, in this is "the steele report. this week on "the steele report." a unique perspective on the social climate of life in the cedar valley. our question begins right now. now from kwwl, this is "the steele report." and welcome to this week's edition of "the steele report." i i would like to introduce you within our community. someone who is really kind of run the streets of waterloo for many, many years because he's an agent of this area and his name is quovadis marshall, pastor quovadis marshall or affectionately as parishioners call him pastor q. your church, pastor is hope city church in waterloo. i'll talk about your new partner with prairie lakes. i kind of wanted to get your perspective.

you know him pretty well. as you look at some of the developments in this city over the last few months, particularly with some -- this is not random violence, this is violence among people who really know each other -- and young people, particularly african-americans who are involved in this and having grown up, you said you were a father at age 15. >> yeah. >> you have some life experiences already, although you're only 36 years old. as you look back and you say, what's going on with these young people and how can i help them? >> yeah. you couple of things happening within our community. some of it, when i think about it, i think about a headache. a headache is a symptom of a source problem. so when i think about our youth and the ones in our community that are acting out in violence, most violence happens within your native neighborhood. so families against families, kind of inner family rivalries, if you will. i guess i think about three things that lead to acts of

communication. three, i think we all know it's a breakdown in the home structure. so when i think about our community, when i think about my own life and my own journey, i think what i found is people who were proud of me, but they were proud of me for doing bad things. so i think the same is true with our youth today. we're looking for affirmation, affection and attention. if we can't get it in good things, the human nature is to look for it in bad things. >> your wife angel native of cedar valley. you've been together over 22 years and you do have a 21-year-old daughter. also, i think you said bubba is nine, your son. as you look at this situation, tell people a little bit about your background and how did you grow up in waterloo and what were you doing to get yourself in trouble? >> yeah. no one did it for me. it was me. i'm responsible. so you said a little bit, i met

like i said, i'm born and raised here. unfortunately, i probably track with a lot of story of youth in our community. not just our community but specifically in the black community. a single parent home. love my mom. my mom did the best job she could. five of us growing up, pretty low income family. spent a lot of time eating at the salvation army food banks, things like that. it was tough. we got by. my mom made the best out of what she had. there was t absentee father who just wasn't around for his own choices. that caused me to look up to people who weren't making good decisions. and so, i like to tell our church families, it's hard to be what you can't see. so you take a kid 14 years old, born and raised in waterloo, the first time i ever went to a campus, i was 31 years old as a pastor. so a college -- >> first time you ever stepped

>> stepped foot. >> even in this area. >> it wasn't in my scope, in my sight. i made a lot of bad decisions to be honest with you. i spent every year of my life incarcerated from the age of ten to the age of 17. unfortunately some of that continued in my adult years. here is what i would like to say. you can't break it so bad that god can't fix it. even if those watching don't have a deep history in we're all recovering from something and we're all returning from somewhere. so it's not where your point of origin is. it's where you're going. it's not where you're returning from. the point is you're on a process of returning, you're making progress, there's a future, there's a hope in front of you that you're moving towards. you can't move forward -- no one drives in the rearview mirror. it's not your past that defines you. >> your mother raised five children basically by herself. >> she did.

experience? and do you have a relationship with your biological father today? >> those are two great questions. i think the first thing i learned was that love compensates for lack of capital, right? and so my mother did a great job at loving us, telling us she was proud of us. my mother absolutely passed away two and a half years ago. >> too bad. >> interestingly at her funeral, i tell our congregation this, when i walked in i s youth. i thought where are the people my mother's age are at. one by one, those kids got up there with tears in their eyes and quivering in their voices. they said, your mother, my mom's name was delilah. delilah was a mother to me, she took me in, showed me how to cook and showed me how to be a parent. my mother left a legacy. a legacy isn't what you leave for someone. it's what you leave in someone. so the truth is, i'm learning

everything my father -- i wished my father was to me. i love my dad, we don't have a good relationship, a strong relationship, but i'm looking at my son and i'm saying to myself and i'm saying to my wife, let leave a children a legacy in our children of commitment. we have a past, but our past doesn't determine our future. it only tells us where we've been, not where we're going. >> as you look about things around waterloo, particularly in the city today, seeing? and what would you like to do to help rectify some of these ills and make this a stronger place, particularly in the community? >> when i think about our community, i tend to think about a three-legged stool. i think there are three components central to make forward process, prosperity of our communities, the prosperity of our soul and our hearts to flourish to grow.

