Urban Report

Salt Ministries

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: UBR

Program Code: UBR190008A


00:01 Stay tuned to meet two guys that are making
00:03 a huge difference in their community.
00:06 My name is Jason Bradley,
00:07 and you're watching Urban Report.
00:31 Hello, and welcome to Urban Report.
00:33 My guests today are Eric Camarillo,
00:35 president of Salt Outreach, and Lo-Ammi Richardson,
00:38 evangelist and harvest director for Salt Outreach.
00:42 Welcome back to the program.
00:44 You guys have been here on Urban Report before.
00:47 It's been a little while.
00:49 I think it's been about two years.
00:52 Yeah, it's been a minute.
00:53 We also had what we did?
00:55 We did a ministry update at ASI.
01:00 And, you know, the interesting thing
01:02 is to see the development of the ministry overtime,
01:07 you know, you've come on the program,
01:09 you've talked about things that you needed,
01:11 and God's just been fulfilling those things.
01:14 Yeah.
01:16 But since it has been a while,
01:18 I want to reintroduce you to our viewers.
01:22 Eric, tell me a little bit about your background?
01:24 My background, okay.
01:26 Well, I, as you mentioned, president of Salt,
01:29 I just got my masters in non-profit management.
01:32 Okay.
01:33 And certification
01:34 as a certified non-profit professional.
01:38 I grew up in Chicago, you know,
01:41 so I kind of in that city element,
01:44 you know, moved to Orlando and Salt started
01:47 about a year after I became a Christian.
01:50 It was probably, it was 2011, September.
01:53 Nice. And what is Salt stand for?
01:54 So Salt, an acronym for Service and Love Together.
01:58 So the whole concept was,
02:01 you know, there's so many churches in Orlando,
02:04 we wanted to create a vehicle for the churches,
02:07 especially the young people to get together
02:10 to make an impact in the community,
02:12 kind of combine all of that together.
02:14 You know, a lot of young people are leaving the church.
02:16 But we wanted to create a community you know,
02:18 there might be two young adults at this church,
02:20 three at this church, five at this church,
02:22 but when you have a vehicle to give,
02:23 bring them all together.
02:25 Now it becomes a community
02:26 that fosters growth for young adults.
02:29 So that's kind of, you know, why it started so.
02:32 Got you.
02:33 And, Lo-Ammi, tell us a little bit
02:35 about your background,
02:36 and what a harvest director is?
02:41 Predominantly evangelist and harvest director
02:42 for the ministry, Service And Love Together for Salt
02:45 and my upbringing, I kind of grew up
02:47 in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
02:49 or, you know, family, both mom and dad
02:51 were both Adventist.
02:52 So I understood what it meant to be an Adventist
02:54 and go to church
02:55 and participate in all the church programs
02:57 and eventually I left the church
02:59 and, you know, pursued the things of the world,
03:01 and maybe about, so it's about nine years ago
03:03 that God called me back into the fold
03:05 and been in full time ministry ever since.
03:07 And about three years ago,
03:08 I moved back to Orlando and Eric and I met
03:11 and he kind of shared the vision of Salt
03:13 and to component my strengths of evangelism
03:16 and his idea of wanting to do street ministry
03:18 kind of blended together.
03:19 And so I've been with Salt for the last three years now
03:21 kind of being there,
03:23 you know, promoter, evangelist, and speaking for them
03:26 on behalf of their, of the ministry
03:28 and the harvest director, simply,
03:31 we plant the seeds throughout the year,
03:32 and then my job is to kind of harvest them into the church,
03:35 harvest them into the fold of God.
03:37 And so that's kind of a summary of what I'm,
03:40 my current responsibilities in my background.
03:41 Nice.
03:43 Now there's a cycle, if you will, what is this?
03:46 What is this cycle?
03:47 Are there four steps in the cycle?
03:49 Are there five steps?
03:50 I know, it ends in evangelism, but what is the cycle?
