An Army of Normal Folks - Orphans Building Beds For Kids Without Them

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

After Rev. John Anderson heard our episode on  Sleep in Heavenly Peace (who’s built 140k beds for kids without them), he decided to play it for his friend Andre Forges, who started crying. Andre, a former orphan who’s since created a Haitian orphanage called Place of Hope, decided at that moment that their orphans would build beds for Haitian kids without them! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Then I heard this one about making beds and I thought to myself, you know, I just wonder what Pastor Andre would think of this particular podcast. So I bookmarked it and then I called, let's as soon as I finish, I call them, I said, Andre, come on over here, I want to play this podcast for you. So we sat there and we listened to that podcast and at the end of that podcast, Andre got a little emotional. And I said, what's going on? And he said, John, that's my story.

That is my story. I didn't have a bend when I was growing up. Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've a husband, I'm a father, I'm an entrepreneur,

and I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis in the last part. It unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather an army of normal folks. Us, just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That's what Reverend John Anderson

and Andre Forges have done. After being an orphan himself in Haiti, Andre somehow built an incredible orphanage called Place of Hope in Haiti, that today is home to 45 children who otherwise wouldn't have a home. And after John played for Andre, our episode on Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which has built 140,000 beds for kids without them here.

Andre felt called for the kids at his orphanage to build beds for Haitian kids without them. Orphans are doing this. Orphans building beds for children with homes. I find it just so unbelievably awesome, and I can't wait for you to meet Andrei and John right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a

world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacs in five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like kids playing on the playground Just choose them up left right in center and then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde He doesn't even remember it getting the bars done excuse being a total But I want the reader to see it in action

My name is Evan Ratliffe and this is on musk with Walter Isaacson Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, Nothing Much Happens.

I'm an architect of Cozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches where kites fly and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world.

Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from a village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Professional dancer Cheryl Burke has been part of Dancing with the Stars since the very beginning. 26 seasons of the Samba, The Rumba and The Charter, 24 partners, 6 finals and 2 Mirabal trophies. She knows all the secrets, the behind the scenes arguments and the affairs, the flings, the flirting and the fighting. It's time to tell all on her new podcast, Sex, Lies and Spray Tans. We'll take you all the way back to Season 1 and up through today for the dance floor drama like you wouldn't believe. Former partners, co-stars, friends and frenemies will join Cheryl each week.

Listen to Sex, Lies and Spray Tans. On the IHR radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is a cool day. We started the morning getting covered by the local. What is that? Was the CBS or the CBS, CBS, CBS, the local CBS affiliate covered our story. And we got spent some time this morning at the news station. And now we're getting spent time this afternoon to tell the story of Andre the Giant, which is interesting because I remember Andre Giant being this crow magnon looking guy that was about six foot 11 four hundred pounds that wrestled on WWE. But Andre the Giant in this case is a five foot nine inch Haitian who's never wrestled a day in his life other than with just wrestling through life. And Andre, I can't wait to tell your story.

And his friend and mentor, without whom I wouldn't even know who Andre is, which is John Anderson. So Andre and John, welcome. Thanks for being a Memphis. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. So your story is unique to our podcast and beyond inspirational. And the reason

is unique is we're starting to do organic stories, stories that are born out of the podcast itself. But it's also unique. And that you're the first guy that we've interviewed that has heard about one of our stories and decided to do exactly what he heard in that story. You heard the blueprint through the story, you know, the architect of the story, and it's Luke Michelson from Sleep and Heavenly Peace, and you're now going to take what you learn from his story and do it in your own community, which is exactly what the goal of an army of normal folks is. And you're the first story that we get to tell that has latched on to the goal. But how you're doing it and who you're doing it for and who you're doing it with, which we will reveal later in the show, is just beyond inspirational. I can't wait to tell that story, but first, Andre, tell me about you. Where do you come from? How did you grow up? Tell me about

Andre, the little giant, when he was just a kid running around where do you come from and Tell me all that well. I was born in Haiti. I was born in the family of six and I was the Fort of the family and My father when I was born he has TB You know, which is a very serious thing So she could not take care of me. And then she has to take me to the orphanage. But after a little while, I realized that, to be with my family, that's the best thing,

you know, instead of the orphanage, because I have my mom and my dad. you know, instead of, you know, the offering because I have my mom and my dad and even he has TB. So, I decide to go and, you know, stay and live with them. So, God gave me a little gift. I remember when I was at the orphanage, I got a gift from my sponsor, from here. And that gave, there was a little box, and when I opened it, I saw some Krayola, we were like the little painting. So I used that Krayola that's painting to do some little trees and stuff like that, so I can sell them.

Yes, I did sell them, and with that money, I helped my mom with her medicine, and you know, to get her her feet. How old were you when you went to work? I was three, three years old. So was your family in poverty? Well, not like, and not really in poverty just to beg, but they simply cannot, you know, take care of us because

thing was really tough and my dad has pneumonia. So he would seek to. So that's make it very difficult for them to take care of the family, which your father able to work. Yes, he did, but at that time he wasn't work. He was a three years after that at the Shuga factory. Sometimes he spent like three days working, never come home. He stayed at the factory. Yeah, all the all night. He'd been working, you know, just to bring a little food in the table, just for two days, me and us. What, you know, people see on TV, famine and poverty in other countries, oftentimes in places like Africa and, you know, I think because you see the images over and over again in magazines

and on TV, we become a little desensitized to areas that are wrought with poverty. And the other thing is, you know, if you look at a map, Haiti and the Dominican Republic or next door to each other, there's a line driven down, drawn down the middle of an island. And in the Dominican Republic, it's largely a successful place. And then there's a line on a map on the exact same island with people who are generally the same, but in Haiti it is abject poverty. Why is that? Well, I wish I can answer that's Christian, you know.

I'm trying my best. The country is very corrupt. It's corrupt. Yes. You probably know that. So my wife told me, please, I tried to stay from cow distinct, you know, like a politic and things like that. But you know, that's, yes, it's very corrupt, it's country. That's the reason that the Haiti is like that.