three pieces i think would be helpful. the first would be education. i think one of the legs of education, we've got to show our young people the value of education. two, i think it's empowerment. it has to do with self-esteem, the way you see yourself in this world. the third one i think would be employment. we just got to get jobs to our young people and give them a chance to work, show them the benefit of workin you know, work for the slow quarter not the fast nickel. if we can do that, a lot of encouragement, i think we can make some positive impact. i am excited. i feel like the community has come together. unfortunately we just had some flooding. the thing i love about the cedar valley is we know how to come together, we know how to work hard. we're known for that in iowa. i look at my church family and other churches, not just within the faith community, but

a difference. we've just got to keep going. i believe better together and we can do it. >> you're the lead pastor at hope city church. is this a church that's been around for awhile? or is this relatively new? are you the founder? tell me a bit about the background of the church. >> it's a new church plan is what we would call it. it's a new church. it's a church plan because it's young and growing. it's been amazing to watch. we started september 13th of last year. >> we started weekend services. it's been great and amazing. i get the privilege of being the lead pastor but i don't lead alone. we have a great leadership team from our parking team to our kids ministries. we started and 200 people showed up for our first service. by god's grace, we continue to grow. we do two services now. we have a partnership with prairie lakes church. that's been amazing.

community, at least within the church, that the gospel changes people. this idea that life, purpose and identity can be found in jesus. that knowing that changes a person and that person can then change the word around them. the gospel changes people and people change things. so our vision for our church is city transformation through the gospel. so we won't let go of that truth, that belief that hope, that dream, that things can get better, they will get bte we believe god does his work through our hands. >> we're going to -- can you stick around a little longer. >> yeah. >> we're going to take a break. as always our show will be online on kwwl.com. so we'll take a quick break and

welcome back to this week's edition of "the steele report" with pastor quovadis marshall with the hope city church or as his parishioners call him pastor q. so pastor q. welcome to the program again. when you were growing up in waterloo and you told me before the show that you were a dad at age 15. that's an awful lot of responsibility, but you were determined not to repeat what had happened in your own life where your mother had to raise five children all by herself. did you have a big chip on your shoulder growing up? what happened to change your outlook? >> yeah, that's a good question i mean, you know, history is written -- told by the one

my mom would probably have a lot longer answer. the short answer is yeah, i had a chip on my shoulder. i think i was mostly confused. i think i was mostly hurt. i felt misunderstood, unwanted, unwelcomed. growing up with a single parent, obviously you're going to ask questions why? why am i here? am i worthy of love? i think those are natural question that is the human heart longs to have answered. so i looked for those answers in other things. fast cars, fast living and that for me, everything changed around at around 17 years old. i didn't grow up in a religious home so i had no religious background. i was a street kid. so at 17 years old, my girlfriend and i had our daughter, was two. we moved to a small town in denver, iowa. it was our first apartment together. i'll never forget the day, october 23rd 1997, no religious background, i had no belief system in terms of what happens after this.

i just had this conviction that if there is more to life than this, then the way that i had lived didn't earn me in god's good graces. i knew good enough that bad people weren't in good standing just growing up with a mother who didn't mind ministering discipline taught me that. august 23rd, 1997, in my living room all by myself through tears, through hours of confession to an unknown god, i didn't k the truth. i just cried out in my living room, here is my prayer, august 23rd, 1997. god, if you are real, if you will reveal yourself to me, i will give you my life. the next morning i woke up, as god as my witness, a pastor knocked on my door. i opened the door, my name is pastor elan and he told me who jesus was, god had a son paying the penalties wanting to offer me the gift of life and part of

that day changed, it changed everything. it was the why to the what. >> you are sh. >> it's not enough to know what happened to you but we need to know why. ultimately i believe i was put here because god wanted me, even if my dad didn't. that changes everything because it gave me my identity. >> you said you're still not close with your biological father right now. so where does that figure in your overall view of life? back of your mind? are you trying to figure out at some point, because your father is going to be a lot older than you and he won't be around, to work this out? for the people watching knowing the exact same thing that i'm talking about right now, being a dad is tough and answering to a dad can be tough, too. >> it can. >> are you working on that in some way? what do you think it will take to do that for other people who might be watching you.

