Ministry Before the Message | Wayne Howell and Jeffrey Caruth
In this episode, Mike Glenn sits down with Wayne Howell and Jeffrey Caruth from Franktown Open Hearts, a ministry that started with one man's obedience in a deer stand 29 years ago. Wayne shares how God called him from disobedience to serve kids in Franklin, Tennessee, while Jeffrey explains why successful businessmen are stepping into this work.
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Mike Glenn: [00:00:00] Well, welcome guys to, to the podcast, uh, Wayne. How Thanks for having
Jeffrey Caruth: us.
Mike Glenn: And, uh, Jeffrey Carruth. Do you go by Jeffrey? Jeff.
Jeffrey Caruth: Jeffrey.
Mike Glenn: Jeffrey, okay. Every time I hear about full name I go stand in a corner. That's just, it's, it's kind of just kind of a reflex there. I have of sure. Of all the times my mom used, Michael and I, I've, I've screwed up somewhere, so.
Oh, yes. Just go stand in a corner. Okay, and we wanna be, we wanna talk about Frank Town Hearts.
Wayne Howell: Franktown. Open hearts.
Mike Glenn: Open Hearts.
Wayne Howell: Yes, sir.
Mike Glenn: Franktown Open Hearts.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: And, uh, uh, Wayne, you've been at this, you told me 29 years. Yes, sir. Sir, I was guessing 30 we're right close to it. Yeah. With, with that now IW I'm, I've been here since 1991.
So everybody knows of Franktown Heart Open Hearts, and, uh, and the, and the ministry You've been doing a lot of people don't know how it got started though, [00:01:00] so, uh, so go, go back. And tell us how it got started.
Wayne Howell: It got started outta disobedience.
Mike Glenn: Mm.
Wayne Howell: Yeah. I know Pastor, you've never told God what you thought was his intention.
Never had that conversation. Never had that conversation. Well, I had a young man that was involved in my life from the time he was 10 years old, and I was his surrogate father because his dad had a disease. He couldn't go out in the outdoors. Mm-hmm. If he got a tick bite, it was tragic.
Mike Glenn: Wow.
Wayne Howell: So this kid was born.
To fish.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And I got sober 39 years ago, got my life together, followed some direction of a sponsor, married a woman, and moved into a neighborhood for the first time in my life. And this young man and me took up. And so when he got married, I just know that God wanted me to take him on a deer hunt to Illinois.
I mean, that just seems right. The right thing to do. Mm-hmm. And God, thank you for letting me do this. Yes, I know that's what you want. Well, [00:02:00] while I was up in that tree stand, uh, one of my brothers was back here praying over my stewardship. Right. He said, 'cause I know. And anyway, my brother, he, he kinda wears me out a lot.
And so I'm sitting there and pastor, when I get in the, when I go in the deer hunt, I get in the tree stand by four o'clock in the morning.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And I stay till after dark.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And there ain't no getting down. You carry your bottle for everything you need right there in the tree. Mm-hmm. So I'm sitting there.
And God comes on me and all my life I had used stuff to make God's voice go away.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Because I was told that that's not natural, that's not normal.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: You know, then the, and, and, and the part of the army I was raised up in, that just doesn't happen anymore. Right, right.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Discounted. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. It is discounted. So everybody, I thought I was just a little bit off. Well, there was no getting away.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I'm trapped. I'm strapped. 20 foot up in the air, in a tree stand, wind swaying, and [00:03:00] God whipping my rear end. Who are you? To tell me what you going to do with your life. Boy, don't you think I'm tired of that?
So he commits to dissecting. Yeah. Now I think I'm cool. I'm in recovery.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: I, I've come back to Jesus. Well, somewhat,
Mike Glenn: yeah.
Wayne Howell: Not to Jesus of religion, but to je Jesus of the people.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And, uh, so. I climbed down outta that tree stand with two hours to hunt, which is prime time, by the way. Oh yeah. In Illinois, I'm carrying a 17 pound tree stand on my front.
My backpack, no, a 17 pound tree stand on my back, my backpack on my front, two 10 foot steel sticks, dragging a dough, decoy, carrying my bow, crying out the woods because I said, all right your way.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Your way. And so I came into obedience. Right. And I didn't know what that looks like. So I came back and met with Dr.
Albert. George Lemons told him what [00:04:00] happened, and he laughed at me. He said, son, you've had a quickening from God. Just like when Samuel says, mm-hmm you know next time,
Mike Glenn: right?
Wayne Howell: You hear that? Say, here I am Lord. He said, it's one of them. Here you Lord times. You know? Mm-hmm. Here I am. What do you want? So we actually prayed for a month and I had another opportunity to go on a hunt in Texas, and I was scared.
I mean, I was frightened to go because I didn't want no more of that. You know, once in a while it's okay. Once you had
Mike Glenn: that kind of
Wayne Howell: encounter, yeah. Once you had that encounter, you don't No, no. He gonna whip me again. Yeah. So I go out there and I mean, I'm sitting in a chair like this, looking out West Texas, just man, it's beautiful.
My rifle's over as far as Jeffrey is from me and I'm just leaning down in a little grove of scrub oaks and I What you got to say? Quit playing. I said, what do you want me to quit playing? He said, church. I said, okay, I'll quit playing. He says, no, you gotta go tell the leadership at Fourth Avenue. So I was obedient.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I came [00:05:00] back and told him, y'all, it's time to quit playing. Time for y'all to get up and man up and show up. And some things started happening. We brought in a worship leader that was. Forever gonna change the face of Fourth Avenue.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And that was cool to be a part of.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. Fourth Avenue Church, Christ.
Very historic congregation.
Wayne Howell: Very historic
Mike Glenn: congregation. And, uh, in downtown Franklin, Tennessee. Yes. It's right there on the, on the main street corner. Yeah. Five points.
Wayne Howell: And it's right, it's right in that area. Yes sir. It's very historic place. And, uh, I was welcomed there 'cause I'm a little strange bird sometimes, but I was cool.
But see, that wasn't the end of it. That was the start of it.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: So I said, Albert, something more is needed. What, what am I missing here? He says it's time to fast. So, beginning that year, which I can't remember the date, but I could go back and do the math, but January 1st, my brother that had prayed on me mm-hmm.
Fasted the first two days, I fasted the next five, and I'd never fasted before in my life.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: They had to talk me back into Eaton.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Because I had never been in his presence so strongly. Then after that fast mm-hmm. I did [00:06:00] not want to leave it.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: So eventually I ate. I broke my fast at Beethoven, which used to be over here in Co Springs.
Yeah, it's a good place to eat. Yeah, I miss it. And I had soup. That's all I could eat. I had to eat that. The next day, a man named GI Fox comes to me. He wants to have lunch with me and, uh. I get approached, he says, uh, baby brother wants to see you. Well, for me and my community, baby brother was this guy that was on the opposite end of the gangs.
I grew up in the white gangs in Franklin. Right, right. He grew up in the black gangs. Mm-hmm. And we were very volatile in the sixties and seventies.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: We fought for survival. And you gotta figure, I'm a poor country boy. Coming to town, I not only had to fight the blacks, I had to fight the rich whites.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: So I got pretty good at scuffling.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And so baby bro asked to see me. And so I said, Gil, I said, okay, I'll set it up. And that was on a Saturday. On that Monday I met with Willie. Willie told me I'm died. And you know, you may know Willie, to call Brad Willie. Mm-hmm. And all this other [00:07:00] stuff.