03:54 Yeah, so there's different components
03:56 in which we plant seeds,
03:58 you know, we have the outreaches
03:59 which are kind of the more obvious ways
04:01 that we plant seeds, you know,
04:03 creating those relationships with them,
04:06 then we have our growth groups or small groups,
04:08 to kind of bring young adults and even people that we meet,
04:11 just, you know, even co-workers,
04:13 whoever, you know, classmates, to small groups
04:16 to kind of study the Bible together.
04:19 And then after that, we also have our events,
04:23 where we kind of invite people to come,
04:26 some of those are harvest events.
04:28 You know, we'll talk a little bit about that later.
04:31 And, you know, those are kind of the key ways
04:34 that we really engage people and plant seeds.
04:37 And it all ends with our evangelism
04:39 because at the end of the day, you know,
04:41 we want to win souls for Christ,
04:42 you know, there's different avenues
04:44 in which we want to get there.
04:47 You know, but that's the bottom line, so.
04:51 Nice.
04:52 So like, ever since I met you guys,
04:55 I think it was actually at an ASI where I met you,
04:58 either ASI or GYC or something like that.
05:00 I was just blown away by what I saw,
05:03 like the cycle and how it ended in evangelism,
05:06 and how it's really practical Christianity
05:09 and Christ method that you guys are implementing.
05:15 And it was just amazing to see that
05:17 and then to see young people
05:20 so heavily involved in that.
05:23 What are some of the challenges that you guys have faced?
05:28 So challenges in just, in running the organization?
05:31 Just in running the organization.
05:32 So, you know, we primarily, you know,
05:35 when we're dealing with people on the street,
05:36 I mean, there's always a challenge, you know,
05:38 I mean, we're dealing with, you know, homeless individuals,
05:41 for example, they come from all different backgrounds,
05:43 I mean like all different experiences.
05:46 So it's always a challenge to kind of adapt
05:48 to each personality, each person,
05:52 you know, to show them that we care,
05:54 you know, what Paul says, you know, I became,
05:56 you know, all things to all people,
05:57 if it would further the gospel, right?
05:59 So that's kind of one aspect of it.
06:02 I think another challenge, as well is, is young adults,
06:07 you know, comprise our leadership,
06:08 I think our average age is 26,
06:11 or some around that range right there, 26-27.
06:14 And so, you know, young adults, they get married,
06:17 you know, or they go off to school,
06:20 or, you know, they move off somewhere
06:22 or something like that and when that happens,
06:25 now, we have a hole that we have to fill.
06:27 So we're constantly recruiting young adults
06:29 to take on leadership positions.
06:31 So that's another challenge
06:32 to any of that you may be challenged.
06:33 Yeah, it does kind of, you know, life happens,
06:35 and people, you know,
06:37 kind of had to transition out of that,
06:38 you know, out of that specific responsibility that they had.
06:44 And so for us to try to plug
06:45 that in is always been one of the hardest volunteers,
06:48 to try to get volunteers to come out and,
06:50 you know, take ownership
06:52 with some of the responsibilities
06:54 that we have at hand, so.
06:56 Yeah.
06:57 So what's new with Salt?
07:00 Well, there's a lot new.
07:03 Well, last time we were here on this show,
07:06 we were talking about the idea of a shower trailer
07:10 for the homeless.
07:11 We realized that was the next step
07:13 in meeting the needs for the homeless.
07:15 You were at ASI, and some of the viewers
07:19 probably saw as well, the shower trailer,
07:21 we were able to display there,
07:22 we had just gotten it a few days before.
07:25 There's videos we have on social media bus like,
07:28 trying to push that thing in there,
07:30 into the convention center and all that 'cause there was,
07:32 you know, it's difficult, but yeah, we since August,
07:37 we've been operating it, alongside we have our showers.
07:42 So just to give you kind of an idea
07:44 of how the homeless outreach works right now
07:46 is we have the homeless come,
07:50 they go to our clothing trailer,
07:53 which we have a picture of our clothing trailer.