And also, people who use to do the garden, to do the planting, you know, the mountain. So, everybody are focusing, you know, to go to port-opress to the cities, you know, they're left the lands and everything they use to walk, you know, to produce like corn, beans, you know, rice. So they just go to Porto Prince. You know why they go to Porto Prince? No. Because they think that they'll close to Miami. Everyone just focused, you know, to come to the United States is other than people who run the government. Is there any money in Haiti for families, for normal families? Is there any way to, for a family to pull themselves out of poverty? If I were to go, man, I'm sorry to say that, no. So the reality is when people hear

that you had a mother and a father that were ill, but sent their three year old to an orphanage, it wasn't that they didn't love or care. They literally did not have the means to care for you. Exactly. Yes, exactly. That's terrible because it's so poverty-stricken that it tears families up. Yes. So how long did you live in the orphanage? I didn't stay for a while,

but a few years. A few years. A few years. And at what age? Well, I can remember, you know, I think some people, I can remember I think when I was five years old, maybe I'm sure I can remember things from first grade when I was six. So if you stayed a few years, you were six or seven.

How did it feel being an orphanage knowing your family was not far away? That was hard. That was really hard. I had a problem too. When I was born, my leg was crooked. I have to worry a bracelet leg. So that's make it even very difficult for me. The worst thing is when you see the other kids play, then they play soccer or high unsee it, you cannot just watch them play and then as a boy you cannot do that because of my facts I have in my legs. And the raw thing is when we go to school, make it hard for me to sit and advance because of the legs, you know. So and then I get bullied. They used to call me an X. And X. This is the X boy. Because you're like, yeah, the X boy, you know,

but you know, I didn't get that, you know, get me down, you know, just keep going and do what I get to do. You know, thank God, you know, and my leg was healed and I will be able to walk normally and then try to get a job, you know, as the age of like eight or 10, you know, I went to the missionary and tried to ask him for a job, you know, to clean the motorcycle, you know, water the garden and stuff like that. You know, that's for 50 cents, you know.

I think I read that at some point, I'd like to know what age you were, you hung around a hotel hoping to see American businessmen or businessmen coming in where if maybe you carried their suitcase they'd give you a cookie or something. Yeah, there was a guest house. Yeah, I was there and then there was a missionary who came with a suitcase and he'd give you a cookie. His name is Johannes, Johannes, Louis Shor, from Germany. They still in Haiti.

And he took an interest in you. Yes. And he helped me. They helped me a lot. They helped me with my school. He has a school. So he has school trade school. So with that little gift, God gave me, so he gave me a job and that's very school

to make that little picture for them. So with that money, I pay my school with that. And how old were you? I probably like 10, 10 years, 11 years. 10 years old. Yes. So then you went home? Oh yes, I went home. So at 11 years all I got a job, you know, and cleaning the car for the missionary, you know, and the

garden they have, you know, water the garden, and I have to fertilize, you know, the garden. water the garden and I have to fertilize the garden. So, and then how to do that is go and get the cow, you know, stuff, the fertilizer. Yeah, exactly. Right. And sometimes, you know, the fresh one, you cannot pick it off so you have to burn it, to make it drives so you can put it in the bag

and you know, to make it extra money. You know, and then I had a little sister and I'm the one who pays school for her too, at that age. I read that when you first showed up at home, your father said, I can't feed you. And you said, it's okay, if you eat, I eat, if you don't eat, I don't eat. Yes.

That speaks to me to just how bad you wanted to be at home. Oh, yes. Home is home, sweet home. You know, no one wants to stay in the orphanage. You know, and then the experience I had in that orphanage at that time, you know, little kids, I got food, I got good food. You know, that's the orphanage at that time, even a little kid. I got food, I got good food. That's the orphanage was running by a mission

from Canada, good food. You know what I miss? I never say anybody say that I love you. You know, hold you in your home. It's just like you in book comp, you know? And this got to stretch and go to school and this hope got to, and this got a stretch and got a school and this hope got a bed and this and that. But Hanhom is different, you know. I think it's

important for our listeners to understand that later on we will talk about what you're doing now and I think it's really important to understand where you come from to get perspective on why you do what you do and why you pour yourself into it. And now, a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first, I hope you'll subscribe to the podcast so that you'll get the newest episodes in your library every week. And also, consider signing up to join the Army at normalfokes.us because together, we can change the country. And you'll also receive weekly email updates about the Army.

We'll be right back. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks. When I sat down with Isaacs in five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all.

They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like kids playing on the playground, just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done and excused, being a total f***. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson.

Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai,

and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of Kozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries

in the walks in the woods, a favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite flying, and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you, and they are all designed to help you feel good

and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from a village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Jizalyn Robin, and we're the host of Reasonably Shady on the Black Effect Podcast Network.

I absolutely love our podcast. Yes, it has been so much better than I expected. Yes, because we get to share our lives with everyone. They get to learn about us. This is the podcast that you want to listen to just to feel like you're in the living room with your girlfriend, you're driving the car with your girlfriend, you having that good girlfriend talk. And sometimes we say things that like you want to say, but you can't say out loud. We're like speaking your mind for you, but you're scared to say it, but we're going to say it.

We do hot topics. We talk about reasonable and shady things. So get into it. Get into it and join us every Monday for reasonably shady and be sure to tune into the latest season of the Real Housewives of Potomac. Subscribe to Reasoned Be Shady on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. So, you met a woman who got married?

I met a woman who got married. I met a woman who got married. You know, I want you to tell that whole story. I want you to tell that whole story. I want to tell this whole story. You know, I wasn't a porno prince. You know, it's a school in porno prince. And then I never have a girlfriend, okay? So my sister called me and told me about me.

