Spirit in Action
Porter Place Ministries - Bobbi Jo Toy
Bobbi Jo Toy is the primary staff person and a co-founder of Porter Place Ministries. Bobbi Jo lives out a special calling to empower women and, through them, to help all members of the community. Bobbi Jo Toy has a special ability to turn concerns over to God, and to draw unexpected support and gifts from the wider community, even without asking. Bobbi Jo is a life coach, a consultant, a mother, and a devoted Christian.
- Broadcast on:
- 04 Jan 2009
- Audio Format:
- other
[music] ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear as one with every voice ♪ ♪ With every song we will move this world along ♪ ♪ And my lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ ♪ With every song we will move this world along ♪ Welcome to Spirit in Action, my name is Mark Helpsmeak. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sync deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice, with every song we will move this world along ♪ Joining us today for Spirit in Action is the primary staff person and a co-founder of Porter Place Ministries, Bobbie Jo Toy. Bobbie Jo lives out a special calling to empower women and through them to help all members of the community. Bobbie Jo Toy has a special ability to turn concerns over to God and to draw unexpected support and gifts from the wider community, even without asking. Bobbie Jo is a life coach, a consultant, a mother, a devoted Christian, and I'm pleased to welcome her today for Spirit in Action. Thank you Bobbie Jo so much for joining me for Spirit in Action. Thank you Mark for having me. But I got to come to your place and it's quite a beautiful place. Would you describe for the audience the physical place where Porter Place Ministries evolves from? What is the physical part of Porter Place Ministries? Porter Place Ministries has been named for the building in which it resides and the building is located at 914 Porter Avenue in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is the heart of downtown Eau Claire. And it's a two-story home and the first floor of that home has always been commercial property. The first floor has offices and a conference room and a pantry and other breakaway rooms that can be used for workshops and meetings and things like that. We like it because it looks like a bed and breakfast, but once you get in the door you realize that it's a very inviting business center and it's lovely. Most people think of a divide between business and ministry, that if you make money at something that you're obviously not doing ministry, is it okay to make money as a ministry? Well you know what Mark, most people have to drum up their money. They go to church to church to let people know what they're doing and they go from organization and organization or they send out mass mailings, hoping that people will support them. We don't make money in our ministry, but we re-raise money, earn money in order to support the ministry so that we can offer the services that we have. And the ministry does not own the building. It also doesn't own all the space, but it does have part in the business center. And if you compartmentalize it, it is a ministry that empowers women through the resources of the rest of the building. And so we provide the space, provide things to free of charge for the building to be here, but we do have to empower the ministry, not because we're making money for other things. Each piece has its own place in order to protect the ministry so the ministry doesn't fall. And we don't have to go out and about and ask people to donate money. Does that mean we'd never take any if they offered it to us? No, we will. Like we'll have a fundraiser and we'll invite folks to participate in our Thrive Cell, for example. We have a Thrive Cell. They can mark their things. We'll sell their things and give them their money. The whole idea is that we want to have fun. We want to bring community together. And if we happen to raise some money or somebody donates some of their money from the sale or their items for the sale for us to sell, that is perfectly okay with us. It's fun. It brings people together and that's what God is all about. It's bringing people together and sharing his spirit with them. And that's what our goal is. You mentioned, Bobbi Joe, that this is to reach out to women, to help women. What specific kinds of projects or goals do you have in terms of that service to women? Well, let me first talk about Porter Place Ministries, a light for women. I think it's important that people understand that the ministry focuses on women versus focusing on children or men or families and those kinds of things. We still minister to people that are attached to women, but our primary, we have to start somewhere. In order to have a ministry that's focused and that can be fruitful, you have to have a plan. And our plan is to focus on women. First and foremost, we try to get women together. And we do that in a variety of ways. We offer workshops and Bible studies and just social groups that they can come to like book clubs and just an opportunity to express themselves. We do that sort of thing. And we offer them on a weekly basis. We also have some really neat projects actually that are in the community right now. One project that is really exciting to me is what we call Project Blanket. We're kind of the blanket ladies here at Porter Place. We found out that there was a ministry in the area called Operation Backpack where people in the community could donate new blankets to this ministry. And the blankets were intended to give them to children who are pulled out of meth homes. And I heard about it, thought it was a great idea, called some shut-ins that I know, said if I give you material, would you make some blankets? And if you either materially or yarn that sort of thing, can you either knit or make blankets for this other ministry, and then I'll collect them and donate them. We collected over 100 blankets from women in the community who are either active sores or shut-ins. My goal was to help a whole bunch of women across social, economic groups get together and do something together because you don't see that a whole lot. So over 100 blankets were donated to Operation Backpack. That was amazing. And so what we ended up doing is Operation Backpack stopped. I don't know that they're dissolved, but I do know that that need is no longer there. The meth isn't so prominent now. And then I couldn't find them after a while. So what we ended up doing is we continued making blankets, but we did it on a little bit smaller scale, so maybe 50 blankets, that