07:56 And once they go to the clothing trailer,
07:58 they get their clothes, they get the towel,
08:00 their hygiene product.
08:02 Then after that, they go over to get a haircut.
08:08 So we also have a picture of you know,
08:10 some of our homeless friends getting haircuts as well.
08:13 And then after that's a change trailer there
08:15 in the background.
08:16 After the shot...
08:17 after that, the haircut,
08:19 they go and they take a shower.
08:21 We have a picture of some of the home,
08:22 our homeless friends lined up sitting down,
08:25 about to go into the shower trailer there.
08:28 And it's, you know,
08:30 the shower trailer has four showers,
08:31 so we're able to really get in a lot of showers there.
08:35 You know, and as a result,
08:37 we've been getting a lot of notice
08:38 from the community, you know, before then,
08:40 you know, we were kind of known more
08:42 in the kind of the Adventist circles and churches.
08:46 But now we have, I kind of have a picture
08:49 to some news stories on Channel 9
08:53 in August of 2018 covered a story on us.
08:57 That's the Orlando Sentinel,
08:58 local newspaper did a story on us as well.
09:01 Channel 13 did a story on us.
09:04 We had the University of Central Florida
09:06 do an article and a story on us they got out there.
09:09 And we're getting more and more volunteers
09:11 that come from that aren't just Adventist volunteers.
09:14 Yes.
09:16 We're getting more and more people
09:17 that maybe even don't even
09:19 have like a religious background,
09:21 but they're wanting to volunteer,
09:23 which is another avenue,
09:24 you know, that we can kind of reach people as well.
09:27 One of the cool things is that
09:28 when they actually connect with young adults,
09:30 having the same purpose and mission,
09:32 and they realize that we're Christian,
09:33 they're like, oh, man, you guys are so chilled
09:35 and easy to talk to.
09:36 And it kind of gives them a fresh perspective
09:38 of what they think Christianity is
09:40 that we're actually wanting to make an impact
09:41 and trying to change lives
09:43 and not necessarily push religion down people's throat,
09:45 like we want to serve the needs of the community.
09:47 And as we do that, they can see,
09:49 man, you guys really care.
09:50 So whatever we share outside of that,
09:52 they're more inclined to listen.
09:53 And so that's been one
09:54 of the huge blessings of actually,
09:56 you know, having volunteers
09:57 from outside of our denomination
09:59 and our faith, to actually see
10:00 that we're wanting to put our faith into action.
10:03 So that's been an actually big blessing.
10:04 Yeah.
10:05 I mean, one thing I just want to mention too is,
10:08 you know,
10:09 the Adventist Church is so populated in that area,
10:12 there's so many people in that area.
10:14 And so, for Adventist to be in the news,
10:17 you know what I'm saying?
10:18 That's, I mean, you know, you don't see that every day.
10:22 You know, may be Florida Hospital,
10:24 you know, maybe there are, you know, advent out now.
10:27 But when you have Seventh-day Adventists
10:30 on all these news stations and all that,
10:31 it really puts us on the map.
10:35 You know what I'm saying? Absolutely.
10:37 So yeah, that's, that's an exciting part too.
10:39 Yeah, that's huge.
10:40 And I can only imagine that, you know,
10:42 how many lives are being transformed,
10:45 not even just, you know,
10:47 the homeless individuals that you guys are helping,
10:50 but the people that are helping them
10:53 that don't go to the church, because like you said,
10:55 they're, you know, they're volunteering,
10:57 and they see that you guys genuinely
11:00 care about other people
11:02 and you're doing something, you see a need,
11:04 and you're doing something about it.
11:06 You're not just saying, okay, I'll pray for you.
11:08 Yeah.
11:09 You know, which prayer is excellent.
11:12 Don't get me wrong. Prayer is powerful.
11:13 We're connecting to God,
11:16 you know, we're communing with God.
11:18 But prayer without works, it's like faith without works.
11:21 Right.