She met a beautiful girl's, you know, Haitian girl. How old are you? Oh, let's see. I was 18. 18? Yeah. And then I said, no, I'm not interested because I have a big vision, you know, because I want to succeed. I want to walk. I want to do something, you know, my life. So she kept persisting. So I took a boss, who are we like three, four hours, you know, to Lake I, and my sister gave me a book. This is a girl who came to take her mother to the hospital, but they have to go through my house, you know, because there was thirsty and Haiti. Long time ago, if you need water, you test it, and you can go any place, and then you knock on the door,

they open the door, and then you say, can I have a glass of water? They will give you water. They have a special glass for visitors. So that is something happened to my sister. So they stopped in my house where my sister is and to get some water. And then those are almost the same age, you know, and they talk and stuff like that. So my sister just loved that girl for me. So when did my sister told me,

you better go and visit her, you know. So I said, okay, man, I will go back to five o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the morning. And I walk six hours. You walked six hours. And at that time, I really do our stops that you have to get a super water on the way. That's a lot of work. The only thing I had, you know, that's a piece of sugar cane. You know, I got a piece of sugar cane. I've been eating all the way in. So there was no breach. I have just crossed all the water like that. But when I get to the village and I saw a boy, I asked a boy, you know, I'm looking for this girl

and this and that. He said, oh, okay, I know where she live. So she bring me to a house and I knock and there's a girl came and I said, I don't think that's that her. The way my sister described that. That's what he had. And then she said, I told her, yeah, I'm looking for this and that.

He said, oh, there's another one. And she'll be wearing the mountain. So that took me 30 minutes. You got to go up a mountain. Yeah, that took me 30 minutes to go to the mountain. So when I reached to her house, somebody put her house to me, so I walk in knocking the door. And I expect that that girl going to open the door to, you know, so I can see her. And then the door is open and why so? That's her father.

And they said, how can I help you? You know, I cannot help her. I come to see your daughter. No, not in 80. Ha, ha, ha. So I said, well, I just passed by, I need a glass of water. So she, you know, only the glass of water. So she called someone to bring me the glasses of water.

I thought that was her, but that wasn't her. After I drank the water, I said, can I have some more? They gave me, you know, a second cup, I drank it. And then I keep walking. I don't even know where I'm going. I passed the house. But while I was in the mountain, I saw a girl coming from the hill with a bucket of water in her head. And I kept looking, looking, I said, what? That's supposed to be her.

You know, I mean, I'm telling you, it's beautiful. So by the time she went home and I just run from the hill, you know, and I just grabbed that water from her head. She didn't see me, she would go like this, what's going on? So I helped her with the water. And then my heart is beating so hard, not the first time. So I tried to grab something, a flower, something like that. Get in my knees, grab a dead flower. You know what I mean?

So I get in my knees and I told him, my name is Andre. Please will you marry me? And so- You just met her? Yeah. Oh, marry me. He's not finished. Will you marry me so we can have a son named Geneal?

Just ask for state You know and she look at you can ask your question. Yes. You're telling me That you walked up to a girl you'd never met Yes, you snatched a bucket of water off her head and gave her a dead flower, an ash of the Mary. I totally started even the dead flower. Is this something like it? I would say it. Audrey, you may be a pastor, but if this all worked out,

you got a game, bro. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, are you, you know, like, Betjeet's brother? I say, yes. And then she think that, you know, there's something is not right with me. Yeah, I think most people think there's something not right with you. I just left. I said, bye-bye, you know, I just left because, you know, I, I realize, man man what I'm doing what I did. So I back six hours hour six hours back home because I can't afford like 50 cents to take a tap tap tap is a transportation in 80. So my sister was so excited. She came in and said how does go and I told her oh that's not the You know, she was so disappointed with me. So very next day, you know, I take a boss and go back to

Porto points. I haven't come back to the city for like a year. So I decided to come back to the city one day. I see down. There was a church and in Plain Air. You know, every year there was probably like 300 churches get together for three days, but that was in plan air. So while I sit down and I heard a hand, it's a Mr. Foish and I look, that's what was heard. You know, I say, oh, my heart was beating, man.

I'm trying not to make the same mistake, okay? So, and she said, can I sit back? I was like, oh, yes, yes, you know, I got a book in my hand and you know, I tried to put the book so she can sit. He said, no, I'm fine. You know, so she sit there. So, I've been talking about nothing about love, nothing, you know, just things that's no value. But before she left to go home, I opened the books, I put something in the books, I

told her that I'm going to let you use that book. That book was written by African pastor Andrew Abdul. So she loved that book and then I gave it to her. And while she's leaving I tell her that, excuse me, there's a little, you know, homework and that book. So please, you know, check it out when you have time. So this is the homework. The first page, I put a J like, should him, should him in I love you. The first page I put a J like should Tim should Tim in I love you the first page I put a J and the second page there's a little apostor you know and then I go Tim so I did I did that you know in the end of the books and each page you know sometimes I flip like three pages, you know, and put a little later on it. So,

after a few days, no, a few weeks, and she bring back the books, you know, she can, you know, to see the doctor again with her mom, and she give the books, I said, do you realize what, do you find out what is in, and you say, yes, yes, what you said say well, I have to pray. I'm going to pray man, that's a lady tick eight years eight years to pray about it eight years eight years my friend and every suddenly Every Saturday she make me walk like I must drive hours Every time they do this she make me walk like I almost 12 hours

To go and see her in the mountain for eight straight years. I Think had you not proposed the minute you saw it might have been three years But I think it was a five-year tax for being so aggressive But she became your wife she became my wife the day she my wife. The day she said, okay, okay. So, Andre, I think we can establish, you grew up very poor. You had to go to an orphanage. You experienced sadness and bullying and the loss of your family. And somehow, inside of you, it built a strength of a man who was willing to walk six miles every week for eight years to find the love of his life.

And you're trying to figure your way out. Yes. What am I doing next? Well, after we... Okay, I just told you that when God called you in the ministry, He gave you a package. I sent to this. And I'm pretty sure that my wife was in the package. While I was visiting my wife,

my girlfriend, he has two brothers, three brothers, but the older one is in a potter prince. So the two brothers live with her. They hate me, man. I don't know why they hate me. So you're dating their sister. that's why they hate you. But that's not a hate again. And that's more than hate. Every time when I come, when I go over there and they say, get out, dog, get out, dog. They don't talk to me directly.