Mm-hmm. Willy Willie, me and him go way back. We straight, God's got such a good way to heal stuff man. And he healed me and Willie.
Jeffrey Caruth: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And me and Willie started working for the same team on the same cause. He come to me, he said, Wayne, I was coaching football Franklin High School at the time. And he says, uh, I got these boys that love you.
And the pastors on NA just don't like me and they won't let me in a church building 'cause we have history there.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Me and him both have dark histories, but we also been redeemed. I said, that's good. So I said, okay, I'll do it. So, uh, we have a ministry fair and I go downstairs and I talk to one of the shepherds now, this is on the next Sunday.
Mm-hmm. Because Willie said, Wayne, I got time to play. We gotta get something done. Mm-hmm. I told him, I said, Hey, I need you building it. He said, okay, what you going to do? His name's Phil Williams. He's still there. Follows me around. Old Ma, you know, we gotta have men in our lives. So Phil, he said, sure, go ask the secretary.
So I went and asked the secretary, I said, Lydia, I need the building. She said, what you gonna do? I said, we'll work with kids.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: When you gonna do it? I said, Thursday nights. [00:08:00] Okay, here's the building. I said, I need your bus. Because I knew what I was gonna get into. 'cause I'd already been riding these kids around the football in the back of my pickup truck.
Mike Glenn: Right. Yeah.
Wayne Howell: You know, you take 'em out, you find out what are you doing in your life?
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Well I'm gonna play NFL well what's your backup?
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Because you gotta have backup plan. Everybody needs a backup plan. So I started pouring in these young men, building relationships, talking to 'em. 'cause I already in with their parents.
'cause I'm from Franklin.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I mean, my people go back to the 17 hundreds in this area. And so I start, uh, taking these kids, started out five of 'em on a Thursday night. I got a man named Pat Springer, AKA Uncle Pat. I said, I need you to do something. I see Pat Springer was dying, his heart was deteriorated down to 20%.
Mike Glenn: Mm.
Wayne Howell: He wasn't gonna make the heart transplant list. And he says, I don't know if I can. I said, would you try Now, the key thing about me and Uncle Pat, we both in recovery.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I do not go to your typical Christian people to start something to work because mm-hmm. Yap. Yap. And they don't do.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I know by [00:09:00] drunks they, the recovering people in recovery will work.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: So he comes through the steps, what
Mike Glenn: is it, the 12 step to turn
Wayne Howell: around and help others people? Yes sir. Yes sir. 12 steps, cures everything.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: If this world will work, 12 steps, there ain't gonna pay, ain't no more heartache. Anybody in the world can benefit
Mike Glenn: from it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Just
Wayne Howell: look at it, keep an open mind.
I mean, openminded is, so anyway, pastor starts cooking for me. And these kids start coming, starts with five, goes to eight, goes to 15, goes to 30, goes to 75, goes to 125 kids on,
Mike Glenn: okay. That's more than your football team now.
Wayne Howell: Oh, it's not just football. It had nothing to do with football.
Mike Glenn: I know. Yeah.
Wayne Howell: It started out.
Mike Glenn: But it started because you were coaching and had that, and had that relationship. Relationship
Wayne Howell: in community.
Mike Glenn: Now we got 125 because kids have told, kids have told kids
Wayne Howell: that's right. They said, there's this man over there you need to come meet. And uh, I just started telling the truth. I didn't lie to 'em.
Don't lie to kids.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: You lie to kids, you lose kids.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: If you tell the kids the truth, even though it ain't what they want to hear,
Mike Glenn: okay, I hear you. And
Wayne Howell: they'll respect that.
Mike Glenn: And that I, and, and I agree, but, but when you say tell the truth, tell me what you would tell them.
Wayne Howell: [00:10:00] Uh, what you doing with that girl out in the back of that car last Friday night when I seen you at the movie theater?
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Well, what do you think I was doing? I said, would you do your mom and your sister that way? Would you want somebody to do your little daughter that way? No sir. Well then why you doing that girl that way? Why you disrespecting no to somebody
Mike Glenn: else's dog? Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Yes. I took on the role of daddy and that may seem presumptuous arrogant, but that's what I became.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I'm still called pops to this day by that original group of kids.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Because I'm the one that was always there. Why does it always come back to this? 'cause it always comes back to Jesus.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. '
Wayne Howell: cause I started giving a brand to Jesus. They had never been fed before.
Mike Glenn: Well, you know, in this new. Um, experience of church in postmodern post-Christian America.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Uh, one of the geniuses of the early church was that it recreated the family structure. So, so when you would show up and go, I've been thrown outta my family because I've professed Christ, the pastor would go, no, you haven't. There's your family. [00:11:00] They're in the second row. Bob, there's your son, Mabel, that's your boy.
Now you live with Bobby Mabel. Bob's gonna teach you that. How to do plumbing 'cause that's what Bob does. Mm-hmm. So there's your skill and uh, and that's your new family.
Wayne Howell: Right on.
Mike Glenn: You know,
Wayne Howell: that's what I was sharing with these kids. 'cause there's some say that I baptized three, 400 kids before where they ever started keeping records.
Yeah. I don't know. I don't do that. I don't care.
Mike Glenn: No,
Wayne Howell: no. Because
Mike Glenn: you know the kid's name. You don't know the number.
Wayne Howell: I don't know the number. I know the kid's name. So I started being there all the time.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. '
Wayne Howell: cause it went from. Thursday night rec night where we were playing ball. I mean, we had nothing to do.
I went down in the basement of fourth Avenue, got eight toilet paper rolls out of the janitor's closet. I had 'em count off 1, 2, 1 2, 1, 2 one's over here, two's over here. And they said, what are you doing, Wayne? I said, picked up. And I started talking and I took one of them paper rolls and I threw it at one of'em.
It was on, we tore that basement apart. Now it took me two hours to fix it after it was over.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. But, but hold on. What, [00:12:00] what year was that?
Wayne Howell: Oh, brother. That's, that's been, God, let's see. This is 2026. So it had to be in the late nineties. It was in the late.
Mike Glenn: Okay. Now people don't understand because they see the Franklin and all the pictures now, there was nothing out here.
Wayne Howell: Oh, no, no,
Mike Glenn: no, no. Franklin.
Wayne Howell: I grew up in thousand 15.
Mike Glenn: Franklin, Franklin was a little bitty farming community.
Wayne Howell: Yeah.
Mike Glenn: Uh, before you got into Nashville.
Wayne Howell: Yeah.
Mike Glenn: And even when I came in nine one, you'd hear people talk about having to go all the way into Nashville.
Wayne Howell: Yeah,
Mike Glenn: yeah. We're not gonna do that. That's, I'm not going all the way into Nashville, going all
Wayne Howell: the way to Nashville.
No, man.
Mike Glenn: No, I'm not gonna do that.
Wayne Howell: Well
Mike Glenn: see a lot of people go vote. There was, there was no YMCA. There was, you know, there was one high school, Franklin High School.