sort of thing. But we continued to provide fabric and yarn to people who make blankets. And then we ourselves, the small group of women who direct and shape border placement issues, we would get together and make some ourselves so that we had a hand in it. You know, it sounds literally. We wanted to touch the blankets so that we knew what it felt like to make them and so that we understood what it felt like to give them away. And we started offering blankets in the community so that any child who was pulled out of their home for any reason could have a blanket. Well, then that piece evolved into me saying to a counselor at Tim's school, "Gee, if you know of any children who might have a need for a blanket or a teddy bear, because it just happened that I had some teddy bears." I said, "Would you let me know?" I said, "Because we have these beautiful blankets and we just want to touch lives. We don't want to be recognized for it. We just want to give them as a silent gift." You know, because if you give a gift, give it in secret, because that's what Jesus would do. He wouldn't just shout it out. So what happened was I had these beautiful blankets and somebody donated some teddy bears. And Timothy's school counselor heard me, but didn't say a whole lot at that time, but later called me and said, "Do you really have blankets and teddy bears?" And I said, "I do." And she said, "Well, you know, we had a family who's home burned in our school." She said, "These two little kids, one is five and the other one is like eight, and it's a boy and a girl, and they just have nothing left." And I said, "Well, I'll be right over it." So I took a couple of bags that had been donated to us. I picked a blanket for each child that we had in our blanket closet, went downstairs and found the bears, and took these bears and put a bear in there. And then I put some other, you know, necessities like toothbrush, toothpaste, and just some things that a child might like. And I just took them over and donated them. And normally, I don't get to hear about those kinds of -- what happens after we give away our blankets, I don't know where they went. But in this case, I did, and so I asked the counselor later about the children, and I said, "How do they like your blankets?" And she said, "You know, the boy and the girl were so excited to have something." And she said, "The little girl who was five -- the bag I provided was bigger than the girl evidently, but she insisted on carrying her own blanket to the bus." Because of that one little piece, we've become the blanket ladies. And so we don't make a lot now, but we give them away to whomever God brings us to share them with, and every time we know we're making an impact in a child's life. And we're just women who want to touch people. So that would be one project. Another project that we have is that this coming summer, I and a couple of other women are hopefully traveling to Bolivia. We're planning on it. That is our goal. We haven't picked a date yet that we're leaving because we have to find out what's going on over there before we actually decide. But we have a young lady who's from Falk Creek, Wisconsin. Her name is Heather Mickelson. She's a missionary, chiropractor in Bolivia. There are only three chiropractors in Bolivia. Two of them is their paid profession. For Heather, it's a ministry. Heather's primary goal is to be in Bolivia and work with children. She touches children. She said, I asked her about her chiropractic skills and the children, and she said, "You know, I rarely ever give them a chiropractic adjustment." She said, "My goal is to touch these children who are in orphanages who have no one else to care about them." I heard about Heather, and Heather's mother introduced me to her, and then I said, "Well, that's really interesting. Can you come and speak to my women's group?" We just got together, and I invited Heather and her mother to tell us about two different ministries that we're excited about, and one was Heather's Bolivia ministry, and the other one was her mother's African ministry, which is another topic. But anyway, so they came, they shared, and my group of six or seven women were so touched by these two women who just give their hearts to what they do. Immediately after leaving, we prayed and decided that that was where God ended us to go next, and it's very exciting because we're going there to empower Heather and to touch the children with her. At least in addition to myself, we have four women who will be personally touched by this ministry. Heather, the two women that are going with me, Anissa and Cindy, and myself. I mean, that's just four, but think of how many people we're going to tell, and we're planning to go there bearing practical gifts for these children. I sent some little magnet keychains over there. They were just small little pocket keychains that had magnets on the end that you test to see if something is magnetic. That's the purpose of it. It's a tool that we use at a choice, grab, and salvage to see what kind of, you know, metal is out there, and that's my family business. I just happened to have a bunch the night that Heather was here. I ran in my office and got him, and I put him in her backpack. She immediately got back to Bolivia and, you know, emailed me pictures of these boys playing with those keychains, and she said these boys will have months worth of fun playing with those keychains. It completely stunned me to think that I have a child who has more toys and books and technical equipment. He's 11. In my boy, if I gave him a magnet, it would be in his hand one minute and two minutes later it would be out of his hand and he'd never know or even put it. And I realized how, I don't want to say selfish, I feel, but blessed I am to have what I have, and there's no reason I can't share it. And that's been the premise of Porter Place Ministries all along, is that I seek out ways to share what I have so that other women can feel strength to share what they have so that women, families, children are supported. And so I'm very blessed to be able to have that kind of energy occasionally so that I can help women do that. And God has given me the gift to do that. I mean, even when I'm really, really sick from a tumor that I have, I still continue doing the work that God called me to do because it makes me happy to share what other people don't have. I know a woman who's in motion from the rising of the morning sun. And the walls are stamped between her and the place she needs to be in order to keep on toppling one by one. She keeps moving to her rainbow's and his mind. She's getting off on