But there's was no dog. That was me. So they decide to call bigger brother and corporate because bigger brother is corporate because bigger brothers doing you know karate you know things like that So you know to kick me out in the house. So one day While I was coming on Saturday my girlfriend just wrong in the gate. It's told me please Please don't go today. Don't come today. You come on on the day But she don't want to tell me what's going on in the house. I said, why? You know, it's a please don't, don't, don't come out

on the day. I said, yeah, but I have to come and say hello to your mama. He said, no, you know, but I can't anyway. Why I was sitting down, you know, I heard a lot of discussion in the other room, you know, I hate him mostly. There's two rooms in the house, not more than two rooms. So I heard that my girlfriend was crying because her brother has a big stick and his hand and come out and come out and you know, in, I said, Bob, how are women in your finish together? And he could no longer be angry at you because you were friends. Yeah, he said, Andre, I said, Bob, you know, the, you know, the good thing is, and he told her, Mother, you

remember when you come to senior the orphanage, because I used to live, go to the orphanage. And that person that you sleep, that was his grandpa, mama. And the bread that you all, you said that guy always give it, that his father. I said, thank God. So that wasn't a package, okay? I would say that, you know, you're kind of, you're kind of in at that point. Yeah. Yeah, the family loves you. Yes. We'll be right back.

When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social-emotional networks.

And when I sat down with Isaacson five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like kids playing on the playground. Just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done, excuse being a total f***. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series

as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers

of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of cozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches where kites fly and pretty stones are found. I have

so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington, the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals, and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien, the senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, and I'm your host for Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Every week on Crash Course, all bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur.

And I'm going to explore the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts in big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political, and social disruptions, and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. John, there's this crazy story of this guy from Haiti named Andre, who we've just learned all about. out. And your introduction to them was nothing more than really a miracle too. And for our listeners, the whole reason I'm sitting here with Andre and John is because John heard

an episode about Luke Michelson from Sleep and Heavenly Peace. And I beg all of you to send me emails and tell me about stories. And John took me up on it. And you sent me a very long email that after reading it, my eyes had teared up. And I think I reached out to you immediately and said, I got to meet this guy. But in the letter, you open with how you met him. Yeah. Tell us a story of how you came to know Andre. All right. Well, Andre was one of those people who wanted to come to the United States.

And Andre expressed to me that in Haiti, everybody thinks of the United States, there's just money lying along the side of the road. And you could just scoop up the money If if you need something and get whatever it is that you need Every three zip money Money growing Now that you've been here, you know, that's not the case

Andre Something that he hasn't said is that he and his wife Angie actually raised seven children before they started their own family. And they were seven orphans. And this was the genesis of the place of hope, actually. But he came the United States, so he could pick some of that money off the trees and help feed the kids with the seven children with the seven children and his wife and his wife. No, excuse me. The seven children that I raised, no, there was in, that was in Haiti. That's why.

When I came to the United States, there was 20. Yeah, 20. Okay, 20 in the building. And I'll tell you about that in a second, but he comes to the United States and he was trying to raise money. He got a phone call from someone who was watching the kids. The house mother. Yeah, the house mother and she told them the kids have only had cooking at the eat for the last three weeks. They have diarrhea. They're in the verge of dehydration. We need to do something. So Andre borrowed a car and Start driving up the main road in Naples He went to one church there and he pushes the doorbells. It was locked. It was a lockout and they said How can we help you? He said well? I need to talk to somebody. I need to talk to the pastor

No, not tiny on you one bag of fries to send or Haiti and not tying it on you one bag of fries to send or Haiti. And what do kids? And they said the pastor's not here. And then finally, somebody came out and said, you can have to leave the property. We're going to call the police. Well, Andres here, in the whole time, John Andre simply asking, he's trying to tell the story of these kids at this orphanage and Haiti that need food. Yes food that are sick because all they've eaten for three weeks are coconuts.

And only once really is a bag of rice so I can send back to Haiti. A bag of rice. Just that. That's all he wants. So after that experience, he decides, well, I still have to find something. So he goes up to the next church, which we were the next church while I was pasting of that church at that time, in Naples. And we remember that day a little bit differently. Since you asked me, I'm going to tell you my story. But I heard this knocking at the door. It's just a light tapping.

And I look at, go out in the hall, there's glass doors at the end of the hall. And I look down the hall and, and here's's a man a Haitian man literally cap and hand and standing outside the door and I opened up the door and I say how can I help you and he said I'd like to ask you about help for my orphanage. I said well when he come in my office and let's sit down chat. So we went and we sat down and Andre, since the last church, they threatened to call the police on him. He left the car running. Good morning, and then he's the case,

in case the police came. And when he sat down, that's hilarious. When he sat down on the chair of my office, he didn't sit all the way back, he sat on the edge. So it could make a quick exit. I'm ready to go. But I said, well, Andre, take my hands, let's pray.

And so we sat and we prayed together. And then after our amen, I said, how can I help you? And then he told me about how he has 20 orphans in Haiti. And they are on the Virgin Dehydration. And they need some help. Clearly on a shoestring budget if any budget at all. Absolutely.

And what he asked for, he said, we're trying to raise $18 a month for each of those kids. I said, well, how about some $5,000 a year? Well, and he knew I couldn't cover the whole thing, but there was enough there for me to go on. And so I said, well, how can I get back and touch you with you tomorrow? I want to go and talk to my wife. So I went home that night, talked to my wife, and then call them next day.

My wife and I said, well, we could take care of to those orphans, but we'll pay the whole year now so that they can spread it among all the kids that way. I had a feeling that's what they're going to do anyway. So we said okay, so we sent them, I think it was 380 bucks or something like that. And that began our relationship. He came to our church. I introduced him to some people, some people put money in his hand. Eventually our missions committee picked it up and Andre had a growing concern at that point. It was a, there was some viability to it.

In the meantime, I had a small group that I was working with and I told them about this, this guy and this orphanage. And they said, well, we ought to go over and take a look at it. So two of them went over, they flew over, I guess three, because Mike, Mike Schaefer went to, so three of them went across to they flew over, I guess three because Mike, Mike Schaefer went to. Mike Schaefer was there. So three of them went across to Haiti and looked at the place. While the place that they had at the time, the orphanage was one room.

