It's definitely a cause. If you can find an organization like Charity on Wheels or another organization similar in that way, I feel like we have so many opportunities for people to, for instance, adopt a family. We have Christmas coming up. We have Thanksgiving coming up. We have so many families in need. We've had schools, for instance, we've had classrooms adopt a family where the whole classroom just starts to support this family in ways, just little ways, but ways that mean a huge difference. I mean a huge difference. So I think that's beautiful. Can you explain the little ways that make a huge difference? You have the single mom who, she's working her butt off, man. She's working two jobs. She's collecting cans. She's recycling. She's doing everything she can to keep a roof over the kid's head, right? And that kid needs shoes. And she doesn't have the money to get those shoes. You know what I mean? That's a little thing, but it's a big, it's a big, big thing. You know, that's a, psychologically, that's a big thing. For her to be able to come home with a pair of shoes for that son, that daughter, you know what I mean? That's a big thing, you know, for her to be able to do that and have that, gosh, just the dignity, that feeling that you get when you can care for your children well, you know what I mean? To have that, that's a huge gap in itself. Or her car breaks down, she needs that help. To have a safety net there, it's everything. Christmas comes, she has no money for Christmas presents. So those kids aren't going to have Christmas. You know what I mean? They're just not going to have it. You know, they may be missed the last two. So to have, to be able to suddenly give them a Christmas or give them a Thanksgiving, you know, we do our Thanksgiving outreach. We're nonstop with big Thanksgiving turkey meals, you know, that we're delivering nonstop. You know, those, I don't sometimes give that enough, I don't sometimes give that enough credence, credit, how impactful that is. We do a movie night at our facility for the homeless where people come in and they watch a movie. I thought it was a dumb idea. I was like, well, what are we doing? Why are we showing the movies? You know, like this isn't like, we're not connecting them to resources. It's not really engagement. You know, like we're not having these deep conversations and developing these deep relationships. You're watching a movie, eating popcorn and candy. That movie night's been such a success. You know, our manager, Big John, we call him, is a guy who was formerly homeless, you've met him, formerly homeless who now runs our facility. You know, he's amazing. That's a success story. That's who you should be talking to right now. So he does this movie night with the folks and they just love it. And I think at the heart of it, it makes them feel like human beings again. You know, it makes them feel normal. You know, they haven't seen a movie in years. They haven't gone to a movie. They get to come and have popcorn and candy and watch this movie. And it's something that makes you feel human again. You know, it's like really, I sometimes forget. Just that, that kindness right there of having those movie nights is like such a big deal. Good job, John. It definitely is. Well, do you have any other thoughts for our audience? If there was something I could leave everybody with, it's just that, as I said in the beginning, once you start seeing people as reflections of yourself even, you know, you start looking at people as your brother, as your sister, as your father, as your mother, it does change the way you treat other people. You know, it does. I'm a guy who can attest to that. I'm a guy who was so far away from that. And now I see those faces now. And again, I see the face of God. And I act differently, you know, act accordingly, as you would if you saw what I see, you know, in those faces. That would be my encouragement to people is that, you know, next time you're out there, you know, it doesn't cost anything to be kind, you know, and just a smile, you know, an encouraging word to someone who really is desperately in need of hope. That's sometimes just the biggest difference maker, you know, taking the time to introduce yourself to someone. It's huge. People are so used to being stepped over for you to stop and tell them your name and ask them what their name is and how their day is going. That's huge. That's a big, big, big thing. That's a big thing. That would be my encouragement. Zach, we hope that a lot of our audience will come and help you. I pray they will too. That would be great. And thank you for everything you've done, by the way. Thank you. Zach Southall with Charity on Wheels. It was great to have you on California Center. Thank you so much.