The UnlearnT Podcast
The UnlearnT Podcast is designed to help you gain the courage to change your mind about things you never thought you would change your mind about. Our hope is that you will begin to move towards a life of freedom after hearing stories from individuals who have chosen to unlearn some things in their lives.
The UnlearnT Podcast
Second Act: What To Do When You’re Called Up Front!
We trace Catina Parrish Clark’s journey from insurance to education to chaplaincy and pastoring, exploring how obedience, formation, and care shape a faithful second act. We share honest lessons on leaving the familiar, guarding your soul, and leading from presence with people.
• salary cap and tuition as guidance signals
• discovering a teaching gift and learning God’s voice
• saying yes when comfort says stay
• moving churches to grow spiritually
• divinity school refining language of faith
• chaplaincy as the heart of pastoral care
• staying with people to fuel the pulpit
• self‑care rhythms that prevent burnout
• accepting elevation before feeling ready
• practical courage for a second act
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Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Around Podcast. This is your host, Jaquita Ross, and we are here at the second act. This is the place where we reflect on where we've been so we can redefine our now and rewrite our next. Listen, friends, I have a treat for you today. I'm not, and I'm not even kidding when I say this. This is one of my favorite people. Okay. She is my big sister, but more importantly, she is a servant of the most high. She is a wife. She is a daughter. She is a pastor. Okay, and I can't wait to talk about her journey to getting there. Okay, this is none other than the pastor Katina Parrish Clark.
SPEAKER_02:Hi, Katina. Hello there, my sweet Jaquel Rose.
SPEAKER_03:It is such an honor to be with you on this podcast. So looking forward to tonight.
SPEAKER_04:Y'all, let me tell you something. I'm telling y'all, can't y'all hear the pastor? It drips off of her commitment to the caring and well-being of people, is just so paramount. It spills over in her. And that's why I have always, always, always loved her, y'all. Um, Katina and I, just as a backstory, we met in Divinity School. Um, Katina was there for some of my formative years. I was a fresh baby. Yes, it was it was a fresh, a fresh beginning for everyone. I don't know how many of y'all know about the trials and tribulations of divinity school, but I'm sure we'll talk about a few of those as well. But Katina immediately became my big sister. She is the one. If you're wondering why my Instagram handle is Quita Rose, because since I met her, Katina has called me Quita Rose or Jakuita Rose. And I thought it was the cutest thing. But Katina, tell them why you were calling me Jakuita Rose.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, the classes were so big in Van Den. Sometimes when the students would introduce themselves, you may not get all of what they were saying. But I could have sworn she told us that her name was Jakita Rose, and that was her first name, but she was really giving her first and last name Jakita Ross. And so I just called her Jakita Rose from day one all the way until here we are in 2025, 13 years later. So I like it. She likes it. It sticks.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, y'all. She thought Jakwita Rose was my real name. And now I have adopted it. And now I love it. I put little roses at the end of my signatures. So I absolutely love it, y'all. Katina, um, and I just want to say this. Okay, I don't know who's in the office now. Okay, but I was Katina's first armor bearer. Okay. I used to travel with Katina from church to church as she preached the good news. And I'd be in that back room praying my sister on through. So it's been a wonderful journey with Katina. Um, I can't wait for you guys to hear more about her life and her journey and her story because truly it is absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. Thank you so kind. So kind. Yes. All right. So, friends, we're still in our first season of the second act. So I'm just gonna run down how we're gonna roll through this conversation, right? We are gonna start off talking about the first act. The first act are those formative years. It's where God is showing you a little bit about who you are, what's inside of you. It's where you are experiencing maybe some different situations, some conflicts, right, that will get resolved as you continue to walk through your journey, right? And I, Katina, you didn't start off as a pastor, right? You you did not start off as a pastor. And and uh just as a note for the people who are wondering, Pastor, where she's the pastor at? Katina is the associate pastor of congregational care at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. It's also the church I attended when I was at Vandy. We went to Vandyville Divinity School together, and so Katina has such a beautiful journey there. So, Katina, I want to hear more. I want the people to hear more about where we started before we got ideas of pastoring, right? And even if you could start, like what led you to divinity school?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I would have to start all the way back from uh really, I think, was probably my most formative year that I knew of at that particular time, just spiritually. Uh, it was a time when I first started being able to discern the voice of God. And uh I was um working at my first job outside of college, and uh I was doing insurance. Uh I was an insurance, not an insurance agent, but I processed uh life and long-term care insurance claims. I did. I never knew that, honey. I don't know what happened, but uh applied. It was the first job I applied for out of college, got the job, and it stuck, right? And so uh a lot of us who had graduated from MTSU uh had applied at this particular uh life insurance uh company. And uh we were working there, and I had worked there for about five years, the number of grades, right? Yeah. And uh some things started to shift uh at the insurance company because you know, one of the things about that job that we had, you know, of course, when you get out of college, you think, you know, I'm gonna climb this career ladder because that's what we've all been taught, you know, as we were talking about what what the path looks like or and the trajectory looks like after college. And so uh, of course, we had our regular salaries, but there was so much overtime available at this life insurance company. Let's take the money. We were staying, honey, until seven and eight o'clock at night. Yeah, you know, just having your spat check. Honey, yes, honey. You look, you just order pizza, eat pizza in, and then honey, you're ready to shower and go to bed and get ready for the next day. But um, something was happening within insurance at that particular time, and it was about 2000 when uh they had called us in for some meetings to say that you know they were putting a cap on the salaries. And I was like, now, God, this is not what I signed up for. Now I done went to school, and you know, I'm looking to climb this career ladder. Yeah. And so, but at the same time, when they had put a cap on the salaries, um, they had also instituted, which did not make any sense. I mean, looking back on it now, you would know that it's nothing but God. Because as they were putting a cap on the salaries, they also had uh put in place a tuition reimbursement program. So I was like, okay, well, let me just see about going back to school, you know, maybe. And so, of course, I didn't know what I was gonna go back to school for, but again, this was the time where I was really being developed spiritually and I was being able to hear the voice of God. And so the church that I was currently in, uh, I had kind of already been serving uh in ministry there and you know, singing in the choir, but also uh participating as one of the facilitators for um children's church. You know, Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Red and yellow, black and white. Yes, and so on.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. I would teach um children's church right there within there was a segment right there within the service. And so uh people had seen me do that for years. And so uh a lot of times people would come up and say, Where did you teach school? I really want to try to get my kids in your class. And I was like, I'm not a teacher, you know. I I process life insurance claims and long-term care insurance claims. But people kept speaking this over my life. So I would have to say my first calling um that I received from God was my calling to teach. Wow. As that salary cap was happening uh at the insurance company in which I was currently employed, I went back to school, got my master's, and before um I left the job, I ended up getting my master's from TSU in education and supervision because I was like, well, Lord, if I'm gonna teach, then I am going to have to, you know, be on the other salary scale. I'm not gonna be able to go in on the introductory.