Wayne Howell: I went to it
Mike Glenn: and, uh, well, you know, in, in nine one, when I moved here, everybody went to it.
Wayne Howell: Everybody went to Franklin High School. So I actually, my freshman year was at the old Natches High School.
Because we were still using the bill doesn't nex.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: So, yeah. And a lot of people don't know Right Over here on, on Franklin Road, right across, over on Whistle Pike Circle and all that, right? That's hard scuffle.
Mike Glenn: Oh yeah. Hard scuffle.
Wayne Howell: A lot of people
Mike Glenn: don't know scuffle. [00:13:00] And we have lost all that, all that story, community and all that.
It's gone.
Wayne Howell: It's gone. The
Mike Glenn: history. So you didn't know all that, did you, Jeffrey? So yeah, this is, well,
Jeffrey Caruth: I, I kind of did. And the only reason I was born and raised in Nashville, so I've been to Nashville and for. Um, I'll tell me, yeah, because
Mike Glenn: you were born all the way in
Jeffrey Caruth: Nashville. As my son says, I was born in 19 hundreds.
Mike Glenn: That's right.
Jeffrey Caruth: You know, I was born in 19 hundreds, but my, um, my sister's husband was born and raised in Franklin. Mm-hmm. And I remember going out there and my father said. Don't ever go past Morris Lane because if you go past Morris Lane, you're in Alabama son, and, and you don't need to be down there. He, um, I mean Alabama.
That's what daddy
Mike Glenn: said. Yeah. Well it's, it's a few more exes down. Oh. But yeah, but close. You close enough? I,
Jeffrey Caruth: well,
Mike Glenn: I was
Jeffrey Caruth: doubling close enough back then.
Mike Glenn: Okay. Alright. So now we got a couple hundred kids on Thursday night.
Wayne Howell: Well, at least 120 on regular.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And it's going from ages. I I called none of them.
If [00:14:00] you have a 6-year-old little brother that needed me.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Bring him.
Yeah. '
Wayne Howell: cause what we started doing was addressing the issues. See it started outta my pocket with socks, jocks and stuff. At football. Mm-hmm. Cleats. Here I am at Franklin High School. Coaching and I've got kids that are on the field with cleats, duct tape together.
Mm-hmm. And the people at Fourth Avenue would slip me money on Sunday morning. Then those kids said, Hey, we need help with the homework. Mm-hmm. So I Do you think I know how to tutor?
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: So I get Jace Gentry. So, uh, grandson of coach Jimmy Gentry. Oh, yeah. And he becomes my tutorer because why Jace? These, the, he grew up in my youth group that I was actually influenced in.
Mm-hmm. You know, he knew me
Mike Glenn: and mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: They do anything just by the ask.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Any of 'em would, and I said, Jace, I need you to come tutor these guys. Okay. And he started doing it. And we started doing, uh, a CT prep.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: You know, getting your scores up.
Mike Glenn: Right.
Wayne Howell: That was tuck in by somebody else. People would come in and say, Wayne, we want to help.
How can we help?
Mike Glenn: Because in those days, to be recruited. Those scores meant something.
Wayne Howell: You gotta get your books so you don't get no looks. Yeah. [00:15:00] Now, in today's present, society,
Mike Glenn: d different, not ballgame.
Wayne Howell: Different.
Mike Glenn: Different, different, different was a ballgame then. And we know of a lot of great athletes that were not accepted at major programs mm-hmm.
Because they couldn't get the numbers get right. Get the a CT score up
Wayne Howell: mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Or, or anything like that. Of course it's different now, but, but then that was, that was huge.
Wayne Howell: It was, it was, it was huge.
Mike Glenn: Okay.
Wayne Howell: So we became more like, so we're tutoring now. Okay, well how come you ain't never asked us to go to church?
I said, when you wanna go? So we started a Wednesday night class.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And it was led by me for a long time before Kay Swift and John Craig walked in one night and says. You're about to kill somebody. Let us take this over. I said, okay, please do. And I walked out the room and let them do it.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And uh, that was the first time I learned it.
I can let this go.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. Certain
Wayne Howell: aspects of it, certain aspects. Aspects of it. If you don't have the
Mike Glenn: gifts
Wayne Howell: for it, I don't have to gifts for that. I can let go because I was being pushed. 'cause I, not only was I running my business, see I have my own plumbing business. Mm-hmm. And I'm working with these kids.
[00:16:00] I'm going to meetings. I've got a family with three kids and you know. I don't sleep a lot anyway. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I had plenty of time to do all this stuff and trying to balance and juggle. So they took a lot of pressure off of me. So then now we've got Monday night on tutoring. Wednesday night they started coming to church.
They said we wanna go to church on Sunday. So we get out, boom, boom, boom. Too many times. You want, you knock like a police. I says, no, I'm not like a white man. Is that what you wanna talk about? I knock on the door. I want you to hear me. I ain't up here giving no signals and I'm pretty well accepted in the community.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Trust me, I am. And I'm, I'm one of the brothers. They do me. They, I'm not, they don't look at me as anything but Wayne Howell.
Mike Glenn: Yeah,
Wayne Howell: that's Wayne Howell. Yeah. Because that's what they know me as. Mm-hmm. And that's what their parents and their grandparents know me as. Yeah. You've established that's what we're looking at here, established.
See, that's what I'm trying to do here. Mm-hmm. I don't want nobody to see the color of a man's skin.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. 'cause
Wayne Howell: that's not how we, we go by the character. Dr. King says, we judge a man by the character in his heart. Mm-hmm. And God is he living It is why we living it out right now. Okay. I'm so proud of, [00:17:00]
Mike Glenn: I wanna get, I
wanna,
Wayne Howell: God digress, please.
Mike Glenn: Okay. No. Alright. You weren't trained. For this. Okay. All right. Now I, I, I got point here. You mean
did
Wayne Howell: I go to college
Mike Glenn: for this book? No, no, no. You didn't. You did not. You didn't go to seminary. You didn't read any of those things?
Wayne Howell: I, I read the Bible,
Mike Glenn: but Okay. All right. But you were, you saw a problem, an opportunity.
And felt the call of God to respond to that, to that challenge. See, 'cause see, here's what, here's what, here's, here's why your message is so important right now. We live in a time where the ministry comes before the message. Okay? You have to show me before you tell me. Okay. I grew up in the Billy Graham School of Evangelism where you went and you asked three or four questions and you expect somebody to make a decision.
Not everybody's so jaded and so disappointed and so angry at the church for you to show up with a pair of cleats. [00:18:00] Now we're gonna establish a relationship in that relationship. Then you'll give permission to speak. Oh, okay. So what I'm telling churches is look around your community, find a problem and solve it.
Wayne Howell: Thank you.
Mike Glenn: And do that
Wayne Howell: because the problem's not in the building.
Mike Glenn: No, no, it's not. It's on the streets and it's not gonna come to the building.
Wayne Howell: Well, you know, you talked, and I never got back to the Willie story, but see, when I broke up fast and went to talk to GI Fox mm-hmm. I knew Pastor, once again, God was calling me to work with adults.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: GI walks in drops. What Willie wants me to do, you know, when, uh, Elizabeth's pregnant, Mary's pregnant, Mary walks in, Elizabeth has a leaping. Mm-hmm. I can tell you, pastor, exactly what that leaping is like. My whole insides turned over. What you talking about? Yeah. I looked up and I said, you got to be kidding me.