It was just a singular room. With 20 kids? 20 kids broke. Like it's two workers. One table, one chair, one spoon, no plumbing, no electricity, it was just a shelter and he had 20 kids who was operating out of it. And they looked at that and they said, well, gosh, I don't know how this is ever going to work out.

Well, they all turned out to be very good supporters of the project. And later on, we would, Andre, we began to dream together. What's your vision of this, of this, of this orphanage Andre? And he would tell me what division was. We began to sketch little drawings out on a piece of paper. One of the things he said that will come into play a little bit later on is I said, listen, because he wants to put a church in. Now, as a principal criteria for him was to put a church in. That was a principal criteria for him. He was to put a church on the property. And I said,

well, Andre, if you put a church on that property one day, I'm going to come down. I'm going to preach in that church and you're going to translate for me. And Andre said, okay, what we didn't find out until, I don't know, maybe it was 10 or 12 years later, I was sitting on the platform of that church, and he looked at me and he said, you know, this is an answer to prayer. And I said, how do you talk to me? And he said, well, 10 or 12, whatever period of time it was before, we had sat down, we talked, and you said that you're going to preach, and I was going to translate today's

the day. Well, that was right before I went up to the pulpit and by that time I had tears streaming out my cheeks from from the memory of us of doing that but but we dreamed together about what that campus might look like someday. How many years ago was this? This must have been in about oh four oh four so plus 18 19 years ago yeah so 18 19 years ago. Yeah. So, 18, 19 years ago, there was a quote, orphanage, which was a one bedroom, no electricity, no water running, place where 20 kids were surviving for three weeks on coconut. And that was better than what they'd come from. Yes. And I don't think any of us could really understand poverty until you've been down there and seen it. We have poverty here, but their poverty is you haven't eaten for a week. Andre told me a story about how he saw a man eating mud because he needed something

in his stomach. The poverty down there is stunning. And Andre didn't, he left out some of the parts of his story too, but he came from serious poverty. And so now when he hears somebody in America say, well, I'm starving to death. Well, just like my daughter, she live here, and sometimes I should die. How I'm hungry. You know, I'm starving. And I starve. And you know what I starve to mean? You say, how I'm hungry, dad?

And then the fruit is milk. It's peanut butter. You know,ges milk, they had spinach bar, you know, this bread, and you told me, Stalin, you know. And then some time when I was a little kid, I got a school with one orange. For all day, eight o'clock, you have to be at school until four o'clock.

Come home. Sometimes when you come home, there's nothing to put in your stomach. You go to bed, stomach empty, and you thought, we'd had you starving. You know, you don't know what it's what it's starving mean. So, I think for perspective, it's really important to understand that money doesn't grow on trees in the United States, but when a kid who we would say in the US is in poverty, gets to go to school and get free breakfast and free lunch, who almost assuredly can find shelter and clothing and in education and transportation and most likely have the basic sustenance provided for. Yeah. That while the American dream is not

that and I'm not discounting that level of American poverty. To a Haitian kid, that's rich. Yeah, absolutely. And we need to keep in perspective what, what real poverty looks like in parts of our world. And Haiti is 350 miles off the Texas coast. In our hemisphere. Yeah, just below Cuba. Just below Cuba. We're not we're not talking about some far away mythical place. We're talking about people who share the Gulf of Mexico with to our plane ride. That's right. To our plane ride from Miami. To our plane ride from Miami. Yep. And we're talking about children that literally are starving to death. Yeah. And so a guy like Andre steps up and says,

okay, I'm going to take care of 20 of these kids in a one-room hut. And that's, as Andre had said, and I think that that's appropriate, is that life is a package. And the fact that Andre came from that poverty is what gave him the vision and the mission to help kids who are in poverty. But not only the poverty, the orphanage itself. It agreed, the love.

As he mentioned before. Yeah, it was interesting when you said, Andre, that you got mules and you had a roof up your head, but you didn't have the love. It was in there. It wasn't there It wasn't there. That's the reason that's the reason I When we have the team from Memphis, you know, they come to do hard work for us, but they're always two or three holy kids

Well, and see that's interesting because I'm from Memphis everybody knows I'm a Memphis guy But John when you emailed me you emailed me from Naples, Florida, right? And you're talking about a pastor. I've never heard of from Haiti Yeah, and I had no idea that there was a Memphis connection. Yeah, I didn't either And I only learned it recently. Yeah, well, there wasn't at that time, was there? Well, the Memphis connection came really after the current campus had gotten mostly finished. Our church and churches in the Naples area helped on the front end, putting together what I'd called the hardware.

And the, the, the, the, the, the whole hope press for your church here in Memphis created really the software which is explain the hardware okay the hardware is the physical plan when we started building that campus first of all the story in Andrei should tell you the story on how he purchased the property so that because they were meeting in that one room home they went they moved to a second a second home that had two rooms in it

so it was really uptown doubled in size double inside no plumbing but still had electricity that was pretty excited a TV but it didn't work so so Andre had found a piece of property that he really liked and I thought that chance. And so Andre went to work and had you found a piece of property? I could buy the piece. This is a good question. Okay. Thank you. When I was working to see my wife, to see my girlfriend, I always see the property.

Okay. So now I see many, if I have that property, I will buy it and build an orphanage, church, school, clinic. You know, that was my dream. That was your dream. That's my dream. But I never go actually to the property because he is probably like 50 feet above the ocean. Yeah, and you're walking six miles anyway. You want to take a nice trip up a hill. Yeah, but you cannot go to the somebody property like that. They go to question you. Okay. But thank God, one day I saw a lot of woman and kid would shot him. You know, they have some a bookied knife, you know, and there was so happy and wanting in the mountain. And I look on the ocean, the ocean is right there.

And I saw a lot of men on the boat, you know, on the ocean. And I told that's little boy, what's going on over there? You know, I don't even take time to talk to me. I really want to go up that mountain. So I get that opportunity to go there too. And I was looking at the property. He was a man that's going to be a charging off an age, things like that.

