Beyond The Plate – A Podcast by Food For The Poor
Food isn't just delicious... it can also change your life! Tune into Beyond the Plate, a new podcast presented by International Charity: Food For The Poor. Get inspired with conversations that nourish the soul. Hear amazing stories of transformation from faith influencers, leaders in the nonprofit sector, and the individuals receiving aid in the 15 countries of Latin America that Food For The Poor serves.
Beyond The Plate – A Podcast by Food For The Poor
Ep. 22 - From Indiana to Honduras: A Million Dollar Miracle
A Christmas promise made in desperation. A small Midwestern town demonstration of compassion. A struggling Honduran village where families go days without food. These seemingly unrelated elements converge in an extraordinary story of connection that demonstrates how compassion can bridge any divide. We explore the remarkable story of how the communities of Greensburg, Indiana and Cucuyagua, Honduras formed an unlikely but powerful connection through compassionate community action.
When Tom Ricke's wife Susan faced a life-threatening medical emergency on Christmas Day 1990, he made a vow to God—if she survived, he would do anything asked of him. Years later, Father Carlton Beever visited their church in Greensburg, Indiana, sharing heartbreaking stories of children and families struggling to survive in Honduras.
What followed defied all expectations. The parishioners of St Mary’s Church and community of Greensburg mobilized in unprecedented ways. Even Mayor Joshua Marsh joined the mission, traveling to Honduras and forming meaningful connections. What resulted was not just building houses, but comprehensive support systems including community centers, feeding programs, education facilities, and job training.
This powerful story reminds us that when hearts break open for others, churches, families and even local students can create extraordinary change. Join us to discover how two communities separated by distance, language, and circumstances found common ground in compassion and created a miracle that continues to grow.
To learn more about Food for the Poor's integral community development work in Honduras, visit foodforthepoor.org/adoptavillage
Beyond The Plate is a podcast by international charity, Food For The Poor
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Today's episode takes us on a journey between two places that couldn't seem more different Greensburg.
Speaker 2:Indiana Food for the Poor came to visit when they were in Greensburg and reached out about just sharing what the St Mary's community was working on. St Mary's is our largest church. We're about 13,000 people in southeastern Indiana and they have a real passion for helping local and internationally and Cucuyagua, Honduras.
Speaker 3:First saw that the people in Honduras. They had absolutely nothing. They didn't eat for three days, but their hearts were just full of gladness and joy and sincere gratitude for what they had. Their faith was absolutely unbelievable. I just knew that we had to help these people. It just jumped out at me. It just had to be done.
Speaker 1:One, a small American town known for a tree growing out of its courthouse tower, the other a rural farming community in the heart of Honduras' dry corridor. But what connects them is nothing short of miraculous.
Speaker 2:That's where the connections really help. Blossom is that we can be really proud of the work that fellow Greensburg natives are doing to help people around the world, because it's really a humankind kind of piece and not just the down the street kind of piece.
Speaker 1:This is Food for the Poor, but we're not just food. We go beyond the plate to discuss a full range of development programs, all designed to break the cycle of poverty by empowering people with the tools and training they need to transform their lives for generations to come.
Speaker 4:These stories will inspire you and, best of all, you can be part of the change that takes place.
Speaker 4:Join us as we go Beyond the Plate. All right Food for the Poor works in 15 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, and one of those six priority countries is Honduras, and the need there is urgent, and nearly half of the population lives in poverty that's more than one in 10, who survive on what's equivalent of $2 a day. And in Cucuyagua, where droughts devastate crops, even farming families struggle to survive. But hope has a way of finding its way in.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said Cucujagua, because I had to actually write it down so I don't mispronounce it. It's a big part of what we're talking about today and that's why we have such passionate clergy speakers that basically they, like Father Carlton Beaver, regularly speak in churches like St Mary's Church in the beautiful city of Greensburg, indiana, where he shares the experiences of what he has seen in places like Cucujagua, as well as become the voice for the voiceless in places like Cucujagua, honduras. Now, father Carlton, welcome to Beyond the Plate and just kind of get us right into what you talked to that group of parishioners that beautiful day in St Mary's Church in Greensburg, indiana. What was it that you shared with them about this beautiful country and this beautiful community?
Speaker 5:Well, I shared with them stories of my experience doing mission trips, especially in Honduras, and about the poverty I saw and about the children and how people struggle just to have enough food to eat, clothes to wear, basically surviving day to day, and I think those stories are what touched people's hearts.
Speaker 1:You set the stage there, father Carlton. You do this all the time as one of our clergy speakers in our Church Alliances division, but it's not even the need is so clear. You obviously arrested everyone's hearts with compassion. Now, two people that were in that parishion, that congregation, that particular day were our other guests, tom and Susan Rickey. Now, susan, I have to hear your take on. You know, what did you feel, what did you experience when you heard the cries of people that you've never met before, through the voice of Father Carlton?