11:23 It's there, you know, it's like, you have a coat
11:25 and somebody's cold, you have an extra coat
11:27 and you're just like,
11:28 I'll pray for you that you warm up.
11:31 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:32 You know, and you're able to provide these things.
11:36 And so that is absolutely amazing.
11:40 To me, the shower trailer,
11:42 the change trailer, the haircuts,
11:45 you also help with people preparing resumes, correct?
11:48 Yeah.
11:49 So, you know,
11:50 there's one individual in particular right now
11:53 that we're working with that,
11:56 yeah, I mean, if they need help with resumes,
11:58 we're there to help, you know, we, right now
12:01 we're operating,
12:03 we don't have the funds to operate regularly
12:05 throughout the week.
12:07 That would be our goal.
12:08 If we can operate regularly throughout the week,
12:10 we can really implement a strong program.
12:13 But as we're working on building capacity for that,
12:16 we're providing needs to our friends to the community
12:20 and then once when we're providing those needs,
12:22 we find people that have that need help further
12:25 than what we're offering.
12:27 And then that's when, you know, leadership, maybe volunteers,
12:30 we go and we kind of go that extra mile with them.
12:33 You know, one guy in particular just got a job
12:35 six months ago, saved up $3,000.
12:37 Now we're helping them find a place to move into,
12:40 you know, so there's cases like that little,
12:43 you know, that that we're working with.
12:44 One of the things we actually did was partner up
12:46 with another organization, a lot of our homeless friends,
12:48 they didn't have IDs, identifications.
12:50 Yeah. So we help them to get IDs.
12:52 And so, yeah, everything is usually on a case
12:54 to case basis, we offer a general help, like,
12:57 if you want to closet showers,
12:58 we're able to provide that, but anything outside of that,
13:01 you know, if they need extra,
13:02 then we're willing to try to put them
13:04 with the right people
13:05 who have those strengths that we can help them,
13:07 you know, provide that supply that need
13:09 that they're desiring to have.
13:10 Right and, you know, ultimately, the whole program
13:13 what is gonna be designed to do is to help a homeless
13:16 individual that wants to work.
13:18 Yes. Obtain employment.
13:20 You know, and so things like the IDs, the showers,
13:23 I mean, there was a homeless friend of ours
13:24 before the shower trailer.
13:26 I don't know if I mentioned in last show or not,
13:27 but he had been looking for a job.
13:30 But he hadn't showered in three months.
13:32 You know, I'd see him, he'd be like, "Eric,
13:33 I got another job, job interview."
13:35 I'm like, "Okay, great," you know,
13:37 but I know he wasn't able to shower.
13:41 How is he going to get that job?
13:44 You know, so, you know, ultimately, that's,
13:47 that's what we're driving to
13:49 'cause there's a lot of programs
13:50 in Orlando right now.
13:51 They're helping the chronic homeless,
13:53 they target the worst homeless of the homeless population.
13:56 But there are those that don't have to enter
13:58 chronic homelessness,
13:59 though they're right in the verge
14:01 of entering homelessness,
14:02 that we can help kind of get out.
14:04 And that's the target that we're really shooting for.
14:06 Got you. Got you.
14:09 That's a crucial component too because a lot of times people
14:13 just simply lack resources, they don't know where to go.
14:17 So even by you guys facilitating that connection.
14:21 That's powerful, too.
14:22 I'd like to shift gears and transition a little bit
14:26 into the evangelism aspect of it.
14:28 You know, what does that look?
14:31 How do you prepare your sermons?
14:33 Yeah, so one of my major responsibilities, as you know,
14:37 my home base is in Orlando, Florida,
14:38 but I get a lot of speaking appointments to travel,
14:40 you know, across the country and around the world.
14:42 And so, I want to share this vision
14:44 to as many churches as possible,
14:45 because I've seen that this vision works,
14:47 it's actually jumpstarted
14:49 a lot of our volunteers and our leaders
14:51 who didn't have a relationship with God.
14:52 It jumpstarted for them to have a deeper relationship with God.
