A Clean Slate and a Helping Hand

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Reading from Philippians 4.13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That was Philippians 4.13. Oh, magnify the Lord with me.

Let us exalt his name together. It's Testimony Tuesday, July 28th, 2026. If this is the first time you're a part of the Mark & Friends edition, I love Tuesdays because I get to share somebody's faith journey, life story, sometimes a little of their love story, how they see God at work in their life or their ministry, how they've surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And some of that faith journey that we all have aspects of where we see God at work or drawn us closer to himself. And for you, listener, that maybe don't believe there's a God that loves and cares for you. Well, I hope you'll stay tuned in because Robert's going to share a little of his story where he found Jesus Christ as his hope, as his Lord and Savior.

And I would hope that would be true for you today. And maybe you're a senior saint that just loves to hear a good story or is going to praise God for what you're about to hear. We appreciate your prayers on behalf of this ministry and this great opportunity to share people's stories and maybe meet some of the needs that you have.

Maybe you're praying up something or wondering how you're going to get through the day or how your needs are going to be met or how maybe God's calling you to serve in different ways or to extend love and care to that neighbor or that person that you know has a broken heart. So on today's edition of Mark & Friends, I think you're going to be blessed by Robert Frazier. He lives in the Springfield area.

His beloved wife, Pamela. How many years have you been married? It'll be 26, September 1st. 26.

And listening friends, let me do a little disclaimer. Typically, I do a little bit of a show prep where I send out some questions and I get to know the person and what's the best way to introduce you. Well, Robert and I met recently at the Springfield Ministerial Alliance House for a prayer gathering that was put on by Kevin Slott, mutual friend of both of us.

Well, we briefly talked, but I was encouraged because we all got to have like 30 seconds to introduce ourselves. And Robert said, well, one of the things that's been on my heart lately, besides helping those that are hurting and assisting in various ways, and we'll talk a little bit about the ministry he and Pamela are a part of, but he said another thing that I really hope can be achieved in Springfield and for that matter around the world is unity. Just bringing people together, allowing them to see the love that Jesus extended to all mankind and that we could put aside some of our differences and see what we have in common through Jesus and learn to love each other.

So that kind of perked my attention and I thought, I think I should have him on a testimony Tuesday. Well, he was able to pull it off and come in today, but we didn't get to do the normal show prep. And the time that we did talk, I was telling him stories.

And so he got to know a lot about the radio ministry, the background, some of my life story. But we're going to learn together about Robert Frazier. And so why don't you start with why did you pick out Philippians 4.13 as the many verses you could have chosen? I'll tell you.

You know, it's been a scripture that's been with me for quite a long time. I can remember back when my wife and I left our corporate job back in Atlanta and we decided to go on the endeavors of being entrepreneurs. And that was one of the first scriptures that we prayed together.

And it just stuck with me and it sticks with us. It used to be on the back of one of our jackets. We can do all things because we've always been in situations where we've been outside of the box in the business.

So it was just something that we didn't necessarily have a template, but we just knew that God would put us in the right place at the right time. I think I told you this, I believe, and some of our listeners may remember this, but Roger Powell, who I think it was the early part of 2000, he was part of the U of I men's basketball team. And I think he used to have this verse.

Well, he had Philippians 4.13 on his tennis shoes on the basketball court. I'm pretty sure it was Roger Powell. They used to call him the Rev. So those familiar with that legacy team that went to the final four, and I think was the championship match.

But yeah, Roger Powell loved that verse. And so let me share it again, listening friend. I can do everything.

So you might say, oh, wow, wow, it's a self-talk. You can do everything. No, I can do everything through Him, capital H-I-M, through Jesus who gives us strength, gives me strength.

And it's a prayer for many people today as you go about your day. Lord, give me the strength today so that I can be your witness, that I can be faithful, that wherever I go, as I go, I can proclaim that good news message of Jesus. And that's what Robert likes to do.

Besides traveling up to Chicago, talk a little about some of the ministry work you do. Well, so there's a couple of things going on here. My wife, Pamela, happens to be the president and CEO of All-in-One Laundry, Laundry Center and Services.