Speaker 6:Well, I first have such an advantage of being a woman. I think we hear the things about the children the most. If you hear that a child is dying of starvation, it was incomprehensible to me and that you know it's already going over your head and on yours and that is what struck me so much and I felt that Tom was really marching in to the one you just said and I saw Tom looking around the church and things. But other than that, I have to say it's a normal. You know Sunday belief where we have this new fantasy, or you know true solutions from different portions of the saints, and I've known as a father for all of them for years because he was our associate pastor where we have his new fantasy. Or you know, it's recently just from different organizations, and I've known as a father for all of them for years because he was our associate pastor before and nothing dropped. So I think that's basically what it is about the children.
Speaker 1:So you brought Tom into this, because I've been waiting to ask Tom about this. You're sitting in the church next to your beautiful wife. You're hearing this impassionate plea by Father Carlton, someone you've known for years, but now you know this side of the work that he does through Food for the Poor. But it was something that happened a little earlier in life that really kicked all of this off. So, Tom, can you take us back to Christmas Day 1990, and that promise that you made to God?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, I sure will. My wife, susan, woke me up at about 1130 that night, christmas Eve night, and she told me she says, tom, she says I cannot move my arm or leg, arm or lay, and then I said, okay, we better get to the hospital so the hospital could be the terminal hospital. It was only two blocks from my house, so we got in the car, went over there really quick and the first thing that they said the doctor, come in right away. And he said we believe the wise is dying, and so we took her to more tests. And then first thing I did was go to the chapel, which is right there, and I cried like a babe and I told I asked the good Lord if you would spare her life that I would do anything and everything if she asked of me. From here on out, no matter what it is, I will do it, no question asked.
Speaker 1:Well, you know spoiler alert for our audience Susan made it through. Here she is Okay, Look at how beautiful she looks. I mean you wouldn't know, but it was the community of prayers that really brought a lot of comfort and brought you through a very difficult and dark time.
Speaker 4:And we're talking here with Susan and Tom Ricky, father Carlton as well on the call and soon to join us right here in the next segment. Mayor of Greensburg Indiana. I want to jump back to you, tom, and Susan as well, on the call and soon to join us right here in the next segment. Mayor of Greensburg Indiana. I wanna jump back to you, tom and Susan, so eventually, 30 years in the future, you guys jumped on a plane and traveled to Honduras, where you actually saw the need firsthand. What story jumped on board your heart and made its way back home to Greensburg Indiana.
Speaker 3:The first saw that the people in in honduras, um, they had absolutely nothing, um, they didn't eat for three days, but their hearts were just full of, uh, gladness and joy and sincere gratitude for what they had. Their faith was absolutely unbelievable and I just knew that we, we had to help these people. It just, it just jumped out at me, it just, it just had to be done you went to honduras, you saw a person in need first.
Speaker 4:Right, you saw you probably small, you saw one house, one family and you didn't decide just to just kind of help out that one family. You said, let's take on the community itself. I want to take this whole community back to Greensburg, indiana. And then something incredible happened which you kind of lightly spoke up on that. So you said, everybody responded. The community responded churches, schools, businesses, even the mayor of Greensburg, joshua Marsh, joined in the mission. Mayor Marsh, welcome to Beyond the Plate. What did you see in Cucujagua? What stood out to you about the people and your counterpart, the local mayor, who donated that land for this project and something about a key to the city.
Speaker 2:If you can elaborate on that, yeah, well, thanks for having me, and this program is really a fascinating one. Food for the Poor came to visit when they were in Greensburg and reached out about just sharing what the St Mary's community was working on. St Mary's is our largest church. We're about 13,000 people in southeastern Indiana and they have a real passion for helping local and internationally. So it was great to see the program, but what really stood out to me and what got me interested in attending the first trip to Honduras was this idea that the wraparound services create a much more stable community.
Speaker 2:It's not simply a basket of something, it's an education, it's a community, it's a government style system that maybe here in the States we would care, you know, consider it to be like an HOA, but it's a community driven leadership organization that, as somebody who's in local government and really appreciates and understands, you know the law behind how do we create civilizations in society? The concept was really really fascinating to me. So we jumped on a plane with the group, went to Honduras, met with two mayors actually San Pedro Sula and Cucuyagua had an opportunity. They presented us with a key to the city and we were able to leave them a few gifts of ourselves. But their mayor in Cucuyagua is a young guy too, so it is a great opportunity to connect with what they are struggling with, with what they're working on, and his support and donation of the land from the city to this village really helps bring the whole, the whole idea, to life, and can't wait to get back later this year and reconnect with them.