No.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I'm never to work with adults.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: I'm to work with kids.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: That's what I do. And so, you know how blessed I am to know what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh,
Mike Glenn: you, you are a rare bird. Indeed.
Wayne Howell: Dude. You are a rare bird. Indeed. My own point. Doing exactly
Mike Glenn: what
Wayne Howell: I'm gonna [00:19:00] do
Mike Glenn: now, this nurse grow it.
Wayne Howell: Yeah.
Mike Glenn: Faster than your ability. Okay. And we were talking that in the hall just a minute.
Wayne Howell: Oh yeah.
Mike Glenn: It almost tanked.
Wayne Howell: Almost tanked.
Mike Glenn: Because,
Wayne Howell: because the board was a board of sitting in the boardroom instead of being on the street with me.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And it became that, it became a little bit less than, and that's when I called Chris Barnhill.
He. We, we were down to, well, we couldn't even get a quorum on the board.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Because people were taking it lightly. They didn't understand the importance of what we were doing.
Mike Glenn: Right.
Wayne Howell: Something happened, disconnects, it happens all the time. Right. Well, maybe it ain't God's will for this thing to continue.
Call Chris Barnhill. He was gonna come in and he thought he was coming in for a job interview.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: But what the rest of the board wanted to do was to come in and consult us.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And then when he said that, and I says, Chris, step out. I asked the board, I said, do you trust me? And there was be be Beth Hewitt of Hewitt Landscape.
Jason Connor, Connor Brothers Construction. Sandy Ray, which is the girl [00:20:00] I grew up with. And Franklin went to fall through Franklin High School with, uh, Bruce Wheatley was over the corner.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: No, Bruce Willis. Brent Willis. Brent Willis started, not Bruce Wheatley, another guy, Brent Willis was in the corner and we had already written the board members letters of resignation.
'cause they bylaw safe. You ain't a bbc. Mm-hmm. You're non-compliant. You're not here no more. And I asked them, I said, y'all trust me. And he said, yeah. So I offer Chris a job right there on the spot. He says, what can you pay me? He said, I can't make it on what you pay me. So I threw a number out there. He said, you don't even have that number in the account.
I said, no, but we will go get it.
I told him, I said, you get us seven, I'll make sure you get six.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And he wouldn't got it. Did exactly what I asked him to do.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And it's because of that man that we're solving today.
Mike Glenn: Okay. Alright. Another, a lot
Wayne Howell: of people don't know that because they don't,
Mike Glenn: well, another, another important point that, that, that we're trying to make, everybody has gifts.
Wayne Howell: Everybody,
Mike Glenn: everybody has a calling. Everybody has a way to get involved. [00:21:00] No one has all the gifts.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Right? Because there is something about us working together that reveals the glory of God in a way that one person can't. So there's something about you showing up with Jeffrey. That manifests the glory of God in a way that just Wayne can't.
That's right. Okay. All right. You're, you are As, as,
Jeffrey Caruth: and, and you know, sir, on that point, uh, it was about a year ago today that Ashley Roberts, a friend of mine, called me up and said, I wanna talk to you about a position. And so we met for coffee. Mm-hmm. And we talked about Frank Town, and I was intrigued.
I've lived in Franklin for 26 years. I called my son at the time. He was 21 years old, living in Knoxville, still lives in Knoxville, and I said, Hey Bub, his name's Gavin. I said, do you know about Franktown? He said, yeah, of course Daddy. I said, um, I was [00:22:00] offered, you know, possibly opportunities to sit on the board.
And when your 21-year-old kid says, dad, those kids need you.
Mike Glenn: Mm.
Jeffrey Caruth: It, it, it hit me somewhere. D different.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And so I asked Ashley, I said, you know, Ashley said, you know, Hey, I want us up a meeting with Chris. I said, that's great, but I wanna talk to the person that started.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: So Wayne and I met at Panera Bread one day.
Mm-hmm. For a cup of coffee. He said, Hey, let's meet for a cup of coffee. I blocked off 20 minutes. We're just gonna have a little small conversation. We sat there hour and a half, almost two hours.
Mike Glenn: You say so much for your time
Jeffrey Caruth: management and, and I mean, my phone was ringing. I just let it ring, you know, but, but the way he told his story.
Said, I have to be part of this organization. Mm-hmm. These kids need help.
Mike Glenn: Okay. So tell me why. Jeffrey Carruth, uh, with all you got going on, you're married, you got kids, you got you, [00:23:00] you got a, a, a very demanding business in commercial real estate.
Jeffrey Caruth: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Uh, why you giving your time to this?
Jeffrey Caruth: Because I watched my father do it.
Um, I was raised in Edge Hill United Methodist Church. Yeah. Reverend Bill Barnes.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And if there was not a protest that we went on, if there was not a go out to the prison when someone was about to get executed, there was not, um, getting food for people in the community back then. I just grew up with that in my heart.
Mm-hmm. And I watched my family do it. And at a certain point you realize in your life. I, I, I've done all the big things. Mm-hmm. I've been blessed. The Lord has blessed me more than I could ever imagine. And at a certain point, you realize your time's now. Right. And so this was the opportunity for me to shine and let these kids know that there's a future out there for you.
Mike Glenn: Okay. You say, you say these kids. Talk to me about the impact of Franktown.
Jeffrey Caruth: [00:24:00] The impact of Franktown is, it's kind of funny, it just, I saw the other day, there's a young lady, uh, Kristen, she. In 10th grade, she goes to Centennial High School. She's been in Franktown since, uh, elementary school, I believe, and she has gone through so many.
She loves art, she loves the cooking program. She loves everything that's going on, and she has now started mentoring the little kids that are coming in. And you just see the impact of what Franktown has done for this young lady,
Mike Glenn: a 10th grader who is now,
Jeffrey Caruth: is now mentoring the little kids that are coming in to Franktown.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: You know, um, the, the other thing, funny story is my wife and I had the opportunity to take a young lady Christmas shopping
Wayne Howell: mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: This past Christmas. I've never done it. And so we were. Able to take this young lady Christmas shopping. We spent half day [00:25:00] with her and we went shopping. It was just nice to see the empowerment this young lady had.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And she, everything she purchased, she had a name on it. This is for my sister Joanie.
Mike Glenn: Mm.
Jeffrey Caruth: This is for my little brother, bill. This is for, and and she, she was intentional. And to have that empowerment to go and do these things. And the thing that gives you the separation you understand is right under your nose.
Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: And you don't understand. Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: We were driving her back home. She lives very close to, um, the library in downtown Franklin, and we're going down Hillsborough Road. And we realized, we're like, oh, we can't go this way. The road's blocked off. Dickens Christmas is going on. Everybody's been, had you been to Dickens?
Mike Glenn: Gosh, yeah.
Jeffrey Caruth: Oh yeah. You've been to, everybody goes Dickens Christmas, right? We take the long way around to get to our [00:26:00] home and. And I said, Hey, because I, I'm, I wanna make sure these children know they're not going someplace they shouldn't.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: You know? So, hey, the reason why we're not going straight is that we have to go on Dickens Christmas.