So on occasion, in the right place at the right time to assist her, one of the accounts that we have to pick up laundry and drop off laundry is in Chicago. So I have the luxury to take that route sometimes when we don't have a driver that's set up to go that way. And then, of course, I do something a little bit different that's affiliated with a not-for-profit called CSA that I am the founder and executive director of, and we work in conjunction together.

So we have a unique, my wife and I have a unique situation going on. And not only are we husband and wife, we are business partners, and we also work together on different ideas that each one has. Yeah, I think your wife came into the studio, and we talked a little bit about the services where you provide, helping like homeless with laundry, and I think you were collecting fabric sheets, you know, softener sheets and detergents and other things where a number of people were driving to the laundromat.

I guess it's one of the bigger laundromats in the area and providing supplies and goods to help the homeless. Yeah, she was very sweet. But the WLUJ family of stations were announcing that there was a special day where people could bring in their clothing, and so give her my best.

But what was it about Pamela that drew you to her? Well, I'm going to tell you, Pamela is a very special person. She has a heart of gold. She is God's daughter.

She is unbelievable, precious, caring, loving individual, probably the most that I've ever met in my life. And I am truly, God had to really think highly of me to allow me to be in her presence. Was it love at first sight? What drew you to her initially? Well, initially... Full disclosure here.

Hey, I love it, and it's a good story. It'll probably be in a book one day. So I knew her brother, Matthew, and we lived in Atlanta, Georgia.

And it just so happened that the family came down to visit Matt. And, of course, they did everything together. Grandma, Mom, Dad, her other brother, and herself came down to Georgia to visit Matt.

And it just so happened I was with Matt that day earlier, and he said, You know, my family's coming in town tonight. Why don't you stick around and meet my family? And I said, Okay. And that was it.

I mean, you know, they came in, I met them, and I think the same night we went out to dinner. We talked a lot and showed her around, and I think they stayed for two or three days. So I obviously took her back, and we got back together the next day.

And it was just, I mean, you could call it love at first sight, but it was definitely an attraction at first sight. Now, at this time, how old are you when you're meeting her? Oh, so this is telling myself. So we've been married over 26 years, so that's going to put me about 38.

And are you a believer at this point? So share a little of that faith journey on how you came to know Jesus in a personal way. Well, so my mom was definitely a God-fearing Roman. I grew up Catholic.

I grew up in Connecticut, where I was first exposed to the God family through the Awana. Scripture memory, oh yeah. That's an old group, the Awana Club, and they told a lot of biblical stories, and we played.

Of course, I had no clue, but it was instilled in me early in life. And then I went on. I did do a stint in public school, but I went to Catholic high school in Uncasville, Connecticut, and it went on from there.

So God has had His place in my heart for as long as I can remember. It was instilled in me and my family right from the beginning. Obviously, as life went on and life be lifin', you know, life was lifin' for a long time, and I ended up in Atlanta, Georgia.

I had a great career with an auto manufacturer, Honda. It was a long career, and I met Pam along that way. Now at this time, before meeting Pam, are you one that had a practice of you wake up and had devotion time or read the Scriptures or just knew there was a God that cared for you and knew Jesus was a part of growing as a Christian, but you wouldn't maybe say, I was intentional every day at seeking the Lord's leading, or where were you at spiritually? So spiritually, it was not an everyday thing.

I knew the Lord was with me. There was different things that happened in life to make me grow closer to Him, and different times in my life growth where I became closer to God. So the devotionals came where I had a lot of people around me that did those things and prayed every day.

I went to a church called Victory World Church in Atlanta, which was a very close-knit church that did a lot of praying. So prayer was instituted on and off in my life, and then to a daily thing it became. But God has always been in my life.

I thought I could handle a little bit and didn't need it so much, but God has always been there. And for maybe the listener that this could be maybe a foreign concept or these two are talking about having a relationship with God. I don't even know if I believe God exists.

What was maybe some of those defining moments where Jesus became real? Not only was He maybe a historical figure that you read about in the Bible, but a lot of people believed He really was a person that came, that represented God, that was God, that died on the cross. When did it become really personal where He paid for my sins? I'm going to accept Him as Lord and Savior. Through a series of bad decisions when I was living in Atlanta, Georgia, I ended up living under a bridge.