14:55 And so, you know, we're talking about
14:57 to why are the youth leaving, they're leaving it
14:59 because they don't have a sense of purpose.
15:01 They don't have a vision or mission to be a part of.
15:03 And so, when they see that there's young people
15:05 in our community that says, "Okay, let's stop complaining,
15:07 let's actually do something."
15:10 They get inspired, they want to actually do something.
15:11 And so for me, a lot of the main responsibilities
15:15 is to try to coordinate harvest events, week of prayers,
15:17 evangelistic series, that all of the connections,
15:20 we just purchased a 15 passenger van.
15:22 So the idea is that,
15:23 you know, we can transport them to these churches,
15:26 where we're having these meetings,
15:27 where they see, you know,
15:29 just the last event that we had,
15:32 you know, they realized I was a preacher,
15:34 they're like, man, I'd like to hear
15:35 you preach the Word.
15:37 And so, you know, those kind of type of connections
15:38 where now they're seeing me serving them,
15:40 or they're seeing
15:42 our volunteers serving and helping,
15:44 that they're willing to allow, listen to a Word because,
15:47 you know, the words are going to have
15:48 far more impact than what we're doing.
15:50 And so, earlier this year
15:51 we actually did a week of prayer,
15:53 entitled, "The Struggle is Real."
15:54 We kind of just walked on practical godliness.
15:56 My intention wasn't to dress up in a suit and tie.
15:59 I was gonna wear a hat and just, you know,
16:01 and let people feel comfortable coming in,
16:03 but they were hearing the message.
16:04 We had a couple of people of interest
16:06 who want to continue on Bible studies,
16:08 there's a picture there, "Not Today Satan."
16:10 So actually, it was an interesting story,
16:12 one of the friends of mine who I connected with,
16:14 he hasn't been in church in years.
16:15 And he said, "Man, what do I need to wear."
16:17 I was like, "Bro, I'm wearing a fitted hat."
16:19 He was like, "Bad, I'm coming in my jeans."
16:20 So he, he showed up, he sat in the back,
16:23 he said, there's a message I needed to hear.
16:24 And we've been, you know, connecting ever since
16:26 and doing Bible studies on the side and so...
16:30 I like that shirt too by the way.
16:32 It's just a theme of life, you know.
16:34 But those type of events that we're coordinating,
16:36 we had one with college pack live in February,
16:38 another harvest event
16:39 that we wanna be able to bring in guest speakers.
16:42 And a lot of people are volunteers
16:43 and people that we ministered, had an opportunity now
16:46 to come and plug into the local churches.
16:48 That's the vision of Salt that we want to create.
16:50 Every month, we're doing some sort of harvest event,
16:53 at least on a Friday night or week of prayer
16:55 or an evangelistic series that everyone
16:57 that we're helping serve,
16:59 they can plug into the local churches,
17:01 and then make that connection
17:02 that if they want to have Bible studies,
17:04 and they want to get baptized,
17:05 they have a church that they're plugged into.
17:07 And so, that's what's very unique
17:09 about our organization,
17:10 we're all different volunteers from different churches.
17:12 So, you know, he goes to the one church,
17:14 I go to another and so,
17:15 I'm very strategic to try to plan,
17:18 you know, events at the churches
17:20 that we attend, and plug in the people
17:22 that we ministered to,
17:23 and hopefully allow the church to grow
17:27 based on the efforts that we're putting in.
17:28 So that's kind of in summary what we're doing,
17:30 all of the service that we're doing
17:32 within the community of Orlando.
17:34 We're trying to connect them with the local churches
17:36 and show them that,
17:38 you know, at the end of the day,
17:39 we're practicing a message that we're, you know,
17:41 not just preaching the message,
17:43 we're actually practicing the message
17:45 that we're preaching, so.
17:46 That is awesome.
17:47 How do you prepare your sermons for that?