belief that god wants to take your pain and use it according to his purpose for your life. and so what we've got to do is learn how to repurpose our pain i am who i am not because i had a life devoid of pain, but because the pain through the process of time i let it shape my personhood like it's shaped my character to make me stronger or better. it didn't make me weaker. what my mama used to say, what don't kill you makes you stronger. i would s same journey, absent it's an absent parent or you have a parent that's home but not present because they don't see you or want you doesn't mean you're not wanted, seen or known. i think there's a father in heaven that put you here for a purpose. i believe also in light of that truth, for me as a father, not having a good example, so i'm a first generation father to my son. my mother's father wasn't around either.

nights where i've said, i don't know what to do. i don't know what i'm doing. i know this, i'm going to get up, go to work, see my son, kiss him, tell him he's the most important person in the world to me and i'm going to do everything i can that that boy never doubts he's loved or wanted. i think bubba is going to turn out all right. >> i think so, too. one of the great things about life is there's always tomorrow that's something that's carried me and a lot of people every single day. did you get tired going to jail >> what about somebody watching you now and say, i remember him, he was different. he's full of it. what do you tell those people? because people can change. you have to want to change. nobody changes until they reach kind of a bottom and say, i'm going to make a change. >> that's right. >> you talked about what made you change. are you really changed? >> yeah. you know, i think the best person to ask that would be my wife and my daughter and my son

fatal. the truth is we're all flawed. we have a future. that's why we get up, put our pants on in the morning, get out of bed. that's why we have news that could cripple us, we keep going we believe tomorrow can be better than today. i don't know who is watching this or where you are or what you're going through, but i know for a fact tomorrow can be better than yesterday. it's that fundamental truth, belief that drives us to get up everyin people who know me will know me, i am who i am. i'm not a perfect man. i'm not the man i used to be either. i'm definitely in process. i love my community. i'm a part of this city. i love this city. i believe the best of this city when i look at young men, black, white, asian, hispanic otherwise, i look at them and see what they can be, not just what they are. the truth is, until we deal with society it will continue to cease to unlock the potential of our young people.

change. >> tell me a little bit about your congregation, hope city church. right now you have a temporary location, where is that? >> we're located at 722 south hackett road in waterloo, iowa behind the u-haul right off of university. that's where we're at now. we're actually searching for a building now. we're looking to move. we love our city, want to be a part of it. we're in a building search now. we congregation. i love my church family. hope city church, in you're watching, i love you. >> waterloo has such a diverse population. most of the city in iowa -- most diverse city in iowa by far. >> what we say in hope city church, if you watch our seminars online or come to church, we're a church purposefully, intentionally by design a church of the city, in the city and for the city. we're a church of the city.

church family, i want a church like walmart. for better or worse. so we've got young and old, black and white, wealthy and the unemployed. we have married people, divorced people, single people, college students, adopted children, a lot of adopted children. we have a very diverse church family and i love it. that's what we are, we're family of people. we say we're a church for everyone and we're a church in the city and for the this city a better place. >> we're going to take another short break, a final one before coming back for a final segment with pastor q. online, kwwl.com, the whole interview every week. we have past shows on there as

how tall are you? how do we measure greatness in america? the height of our skyscrapers? the size of our bank accounts? no. it's measured by what we do for our children. kids and families and it will be my mission to build a country where our children can rise as high as their dreams and hard work take them. that means good schools for every child in every zip code. college that leads to opportunities... not debt. and an economy where every young american can find a job that lets them start a family of their own.