So when I was living under the bridge, this was way before I met Pam, God was with me. Jesus showed me and convinced me that I was worthy of living. I went through a lot of struggles.

I'm an only child. My mom passed away. My dad passed away.

I was really struggling in life. I've had some really tough. But God didn't let me go.

And when He came to me as I was living, He would just, first of all, stabilize me and let me know that He was there and just allowed me the opportunity to get myself together. He put me around some really good people, a lot of prayer warriors, and slowly but surely things kind of turned, turned around, and I was able to get back on my feet and start the process back over again. So I know Jesus is real, and I've seen it many, many times.

I've talked to a lot of different people and showed a lot of different people that, yes, God is real. Well, how did He take you from, like, the business world and being a successful entrepreneur, you and your wife doing various things, to turn this clean slate advocates into, like, a ministry and an outreach and something that you can talk about to our listeners? Wow, yeah, it was certainly a lightbulb moment that God brought to my attention as a vision of being able to help people to do something that was just so basic that I noticed that we had some situations that happened. One thing that happened was the derecho.

I don't know if you remember the derecho here in Springfield where we had power outages for a long period of time, and people just had no access to clean clothes. So I talked with the boss of the laundromat, my wife, and we figured out a way that we could partner. We partnered with a local business, Springfield Clinic to name it, and it was just really an eye-opening moment when we realized that people truly had a need for clean clothes.

Then I was studying and praying, and God brought me to the United Nations Development Plan, which on that plan, eliminating poverty by 2030 is an initiative. And so I thought, How can I be a part of that, and what should I do, Lord? And I just gave it to God, and He said, You need to do this, this, and this. And I applied for the 501(c)(3), and we got it in.

We started out. We didn't have a template. We didn't have any idea how to get it done.

But now, last year, we processed over 660,000 loads of laundry for folks. We helped nearly 100,000 people. We get a lot of demographics of the people in Sangamon County and Springfield that have this true need of keeping their clothes clean.

And it's really awesome to watch God do His thing, because when people have a way to get things like that done, they take the initiative to do it. And I'm just so thankful that we had an open ear for God to be able to make these provisions, and that's what we've been doing every day for the last three years, along with everything else in business to support that. Right.

I think I remember when talking with Pamela, and she may have even spoken at the Springfield and Vicinity Ministerial Alliance, sharing some of the vision, but so many of us can take for granted because we have our own washer and dryer or home or whatever, and we just put the clothes in the hamper or in the washing machine and do it up. But what really touched me is when she said the value of them coming and having their clothes clean, because if you're on the streets or whatever, and they're soiled or whatever, they're not well kept, and yet the dignity that's brought to them as they get to have clean clothing or the provisions made, or I think you also were providing softener and detergent and the fabric sheets. So say a listener's saying, hey, I'm kind of intrigued about this.

I know somebody that maybe could utilize your services, or I want to financially support it, or I have, like, three of these tied, two-gallon whatevers, or I want to go to Costco today or Sam's Club or whatever and purchase and donate. Is there a way to do that, and is there a website or something? Sure, sure. So let me explain to you on how we do the program.

So we were very fortunate to build a relationship with All-in-One Laundry, which is actually a commercial launderer, right? So we were able to access bulk items of soap and bulk items of dryer sheets and bulk items. So our need isn't so much of those type things. Our need is more of volunteers, people coming in, just talking to people, making people feel comfortable.

Obviously, financial donations are vitally important so we can keep the mission going. It's very expensive, large bills and things like that that are a lot of pressure on All-in-One Laundry, who is doing a lot of in-kind donations to the CSA program. But just making the connection, sort of like when we went to the prayer meeting, we have a lot of Christians and a lot of folks that just don't know one another.

They live in their box. And if we could just come out of that box and realize that if we can share the love that God has given us to somebody else that may not realize that God loves them too, we can make so much of a difference. And that's what we experience in the Laundry Center on a daily basis.