SPEAKER_01:Not no introductory. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02:I said, Lord, I'm gonna have to be an administrator. Of course, you know, you don't go in as an administrator, you have to, you know, start in the classroom.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but I taught um for seven years. Uh, and again, the number of completion, right? And so um in that season, uh, God showed me a lot. I mean, to the point where I could hear God's voice so clearly to at one point it kind of got a little bit scary. And I told God I was like, hey, okay, I I know your God. But um, you know, the next time I ask you something, you don't have to say it so loudly, you know, uh, because, you know, God was just showing me really in that moment that, you know, the things that I'm calling you to, I'm gonna give you very clear uh instruction. I'm gonna give you very clear uh direction. You're not gonna have to question it uh at all. I'm gonna speak it so loudly to you that it's gonna be undeniable. And so those seven years that calling to teach um the kids were my congregates. Come on here, you know, the the the you know, my podium inside the classroom was my pulpit.
SPEAKER_04:Come on here, and so tell people you you're looking for it to happen one way, but God will set you up and any place can become a place of purpose.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, absolutely, and of course, hindsight is always 2020, right? Because um in that seventh year of teaching, that's when I also experienced my calling to preach. So that starts then the pivot.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, wait, because I I I there's some nuggets that I don't want to lose because I feel like we're about to shift to the next part of your story. But the way, you know, you were saying that you were learning God's voice as you were kind of moving through these different shifts and pivots of your life, right? And I think what's so important because people ask me all the time, you know, how can I hear the voice of God? You know, what what do I do? Or what what you know, what's the secret sauce? But it was in his move. God was speaking through the moves when they put a cap on the salary, right? When they and but that shifted you right into moving towards something else because God one river draw uh uh dried up, right? But he he shifted you to another brook that was overflowing with the tuition reimbursement, right? So he didn't actually take anything away from you, he shifted you, and that was his speaking. And then when you went through that process and got your degree, then you moved from insurance to education. That was that was him speaking, and so a lot of times we're waiting to hear, but a lot what God really wants us to do is to pay attention, right? And to not allow our emotions, because you know, you could have been in your feelings, salary cap.
SPEAKER_02:In my feelings, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Salary cap.
SPEAKER_02:Oh Lord never and never wanted to teach, you know, because you know, and not that teaching, I I uh, you know, forsake not that office at all. Yeah, but I think that, you know, across the nation, across this globe, we know that teachers are um grossly underpaid for the level of work that they do. And so that was certainly not, you know, the path that I wanted to take. I was like, no, Lord, no, wait a minute. I can't go backwards here. You know, you know how much I made, even if it was including overtime, I have got to make more here. And so, you know, um, you're right, you know, that was one of the seasons where I was like, no, God, if this is clearly you, I need for it to look like this. And I guess God was saying, you know, I know that teaching is not the path that you would have chosen, but you've got to trust that if you if you're obedient to me and you choose the path that I am giving unto you, I'm going to provide for you and make room for you to have what you stand in need of.
SPEAKER_04:But you know, I think another thing is that a lot of times we think that what what what we're chasing after is what God is putting in front of us to pursue. But what God was actually perfecting was your yes. That entire time. He was putting you in different spaces and and in front of different people and in front of different assignments, but really he was perfecting your yes, right? Your trust me when you can't see, trust me when you don't know, trust me when it looks like something dried up, still say yes. And so I love that. I love that that yes led you to accept a call. That by the way, just as a note, when Katina and I met, she had her yes. I had not yet found mine. Um, and she's part of the reason that I was forced into my yes. Okay, but go ahead, talk about your yes, Katina.
SPEAKER_02:No, uh I think you're absolutely right. You know, um, it's such a beautiful thing uh to be able to hear the voice of God because I guess, you know, when I think about um just my life's journey, you know, from the time when I felt like I could first start hearing from God. Um, hearing from God um is a is confirming, but it's not always comfortable.