working together. respecting one another. and never giving up. i want our success to be measured by theirs. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. welcome back to the final segment this week on "the steele report" with local pastor quovadis marshall, pastor q of hope city church. we've been talking about his background, having kind of r your life, turned everything around. you and your wife angela have been together over 22 years. you have a 21-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. you are a pastor of a fledgling church here, only a year old in with you waterloo, the city hope church. when you look at the national narrative and what's happened in waterloo with some of the excessive force cases, do you think as a black man who has been incarcerated, are police

circumstances and may lose control? what's going on there from your point of view? >> to be honest, to be fair, there's a national narrative which always heightens individual cases, scenarios. it adds fuel to the fire. you know, the question of do i think there's bias? i think people are people. i think we need to judge people on the basis of their merit. i don't think it's fai for the actions of some. dan truck goes to our church. i don't say this because he goes to our church. i've parade with dan. he's aware of areas of improvement in the department. i believe he and the mayor are working very, very very hard to make those necessary changes. you know, also it's very hard to be a man or woman in uniform.

my wife doesn't kiss me gob buy and wonder if that's my last day. there's a lot happening. that's not to excuse or make light of. to your point, i am a black man i can't change that. i know what racism feels like. i've been followed in stores. i've been nervous in particular parts of our community. i understand that, but, again, i think a couple of things need to happen. one, i think there needs to be more communication. talking always lends to right? trust by virtue leads to transparency. trust and transparency are sisters to vulnerability. i think some of the community policing efforts that the mayor and chief have proposed will be great as they kind of figure out what it looks like. that's loose language. i think the chief, just because i know they have, they're working toward community involvement. so i'm very hopeful.

hopeful. >> the mayor has said that building this trust between citizens and the waterloo police department is a, a top priority gary mcfadden the homicide detective, very well-known homicide mcfadden from charlotte, north carolina was on this program just a few weeks ago. i asked him a little bit about, does it start with the police chief and end with the police chief? and does the police chief end up as a scapegoat for actions of his or her officers? what do you think about that? >> i do. i've got a 21-year-old and a nine-year-old. so at some point this analogy breaks down but walk with me for a little bit. you don't put me in the jail for the crimes of my 21-year-old. now, you expect me to teach them how to be upright citizens, you expect me to teach how to be moral, you expect me to teach them how to obey authority. at some point, it's my ultimate responsibility because i'm a

the thing i love about america and democracy, everybody has to stand on their own merit. does it end with the chief, to some degree. he's an influencer, he's setting pace and culture. his officers have a right to agree or not to agree with that the mayor knows how much of that is happening, i can only go on the chief by his character. i know he's working really hard i know there are officers in the department that want is it happening as fast as our community wants it to happen? when i say our community, i mean waterloo community and the black community. i'm not just a member of the black community, i'm a part of this community, i'm a part of the city. change never happens overnight. we don't let up on change, but we've got to keep moving toward it and be patient in the process. >> i want you to use your background as a young african-american growing up in waterloo and i want you to talk

retaliation shootings. what do you tell them about what they're doing and where that's going to lead and how do you change that? what do you say to them? >> i think if i'm talking to a 17 or 18-year-old young black man or young man in general in our community. i'm saying to you, that life matters. what you do today determines your tomorrow. that your actions today are preparing your future. i want you to think about legacy and leaving something behind. better instead of broken. i'm saying to you, i've sat in a jail cell for seven and a half years and no one come to visit me. i sat in a jail cell and had to eat food up. i've hugged my mom through jail bars from the able of ten through the age of 26. i'm saying it can get better but we've got to make the change, we have to be the change we want to see right. so there's a community of people

within education. i'm saying you can break the pattern. it doesn't have to continue from your generation to the next generation. i'm saying we're better together, find people who are going in the same direction you are. i would give advice to them what one of my mentor gave me. q, show me your friends, i'll show you your future. i would say that to the youth of our city. >> your reputation is perhaps your most valuable asset, too. >> it is. >> in many cases. education is the key. >> we have about 15 seconds. tell me what you want to tell these young people about education and staying in school >> they say that knowledge is power and that's true. there's a truth to that. that what you know helps determine your future. i would say, learn as much as you can. there's far more out there than you know. take every advantage as you can to learn what you can. it will only serve you in the future going forward. >> pastor quovadis marshall, thank you for taking the time to come on the show.

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