But I asked him what's going on, what's going on in the ocean, you know, in the United States, I live in Florida, okay? And then when somebody saw a shark, there's a shark, they're wrong for their life. But in Haiti, the shark won for his life. Because it's food. That's food right there. So that's why the woman was ready, you know, to get some good meat from that shark, you know. So they got him.

That's a big shark. The shark won for his life, you know. But he won't for the shot and nothing, he'll hate you. Well, Andre went after that property. And Andre tell him about how you were working. Andre was working. I was working in a wayhouse. Okay, I got a job, you know, and I was working in a wayhouse. So storage.

Yeah, storage space. So people dumps a lot of good stuff, you know, that's and that things when I go to the dumpster. I said, man, that's TV or agent stuff like that. Closed things I never see before and they walk So I went to my boss I told my boss Can I use this? He said, oh, yeah, that's trash Trash for you, not for me.

So, and then I said collecting those stuff. And then I collect so much, I don't have a place to put it. So I actually, if he can give me like a five by five, you know, to put those things. So he talked to the owner, the owner said, oh, that's fine. So they give me five by five. So I put all this thing stuff in there. But there's some Haitian who came on the boat. They can't read. They cannot write. Okay. So I want to help them. So I went to the community

center to teach them how to read, you know, things like that. So they give me one hour. So I told them that I had, you know, the TV thing for sale, you know, it's not cost too much. So they give me one hour. So I told them that I had, you know, the TV thing for sale, you know, it's not cost too much. So they came to the warehouse, you know, I'm selling them like for a dollar to the large, you know, and 50 cents, things like that. And then I got, I got the money and when I was to go home, I said, I'd rather leave the money right there. Because, you know, there's a scream chalk come every afternoon and I have kids. So they will actually for money. So that's money I was raised for that land because my brother and

loco me about the land. I said, I'm going to buy it. Everything's that I sell, I put it in the envelope. And I asked my boss to leave it in his office. And my boss, a little, no, he's the chairman of the board. So what I did, after a few months, so I asked him, you know, let's open it together. That's money, okay? So we opened it together, four thousand dollars from the trash. So we went to a wire transfer and we wired the money, so we make our first deposit.

And most of that money coming from that dumpster. And then we get a few from, you know, past the joint friends, you know, stuff like that. And then, after I paid the land, I got it in and everything, you know, I'm good. So I'm ready to start doing the building. So when I want to do the dumpster, you know, thinking that I'm going to get, you know, some good stuff, you know, what I find? What? It dead cat. You get a good price for that. That was a dead cat. So that's a delocio. Okay, that's not enough. That's enough, okay. So he was able to purchase this piece of property,

seven acres on the Caribbean sea, fronting the Caribbean sea. How much? For $70,000. $70,000. But he raised that money from dumpster diving, 70,000 hours. Yes.

I think this is important for your army to know, Bill, that that persistence, when you have a vision, when you have a mission, and you have that persistence, that'll pay off. This is a man who walks six hours every Saturday for eight years to get a wife. That's right. Dumpster diving on balance is just not that big a deal.

I don't know. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacson five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like kids playing on the playground, just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done, excuse being a total f***. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe

and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of cozy, and I invite you to

come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries in the walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite fly and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you

and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. I have so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Professional dancer Cheryl Burke has been part of dancing with the stars since the very beginning. 26 seasons of the Samba, the Rumba and the Charcher, 24 partners, 6 finals and 2 Mirabull

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We sent an engineer, a civil engineer down, they surveyed the property and they drew out a sketch of where this would go, where this would go where this would go so we so we had according to Andre's vision that we put a dormitory on a vocational school a clinic and a church building and we put that all in the property and so so so the drawing you met him 18 to 19 years i'm trying to get a time long yeah and how long after that was able to buy the property, a couple, three years later? Is that right? I would stretch it out a little bit more.

I'd probably say four or five years. Okay, so around 2010, plus or minus, plus or minus, yeah. And then he said, gotta have a church, gotta have buildings for kids. Yeah. How long from 2010 did it take to get to a campus? Here's where the rest of the hardware comes in so about that time a Gentlemen in Naples his name is Dick Stone cipher. We call him Stoney Stoney was a direct report to Jack Welch. He ran GE appliance

Wow, he went to our church. He was a friend and he said We need to make this work. So Stoney got involved when Stoney got involved Things began to happen and we build up a board. I say we I shouldn't say we because Truth of the matter is I was a pastor of the church Andre did most of this by himself. I had some connections. What I do is I match people with resources and that's what I do. I develop people, I develop relationships. And I put the two of them together and then they built this property. And that property, they probably have had about a million and a quarter plus or minus into that property to build that campus. So now that there is a dormitory that will

accommodate up to a hundred kids, indoor plumbing electricity, wired for electricity. Indoor plumbing and electricity doesn't sound like that big a deal except the vast majority of people in Haiti don't have indoor plumbing and electricity. Exactly. Exactly. It's the Taj Mahal. Exactly. And the vocational school that has a decked out carpentry shop, there's a welding shop, there is a small engine mechanic so they can fix motorbikes and for the ladies he has a sewing class with and they have how many you suppose 20 sewing machines would you say about 20 sewing machines in there to teach them a trade what would you say that Andre what would you say the unemployment rate is in Haiti well I'm not'm not in primary, I would say probably,

you know, like, almost 60% or more. How much? Yeah, 60. She's like 60. I would have said 70, but he said 60. And so we'd say, so you're telling me three out of 10 people, four out of 10 people have a job.

Yeah, now some people will stand by the side of the road and try to sell mangoes. I don't wouldn't call that a job. But if you're talking about a job, career type of job, I'd say that 60% is probably conservative as far as unemployment goes. All right, so once this campus is the Landsball, a campus is the lands bought, the campus is built 2015?