SPEAKER_04:So the thing about it is right there, y'all.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, seriously, if you're gonna clock some tea, clock that. Yeah. Because as much as you say, okay, well, God, I know because you are God, it's your voice that's speaking to me. I know you're not gonna tell me anything wrong, but God, I don't understand this. You know, it don't look right, it don't always feel right. Um, and sometimes, you know, it gets very uncomfortable on the path of obedience, you know, but uh God continues to show himself uh faithful. And so even in that time where God was really uh, you know, training my ear to hear, yes, he was also training my yes because once you say yes to God, it's not just one yes, you know, your yes just continues to unfold, it continues to get bigger, it continues to get bigger, it continues to get greater.
SPEAKER_04:I ain't bringing no Kleenex today, Kate.
SPEAKER_02:I promise you that yes, uh, you know, the cost of discipleship is great. Yeah, the cost of discipleship is great, and so uh, but it's nothing that you cannot afford um because God has deposited himself inside of you, and God has always promised unto us that he will supply all of our needs according to his riches and glory, even when it doesn't look like it's anything that's tangible, if it's not just because it's not money, God will supply everything that you stand in need of, even after you have said yes unto him, to continue to trust him. God will supply even that.
SPEAKER_04:The cost is great, but you can afford it because of who's been deposited in you. Yeah. Did you just preach that?
SPEAKER_02:I did not, but I might have to.
SPEAKER_04:And I might have to too, y'all. I give you a little credit. Oh, we that was so good. Go ahead. Go ahead. Because you know, I think a lot of times there's a lot of people who are, you know, ambitious or they they have great vision or they have great insight into who they are and what they're called to do, and we chase after these things. Um, but when you try to do things off your own strength, your strength is gonna come up short. You, me by myself, I can't afford what God has called me to. I will, I will get spent. I will get, I will get, I will empty myself and still have more to do if I count on my own strength. But if you tap into what's been deposited in you, you'll have enough to give out to everything that God has called you to do. Because what I'm learning, right? You know, we uh on this podcast we talk a lot about being middle adults, okay, because this middle adulting, okay, nobody prepared us for. Everybody was preparing you how to be a young adult and telling you to look forward to like retirement. Nobody taught you how to do the in-between.
SPEAKER_03:The in between.
SPEAKER_04:The in between these middle adult years. I'm trying to tell you. But you know, I I think about my I think about my life right now, and it's gotten, it's, it's been like a circle, it's been getting wider, right? And so there's more responsibilities, there's more priorities, there's more things that require something of me. And when I depend on my own strength, it that's when feelings of overwhelm come. That's when feelings of anxiety, feelings of depression, feelings of being unsure, insecure, those are gonna come anyway, but you become overcome by it because you get depleted. You have to depend on something that's greater than you in order to be able to put out everything that's being required of you in these agencies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you are so right. You know, that's one of the things that, you know, I have to keep before myself, uh, even as I operate in this space, because the job that I have, uh rarely does anything good come to my office. And when I say good, I mean they're not calling me for joyous uh moments and not calling me for joyous occasions. I I was able to do a wedding just a couple of weeks ago, but weddings come far and few in between. I'm doing more funerals and hospital visits and things of that sort. And so um, you know, you find yourself busying yourself doing the work of ministry, and then that's who you become. And you have to remember that you're not a human doing, you are a human being. And so you have to make sure uh as you pour out to God's people, you cannot do God's work without first being before him because he's a fountain that will never run dry. You have to make sure that you load up and that you fuel up uh so that you can be ready for the work that God has assigned to you. And yes, never ever uh will I, you know, I I I can say this for me, you know, if if if there's anything that becomes problematic for me, I probably don't give myself enough credit, but I'm always one who's gonna always uh recognize that low is the way, you know. Um I trust that God is my supplier. I trust that because God has planted me, planted my feet on the path in which he would have for me to go, I am trusting fully uh to for him to stamp his super on my natural. There's no way that I can do this or that I can get ahead of myself and you know, uh try to take any glory from any of this. Because I see that a lot on these platforms, these you know, star stages, and status is what we call it, a girlfriend of mine and I, because people are seeking that. And never ever am I seeking, you know, if there's an opportunity for me to not sit on the pulpit, I'm always. Running for that opportunity versus for me to sit on the pulpit. Let me sit and act like I'm a worshiper. You know, I know I'm a leader and I know that the pulpit comes along with the job, and I know that I have to mount that pulpit at some point or another, but I would rather sit in the audience as a worshiper because I never want to forsake my worship for my work.
SPEAKER_04:All right, all right, Kathina. You you're gonna mess us up. Back to the first step. Okay. All right. We were teaching, we were discerning the voice of God, and you you had made a move and you made another move. And then what led you from God feeling that call, right, and and knowing that it was God, what came next? Like what informed how you moved from being in a really comfortable space to again going to an uncomfortable one? Because divinity school was uncomfortable. I just want y'all to know.