getting this. She keeps making progress and breaking ground. She says, "You've got to keep on moving." Even when you cannot feel the beat you've got to keep on moving. It's energizing when you're rising, when you're bringing up and holding you back. And when you're rolling you'll bet you'll find you're picking up women. If you just pray your wheels, say all the tracks you can't stop. You'll never will cause people to watch you. Oh, and you're in easy talking when you stand still. You'll find you've got to keep on moving. Even when you cannot feel the beat you've got to keep on moving. [music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ That was Charlie King, a wonderful singer/songwriter who has also been my guest for Spirit in Action and Song of the Soul. With his song, "Woman of Great Energy," my guest today for Spirit in Action is a woman of great energy. Bobbie Jo Toy of Porter Place Ministries. She and her partners in Porter Place Ministries aim to help and empower women and through them to aid children, spouses, and the entire community. You've talked a bit, Bobbie Jo, about the goals and directions of Porter Place Ministries. How is Porter Place Ministries organized? Is it just you or is there decision-making? Is there a partnership? How do you end up producing this wonderful labor of love and prayer that is Porter Place Ministries? It started out with my friend Cindy Rasmussen and I, we just began praying with each other about 20 years ago. And we prayed for each other and for our families. We always had a vision of some ministry that would empower or strengthen women in different ways. And we also had a vision to have a place where women could come and tell their stories and be who they are. We just kept the vision, kept praying about it, talked about it through the years into a variety of ways. We would talk about having a coffee shop, a place where we could have game night. All these different things would come into our mind. And for 20 years we prayed about it and then one day God brought it upon me to buy this building. And I had been living in this building for some time. Anyway, so Cindy and I started it. Then we built a board of directors and so we have about five people on our board in addition to us. When we make a decision we just get together and we talk about what we want to do. Decisions are made based on need. You know, what's the need and is it the scope of the project? Can we do it or not? And if we can't do it, well then we don't. If we don't have the financial means to drum it up, we don't. But if we do, then we give it a shot. But most of our services really are me here and in this space. People call. Many of my clients come to me out of basic referral and so it's a service thing. It's kind of like being a counselor. We do spiritual counseling. What's the guiding vision that brings the five of you or the other people who are vital to Port Place Ministries? What's the vision of Port Place Ministries that brings you together? Well, our vision is a vision of strong women and families in our community with the vision rather of strong women and families in our community. The mission of Port Place Ministries is to empower women by promoting personal, professional and spiritual growth. As a result of that, we offer interactive and supportive services that encourage personal and biblical accountability. And we provide a safe and enjoyable place for women to tell their stories and be who they are. And our vision is to bring women, and again, we're not limited to women in the Chippewa Valley, but because we live in the Chippewa Valley, if we tend to service more people here. But again, as I mentioned about Bolivia and Africa, we are not afraid to touch women in other places. And we understand that women are attached to a lot of different people. Our vision is to help the men, women and children, but we do it through the instrument of women. And our goal is to help women feel like they've accomplished something, or to give them confidence, or to help them figure out what's broken in their life and how they might find a way to strengthen it or fix it. And we do that by praying. And many times it's God who gives us permission. I mean, all of the women on the board are women of faith. There are men and women on the board, by the way, but we're people of faith, biblical faith. Our decisions, we don't make them based on our criteria alone. We also utilize the Bible. And so we go there for direction, and we pray. We hit direction in that way. And so our vision is to incorporate God's Word first and foremost, and the spiritual means to communicate with him. And then also by counting on each other to bring gifts and skills to the table that we all have, and we reach out to the community. We're an outreach ministry, community outreach, and we reach far places. I mean, we're just like this little ministry that does great, big things. Since Cindy and I started this over 20 years ago, just praying together, we have evolved from being women who get together for Bible study and prayer to a group of women who have strong entrepreneurial spirits, who want to empower other women to be able to use their gifts and talents, either professionally or personally or whatever way they want to do it. And so we've gone from being the small group of women to an empowering group of women. It's been a really neat to see that happen. One of the things I find interesting, Babu Joe, is that this started as a vision of women spending time together. And I think that used to be normal back before women's liberation meant that so many women are working in jobs and have overactive lives where they don't have their women connecting time. Is this, to some degree, a way to bring that center back to women, to women and families who are so often now out in the business place? Well, if you know me at Almark, which I know you do, I like to bring people together. But what I have discovered is I've gotten older. I've discovered that there are a lot of women and men, but women in particular, who just don't have the confidence to believe that what they do is valuable. I don't care if it's at home or in the workplace or in a social group. They go there and they wonder why they're there. They go there, they participate and go home again and think, "Gee, what did I contribute? Was it good enough? I wonder if anybody?" I'm a life coach business consultant, and so in my professional life, I meet with people all the time. I interview many people for different reasons. And every woman I know, not everyone, but I would say 98% of the women I work with, I find out they have a really low