17:49 Man, you know, it all depends, I've realized that
17:51 all of the issues that we deal with the issues of the heart,
17:53 and once you can connect with people,
17:56 you know, dealing with people
17:57 with anxiety and depression and,
17:59 and just hope, you know, all of my sermons
18:01 are kind of geared towards that.
18:02 So I realized that I've kind of,
18:05 haven't really got outside of the message
18:07 of dealing with the issues of the heart
18:08 and how we can have victory over our sins
18:10 and how we can have me complete in Jesus
18:12 and I spoke this in, you know, doesn't matter where,
18:16 what aspect of your Christian life is,
18:19 that message resonates with everyone whether,
18:21 you know, the labels that you use,
18:22 whether you're a liberal, or conservative,
18:25 or you're, you know, non-Christian.
18:27 Yep.
18:28 When you speak about the heart, and that you can see
18:29 that there's actually hope in Jesus,
18:31 and that there's, there's something better
18:33 than what I'm experiencing.
18:35 All of my sermons have kind of been geared towards that.
18:37 And then always, at the appeal,
18:39 or at least in one of my presentations,
18:40 I always kind of talk about
18:43 what we're doing is actually a part of the Great Commission.
18:47 It's not just about a relationship with Christ,
18:49 but what do you do with that connection
18:50 with Christ in that relationship
18:52 is to actually go and actually serve other people.
18:54 Yes.
18:55 So by the time that we, you know,
18:56 done with the week of prayer, or that,
18:58 that harvest event, they understand, man,
19:01 God spoke to me, but now He wants me
19:03 to go out and do something,
19:04 because as I'm serving somebody else,
19:06 is actually beneficial for my Christian experience,
19:08 it's not about what I received this,
19:10 what I, what I'm receiving,
19:11 and how I can give to the other people around me.
19:13 So that's kind of how I kind of geared
19:15 all of my sermons and been intentional in,
19:18 in delivering that message.
19:19 Amen.
19:20 Eric, what stories
19:23 or testimonies do you have of lives
19:25 that have been transformed as a result of Salt?
19:27 Yeah.
19:28 So, you know, one of the kind of one
19:31 that we're living right now, that is,
19:34 we have a homeless friend that we took in.
19:38 And, you know, he was, you know,
19:41 he's actually sleeping on our couch.
19:43 You know, in the apartment, me and him are roommates.
19:45 But he became homeless
19:47 because he was diagnosed with cancer.
19:50 Once he was diagnosed with cancer,
19:52 girlfriend left him.
19:53 He couldn't continue his job as an MMA fighter
19:56 because of, he physically just couldn't do it anymore.
19:59 So he started living in the car.
20:01 That's when one of our other roommates,
20:03 you know, had a discussion with him.
20:05 And we decided to take him in.
20:06 And since then, he's going to his treatments,
20:10 he obtained the job, and he's getting paid
20:13 some pretty good money.
20:14 And in IT, that was another background of his.
20:18 And so, soon he's going to be moving out.
20:20 I anticipate, we anticipate like another few weeks,
20:22 he'll be out of there.
20:23 But the craziest, I'm sorry to cut you off.
20:25 The crazy story about that is that he was a former atheist,
20:27 so he never believed in God or anything.
20:30 And so, now he's actually studying to be baptized
20:32 with one of the local pastors.
20:34 Yes.
20:35 And so, seeing it's a difference
20:37 from being outside and serving people.
20:38 But now he actually lives with us.
20:40 He sees how we talk, he see how we eat,
20:42 what we watch, what we do, our conversations.
20:44 Yeah. Right.
20:45 And it's how to start, you know, is it easy?
20:47 Absolutely not, you know,
20:49 'cause you're living with somebody
20:50 you don't really know.
20:52 So there's kind of rules and guidelines.
20:53 But overall, they see that there's a tensionality like,
20:55 listen, we want to help you.
20:57 Yes.
20:58 And sometimes it's tough love, sometimes is, you know,
20:59 grace extended however that relationship calls for,
21:02 but at the end of the day, he said, man,
21:04 I have a relationship with God like
21:06 he labels himself as a Christian now,
21:09 which is kind of crazy.