SPEAKER_02:Divinity school was uncomfortable, but even you know, what preceded uh divinity school and its discomfort was when I received the calling um to preach in my seventh year of teaching. Wow, that calling to preach was also a calling away from my church and to Mount Zion. Yeah. Now that calling was um, that was, I did not understand it. You know, first of all, I had to bear the weight of you know, God confirming for sure that He was really calling me into ministry. And that's a heavy weight to bear within itself because you're like, God, who am I? You know, to be able to be entrusted with such a uh beautiful work as this, but a heavy work. Uh and to be able to represent you, God, I have a history, you know. I haven't always been who I am today. I know, God, that you have, you know, uh smoot out some rough edges and that you've, you know, washed some things clean, but God, you know, wash you are making baby purge you with hissing. Did you hear me? Baby, your sins were like scarlet, but you will be as white as snow. White as snow, come on here. I promise you. Yes. But, you know, that season um for me was probably uh one of the most difficult seasons of my life because again, uh I could not really wrap my mind around what all this calling meant. Uh, but for you to now call me away from the church where my faith was developed, where I had people who loved me, you know, I could get the keys to the church. You know, I always had very good relationships with uh I had only had two pastors uh at the time. Uh the pastor, of course, um that uh for first introduced me to God and then he passed away, and then the pastor who who took his place. So I had very good relationships with that church. And so, God, how can you call me to preach the gospel but pull me away from the church? The people again who had uh, you know, watched me in my formative years grow up, these people have supported me. You know, I need their support now more than ever. Um, but then, you know, God was saying to me, if you're spiritually dying in this place, how are you going to preach my word to people and you have nothing inside of you to give unto them? Yeah. So yes, I am calling you to this, but I'm calling you away from that. And so uh it was, it was, it was, I promise you, it was it was a fight. Man, God, we wrestled um like Jacob, you know, with that one. We did, you know, because not only was I, you know, again taking on this new calling to ministry, but moving. And I knew he wanted me to go to Mount Zion, right? And uh I did not want to go to Mount Zion, you know, it was this huge church, all these people. And again, I had been, you know, uh, I don't want to say the center of attention at my church. I that is not what I'm saying, but yeah, people knew me, people loved me. I mean, you know, they again, I had grown up in that church, and so uh the people respected me there and they trusted the leadership that I already had. Now you can really take me to this foreign place. I'm doing ministry, nobody knows me, so I'm trying to figure out this new path. Don't you think, God, that that would be much easier for me to figure that out amongst people who are already, you know, on my side? I have nobody over here to cheer for me. So that was, yeah, that was the the biggest pivot.
SPEAKER_04:It's such an Abraham moment, you know, it's such a, you know, yes, they did know you, but would they have been able to sustain and uphold who God was calling you to become? You know, and not that there's anything wrong, you know. I I love giving honor to the places that formed me, that that filled me, and they I carry them with me everywhere I go. There's no dishonor in that, but it is a I know that for where God is calling me and what he is intending to pull out of me, that there are places that I have to go and get connected to. You know, again, it is, and this was again you learning the voice of God because in one season he dried the brook up, right? It was, hey, they literally said we're putting a cap on the salaries, right? So that was a clear indication. But as you were growing with God, now he's speaking and he's saying, it may not look like it's dry, but you are gonna have to operate in obedience now, right? Like you're gonna have to move because I told you to and not because the circumstances are pushing you out. And so, you know, as we are moving and walking with God, especially in this first act, where we're, like you said, learning to hear him, we're learning who we are, we're learning what's really inside of us. And I love the journey that God took you on, where you know, you are always kind of in this care role, right? Like with insurance. That's a very like taking care of people, taking care of their properties and their homes, and then moving into this teaching space where it's more direct care. And now you're learning how to have congregants and you're learning how to give messages daily. And preparation.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yes. I mean, it was uh, you know, it was when I look back on it, you know, it was preparation for because ministry never stops, you know, like a teacher's job, you know, they never stop. They just have to, you know, cut it off, um, you know, when they've had enough because you never stop caring, you never stop pouring into um the ones that God has entrusted, uh, you know, entrusted into your care. So um, yeah, yes, it was definitely uh a moment where God was forming me and shaping me for uh where I am now. But one of the things as I even listened that I don't think I ever really gave thought to is in that first season where God was drawing up the brook uh and he was giving me another job to go to, that next pivot, God was uh had matured me to the place of me giving up a job to go back to to go back to school, right? Because once God was calling me uh to ministry, I I had no idea other than I knew God wanted me to preach. That was the only thing I knew. I didn't know much more about any other politics.
SPEAKER_04:When she knew God was calling her to preach, we weren't necessarily thinking time for me to go leave congregational, you know.
SPEAKER_02:We'll get to that in a minute because I promise you the pastor was nowhere, it was nowhere on my uh what are these things that the the people make? Uh the vision boards, it was nowhere on a matter of fact. I had burned it off. If anybody else had put it on there, I was like, that is not my I and I told God. I and this is how God says, you know what, you can say whatever you want to say to me. I'm God, I'm your father. You don't tell me what to do, I'm telling you what to do. Baby, you hear me, and you better get back in the child's place. But I told God's place when I said, I said, God, I'm gonna tell you yes, because I know that if I do not say yes at this point, this is complete disobedience. This is not delayed obedience at this point. You have confirmed to me that I'm supposed to be your uh hands and feet in the earth, and I'm supposed to be your woman of God and to be able to carry uh out your word into your people. But God, I just I just I wasn't feeling it at the particular time, but I said, God, I will say yes to you as long as you never ever ask me to pastor. And that's what I told God.
SPEAKER_04:Will you be trying it? I'm telling you, when I went, I I had not yet received the call because remember, when you met me, I was still denying that there was any call.
SPEAKER_03:You were the only one that was denied.