self-confidence and a spiritual need. So in doing this, in interviewing women and finding out about them and servicing their needs as a professional, more and more over time. And as I've gotten older, even in social circumstances, I just see that women, they have friends, but they don't have the strength of community. I just saw an niche that needed to be filled in our community. And I'm a business woman and it's not that I don't have friends. I have plenty of friends. Lots of family. Can't keep up. I don't know birthdays because there's so many people out there. But I'm not the norm. I think my pool of people and resources is huge compared to the norm. And even if they do have them, they don't know how to call on their inner source of strength because they don't have one. And so I just saw this need and started bringing women together because yes, I think that in biblical times, it was really common and ordinary for people to gather together and women to get together. Not necessarily to do any particular kind of work, but to be there for each other. This building allowed me the opportunity to start bringing women together in a new and different way than just to meet and sit. And there's nothing wrong with praying and meeting and doing Bible study, but there's so much more. God doesn't want us to just be about us. He wants us to be about other people. I invite people that come to Porter Place or women to come here and they can come here to pray. They can come in and use the building for a social gathering, sell their wares or whatever it might be, but to encourage them and to empower them to show them that someone really does care about what they do. What happens is over time, you know, it's been, you know, about eight years now I think since I have on this building, but we have come together in a way that is very similar to biblical times. It's kind of interesting. People sometimes think of these as two very different things. Some people think that when you're liberating women, when you're paying a special attention to women, that you're a women liberationist. And that frequently is not very faith-based. You're strongly faith-based. So are you women's liberation and are you faith-based? Do these two go together well? Well, you know, Mark, the answer is yes. Well, they do. And I think that I'm a walking example of that. I've never looked at people and thought, "Oh, they're better than me." Or, "It's a man, so a man gets to make the decision," or whatever the words are that would make me not liberal, or, you know what I mean? It's a different way of doing it. Instead of chanting it or getting out there and just saying, "We need it, we're doing it." Which is a whole different way of operating. And I will tell you that the thing that I find really exciting and is that Porter Place Ministries makes every effort to be a self-supporting ministry as we believe that successful mentoring becomes by modeling our faith. Life skills, professional talent, and accountability. That makes us, I think, very liberating. Tell me some more, Bobbi Joe, about some of the ways that Porter Place Ministries has been working. And the way that gifts of the Spirit have come to meet the needs. Because I see you, my personal witness of you, has been that you put pieces of puzzles together. It's not like you have some big bank account and you can hand out to everyone who comes. Someone comes with a need, you pray about it, open to it, and the answer seems to appear. Could you talk about some of those examples, the ones that have touched you? Well, as you know, and as you probably have observed, I'm a great believer in miracles, and they happen. God showed me back in about, I don't remember the year now, eight years ago, that I was to buy this building, for example. There was nothing in my life portfolio that said I financially had the means to purchase this building. And I was renting it, and I just had this strong feeling that I was to pursue buying it. And so I mentioned to the owner, "Gee, if it's for sale, let me know." Well, then it went for sale and he didn't let me know, but you know, it never sold. And then one day he came to me and he said, "You know, are you really interested in buying that building?" And I said, "You know, I really am." Now, on the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "Well, I don't have any money to do that." Because I know what it cost to buy a building like this. This is a mixed-use property, and it's in the third ward. And I mean, there's just a lot of different things that factor into the cost of this building. I was on a mission trip with Cindy in North Carolina, where we were ministering to a woman who was from our community, whose son was born with Cabay syndrome. Anyway, one day we were sitting in the, we were there for about a week, and anyway, one day I get a call from a woman from my church, my home church. And she said, "You know, we were praying about your building in church today, and I'm thinking, why would they be praying about my buildings?" Because I hadn't told anyone that I was planning to pursue the building. And so then I got back to Wisconsin and Eau Claire, and I started really pursuing it prayerfully and purposefully with my close, confident group of women. So I'm praying about it, and I went to the bank, and then I went to another bank, and each banker told me that there was no possible way that I could purchase this building. I knew that I only had about $2,000 in the bank as far as savings was concerned, and I knew I needed a whole lot more to buy it as far as a down payment. And you know, Mark, what was really exciting is that God provided not only the means to buy this building, he provided the down payment in full without me telling or asking anyone about what I needed. And it wasn't in full minus what Bobby said she had, or it wasn't anything like this. The day that I was going to back out of the deal after I had been purposefully pursuing it, I stood down in what is now the front office. And I prayed and I said, "Lord, could you show me what you want?" And I thought you wanted me to buy the building, and I've been letting the seller think that I'm very interested in this building, and the truth is I don't have it. So if you want me to have it, you better come up with that money pretty darn quick, and within a half an hour, Mark, I was gifted in full the down payment for this space. And I was able to get back to the negotiation table and name my terms, because I had the money in my hand. I couldn't have done that without God. So that's one example of a miracle. Another example of a miracle is a few years ago I had a