21:10 If you were to talk to him six months ago,
21:11 he would be like, yeah, I am a complete atheist.
21:14 Now it's like, oh, bro, I'm a Christian.
21:15 Yeah, yeah.
21:17 And so he's studying, he's taking his treatments,
21:18 he's studying to be baptized and so,
21:20 we don't know how severe this cancer is going, you know.
21:24 Yeah, we don't know.
21:26 It's brain cancer.
21:27 Yeah. So it could be.
21:30 We don't know what the outcome will be.
21:31 But he's, you know,
21:34 he's growing in his relationship...
21:35 And he has peace about
21:37 whether I die or not, I got God.
21:38 And that's like has been his emphasis.
21:40 That's what we've been trying to emphasize.
21:41 It has been up and downs with him.
21:43 But that's been the testimony.
21:44 So I tell people, it is not.
21:46 God doesn't call us to say,
21:47 go serve for the sake of serving.
21:49 He's actually teaching us stuff
21:51 about ourselves that we didn't know.
21:52 Because trust me, in this situation,
21:54 I learned so much about myself that I'm like,
21:56 man, Lord, I'm really selfish.
21:57 I'm really self-centered. Yeah.
21:59 Like I got to give when I don't want to give.
22:01 But then when you do and you obey
22:03 what God asks you to do, you see, man,
22:06 somebody is actually being impacted,
22:07 somebody is actually seeing the character of God
22:09 and His love for them.
22:11 And I removed myself, my inconvenience
22:15 out of the way for a moment
22:16 to see how the Lord blessed him.
22:18 And so that's been the testimony where...
22:19 Yeah. This is not ideal.
22:21 We don't have much space or money or anything.
22:23 But this was a situation that is to say,
22:25 hey, let's try to help our brother out,
22:27 he was homeless, living in the car,
22:28 and now went from atheist to now being a Christian,
22:31 from not having a job
22:33 to now getting paid very good money,
22:35 you know, now, you know, on the process of, you know,
22:37 getting back on his feet in the next week or so.
22:40 That is huge. Yeah It's crazy.
22:42 God really was orchestrating all that.
22:44 I remember it,
22:46 because he also struggles with depression,
22:47 obviously, with everything going on.
22:49 I mean, and I remember looking up some,
22:52 some counseling things.
22:54 I'm like, maybe we can find some free counseling for you
22:57 and I thought, I saw free counseling.
23:00 I'm like, "Hey, I think I found some, call him."
23:01 He said, "Okay, I'll call him."
23:03 He called and he started going.
23:05 The person actually charges, I think, it's 200 an hour
23:09 or something like that, something crazy like that.
23:12 And the thing is though, as he sat there with her,
23:15 supposed to be an hour session, three hours, and said,
23:19 "Don't worry about paying me.
23:21 I like you.
23:22 Keep coming. Just keep coming."
23:24 The next session next week, he tried to counsel with her.
23:27 He's feeling depressed. I can't do this anymore.
23:29 Sorry.
23:30 She called him over and over and over again
23:31 until he picked up.
23:33 She said, "I'm not giving up on you, come in."
23:34 He came in, three more hours.
23:36 Like, it's only God, you know, it's only God
23:40 that's really helping to meet all of his needs.
23:42 And there's a level of sacrifice involved.
23:44 You know, there always is.
23:46 And like he said, it's not easy.
23:47 But we're all called to this work.
23:50 We don't have the capacity as an organization
23:52 as a whole to start housing homeless individuals,
23:55 but once we do, we have this prototype we're building.
23:58 You know what I'm saying?
24:00 And that's exciting.
24:01 Yeah.
24:03 The beautiful thing about that story
24:05 and that testimony too
24:06 is the fact that it really shows
24:08 how bad God wants to reach
24:11 everyone that He can possibly reach.
24:13 I mean, the fact that he went to a counselor
24:16 that charges $200 an hour,
24:20 this counselor spent three hours with him
24:23 and said don't worry, don't worry about it.