SPEAKER_04:It doesn't matter. But when I was in undergrad and I heard the Lord tell me that I had to change my major to religion, I remember I was so emotional. I I walked out, got my keys, went to my car. I was driving around campus, I drove to the chapel and I cried and said, Lord, I don't want to be a pastor. Okay, now he ain't caught me like he caught you, but I'm just resonating with the fact that, like, for those of us who have been called, I feel like there's a lot, there's a lot of us who said, just so you know, Lord, I want to put this out here.
SPEAKER_02:I want to put this out here. And I I don't I know God hears everything that we say, but you know, the the way that God brings things about, um, you know, it does make it easier for us to say yes, because once you have said yes to him and you've cried out to him in the middle of your yes, because you know, even once you tell God yes, it's still not gonna always be easy. You know, the climb is not always comfortable. Uh, you get out in the middle of the water and you're like, Lord, you have called me out on the face of the deep. And I heard you, and I was trusting you from point A to right like point L. But right here at point R.
SPEAKER_04:Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02:This is not, I believe I'm getting ready to start sinking, you know. But God continues to not just stretch your faith, but God continues to strengthen your faith along the way so that you trust him all the more. Because God is gonna call you even from that place, that deep place, to another place of elevation that's gonna require even more trust from him. And so you have to continue because but because it may not be that even in that place of elevation where he's calling you to at that particular time, that you're just like, okay, God, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm ready for this. But because God has shown you who He who he is and who He will be, even along the way, it's easier for you to trust God, God. I don't know what in the world you are leading me into now. But God, I trust you. You've shown yourself faithful to me so many times that God, I have no choice now, God, but to say yes to you again and knowing that even you know, as you hash out these details, that you're still gonna be faithful to me.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, we need it. That's so good. That's so good. Okay, so you're trusting God. I I love just your journey of discovery. And I think it's just such a testament that a lot of the times the questions we have about you know who we are and what our purpose is and what has God called me to, it is found on the journey of obedience. It is found on the journey of yes. Um, and a lot of times the things that we're asking God for we haven't seen yet because there's an area in our life where we where we forsook that yes. Um, but if you find your yes, you'll find your next place, your next step. Um, and so I love how your journey is unfolding thus far. So I'm guessing we're still in the first act. What happens? What happens next? I wish I had more on.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, this, you know, it's good now. You know, I thank God that um, you know, I've been able to just be on the front row and watch this because I promise you, you know, my faith has been developed. There's nothing that I will not trust God to do, you know, in my life now because I have watched God work. You know, God has almost said, watch and see. Yeah. When you do this, watch me do this. And so the path of obedience for me has proven to be the path of blessing. And so um, once I left uh teaching, uh I was like, okay, God, I mean, I didn't have a job at all. I didn't have a job at all, but I was like, I cannot commit to the school where I was teaching again for another year because I was like, I don't want them to start the year off. I was more concerned with, you know, how they were gonna start their year off than what was gonna be next for me. And so I did not want to start a year with them and then have to leave because I was like, I know God is calling me to ministry, like I cannot deny this anymore. So once I left uh teaching, went to Mount Zion, joined their MIT Ministers and Training uh program. And uh I was in that program for I want to say a year, and then uh I had met uh well one of the guys who was at uh who was a member of the church. We both already knew each other and we had just kind of served in ministry alongside each other in like Christian education or whatever, but we both started MIT together. And uh yes, he was so crazy. It was um this guy, Lord, I can't I'm forgetting his name, uh, not really important, but um, we both started MIT together. And uh his wife was always a great support uh to the both of us because she knew that we were both scared, but we were both we were certain that we were called. And so uh right he told me in that first year uh at the close of that first year of MIT that he was gonna apply to Vandy. And I said, Well, you know what? Rob was his name. Rob was his name. I said, Well, Rob, you done with I said, Um, I'll help you with your paperwork. I said, but I'm not applying to Vandy. MIT is good, it's working for me. And uh I was like, Vandy, gosh, that is, you know, awesome. Uh and he applied. The three days before the application process was gonna close. God spoke to me one night and God said, I'm speaking. Are you listening? And I got a phone call that said, Katina, I just have one question for you. I'm sitting here working on Rob's application. I'm wondering why I'm not working on your application. And I just went to tears. And that weekend, it took me three days, as long as it took Jesus to get up out of that grave. But he'd been working on his stuff for six, like six months, because you know, it was a whole packet. Well, you know. Yeah. And so um, three days I uh worked on my uh application and all the stuff that I was supposed to submit. I submitted it. I got into Vandy, he did not because I remember Rob was not, he was not with us, he was just my catalyst. He was my catalyst to get me into Vanderbilt for me to get there, and again, another yes to God, because I promise you, I thought for sure I was like, God, you are leading me out here to make a complete fool out of me. I can't hardly spell Vanderbilt, and you want me to do what? You want me to go to Vanderbilt Divinity School?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so yeah, wow. Yeah, again, you know, it's funny. I have a similar, you know, the Lord just if you go to Vandy, if you went to Vanderbilt Divinity School, you know the Lord called you there and He meant what He said. Do you hear me? It is something about that school. When I, you know, I became a religion major, you know, because the Lord told me to. And then I had no idea what I was gonna do next. But I asked my professors, you know, I was starting to get interested. I said, Hey, what do people with religion majors do next? And they were like, they go to seminary. And I said, Where did y'all go? They said, We went to Vanderbilt. I said, Okay, y'all gonna do some reference letters, what y'all gonna do? And they wrote me reference letters, and I put my application into Vandy, and I was like, let me have a backup plan because, you know, I don't know. And so I tried to put in an application to do. I tried no less than four or five times. Every time I went to go to see my app my Duke application, you know, because it takes a long time to fill those applications out. It would be completely erased, blank, like I had never started. I would hit the save button five million times, I would go back that day and check, it would still be there the next day gone. And the Lord would tell me no.