woman call me about my business, and many of my clients come to me via referral from my business. And then I realized in the middle of working with them that they aren't there just for a resume or a business plan or life coaching services or whatever it might be, I discovered listening to them that they lack confidence and that they have a spiritual need. When I see that, I stop charging them at that point, because I'm sure that they don't even know they have a need, and then I slot them over into my ministry area. And I don't charge them for services that I, well, for praying with people, you know, I don't pray with people and charge them. But one day, a friend of mine called me and she owns a business in town, and she said, "Bobby Joe, would you be willing to work with this employee that I have?" I think she's underemployed, she's a mother of two children. She works for me, but it isn't enough to sustain a family that I can see. So would you be willing to write her a business plan? I think she'd be really good at this type of, you know, X type of service. And I said, "You know, sure, I'd look at her business plan." She goes, "I'll pay you." And I said, "Well, that's, you know, you can. That'd be fine, but I'd be happy to work with her even with that." So if you want to make a donation to our Petit Cash Fund, you're certainly welcome to do that. I made an appointment with the woman to meet with her to talk about the business plan, but something in my spirit, she was meeting with me like on the following Wednesday. And on Friday night, Friday before, my spirit told me that I was to meet with her immediately. I thought, "Well, how can I do that?" Well, it turned out I was supposed to go to her workplace, so I just followed my instincts. I drove to her workplace, I drove in, parked my car, went into her workplace, observed her working skills, and the thing that I noticed was she was homeless. And that really struck a red flag with me. I knew by looking at her vehicle that she and her family were living out of the car. Then I went in and I listened and I watched, and she was a heck of a worker. I mean, if I had had a job to give her, that was, you know, higher paying, I would have given it to her in a second. She was a really neat lady, enjoyed visiting with her, could see if she was on the ball, took initiative, all the right things. And then I, you know, I told her who I was, and I said, "You know, we're meeting next week. Would you be willing to make me a list?" First, of what you think you need to start your business, so that when we do our business plan, we have some, you know, things that you want in it, not just things I want in it. And also, while you're making me that list, would you be willing to write me? You know, I understand you have a couple of kids. Would you be willing to make me a list of the things that you and the children need? And she looked at me kind of funny and I said, "Well, you know, I'm talking about things like, you know, school supplies and things for, you know, maybe gas or whatever the words are that you need. You know, just make a list." I said, "I'm only asking because I also run a women's ministry and we just sort of help fill needs in the community sometimes." And she looked at me funny and she says, "You know, my son needs underwear." I'm like, "Really? Now you have to understand that I'm sick at this. Why I have a little bit of a cold and I'm not getting better. I'm feeling kind of tired." And I said, "Well, what time do you get done with work?" And it was about 6.30 at that point, and she said, "8." And I said, "How about if I stop by?" I said, "I have a little petty cash fund. How about if I stop by?" And I'll take you out to Target and we'll pick up some underwear for your son. She was very taken back by my offer and I assured her that this is something that I do all the time. This is not a big deal. This would be my honor and it would be fun to hang out with her, you know, because I didn't have anything else to do. I actually had a date that night, which I went home and canceled. And I wasn't getting sick. I didn't know but I had some kind of, I needed antibiotics by the next day anyway. But it was kind of, God said, "Take this woman and minister to her." So I picked her up at 8 p.m., took her to Target, proceeded to go shopping. And as I shopped, I would grab something like, "Let's say a good smelling soap." And I'd say, "Boy, you know, I really like the smell of this. How do you like it? Oh, I really like it. Let's get us one." I said, "I'll get one for me and one for you." And so I just kept doing that all the way through the store, buying one for me, one for her. Talking to her, listening, finally got to the boy's underwear department and she started telling me a little bit about her son, she started opening up. And it turned out that her boy was living in Oregon, another red flag for me. And I said, "Oregon." And she said, "Yeah." And I said, "Well, okay, we're buying underwear for a boy in Oregon." And so this means there's a third child that nobody knows about. And what it turned out to be was the boy had been abducted by a parent. So he was in Oregon with a parent, not illegally because it is his parent. She's here and she hasn't seen her boy in almost two years. And, you know, I took some doing, but I got all of this information out of her. And we had fun. I mean, we giggled and laughed like girlfriends and, you know, those kinds of things. And I just, I thought at that point, "God, what are you really asking me to do here?" Back in the car, I said, "You know, I will give you a jingle tomorrow. I'll bring a box over so we can mail your son his underwear." And I also bought him some treats. And I, she knew I was living or at least she had an address. And I went home that night and I prayed and I just said, "God, what is this about?" And he told me about two in the morning. He said, "Bob, you're bringing the boy home." And in Mark, less than two months later, we had the boy home. It was like about six weeks. Now, how did we do that? Well, God did a miracle. It had nothing to do with Bobby. Bobby was six. I spent the next three days on the telephone trying to convince Northwest Airlines to fly remotely out of a little town, like kind of like Eau Claire, but to the cities, but it was eight hours from the Portland airport. And I managed to talk Northwest Airlines to do a round trip ticket out of remote, so out of a remote area, so that would have been three stops, to fly the boy home to provide him with an escort for free. And the boy, they turned out that, which this is another miracle part, I called a friend of mine