And she goes, what's that? And my wife looked at me, she almost started crying. And I said, oh, it's a great little festival they do in downtown Franklin. They block off the roads in that mm-hmm. Period. You know, Christmas stuff. And she
Mike Glenn: lived how far from it?
Jeffrey Caruth: Less than a half mile.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. Yeah. And never been,
Jeffrey Caruth: never ever have been.
Okay. And if that doesn't touch your heart to know the separation. Okay.
Mike Glenn: So talk to me about, okay, average guy's flipping through Caesar's podcast and says, okay, a kid was a half a mile from downtown Franklin. Why. What are the barriers that kept her from experiencing that?
Jeffrey Caruth: Um, I think the barriers are the generational[00:27:00]
mindset that says you, you don't belong there. Okay. On both sides.
Mike Glenn: Okay.
Jeffrey Caruth: You know, I, I think the parents experienced it and said they want to shield them from what could happen.
Mike Glenn: Right. Right. And I want you to go where people would be cruel or mean to
Jeffrey Caruth: you. Exactly.
Mike Glenn: Okay.
Jeffrey Caruth: You know, and so now it's a situation, I feel that it takes everyone to reach out and say, follow what Christ would do.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And pick someone up and take 'em to where you'd never take someone before.
Mike Glenn: I don't wanna show 'em with that.
Jeffrey Caruth: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: How many, how many children are, uh, young people is or is Franktown involved with
Jeffrey Caruth: Chris, I'm sorry,
Wayne Howell: a hundred.
Jeffrey Caruth: Currently
Wayne Howell: 107 That,
Jeffrey Caruth: currently 170 children that we're mentoring in our ministry right now. [00:28:00] And as of 2020 2 86, children have given themselves to Christ.
Mike Glenn: Hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And that's just from 2022. As Wayne said, there's probably 300 plus. Right.
Mike Glenn: That we just don't want,
Jeffrey Caruth: if Wayne had written stuff down, we would have Exactly, but he, he doesn't write stuff down. Am
Mike Glenn: you, you too busy doing it. You ain't Oh, yeah. You, you don't have time to do it.
Wayne Howell: Rec
Mike Glenn: yeah.
Wayne Howell: Statistics of a people that. Don't work.
Mike Glenn: Yeah, that's,
Wayne Howell: sorry, I just, Wayne, come on. Hey man. I'm sorry. Sorry. No, statistics are good, but it's just, I'm focused on, I'm focused on more spiritual.
Mike Glenn: Yeah, yeah. Right. I'm
a
Wayne Howell: hillbilly
Mike Glenn: Tennessee.
No, no. I mean, again, back to gifts. Uh, you, you are, you're very passionate about this ministry because, because of your passion it exists. But if, [00:29:00] if you don't have somebody that's. That's tending the vineyard if you don't have the gardener
Jeffrey Caruth: mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Then the plant does not survive. You know? And, and that's, you know, that's one of the things I had to learn as pastor of the church.
One you have, you have a, a nice set of gifts, but you only have these gifts, you know?
Jeffrey Caruth: Well, well, well, it, it, it was so funny during, uh, the conversation I had with Wayne. I, I, he, he, he just, he just brought a fire outta me. I never had before.
Mike Glenn: Yeah, exactly. Right.
Jeffrey Caruth: And, and, and I was ready to go and he looked at me, he smiled, he goes, you wanna save the world, don't you?
I said, I do. He goes, let's just save one child.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Jeffrey Caruth: You know, let's do that. So it brought me down the reality. And then when I look at the young men and women, they're in the program. You just wanna say one. Mm-hmm. If you can say one, you've done so much more for a generation.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. It's the old, the old preacher story about the little boy on the beach throwing all the starfish back.
Jeffrey Caruth: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Said, well, son, there's so many starfish out here, [00:30:00] it's not making any difference. And he said, well, it made a difference to that one. Exactly.
Jeffrey Caruth: Exactly.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Right on.
Mike Glenn: Yeah,
Wayne Howell: exactly. Exactly. And, uh, you know. What he just talked about, the child not coming to the Main Street Festival. Mm-hmm. Not, I'm sorry, at
Mike Glenn: Dickens Christmas.
Wayne Howell: Dickens S, but either one.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: That's uh. I remember when they were not allowed to walk on the same street with me and Frank. That's exactly right. I remember when they would hang people mm-hmm. And do stuff and drag people. I mean, no, no, man. Uh, that, that, that right there hurts.
Mike Glenn: Well, you know, uh, we, we, we talk about the, the civil Rights movement and all that.
Uh, the Alabama football team was integrated in 71.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: 1971.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: And, uh, bear Bryant invited, uh, John McKay in USC to play in Birmingham. And USC beat the dog out
Wayne Howell: chin.
Mike Glenn: You ever heard, uh, Sam Cunningham won the Heisman
Wayne Howell: mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Tailback?
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: He was, he was [00:31:00] so open, he would stop and wait for the Alabama players to catch him up with him again so he could run over him again.
So it was, it was, it was awful. That game. And after that, the Alabama team was integrated. Uh, but see, that was just, people don't realize it was, it was, it was real, man. It was the 1970s.
Wayne Howell: That's right.
Mike Glenn: And, uh, when, when, when that happened, uh, and that hasn't been all that, that long ago.
Jeffrey Caruth: W Well, it is, it is funny you say that because it's closer than you realize.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Jeffrey Caruth: Uh, when, when I was probably about seven years old, my parents had a, um, condo in Fairfield, glad mm-hmm. In Crossville. Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: I never paid any mind whatsoever. And I remember my father in our station wagon, when we go into Crossville, we, uh, there was a place called the Bean Pod on the right.
Mm-hmm. And you just keep going down that long road. And there was this little gas station on the left, [00:32:00] and it was, you know, two pumps in a couple of days for, you know, automotive repair. And dad would always stop and go inside for about five minutes. He come out and drive away. Years later. I, I don't know why I, I think it happens when your parents about to pass.
Mm-hmm. You start learning a bunch of things. I think God says, it's time for you to tell this story, you know, and for some reason all of a sitting at the, uh, kitchen table with daddy and I said, Hey, well why did Y always stop at that gas station? He goes, he goes, son, that guy that owned the gas station was in the Klan and he told me.
When y'all come to town, you let me know you're here and I'll make sure y'all are taken care of.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And I mean, this was 76.
Wayne Howell: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: 70. You know something.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: Mm-hmm. It is, is still there. But God, I, I watched my father. [00:33:00] Over the years as a young man, do incredible things. But it was just his demeanor and the way he spoke with people.
Mm-hmm. And that's why I try to do that. And I try to follow Christ that way of not seeing someone a certain way, but just seeing them as child of God. Mm-hmm. Because if I see them as child of God, if I see these children as child of God, you can't help but to help them.
Mike Glenn: Right. Yeah.
Jeffrey Caruth: You can't see them any other way, but as a child of God,
Mike Glenn: yeah.
It's, it's the Oh Jesus story. What, whatever you've done to the least of these
Jeffrey Caruth: mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: You, you, you've done it to me. So, uh, why should a pastor in, in the Franklin area, uh, in the middle of Tennessee area, why should a frank, uh, a pastor anywhere be concerned with the kids that your d was.