SPEAKER_02:When I got there, I said, You said what?
SPEAKER_04:This is what you said. I am confused. Right.
SPEAKER_02:As much as I wanted to um hear from Bandy for them to say yes, because I was like, that meant, you know, that was something that I could be proud of. I also wanted them to say no, because I was like, I, you know, I won't have to go. I said, God, really? Okay, I had by the time I had gotten through all those tears, um, you know, I I think I told God uh one evening, I was like, okay, God, you know what? I figured it out. Because, you know, I'm wise, right? I I I know God, I know how God's gonna work.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I was uh, you know, in my driveway and I said, God, okay, I figured it out. You didn't really want me to go to Vanderbilt. You were just testing my obedience to see if I was gonna follow what you asked me to do. So it's fine. Let them send the no paperwork. I'll stay at MIT and we'll work this thing out for what we had planned. It was real cute. And honey, I got that letter in the mailbox and I was like, Lord, now I got to go.
SPEAKER_04:Lord in mercy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And the other thing, you know, with that, of course, you know, like I do, it was a full-time program. Yeah. And so um, you know, I was saying, Lord, we were in that I was a full adult, you know, God was with real adult bills.
SPEAKER_04:Katina, Katina was in in our close to middle adult years when we were in, and she did not fool around with us. We'd be like, y'all, we gotta uh we gotta stay up all night, all night.
SPEAKER_02:Five and ten minutes before class. My paper has been done all since last week. Let me tell you. I wasn't fooling with these children.
SPEAKER_04:Katina was leaving us around about seven o'clock. Katina be like, All right, babies, I got to go. We be like, Katina, you I'm done with mine. And we be like, how she do that? Just that middle adult. We ain't got time to be wasting, we ain't got time to be lolling looking around. Uh-uh. I got it.
SPEAKER_02:I was 37, 37, had already been out here adulting for a little bit, and then started divinity school. I was like, no, God, you have uh really, really done your big one this time because now you're saying, okay, I gave you a job, you gave up a job. Now you're getting ready to go back to school and volunteer for poverty.
SPEAKER_04:Let me tell you something. Them divinity school years, that was the only time in my life that They put that little pink slip on my on my apartment door. And I was like, Y'all, I'm waiting on the refund check. Okay. Let me tell you something. We used to be calling each other. Hey, did your refund check come through yet? Where the refund check at? Because we literally were living off of that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Living off, living off of the leftovers.
SPEAKER_04:Living off, girl. Wait a minute. Y'all, Katina's gonna preach about five, six sermons before we done. Because living off of the leftovers, I see people scribbling that down right now. They about to take that to the pulpit this Sunday. Okay, because that is good. Um, Katina, what, you know, divinity school, what were maybe like top five takeaways from your time there?
SPEAKER_02:Oh gosh, top five takeaways. Um, you know, I have to still, oh one, I I will say I have to still give all the glory to God. Um, because one of the things I think uh it may not have been taught specifically in the classroom because you you don't get a lot of Jesus when you go to divinity school.
SPEAKER_04:Now, had I known that we need to pause. We need to pause. We need to pause because I remember people saying, I'm coming to divinity school to find God. And we were like, this ain't the this ain't the place. No, this ain't it. No.
SPEAKER_02:I had no experience. You know, I do have uh another pastor in my family, uh, of course, on my paternal side, but still just right in my maternal siblings that I was raised with, I didn't have a lot of experience with with ministry and what that would look like. And so uh I had no idea that divinity school was quite different than um church, you know. Yes, it it looked nothing like I'm thinking I done grew up in the church, all I know is Jesus. I'm getting ready to get a better understanding of Jesus when I get over here. But you know, one of the things um, you know, that I feel like you know God continued to show me is just try me.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't get that, you know, out of uh any of the classes that we attended at Vanderbilt. But if you just try me, I will prove myself unto you over and over again.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I think one of the other things too that was really uh transformative for me because uh I had a lot of faith, um, you know, entering into divinity school, and I had a pretty good understanding of uh of my faith. But I think one of the things that was very uh critical for me was that constructive theology class. She loved that class that we had. That was that was by far my favorite. She loved that class because yeah, you have faith, but do you? You know, do you know how to really explain your faith? And so by the time that um constructive really destructed all of what you thought that you knew and what you thought that you believed, and you had to build back up on that foundation that they had put taught, they got you down to ground zero. Yeah, uh, you have to start uh explaining like what soteriology looks like and all these things, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anthropomorphism of God, all of those things. I love now that was a good class, honey. That was a good class. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I always tell people that Vanderbilt, you don't go to Vanderbilt to get faith, you but it did teach me how to articulate my faith. Articulate and deep it, you know, because I when I when I got there, I was like, I believe because I believe. You know, I don't need reasons to believe, I don't have, you know, an analytical argument for why I believe. I believe because I believe. But Vanderbilt really did force me to to be able to pull out to defend. To defend it, right? And to become, to become a um, when we talk about being a mouthpiece of God, right? It gave me the foundation to say, I know, I know what God sounds like, not just because of my personal experience, but because I know the I know the foundation of the word in order to really give it. Now, it did not teach me the word. I just want to be clear. Now we took a little New Testament and class and a little Hebrew Bible class.