who lives in Oregon. I haven't seen her since she left Eau Claire back in 1991. And I knew that she lived in Oregon, so I called her, found her number, called her, and said, "T, where do you live?" And she told me. And I said, "Really? Do you know about, you know, here's this town and here's the name of the guy? Can you tell me anything about him?" And she happened to be a police officer. No, I didn't know that. She said, "Well, I'm a police officer, and I arrested him last week." And I said, "Really? Where is he?" She goes, "Well, he's in jail." And I said, "What happened to his child?" "He's living with some relatives." And I said, "Could you get me their contact information?" See, we didn't have the correct contact information. So, God provided a way for me to get, not only the contact information, but a way to get the boy to the airport if nobody else would get him there. So, I got ahold of the people who had him, convinced them that I was who I said I was, and that we would protect the child at all costs, because they thought the mother was the bad person, until the brother went to jail. It was very interesting to me to be a part of something that I now, I thought, "God, where are you getting me into here? How am I going to do this?" And he said, "Bobby, you're going to use your resources, the ones that I gave you. You're going to use your gifts of communication and prayer and intercessory prayer, and you're going to call in the Spirit to do great and mighty things." You know, I just claimed every Bible verse that I could mark, and I did it, and I and a group of people, and I guess I did most of the talking, which is pretty typical anyway, to be honest. But, you know, and we brought that boy home, and that little boy, you know, once the people there knew that we were who we said we were, and the boy said yes he wanted to come home, but he couldn't believe it. This little boy, and his name was Zack, and he said, "You know, I don't think you can do this, because it costs a lot of money to bring you. Nobody has ever been able to do this." And he was afraid, you have to understand that the alienation was so strong, he was so afraid, because his dad kept saying, "You know, I'm going to kill your mom, and he kept telling the mom he was going to kill the boy, you know, if either of them try to contact each other and all these different things." So the boy was really petrified, and so was the mother, but the man was in jail, so how convenient is that? And then, when we convinced the aunt and uncle that we were who we said we were, and that my friend would escort the boy to the airport if they couldn't do it, and she provided them with some cash so that they had gas money, God just worked it out, we picked a date. Kid on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, a little children has room for many or more, but gospel trains are coming, I hear it just at hand. Here the car we use rumble in and rumble in through the land, get on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, there's room for many or more. The fair is cheap and all can go, the retainable are there, no second class or bold, just ain't no difference in the fair, get on board, a little children get on board, a little children, there's room for many or more, get on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, a little children get on board, a little children, there's room for many or more. That was Paul Robeson, get on board, a little children and we're talking with Bobbie Jo Toy of Porta Place Ministries about one of the little children they, somewhat miraculously, were able to reunite with his mother and siblings. I'm Mark Helpsmeet of Northern Spirit Radio on the web at northernspiritradio.org and this is Spirit in Action. You can leave your comments about this program on my website, please go there and look for this program and you can find more information about this and other guests. Our spirits in action today are the women and a couple of men of Porta Place Ministries, working to support and empower women. In this case, the boy that they were working to bring back from Oregon to his mother. So Bobbie Jo, you set things up, things fell into place amazingly well, almost miraculously. Did you have follow-up and how did it all go? The boy comes back with his, you know, and I didn't meet him right away, but one day he was here with his mother picking up her business plan. You know, I said, "Well, hey, you must be Zach." And he looked at me and he says, "Oh, I didn't want you to see me. This is a 12 year old boy." He goes, "My hair is messy and I didn't want you to meet me like this." And I said, "Oh, I don't care. I've got a little boy. It's fine with me." I asked him, "I wanted to get to know him," I said, "And would you mind coming to my house for pizza or something?" Or I asked him, "I just wanted to come for dinner." And I said, "Well, what do you like?" And he said, "Pizza." And I said, "Well, what kind do you like?" I might as well have been offering a mistake. This boy, he hadn't had anyone care about him in a long time in the way that my ministry was showing them that we could do. And I said, "You know what? Any kind of pizza you like?" I said, "If you want to bring your mom and sisters and come to my house, I would be so happy to have you here for dinner." So anyway, he picked Pepperoni and I invited them for dinner the next night and he came here and they sat in a row. The mother and the son and two daughters sat on my sofa in a row. The little boy said to me, "Now, this is the little boy." He said, "Why did you do this for me?" And I said, "Because God told me to." And he said, "Well, it's really expensive. What if this hadn't worked out?" And I said, "Well, I would have found a new way to do what God told me to do." And I said, "You know what, Zach? I would have done it again and again until you got here." And he said, "Well, what if it all fell through and he lost all the money because I know how much money?" And he was really stuck on the money bit, so he must have done quite a bit of research on how to get himself home. And he said, "Can you tell me about your God?" Now, when we talk about God, we have something to talk about. Everybody needs God. If we're going to talk about churches and my church against, you know, my church is different than your church and my theology is different than your theology, well, then we're going to have arguments. Doesn't we? We can't share. But if we have to be right and only look at God in a miniscule pointed sort of way, we have nothing to discuss. But if we talk about God, we can talk about miracles and we can talk about