Wayne Howell: Well, they're kids.
Mike Glenn: Well, I got you.
Wayne Howell: No, and young people have not matured. You know, it studies show that the male doesn't mature till [00:34:00] he's 30 years old. Yeah. 32, 33, something like that. But what do you mean by concerned about him? Why should, what you mean? Why should they wanna reach him?
Mike Glenn: Yeah. Why? Yeah. Well, okay.
All right. They're messy, they're loud.
Wayne Howell: Yeah.
Mike Glenn: Okay. Mm-hmm. They don't, they don't dress properly. No. They, they may use inappropriate language if they get really excited about something,
Wayne Howell: right? Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Okay. So, you know, as soon as I open this ministry up in my church, I'm going to get a phone call from some, some concerned members.
Wayne Howell: I've lived through that. Yeah. I've lived through that. Yeah. I bet you
Mike Glenn: have
Wayne Howell: At fourth Avenue, uh, early on, what are you bringing those people into my church for?
Mike Glenn: Yeah. Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And it was a very prominent family that if I mention their name, everybody out there is gonna know who it is. Yeah. But I'm not gonna do that.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And I looked at her and I says, I didn't know you was Jesus.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: You know, I, I'm a at it. Yeah. I mean, I got a good comeback for everybody, but, uh, and, and you know, it's, [00:35:00] it's like. When my brother, that was the youth group pastor at the time was at Fourth Avenue, he included those kids in everything they did after he left.
The people at fourth Avenue did not want the Franktown kids going to a Winter Fest, which is a local Christian thing in the guy. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all are welcome to. Socialize with us up there, but you can't ride with us no more on the bus. You gotta get your own transportation. And I thought my present time program director and executive director would just fall apart right there.
They looked at me like I said, I told y'all, I told y'all not to breach this with these people. Yeah, because they wanted to have a meeting to find out why.
Jeffrey Caruth: Yeah,
Wayne Howell: because it's, they're messy, they're loud. I had a woman tell me one time, I 'cause used to historically on Sunday mornings. We were the most diverse church at fourth Avenue anywhere.
Mm-hmm. Because I'll tell you, I'd have between 40 and 20 and 40 kids up there in that balcony all the time because here's what you do. Jesus said, do you love me?
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Well you gotta feed my sheep.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. [00:36:00]
Wayne Howell: Gotta feed that belly. We give you gonna come in, I'm make sure you got a biscuit. I'm gonna make sure you're going to have lunch that day, but you're going to have to listen to what we gotta say about Jesus.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: You gotta listen to what I say, and if you don't ever wanna listen to what I say, don't come.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: So we started doing that and, and, and taking care of those needs. And you're right, those children, loud, obtrusive. Sure. I even got messages sent to me by elders at the time. They're gonna run you out of fourth Avenue.
I'm still there.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I've seen them come and go. I'm still there. 'cause why that's
Mike Glenn: now there's probably been a couple close votes. Fame,
Wayne Howell: I prob probably I do. Hey, I,
Mike Glenn: you there as a
Wayne Howell: straw ball? Yeah. Probably been a couple. Hey, that may be true, but I will get my 15 minutes of fame before I do because everybody's, everybody's got a right to their voice.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And, and, and, and I don't, I just don't see it happening in fourth Avenue that way because too many of 'em have stuck with this. I've never seen. You gotta understand this is not a ministry of fourth Avenue.
Mike Glenn: Yeah,
Wayne Howell: I just happened to have a key to the building. Yeah.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And Chris Norwood made [00:37:00] sure that all those kids were always included in the youth group.
And you're right. One woman came up to me and she says, these kids are so unruly. Can't you do something with 'em? I said, ma'am, they're in church.
Mike Glenn: Yeah, we're trying.
Wayne Howell: We're trying to do so with with it. And they fact, and nobody's holding a gun to these kids. Yeah. They're wanting to go and they're making these big plans at Fourth Avenue at night, they're meeting all these committees and every night we having a function.
I'm calling Chris out of a meeting with the elders and stuff, Hey, I need you to come help me. I got three gonna be baptized night. I got four gonna be baptized. Mm-hmm. Blah, blah, blah. Why? You set a key word while go. You can tell people three or four things about Jesus all your life, but until you sow, show them the savior.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: In you.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Because is he not in us? Did he not give us his Holy Spirit when we confessed to him and was baptized into him?
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Do we not have the spirit of God living within, inside all of us until I show that spirit? Now, sometimes my spirit's a little loud, a little rough, but they understand it and they understand my love and compassion.
Mm-hmm. And the way I prove love to 'em was 2000 [00:38:00] and and nine 11, we went to the mall. We was playing grab butt in the
Mike Glenn: mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: It was me and five of the guys we was doing what we do, security threw 'em up against the building. That was, that was in nine 11.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I go strolling up through there. I've got Chris's favorite, who's yet to meet, beat the bug with me.
Beat the bug by seven two, and. Mandrell pickle. He's about four foot, nothing, and he grabs bugs by the pants, jerk his pants down, and he's sitting there in the mall and he goes off running, and here's bug. We're pandemonium in the parking lot. We're just being guys. So I get up here and I ask the security people, I says, uh, excuse me.
What are y'all doing? We have authority. I says, sir, please don't raise your voice to me. You have the authority to observe and report. See, I know what the law is. Mm-hmm. My daddy was police in Franklin.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: My daddy stood the line when there was going to be some bad stuff happening in Franklin.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: That I'm not gonna go into here, but I says you have the right to observe report if you'll call 6 1 5 7 9 4 2 5 1 3. And when dispatch comes on, tell 'em, [00:39:00] Wayne, how's out here about to show his butt? Please do that now. Leave us alone. So we walked around Hibbs, they followed us all around the mall. Yeah. We did not go into a store that, that the, the rental cops were not on us.
And I asked guys working in, I said, man, what's up with this Wayne? It's like that all the time, wherever we go. And brother, I thought me and my friends had settled that when we worked out our differences in the seventies and early eighties.
Mike Glenn: That's right.
Wayne Howell: I thought we had settled all that.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: No.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: We didn't. So we, we go out our final store and all of a sudden a man, about six five, about 300 pounds, got his smoky hat on his dark glasses. Oh, he's got his ribbons and all this other stuff. Sir, I have authority. Well, he stepped into my space, pastor and I asked him, I said, sir. You are making me uncomfortable.
Would you please step back before I move you? He said, I have authority. I said, sir, you have the authority to observe and report. Now here's where you call. You call 6 1 5 7 9 4 2 5 1 3. And this time you tell him Dillard Wayne [00:40:00] Howell is about to show his butt. See, my dad's name was Dillard and I said, trust me, they will come.
I get around the corner and the kids are sitting there waiting on me and I said, get outta here. I told y'all to leave. We get outside and they says. Wayne, you would've fought that man for us. I says, no, I would've whipped that man for y'all brother. That's when I won him.
Mike Glenn: Yeah,
Wayne Howell: that's when Frank Town was born.
Now we've been doing a lot of motions and stuff, but until them kids seen somebody step up for, stand up for them when nobody else would, that's my job.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: My job is to be the go-between. My job is the protector. My job is a peacemaker. How do you be a protector and a peacemaker? I don't know, but I'm trying to learn how to do a pastor.