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Speaker 1:Cheers to that BearBrewscom, that's B-A-R-E Brewscom. You know you talk about the. You use the word compassion and I, I, I and this, this. This really was more than that. It was literally hearts were let just rent for this community, for what you all saw and what you brought back. And I mean, if we saw I mean we saw from your community of what 30,000 in Greensburg plus all of the neighboring communities, it's just a testament to what a community rallies around, the vision God has given for those whose heart are bent towards this. But I just have to say you know you were kind of modest in.
Speaker 1:Tom was a little bit modest when he just talked about the million dollars. Let's kind of break that down a little bit. First of all, tom, your numbers are off. It's $1,145,000. Okay, and counting. I'm sure You're talking about medical equipment that went down. They were talking about bicycles that were donated through another organization, penny Wars, as you mentioned, the 13,000 from the students.
Speaker 1:And then what was really fascinating to me was the trailer, the trailer that we tried to pack all of this stuff in. You couldn't even get the door closed. It was like literally you had to take everything out and reshuffle it and repack it. That's a great problem to have. That's a great problem to have. But what I love about this was it's the community center, where now communities can come together with that harmony and this integral community development. It's a feeding center, where children and families can get the nutrition and the health that they need. St Vincent de Paul with their bicycles so that communities can get around, different ones can get around. A pallet of bicycle parts and clothing. Decatur County Memorial Hospital with physical therapy equipment Everything was thought of. Everything in this community that they needed in Cucuyagua was thought of, and we just again reemphasize this word miracle, miracle that we got from you all.
Speaker 1:Now, mayor Marsh, I want to go back to you for just one moment, because here you are, the mayor of this community. You're accountable for how this community responds to someplace so far away, so different from your own community in southern Indiana. But you saw sewing and seamstress training. You saw welding schools, you saw culinary training. You saw the water purification units that were to be built in the community that they're supporting, helping bring extra income in addition to delivering safe water. How did it make you feel, as you came back to your constituents, to your community, to your family, saying we're going to get behind this and, as you said your own words, we're looking forward to going back. What did it make you feel? What did it make you feel like inside, as the leader of and the head of the mayor of this community you know, and how it represents Greensburg to Honduras?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's really important first to put really more emphasis on that. St Mary's is leading the charge on this right. The city of Greensburg is, and I've been personally a big supporter of it and the idea that we help share what the idea and the vision is. So I think it's important to say you know, this is a St Mary's-led project and I'm so proud that they get to call Greensburg home first of all. So the connection really is rooted in.
Speaker 2:We talk about job training, child care, education and betterment all the time for people, and in this case, we are helping people start on a very fundamental level, a level that is required for them to advance and better their lives.
Speaker 2:So when we talk about people helping people, this is the way to do it, and the programming that is on the ground is really what was, I guess, being truth tested right. Is it actually working? We went to a completed village. We saw the community centers, we saw the schools, we saw kids, you know, learning in air conditioned environments which create a more conducive educational environment for them, and I think that that is what we can talk about when we come home and showcase our community. They struggle with access to healthcare, making sure the infrastructure is in place to support industry and agriculture and jobs that support people at their level. And I think that that's where the connections really help. Blossom is that we can be really proud of the work that fellow Greensburg natives are doing to help people around the world, because it's really a humankind kind of piece and not just the down the street kind of piece.
Speaker 4:I want to share a quick fact nugget from Greensburg, indiana. The Decatur County Courthouse in Greensburg, indiana, is known for a tree which grows from the top of the courthouse tower right, and that's what gives Greensburg its nickname Tree City. That's correct, all right From a tree growing out of a courthouse tower to a tree of life growing in between two communities. You see what I did there. This is what happens when people listen and when they act and when they believe. Mayor Marsh, you were again presented with the key to the city of Cucuyagua. What has this experience shown you about your own community here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's a great opportunity. You know people value when others care. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, and I really appreciate the mayor's hospitality of our entire delegation while we were there. I really appreciate the mayor's hospitality of our entire delegation while we were there. Obviously, this investment by these folks at St Mary's is helping his community, but it really means a lot when they take the time. He wants. He wanted to learn about the Tree City. He shared a key to the city with us as a community and you know I invited him to come visit us sometimes, just as we have come to visit him, and you know I look forward to that opportunity to welcome him to the Tree City sometime in the future.
Speaker 4:That'd be amazing and hopefully we can revisit that moment so we can take it back all the way to December of 1990, where it all started, where this miracle started and it's still happening today. Thank you, tom, today. Thank you, tom Susan, thank you Father Carlton, thank you once again Mayor of Greensburg, indiana, joshua Marsh, and everyone who's tuned in today to Beyond the Plate. Thank you all.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We hope you felt the connection. One plate, one story, one act of love can change everything.
Speaker 4:Discover more stories and join our community at foodforthepoororg slash podcast and follow us, too, at beyondtheplatepodcast. Together we can make a difference. This is beyond the plate.