community and people and joining together and sharing and all these different things that can happen if we want to sit down and talk about that. But we can't talk about it if we are going to have, you know, if we wear our banner and say, "This is the only way that you can look at God because it won't work." Which reminds me of Lavijo. I wanted to ask you about the Board of Partyplace Ministries is if you're not just all coming from the same church or are you or is there a diverse theological tapestry, whatever, to your board? Yes, there is, Mark. We're all different faith backgrounds. My faith background, I grew up in a Baptist church and recently I joined a Lutheran church, so that makes me a Lutheranist now. But I go there because that's where I get my spiritual food and I don't have a one-way church way of thinking. So basically it just happens to be that it fits my system of life good, you know, it's my program. But everyone else on the board comes from a different faith background as well. So we have Lutheran and Baptist and UCC, gosh, I can't even think, Catholic, Charismatic, you know, more Assembly of God tape. There's a few people who are involved with our ministry who have no real faith background at all. They just believe that, you know, the Bible is the true Word of God and they have a personal relationship with Christ. I think though it's important to know that we are a diverse group of women, we're not just Babijo Toya and she's Baptist and everyone is welcome here. It's clear to me that you're so inspired by your faith. You started out, you were raised Baptist and you've been Baptist until relatively recently, yet I believe you had a personal experience with Jesus that was part of transforming your life. Or maybe it's just been a full steam ahead ever since you were a child. Has there been a place where you found the calling where you had the personal experience that changed you and deepened you in your service? Yes, Mark, I did have an experience. When I was about four years old, I fully realized that I was called to be a missionary for God. I have known it since then. God showed me. And my mother at the time, I went to her and I asked her, she would tell me about Jesus and God and she did. She explained some things that I needed explaining and I told her I was going to be a missionary and that's pretty much been my heart's cry ever since I was a kid. I mean, it's been interesting to have that because it really has driven and shaped who I am and what I do. That said, as I got older and you would, you know, in grade school and high school, they'd ask you what you want to be when you grow up. Well, I would always say a missionary. And then I grew up. I could still see that in my life, but my idea of what a missionary is really changed. I saw that being a missionary is, you know, sharing God's gifts where you are and where God has you at that moment. And so I realized that it could be at home and not in a foreign country necessarily. Not to say I can't go to one, but for me, it was wherever I am. When I was in high school and just getting out of high school, you know, I was really in the party scene. I loved it. Still look back on it with fond memories. Dancing on the bars in Falk Creek, folks, but I loved it. And it taught me a lot about myself. And I met lots of people and I became very well connected in the greater Eau Claire community as a result of that time in my life. But what happened one day in my, you know, I would say early to mid 20s, God just tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Bobby, now it's time you've had your fun and now I want you to still enjoy your life, but I want you now to live more purposefully for me." He just showed it to me. And he, in all my life, I've been able to hear God in a way that I sometimes don't want to hear, by the way, because, you know, it makes you change your lifestyle or maybe you have to do something that's a little bit difficult. At the time I was living in Augusta, Wisconsin, and I moved back to Eau Claire, and I hadn't yet attended the university and I wasn't, I was just a work in person. And God showed me that I needed to kind of clean up my act and get purposeful about him and be more religious, let's say, in attending church. And I went to a variety of churches, you know, not just my church, my home church. So I did all of those things. With the knowledge that I was doing what God was asking me to do, I ended up working at the Christian Bible Bookstore in Highway 53. It is now something else on London Road. I don't know the name of it, I don't go there too often. But I worked for about 10 years for the Christian Bible Bookstore on Hastings Way. And during that time, I met a lot of really neat Christian people and I met. I had a lot of friends, men and women, my family owns a scrap recycling firm in the community. You may have heard of it. I grew up probably a bit of a tomboy. I loved racing motorcycles and cars, but it was a great time of my life. But the thing that I had was a lot of, I had a lot of friends. But I think I had more men friends than women, basically because I was, you know, I had this, I had a scrap yard. I had a junkyard to my disposal. And I think that made me popular with the boys. You know, I always thought it was my personality, but it turned out to be my scrap yard. But what was so neat about that time and having those resources was that when I went to work at the Christian Bible, bookstore, and I started meeting a variety of people where Christians and more Christian women, it became clear to me that I was to have Christian women friends. And I had not really had that before. I mean, I knew some, but I didn't have any close friends in that arena. I met a couple of women during that time who are now to this day, two of my closest prayer warrior sisters. I call them prayer warrior sisters. I met them while working at the Christian Bible Bookstore at the Christian Bible Bookstore. One of them is Cindy. I knew her from earlier days, but I didn't know her well. I knew who she was. We met again at the Christian Bible Bookstore, and I skeptically looked at her and thought, "Why is she here?" Say, "I was very judgmental. I was only 23. Why is she here?" And she's thinking, "Why is she here?" You know, we had the very same question about each other because we were totally different women. We were judging each other. I extended an offer to get together for coffee, and she took me up on it. We have been prayer warriors together ever since. And she has lived in Taiwan. I have lived in Australia and New Zealand, and yet God kept us together. You know, it was really