Yes, I'm about to see. Okay. So, in about 2000, you have a dream, you go dumpster diving, you save up money, you buy the land, Pastor John puts you in touch with some people that help you build it out. And in 2015, you have a seven acre orphanage with dorms, a church, a clinic for health and medicine. You have

places to teach applied skills so that people can leave the orphanage and become so that people can leave the orphanage and become gainfully employed as mason's or welders or mechanics or seamstresses, which is a big deal when 60% of the population is unemployed. And you go from these 20 kids at a one-room house to how many kids in the orphanage now? Well, we have 55 kids. We used to have like 60 kids growing up and some of them now go in a university. Some of them go to college. Some of them go to college. Some of them go into graduate next month. American university, one of the bigger university.

What are you bringing in new children? Children of the college. Yes. But right now children all the time. Yes, yes. But right now because of the, you see constanties, you know, now because of the what? The money was, you know, the expensive. Yeah, it's very expensive. Well, and the board, Stoney ate, he didn't really age out

technically, but he got to the place where it was too much. And so he left the board and the board kind of fell apart at that point. So they're in a reconstituting the board. They're going into the next iteration of the board for place of hope now. This is why the Hope Church, and Memphis, men to help to them because now that the hardware is up and Stoney largely responsible for that, now that the hardware is up, then the software comes in behind it. And when I say software, I mean, as these are the people who care for the

children, who hold the children, who really take an interest in the kids, I'm not saying that that didn't happen under Sony's direction, but this group has been extraordinary in helping out that regard. Which is the weird Memphis connection that I've never existed in Arizona. And in Arizona, I was the best team. When they're going to Haiti, six of them, they walk. They haven't been in Haiti for four years now, five years, and then I'm telling you, because of them, the way they teach the kids,

now the kids do their own dress uniform, because there was a lady and that team who wanna teach them how to make dress. So they make the dress and uniform and even the bed, they make their own bed now because they teach the kid every time when they go over there they don't walk by himself, they talk the kids with them, you know, to watch them, what's going on. Which is an interesting segue. Yes. So, over the course of 20 years, gone from a one bedroom house with 20 kids eating so much...

Coconut. Coconut that they're almost dead and you're looking for a bag of rice and you end up meeting the gentleman on your left who provides so much more in terms of mentoring and friendship and introductions, where your search for a bag of rice for 20 kids has now turned into a second eight, seven acre place

caring for 45 to 60 kids, and what seems like to be bi-hation standards, maybe the finest place a kid could ever end up. And it's called a place for hope, orphanage. And the kids make their own outfits, they make their own uniforms, right? They make their own beds. They, because of the shop that's there,

because of the hardware that's been installed, and because of the software of the love and the compassion and the teaching and the mentoring of this is happening. And then John's listening to a podcast one day. Yeah. I heard Brian Kilmeade interview you, and then after I listened to that podcast,

I said to my wife, you know what, why don't we just watch that undefeated documentary? So we watched that undefeated documentary, very impressed with what you did there. Fantastic. And then you mentioned something about an army of normal folks on that. And I said, well, I'm going to just start listening to that. And I started listening to your podcast. I think every pastor should listen to your podcast because every pastor needs to find ways, creative ways to get into the

communities. And what I've heard from your podcast is a myriad, one not quite a myriad, but we're getting there a myriad of ways of reaching into the community by an army of normal folks, which is what every church is. So I listen to that podcast and I- And every church should be John. Yeah. Whatever each church should be. Yeah, okay.

Well, and every pastor should, and this is the thing. You have so many, you've interviewed so many people with the creative ways of reaching into it. And I look for creative ways to get into the community. And so when I was listening to this, I heard this, and I heard this one about making beds, and I thought to myself, you know, I just wonder what what pastor Andre would think of this particular podcast. So I bookmarked it, and then I called, let's see, I finished, I called them, I said, Andre,

what are you doing now? Well, nothing. And I said, come on over here. I want to play this podcast for you. So we sat there and we listened to that podcast. And at the end of that podcast, Andre got a little emotional. And I said, well, what's going on? And he said, John, that's my story. That is my story. I didn't have a bed when I was growing up. And then when I came to the United States, there were seven children and me and Angie and we had one bed, one bed for all of those people.

And he said, that's my story. And so at that time, we decided that maybe we're going to shift our paradigm slightly so that we're going to self-consciously now. The place I hope was always tried to get into their community, but never really self-consciously, always accidentally, but now maybe self-consciously we need to be reaching into the community, and instead of being purely a resource consumer, we need to be resource distributors. We'll be right back. When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was

taking on a world-changing figure. That night he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also soared chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks and when I sat down with Isaacs in five weeks ago he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like kids playing on the playground. Just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done, excuse being a total

****. But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliff and this is on Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens.

I'm an architect of Kozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kites flying and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a wonderful life is one of the most popular movies ever, but it has more to offer you than

you ever thought. Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? In this world where there's a lot of hopelessness, people need this move. George Bailey was never born. During the many partaking in this one-of-a-kind podcast experience, listen to all 10 episodes available now on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast, saveGeorgeBaley.com, subscribe now. To remind our listeners some have maybe have heard the episode others have not. I highly suggest you go to Luke Michelson's interview.

His organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace, and this is a guy who was sick of watching his kids sit around on the couch eating bond bonds and playing video games, and one Christmas and Thanksgiving holiday time went and got some wood and made a couple of bunk beds and a scratch. And once he made the bunk bed, he didn't have anything to do with it. His kids didn't need it, but the kids got some exercise. They got to do something together and he put it on Facebook. And like 20 people said, I want this bed. And he gave it away to somebody in need. And he said, we're going to make another one. And by Christmas, I think he and his children had made 15 or 20 beds and given them way.

And through that simple random act, he found out maybe even invented a term, which is called child bentlessness in the United States. And found out that there's children all over the United States sleeping on clothes on a rolled up piece of carpet or nothing. Early on he gave a bed to a kid that would take off their clothes, sleep on the clothes

and then put those very clothes on to go to school. So literally they were wearing their bed to school and his eyes were opened to the fact that there's poverty to a level in our country where Jordan have no beds. And when they don't have a bed, they don't sleep well and they don't sleep well, they don't study well. And when we don't study well, they're irritable

and when they're irritable, they don't do well in school and then they have all kinds of behavioral issues and the list goes on and on and it's so simple that a child needs a bed, a good place sleep. And so he started sleep in heavenly peace. And since this has all happened, I think they've made and given away over seven, how many Alex? 140,000 beds. 140,000 beds to bedless children in the United States. And so that's the podcast you listen to John. Yeah.