SPEAKER_02:I was afraid that that was gonna come up on this podcast.
SPEAKER_04:Let me tell y'all something. One of the most traumatizing experiences of my life happened in New Testament and Katina was there to say it, honey. Uh, you talk about a uh a master student's nightmare. It's finals, all right? And I am fast asleep on the couch. The sun has now woken me up. I look at my phone, and the final is almost over. Okay, it is it is like 9:30, and the final started at eight. I'm driving across town. I walk in, everybody's in the hallway. They've already finished taking their final exam. And I bust into tears. And I went to probably the hardest professor we had at Vanderbilt, Dr. AJ Levine, who is a Jewish woman who can teach the baby.
SPEAKER_03:She knows more about G she know more about Jesus than Mary.
SPEAKER_04:Please. But no, but for real. But for real. And I I bust into tears, and that woman showed me so much grace. And there wasn't a lot of grace that semester. Um, but that day I got grace to take that test back to my feet.
SPEAKER_03:You never experienced grace.
SPEAKER_02:You you experienced and we were in there, you didn't know this, but we were in there dragging out our tests to just see, okay, is she gonna come in? Let's write these answers a little bit slower because surely you're quick. Because we had called you, we had done everything that we could do other than send a smoke signal to see where you were. But um, I saw those were, oh my gosh, those were some years that um you will never have they were not all, they were not easy, you know. Um, but God continued to prove to us over and over again that because he had called us to that place, that he was gonna see us fully through to the end, and we crossed the finished line. You know, the the thing about uh being there though, it is very formative still, and and we're always growing, we're always developing. God never takes his hand out of us. We've never uh, you know, arrived in God. God is always taking us from war to glory. And in those spaces, as we were there, I don't think that, you know, a majority of us really knew exactly what our path was gonna be afterwards. And and for me, like I said, I had no idea uh that God was calling me to anything but to preach. But it was there in that space that I fell in love with chaplaincy because I did a field education course and chaplaincy. And I mean, I fell in love with chaplaincy when I in six weeks.
SPEAKER_04:Let me tell y'all something, Katina, chaplaincy oozes out of her pores. You hear me? I remember distinctly one of my favorite memories of Katina. We used to have to park in a parking garage and then walk over to uh the divinity school. We had to cross the street, which I had never done before. I went to a very small, you know, liberal arts college and I got like parking garage, this is new. But I remember I was parking next to Katina. I looked over in the car and Katina was deep in prayer. I mean deep. And she got out of the car, said, Katina, you was praying for the saints. She said, I'm always lifting up the soul. And I found that to be very true. One, but when Katina found chaplaincy, I it was like hand in glove. You know, it was it was such a perfect fit, you know. And I think when God calls you to something or when God starts pulling something out of you that you've never seen before, you know, so God tells you, you know, I'm calling you to preach, but then on that journey to preaching, you found chaplaincy, which is care, which is, you know, covering people in their hardest, toughest moments, you know, like I'm sure that that answer that gave you a sense of the why, right? Because God gave you the what, he said ministry, preaching, right? But the why became care, chaplaincy, covering the saints, you know, and I just I think that's so beautiful how because again, this journey of obedience in your first act, it really carried you through. You know, you didn't we didn't see pastor then, we didn't see I'm gonna be standing on one of the biggest pulpits in Tennessee, you know, day after day, but we saw development there. Um, and so I think there's a lot of people who know that there's greatness on the inside of you, but you have to be a you have to be willing to take these steps in the development process and saying the small yeses before anybody sees your big one.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, absolutely. You know, I never um I still never thought that I would be where I am today. You know, chaplaincy was was good for me. You know, I loved it because one of the things, you know, um for me as I operate in ministry is I never want to be away from from God's people. I always want to be connected to the people, you know, people uh again who operate in ministry are looking to pull away from the people, which is why God called us to ministry anyway, right? To meet the needs of the people. Um so I'm always wanting to be boots on the ground with the people. Um, and so as much as elevation sometimes kind of um, you know, separates you from that, I find myself always uh not wanting to disconnect from that space. The the pulpit is fine. Uh I love preaching God's word, but one thing about it, I want to be ambidextrious there because um I have nothing to preach about unless I've been with the people. Katina, that's good. I'm so serious. You know, when you have spent time with the people of God, it just the word of God, uh, of course, uh, you know, it's rich enough by itself. Yeah, for sure. But when you have walked it out with people and you have seen the word of God uh be what the people need, you know, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted, the Lord saves those who are crushed in spirit, you know. We being may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. When you have walked that out with people, that makes whatever you get ready to say or what you attempt to say on that pulpit, because you have a greater revelation of it now. And so I don't understand how people want to mount that pulpit and forsake God's people because you don't have a platform to stand on unless you have been with God and been with the people of God to be able to get up there on that on that pulpit and have anything to now say to the people who you have not been with? Yeah, absolutely not. And so um it it it you know that's one of the things that I I kind of find myself, you know, worn with. Yes, uh accepting all of the elevation that God wants because promotion does come directly from him, but God, how can I maintain my connection and my connectivity to his people, uh, and also accept the level of elevation that you would have me to accept at the same time.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I love that. I love that. I I again I love the way that your story is unfolding, right? So as we're thinking about how we move through the different acts of our lives, you know, we have the first act, which I think you've done just a beautiful job of just walking us through your journey. But then there comes a time where we really feel like God has pulled us backstage, right? It's the intermission, right? For the people, they are the lights have gone uh gone back up, the people are not paying attention to what's happened happening on stage because the actors have now gone backstage to do costume changes, to do, you know, to change their makeup because they're preparing for what is to come, right? So as you thought about how God has moved you through these formative years, what do you identify as the moment where God caught kind of brought you backstage to really do a significant pivot in?