And when somebody can come in, walk up to the counter, sign up for the program, and be able to get all their laundry from one load to 85 loads or 50 loads at one time, they can get it all done. The washer's 30 to 40 minutes. A dryer's 30 minutes or so.

This is all commercial equipment. It's the best of the best, high-grade material. You can be out of the store on the way home with clean clothes.

So the volunteer efforts, say somebody's like, you know, I live in and around the Springfield area. They would kind of contact you, and maybe it's a matter of bring a book or bring your Bible or something you want to read. And you may sit in this laundromat area for a while, and the goal is to interact or to share or maybe entertain the kids while the mother's trying to do the laundry or whatever.

All of the above. All of the above. So the main thing is just realizing that people are people, and people deserve the love of God.

And if you've got the love of God in you, we need you to show up and help and talk to people and make them feel loved and wanted. And once we see that happening on a daily basis, people are very thankful and appreciative. So we have all different kind of things that we can do to assist.

Like I said, we log in people that utilize the program. We collect demographic data so that we can put this data together so we can get it in the right hands to the community stakeholders to make sure that we support our community. And clean clothes is like water and air.

Everybody needs clean clothes, and most of us take it for granted because we don't really have the issue. But everybody has clean clothes. We can move some of the mental health issues.

We can get jobs going. We can create an infrastructure where people are being taken care of. And so that's the clean slate advocates.

That's the ministry. That is definitely the mission. The 501(c)(3) is set up for the initiative is laundry, but we deal with workforce development, communication training, getting together, mental health, mental wellness, all of those type things just because we're loving on one another.

We're talking to each other. We're putting the phone down, and we're talking. Hey, what's going on? How can I help? What's going on with you? Oh, I'm looking for a job.

Well, let's see. Maybe we might know somebody. Maybe we can get you prepared to get a job.

But the first thing we can do is clean you up, make you feel good about yourself. You're looking good, standing tall. Let's go on from there.

And it's just a beginning point. The laundry is just a beginning point. We take care of that, but there are so many things that we can do off of that.

That's kind of the bridge God is using to make context. So if people were going to stop by csanfp.org, what would they find? What they would find is they would go to 801 South Grand Avenue East, and they would find All-in-One Laundry Center. And when they walk in the door, they would go right to the counter, and there will be a CSA attendant there.

There will also be some All-in-One employees, but there will be a CSA person there that's ready to take the data, talk to them about how to utilize the program, go through the information that they need to know. There's a couple of house rules. We want you to stay with your clothes.

It's a fast-paced thing because we have so many people that have a need. It's kind of turn and burn, really. We can do about 5,000 loads a day, but that's getting them in and out.

That's getting them in and out. All right, listening friends, if you have a heart for people, meeting up with them, maybe at the laundromat where you can spend some time volunteering, just getting to know them, tracking some of the data or assisting them in various ways or being that conduit that God would use. With me is the executive director of Clean Slate Advocates, and it's Robert Frazier in the studio with me on Testimony Tuesday.

If you missed a portion of today's broadcast, want to hear it again or pass it on to a friend, we have all sorts of resources. And maybe you want to see the transcript of the broadcast or different links or the scripture that was referenced or some talking points and even a prayer we have for you. You can stop by greatnewsradio.org or wluj.org and look under the Mark & Friends tab, and there's a great link there so you can hear or re-hear the broadcast or share it with a friend or write down some of the notes because the transcript is fully available.

But we appreciate the passion that both Robert and Pamela have for this community. And for that matter, I was going to talk more about the unity that you want to bring to all of us, not just through this great ministry, but appreciate your heart for bringing people together and providing this opportunity for some of you today to follow up on. So find out more at csanfp.org or stop by, what's the laundromat again, All-in-One? All-in-One Laundry Center and Services, 801 South Grand Avenue East, right across from the new Springfield Clinic Drive-Up.

In Springfield. All right, listening friends, well, go about your day today. Remember, as you go, wherever you go, proclaim that good news message of Jesus, knowing that He cares for you and He cares for those around you.

So be that blessing to others. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being a part of our radio listening family.

This is Mark Burns and Robert Frazier with the Ministry of Great News Media. God bless you and have a great day and night.