That's you shared with Andre. Yes. And then Andre got emotional because Andre identified. Yeah. And then Andre got emotional because Andre identified. And the irony is, Andre, I just believe that the reason in 20 years, you've gone from a plot of property that some children and women were excited about a dead shark on to now an orphanage taking care of 45 to 60 kids a year and providing them with skills and food, but most importantly, love. Yes. Which you said was missing from your experience that you want to provide your children from. Well, I believe the success of that comes from your experiences at three to six year old. Yes.

And now you hear this podcast that John shares with you. And John, you just said you wanted to go from being a consumer to a provider. Andre, tell us now what your vision is for the kids in your orphanage with regard to pets. Well, my vision is to go and to the bed, make the kids to the bed. So let me just get this right. Orphans with no family and no home or maybe family that can't care for them,

but certainly the home who are living in an orphanage, are now going to use the campus that has been created that has a wood shop. And now orphans are going to be making beds for Haitian children who don't live in the orphanage, but don't have a bed. So now the orphans in the orphanage are going to serve their community by making beds and the shop that they learn how to do woodwork. Yes. That's what they're going to do.

What's phenomenal about the story to me, while I wanted to meet you so bad and what is so redemptive and inspirational to me is this, when you think of an orphan, when you think of kids living in orphanage, you think of serving them. You don't think of them serving others. And the phenomenal lesson is for the kids in the orphanage, by comparison and Haiti, look at the blessings you have to be able to live in this magnificent place. And even though you've been orphaned, you too can serve. I don't know that there's a more valuable lesson a child could ever learn than what you're going to teach him through this exercise. And to the community at large, I mean, it really has the potential to change the lives of some really unfortunate poverty, stick, and children. How does that make you feel?

You know, let's make me feel great. That's make me feel happy. You know, all these troubles I went to, God was preparing me for that. So, John, the show is an army of normal folks. And what we always find out at the end of the show is that these normal folks are anything but normal. Thus the nickname, I guess, Andre the giant for a five-foot non-hation. You've seen this for the last 20 years. You've witnessed it all.

You've been a part of it. You've been a partied to it. You know what it is now, and you know where it came from, and you've watched this man take his dream with absolutely no resources. And dumpster dive and beg borrow, and I won't say still but beg borrow a knock on church windows to to get it where it is now. Where's what's next? Well what's next is to reconstitute the board and then to ensure that these children that are coming through the place of hope learn how to return to the community what they've received.

Well making beds for children who don't have them is a good first step. It is a good first step. And in Haiti my observation has been that there is a patronage culture which is to say that many of the people in Haiti are waiting to be rescued for someone to rescue them, take them out of it. What is less prevalent is an entrepreneurial spirit. And so I think the next step for the folks in Haiti is to become food secure, self-sufficient, so that they can grow their own food or produce their own food.

They're all buildings. Get everything so that they could be self-sustaining so that they don't have to depend on anybody and to teach those kids that entrepreneurial spirit so that when they leave that place with a skill, they know then how to go and start a business of their own and sustain themselves. That's the next big step for them. Andrei, you are an amazing human being with an amazing story. And this is an amazing happenstance that a pastor from Florida answered the door on a knock from Andre and what has all developed and then comes full circle

to hear one of our podcasts that now is returning back to Haiti where kids are gonna make kids orphans and an orphanage are gonna make beds for the kids in the community that don't have them and one of the most poverty-stricken places that I could imagine. And John and Andre both both of you, could not be more emblematic of what we talk about when we talk about an army of normal folks that

see places of need and don't fill them because they're A-listers or trust-run babies, but just normal folks who see places a need and fill it and in doing so change lives. And you both have done that. And your life has been doing that, Andre. And I'm so honored that we got to have this conversation. I'm humbled and inspired by both of your commitment and story to children who desperately need it. I just wanna tell you how much I appreciate you

coming to Memphis and sharing your story with me. Thank you, thank you, thank you for having us. And thank you for joining us this week. A little update. Our team at an Army of Normal folks has decided to donate a thousand bucks to help the orphanage with material costs for building four beds, which are more expensive and Haiti because getting the materials to Haiti is so expensive. And Reverend John's Church has decided to match another $1,000 gift.

If you be interested in empowering Haitian orphans to help bedless kids and their community, you can donate any amount to placeofhopeinhady.org and write beds in the comment box. Or if you'd be interested in helping the orphanage in general, you can of course do that as well. And if Andre or John or other guests have inspired you in general or better yet to take action, please seriously y'all let me know. I want to hear about it. You can write me anytime at billatnormalfokes.us and I will respond. If you enjoyed this incredible episode, which I cannot imagine how you could enjoy this episode, share it with friends and

on social. Subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it. Become a premium member at normalfocest.us, all these things that will help us grow and army of normal folks. Remember guys, the more people, the more impact. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week. Walter Isaacson set out to write about a world-changing genius in Elon Musk and found a man addicted to chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks.

The book launched a thousand hot takes, so I sat down with Isaacson to try to get past the noise. I like the fact that people who say, I'm not as tough on musk as I should be, or are always using anecdotes from my book to show why we should be tough on musk. Join me, Evan Ratliffe, for On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Listen on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like Easy Listening, but for fiction. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai and I'm an architect of COSI. Come spend some time where everyone is welcome and the default is kindness. Listen, relax, enjoy.

Listen to stories from the village of nothing much. On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Shannon Dordy. Host of the new podcast, let's be clear with Shannon Dordey. So in this podcast, I'm going to be talking about marriage, divorce, my family, my career. I'm also going to be talking a lot about cancer, the ups and the downs, everything that I've

learned from it. It's going to be a wild ride. So listen to Let's Be Clear with Shannon Dirty on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.