neat. But that is the time of my life for God not only gave me the skills that it put me to do the work I do today, but he also introduced me to some awesome Christian women who still impact my life and are the structure of the framework that builds Porter Place Ministries. And a Bible verse that was of significance to me in the early 80s was Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't depend on your own understanding. But in all that ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Well, at the time when I was in my early 20s, that was a really important verse. I still like the verse still important. But I claimed that as part of my victory in Christ and living confidently. There were times when I really couldn't see what he was up to. I mean, it was pretty hard stripping me of my whole life. Not that it was bad or good. It just wasn't what God had intended for me. And if I kept it, I wouldn't have been able to hear him to do the things that he has brought me to here. To be able to minister to the people that I've ministered to and also to build Porter Place. And I didn't intend to build. That wasn't my first goal to build Porter Place. It was God's goal. And if we're walking with God and we're listening to him and praying, if we're really walking in accordance to his will, he makes his will our own. He can take us from being a naysayer to being an empowered person who does exactly what he is instructing us to do in a way that we feel like we are actually embodying the word of God and doing what he says. I mean, it lifts us up. It's very exciting. It is very exciting, Bobbi Joe. Before we close out, and I know we just have a little bit more time left, I'm wondering if you could give me again an overview. We've talked about some projects that you do as part of Place Ministries. But what are the services that you try and provide? Could you describe it from that point of view? Well, we offer a wide variety of services to women in our community. And I'm just going to share a few of them with you. We provide legal advocacy type services. We do community outreach. A lot of resource and referral. Volunteer opportunity. I'm a Myers-Briggs type consultant. So I'm able to do that in addition to helping people figure out what their spiritual gifts are. We offer life skills training, mentoring, spiritual counseling. And we support -- this is our new thing as we support women in business and leadership. You know, that has become my passion. And I see that women in business and leadership, they really do lack support. If you look at people who are on boards or who are directors of other community businesses and organizations and ministries, they have a board to answer to, but they don't necessarily have anyone really working with them directly as their mentor. And so we provide mentoring services for women in business and leadership so that they can succeed because if women succeed, families succeed. That's exciting. And it is, again, exciting. Thanks, Bobby Joe, for taking the time with me and just keeping this blessed ministry, keep going, gifting women and the whole of the community of the Chippewa Valley. Well, thank you, Mark. And I just would like to let people know that we do have a fabulous business center here at Porter Place. The business center itself is owned and operated by women in our community. And while anyone can rent the space from us, like the conference room and the breakaway rooms, and it's really neat, anybody who's ever visited Mark on Porter Avenue has seen the space. It has now been changed a little bit since Mark left. It's exciting because it is a place where people can come and they can rent it out into business here. They can meet a client. They can have a business meeting, a workshop, a Bible study, all kinds of things. And that is owned and operated by women in our community. And it's exciting to have that new vehicle in our midst. So I encourage people to call us. Are they going to look for you in the phone book under Porter Place Ministries' toy communications? Well, you know what? I discovered that they made an errand. I think you had that happen to you in the past where they've made an errand. Your name is wrong or not in the phone book. So good luck with that. I think the best thing would be to look under toy communication at this point because I'm not sure. I haven't even seen the new book. I'm hoping that the new book is correct. But you can always look under toy for now. Or maybe instead of calling you, maybe they should look at your website. Sure. They can go to toycomm.net. That's T-O-Y-C-O-M.net and click down Porter Place. Thank you again, Bobby Joe, for all that you're doing and for taking this time today. Well, thank you, Mark. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ To help you ease your pain. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We know me, I am your sister. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your friend. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your sister. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your friend. ♪ ♪ I will fold you in my arms like a white wing now. ♪ ♪ Shine in your soul, your spirit is crying. ♪ ♪ Spirit is crying. ♪ ♪ One of the earth. ♪ ♪ Shine, love God. ♪ ♪ Just one moment. ♪ ♪ The family. ♪ ♪ And you can count on me to share the love. ♪ ♪ And I will always help you. ♪ ♪ Hold your burdens, and I will be the one. ♪ ♪ To help you ease your pain. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your sister. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your friend. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your sister. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your friend. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your sister. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your friend. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your sister. ♪ ♪ Believe on me, I am your friend. ♪ ♪ I am your friend. ♪ That was the wonderful Chris Williamson and her song "Sister." And we've been talking today with the woman very much devoted to all the sisters she knows and has yet to meet. Bobby Joe Toy of Porter Place Ministries in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The theme music for this program is "Turning of the World," performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit in Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, NorthernSpiritRadio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. ♪ With every voice, with every song. ♪ ♪ We will move this world along. ♪ ♪ With every voice, with every song. ♪ ♪ We will move this world along. ♪ (upbeat music)