Yeah.
Mike Glenn: So what would you tell a pastor of a local church who's in it? Because, see, one of the things that, that we're saying as we, as we talk to churches is, uh, the ministry comes before the message. People wanna [00:41:00] see before they hear. So look around your community, find a problem and solve it. And when you do that, then you'll get the credibility to be able to speak.
Okay.
Jeffrey Caruth: Well here, let, let me interject real quick. Um, I think statistics that Wayne does not like helps with that.
Mike Glenn: Right.
Jeffrey Caruth: And one of the things when we launch our kids mm-hmm. When these kids are launched,
Mike Glenn: launched, explain, explain to me. Launched
Jeffrey Caruth: when they're launched, when there's a 100% success rate when they graduate high school, and they will either go to a four year college, they'll go to a a grade school, they will go to, um, automotive that they'll,
Mike Glenn: but, but they go to a future.
Jeffrey Caruth: They, they go to a future, but they
Mike Glenn: go to
Jeffrey Caruth: a future a hundred percent. It, it eliminates the generational curse. Mm-hmm. That they've had
Mike Glenn: breaks the cycle
Jeffrey Caruth: [00:42:00] and, and the cycle is broken. They don't wanna be on government assistance.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: They don't want a handout. They wanna make their own way. Mm-hmm. There was a young lady, um, and I'll let Chris talk about it, uh, recently.
We just donated a car to her.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Jeffrey Caruth: And she had been franktown for a long time and she's a single mo Oh, I'm sorry. You can cut single mother. Which one? I, I, I, I know nine cars. I know, I know. Gosh, I shouldn't even said that. Um,
Mike Glenn: you've donated 89 cars,
Jeffrey Caruth: 89 cars back
Wayne Howell: into community for free
Jeffrey Caruth: and, and, and don't
Wayne Howell: cost nobody nothing.
Jeffrey Caruth: And usually it comes through our automotive program. The kids work on the cars. They get 'em up and running. They get 'em where it is, uh, safe for everyone, and they donate it to someone in the community.
Wayne Howell: Free.
Jeffrey Caruth: Free.
Wayne Howell: It hasn't cost us a penny.
Mike Glenn: No.
Wayne Howell: It doesn't cost us any money.
Mike Glenn: No, no. [00:43:00] It's,
Wayne Howell: it's, it's a, it's one of those
Mike Glenn: Well, it makes you money because the kids are training on it.
Wayne Howell: Well, it's just, it's just the way God worked it out.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Nobody, you could not plan. Franktown open heart pastor. You cannot. I cannot.
Mike Glenn: No,
Wayne Howell: but he can't.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And you know, he's talking about that success rate, that graduating and that we, statistics are important. I'm just not the guy for that. Yeah. I'm the guy with a passion and the stories that knows because when you take a kid and you give, the first car we gave away was to a young man named Timmy Wilson.
Now Timmy's a special story. That boy right there was getting blooded into the GS when I got him. And he had to go out and do something pretty bad to get blooded in the gs.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And somebody says his best friend Deuce. Deuce says, you gotta come meet this guy. He's crazy. And he comes, starts hanging with me, and it's like oil and water first.
Mm-hmm. We hate each other. We, I don't hate him. He, yeah. He gonna show me, because, you know, he's, he's 11 years old and he's a man [00:44:00] and we bump heads for quite a long time. Uh. And his name's Timmy Wilson. I baptized him. I performed his wedding. Because see you said the restoration of the family.
Mike Glenn: Right?
Wayne Howell: How can you have the restoration of the family if they don't know?
Mike Glenn: That's right.
Wayne Howell: So the early years of franktown was not null and void because of that, but, but not good. It was very good 'cause we had influential families. Mm-hmm. Showing these kids that you can marry even when you have family disagreements. Right. Nobody lets the air out of each other. You sit down, you sell it.
Mm-hmm. And they want that. Mm-hmm. These kids want more of anything. They wanna be good daddies. 'cause they didn't have a good dad.
Mike Glenn: That's not right.
Wayne Howell: They want to, they're trying be one, but never seen one. They've never seen one. Mm-hmm. So now Timmy has graduated the first graduating class at Spring Hill Fire Department.
He's a hose man. He's, he's doing great. He's got his little side hustle going, 'cause why? He understands what it's like to be poor and he don't wanna be poor no more. Mm-hmm. First time Timmy asked for a favor was, Hey, pops, you think you could get me a mattress? I said, what do you need a mattress for? He said, I'm tired of [00:45:00] sleeping on piled up clothes in the city of Franklin, downtown Franklin, uh, a block and a half off Columbia Avenue.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: In the richest county. In the richest city. In Middle Tennessee. In in
Mike Glenn: Tennessee,
Wayne Howell: yeah. And he's sleeping on a pile of clothes. So, mm-hmm. You know, when you get a, a opportunity to address you address. Now Timmy has gone on to do great things and there's more stories. Alexis, Alexis Keman, every now and then in the community, there's a woman born.
And you only have to be from the community to understand this. Mm-hmm. That there are natural born women in that community that have leadership abilities. Correct. I mean, let's go back, uh, to, to Ruth of the mm-hmm. You and like, but Queen, whatever her name was. Yes, sir. Yeah. Queen Mester. You know those, those women born.
Alexis Kettleman is one of 'em. AKA Tke. She's my tke. That's her nickname. And she's gonna kill me for saying that. That's okay. I did her wedding too. Um, she graduated.
Mike Glenn: I bet you do an interesting wedding.
Wayne Howell: Oh yeah. See it.
Mike Glenn: It has to be the best.
Wayne Howell: [00:46:00] Oh man. Has to be the best. I've had people come up. Wanna join.
Will you Chacha pastor? I don't pastor church. Yeah. Well, what are you, how you doing this wedding? I said Jesus said too. Yeah. And it's really interesting. But Alexis. She was a leader. She was ROTC, couldn't go into the military, 'cause ROTC run her knees. So at 16 years old, she's working, well back it up at 11 years old, she's, she, she, 11 to 15, she does an interview at Franktown for the dinner.
She was making her own dress. She wore the own, the whole dress she owned, she made, she made it herself. Mm-hmm. On her sewing program. And she was styling it and profiling it. And they asked her, well, what is your favorite thing to do? Oh, me and my mom like to go to yard sales. Well, what do y'all do at yard sales?
Oh, we buy stuff for the poor people.
And the time. She was 11 years old, she ran the bus.
Mike Glenn: Mm.
Wayne Howell: 16-year-old get on the bus. She said, sit down and be quiet. Guess what? 16-year-old sit down and be quiet because there's that authoritative woman in the community. Yeah. Yeah. That they, that inherit. Mm-hmm. Everybody respects.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. [00:47:00]
Wayne Howell: And she went on to attend David Lipscomb University.
Free pastor, graduated free of debt.
Mike Glenn: Mm.
Wayne Howell: Then she gets her master's from Kentucky Free. Of debt pastor. Now she is one of one social of seven social workers in Williamson County, and she's in the poorest district in this county. There's one out there Fairview.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And the last report I talked to her, she said, well, you ain't gonna believe what happened.