24:25 And then wanted to see him again,
24:27 and wanted to see him again, like God is so merciful.
24:30 God is amazing. Yes.
24:32 And it's awesome to see that you guys took him
24:36 in to your home.
24:40 You know, it allowed him to live with you
24:42 and get back on his feet like that.
24:45 That's huge in and of itself too.
24:47 You know, you guys are so busy helping everybody else.
24:51 How can people help you?
24:53 How can people help the organization of Salt?
24:55 What do you need?
24:57 Yeah, so a major need right now is a truck,
25:01 we need an F250 or equivalent truck
25:04 to pull our shower trailer.
25:06 We've had to rent shower trailer,
25:08 I'm sorry, rent trucks.
25:10 And it's been costing us money.
25:12 You know, there's some volunteers
25:13 that can pull once in a while,
25:14 but it's not always guaranteed.
25:16 Sometimes they cancel. So a truck is a huge need.
25:19 Our next project is also...
25:21 Does it need be four wheel drive or...?
25:24 As long as it can tow up to 12,000 pounds minimum,
25:29 we're good.
25:30 And then also, we're working on a kind of like a storage,
25:35 a mobile storage.
25:36 So when a homeless individual has an interview,
25:40 or a job to go to,
25:41 they can store their belongings in a truck
25:43 that we put lockers in
25:45 and that they can go off and do that.
25:47 So that's, like, kind of like a moving truck.
25:48 Yeah.
25:50 So that's kind of, those are kind of
25:51 our two major needs right now.
25:53 The wild card is we, you know, a lot of us,
25:56 all of us is actually volunteering our time.
25:58 What ideally what would like to do is
26:01 hire on full time workers,
26:03 you know, at least one or two positions
26:05 that they can focus all of their energy on Salt,
26:07 because at least this past,
26:09 you know, year, Eric, full time job,
26:11 full time relationship,
26:12 master's degree, everything, and so and full time Salt.
26:16 So you know...
26:17 And he still manages
26:19 to look like he got a good rest or something.
26:23 I graduated on Friday, so I'm sleeping good, you know.
26:26 But essentially, we want to be able to play employers
26:29 to focus all of their energy on so and so that's,
26:32 you know, because once we exert all of our energy,
26:33 and then that we can,
26:35 everything will kind of wanting to be.
26:36 We need to build capacity, and the only way we can do that
26:39 is through funds, you know, and so.
26:42 Absolutely Yeah.
26:44 I want to put your contact information up.
26:46 And then, Eric, if you want to tell us.
26:49 Yeah.
26:50 Oh, that's a testimony itself.
26:52 I'm not going to go into that how we got that office.
26:54 But that office is 100 East Pine Street, Suite 110.
26:58 Orlando 32801,
27:01 and our number is 866-237-2589.
27:07 And that's 866 B Salty
27:11 and our website saltoutreach.org.
27:14 Nice.
27:15 And it's Orlando, Florida?
27:16 Orlando, Florida. Yes, yes.
27:18 There's lot of Orlandos, so it's in Florida.
27:20 Orlando, Florida. That's right.
27:21 And make sure that it arrived to you.
27:23 Yes.
27:25 I can't believe our time is almost up.
27:28 I mean, this interview went by so fast.
27:30 You guys can't stay away for too long again.
27:34 I mean, it seems like so much has been going on with Salt.
27:37 And God has just been using you guys to do amazing,
27:41 amazing things.
27:42 I'm inspired.
27:44 I hope our viewers at home are inspired.
27:46 I want to thank you for joining us today.
27:49 Thank you for having us. Thank you.
27:50 Always. Yeah, always love coming here.
27:52 Yes.
27:53 It's always great to have you and thank you for joining us.
27:56 Get involved in your community, make a difference,
27:59 exude practical Christianity and remember,
28:02 tune in next time
28:04 because it just wouldn't be the same without you.


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Revised 2019-07-22