What happened, blah, blah, blah, blah. There was a kid out there that nobody would, nobody can get to talk. She got him to talk. He was having a meltdown one day. The principal says, what's wrong? What's wrong? I want my tke. 'cause it got out her nickname.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And the kids love a nickname. And finally Alexis got toured and she said, Alexis, do you know what a tke is?
Yes ma'am. I a tke. Because she had built trust with that kid.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. '[00:48:00]
Wayne Howell: cause see, she can relate to being out of section eight housing.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: She can relate to everything that's happening to the broken and disenfranchised, and she pours into him. And then we got a young man named Dire G Grigsby. Dire g Grigsby grew up in our program from the time he was nine years old, lived up on Johnson Circle.
Best friend Te Smith. They run around together for all the. Demontre went to high school. He's fighting a hard fight right now as a young man because his moral compass is really strong. Mm-hmm. And he's waiting to get married.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: If you know what I mean.
Mike Glenn: I do.
Wayne Howell: I don't know how to do that, but he hope he success with it.
But this young man went to college, got his degree real recently, the past two years, got his master's. He is now running, him and Tevin Smith are running our outdoor program. Two of our graduates that grew up, see, we have an outdoor program. We [00:49:00] go hunting a lot. People might take 'em fishing. I don't know. I gotta, I gotta have a balance here.
But we do. We do. We take 'em hunting and it's all about Jesus Christ and everything about it. Yeah, and a lot of misconception too. I want to, right now, Franktown is just not about to pour any inner city kids either. We've had our share of kids from Right. In Brentwood and other areas come in. Yeah. And hang out with us because why?
Same. They wanna know it's not their fault 'cause mom and daddy getting divorced. Same reason. They wanna know. They wanna know that they're worth it too.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: And they are worth it.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: All kids are worth it. I don't call none of them, but those three, right. There are three prime examples of launching from Franktown and being faithful and doing the right thing and carrying out
Mike Glenn: and breaking and breaking the cycles.
And
Wayne Howell: breaking the cycles.
Mike Glenn: Huge. Wayne, how long you been doing this? 29 years. 29. 29 years.
Wayne Howell: 29 years.
Mike Glenn: Did you ever you ever feel like giving up?
Wayne Howell: No.
Mike Glenn: No? Why not?
Wayne Howell: He never gave up on B.
Mike Glenn: He never gave up on you?
Wayne Howell: No. [00:50:00] Why would I give up on them?
Mike Glenn: Okay.
Wayne Howell: And the reason I'm committed to him, 'cause you know, he says going to all the world.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Man, my world is Franklin, Tennessee. Mm-hmm. I don't need to, it's like, Dorothy, I don't need to go looking out for this.
Mike Glenn: No, no. Yeah,
Wayne Howell: it's right here. Yeah, you're
Mike Glenn: already here.
Wayne Howell: And, and
I've always been a loner. You may not think that. Mm-hmm. But I am. I always stood at the back and watched, and I've always been curious how people treat one another. And, uh, I realized that what was missing. Was his basic love.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: And I've got to love them 'cause he,
Mike Glenn: well, okay. Okay. I hear that. You hear that?
I hear that and I hear that. And gosh. And, and, and you can't go 15 seconds without somebody saying, love this or love that around here.
Wayne Howell: Yeah.
Mike Glenn: And it, and it and it and, and, and you know, how, how shallow that, that, that, [00:51:00] that, that word is. Yeah. I
Wayne Howell: understand. Yeah.
Mike Glenn: Yes. Okay. So when you say love that, love that kid, love that child, love that student.
Tell me what that means every time, and I, I need, I need some real practical things here. Okay? If you love this kid, then you will, what?
Wayne Howell: I will do everything I can to make sure that they succeeded every area of life. But what I see when I look at those kids, I look, I see my father,
Mike Glenn: ah,
Wayne Howell: when I look at any child at Franktown in Blues, I come to him. I look at him, I go, man, I can't believe it. What's wrong with you, man? I said, you look like my daddy and I look at my skin and look, what are you talking about?
You got two eyes.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: You got two ears. You got nose and eye. My daddy has those same characters, same categories. And you remind me of my daddy.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. Okay. Now you mentioned Timothy Wilson,
Wayne Howell: Timothy Wilson.
Mike Glenn: How long did you work with Timothy?
Wayne Howell: Still working with Timmy. Timmy was at my house the other day.
Yeah. Doing mulch.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. Right. [00:52:00]
Wayne Howell: Yeah. So, uh, Timmy started. 20 years ago with me and he, so I go, Timmy. Yeah. I've been working with Timmy over 20 years.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I have, I have calls and stuff from the original crew.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: If they're not in the penitentiary or dead pastor, I'm still working with 'em.
Mike Glenn: One of my, one of my friend, uh, one of my, uh, favorite writers, Eugene Peterson, has a book called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
And what I'm hearing from you is a long obedience this. Commitment to show up and keep showing up because disappointment is the key thing that all these that I, I, I say these kids, it's the thing that all of us carry.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: I expected somebody to be there and nobody was there. Nobody was there to stand up for me.
Nobody was there to protect me, but she kept showing up.
Wayne Howell: Yeah, I did.
Mike Glenn: And maybe you, maybe you [00:53:00] didn't know what to do when you showed up, but you showed up and the, and, and, and, and my thing is, nine times outta 10, the most important thing to do
Wayne Howell: show up
Mike Glenn: is show up.
Wayne Howell: Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: People don't remember what you said.
Wayne Howell: No,
Mike Glenn: but they'll remember that you were there.
Wayne Howell: You were there.
It was like when manager, refugees grandmother passed. No, no. His mama passed. His grandma was later when his mother passed. We were getting ready to play, uh, Germantown outta Memphis. They were coming to Franklin High School football stadium, and I get a call sitting at the, we did our Thanksgiving on Friday.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: I get a call. I said, what's up? His name's Pickle. I said, what's up, pickle? He said, I need you. I said, what do you need me for? My mama just passed. I said, oh, man, quit messing with me.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Wayne Howell: Wayne, I need you. My mama passed. I get up from my table, my wife goes ballistic. [00:54:00] You're not going to put your family on hold for those kids again.
Mike Glenn: Yeah,
Wayne Howell: my two boys, mom, you gotta let Wayne be Wayne. You gotta let him go do this. I go there. There's two white people in the community. One of the ambulance drivers. His eyes as big as saucers. Yeah, he, I just go cruising through. Everybody's trying to hold onto this kid. I open the door of my truck, he hops in.
Drive off if he doesn't say a word to me.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Not a word. He sits there the whole night of the football game on the north sideline on just staring at me because why? What? He called me. 'cause he knew I'd be there. He
Mike Glenn: knew you'd come.
Wayne Howell: Isn't that America?
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: Art isn't America? I'm supposed to be there when my neighbor calls me.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm.
Wayne Howell: That's what I was taught.
Mike Glenn: Yeah. But it's certainly the gospel.
Wayne Howell: And am I supposed to obey the gospel?
Mike Glenn: Yeah. How do we get in touch with you guys?
Wayne Howell: Uh, franktown heart.com.
Mike Glenn: [00:55:00] Franktown
Wayne Howell: open heart com
Mike Glenn: com.