SPEAKER_02:You know, I I think Draquita, as you know, when I think about my journey, I really think I really think that backstage moment really was the transition from um from teaching uh to experiencing that call to preach. I think that was that was the the intermission for me because it was the the place where you know God was allowing me to to really understand in that particular season that, you know, even though I am allowing you to climb in this space, this climb is not gonna be comfortable. And so behind the scenes then is when God was kind of teaching me about, you know, like you said, just that Abrahamic experience, leaving all of the things that were comfortable and familiar behind, um and moving towards uh a place of transition uh in him and a transition that was required that was going to require me to trust him like never before. So if I had to count a season uh to be uh that place that was the intermission in my life where God was taking me through this change for me to come back out and then say, Okay, I'm back again, and now ready to to move forward with the next act. I believe it was that, and I believe that the you know, act two was the piece really of me going um uh to vanity. Well, to vanity, period. Yeah, uh, you know, because that um, you know, God had to prepare me uh in the classroom to even say yes to the call to ministry. But that call to ministry again required me to leave the church and then come to the church that where nobody knew me. And then uh act two, I believe, was uh me then going to Vandy and then allowing that Vandy experience to reveal unto me uh what was gonna be next uh you know in life for me, the the the role of chaplaincy, and then moving from that role of chaplaincy uh to uh even relocating uh to Chattanooga uh for them to take on that position. Oh my gosh, and it's one of the most beautiful, sweet, quaint places. And you talk about trusting God again because I never thought uh that I I never really gave much much thought to relocating, but again, God was calling me again away from everything that was familiar. But when I look back on it now, moving into that place of being a director of pastoral care in uh Chattanooga again, uh they had made me the lead chaplain uh at the hospital where I was serving uh here in Nashville, which was a uh it was a community hospital. It was a nice size, but but but but it was one hospital with four, four or five floors.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And so uh it was as much as you know, I I think I had said early on and in uh as we got started that I told God I would say yes if you never call me to be a pastor. One of the things in the hospital, as I was, you know, uh taking care of the uh patients in the bed, but I had to learn in that space that my patients weren't always in the bed, you know, that my staff were also my patients. Because again, if you don't take care of the people who take care of the people, then the people won't get taken care of. And so the staff comes to work with issues, you know, from their home life, you know, their own spiritual walk with God, but also as they are caring for patients and they're uh dying, you know, and they're having to deal with death and dying on the job, you know, I I took care of a lot of the staff in my office just as much as I took care of patients on the floor. But they were calling me Pastor Katina in the hospital, and I was like, you know, y'all stop, y'all stop, you know, chance chaplain Katina. She was like, girl, you all have so fight.
SPEAKER_04:That is what it is.
SPEAKER_02:It was what it was, you know. As much as I did not want to, I didn't want to hear it, I didn't want to accept that, you know. But I sat in my office one day and I was like, I really am pastoring these people. You know, I'm writing sermons every week. We were having uh chapel service every week, and the chapel service was filling up inside of the hospital because we actually had space enough to where, you know, on every Wednesday at 12 o'clock we had chapel service right there in that chapel, and people were not just coming from uh their lunch break and off of the floors. There had been people even kind of coming from the community who had kind of heard, you know, Southern Hills has a new chaplain over there, and uh, we're gonna go check out uh the service. So um Katina, stop wait a minute.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, when I talk about it now, it you know, I don't I don't even know how how many times I've probably said that out loud, but but that's that's amazing to me because your stage kept getting bigger and bigger, and you probably weren't even realizing it, you know, because you were just operating in your gift. Yeah, you were just pouring out. Now I'm wondering how the associate pastor of congregational care, right? What does your own care routine look like that that helps you to upkeep Katina in order to keep showing up in these spaces?
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's an excellent question, and let me tell you, um, most times I do pretty well uh with that, but then there are times where I where I'm a little bit off track, and I can always tell when I'm off track with that because uh I become a little um bitter, you know, because I've poured out and poured out, and I'm I'm pouring really from an empty cup.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but I also recognize I'm not as effective. Uh again, because I'm not I'm operating in my own strength and not uh God's strength. Um so most times though, I I do keep a pretty good tab on my own self-care because I do recognize that if I don't care for myself, I cannot care for God's people. And certainly that means rest. Uh, you know, so I do um try to get to bed at a at a pretty decent hour. And if my husband's like, you was doing that before you had any titles. Definitely, definitely, but you know, you know, I would at least uh be able to stay up and see the news, Jaquita. I I never see the the 10 o'clock news anymore. So my husband is like, baby, you you say you go to sleep about 9 or 9.30.
SPEAKER_03:He said sometimes it's about 8 or 8:30 when you are falling asleep. But I'm up early, right?
SPEAKER_02:So another one of my um self-care routines. I have to catch the I will catch it at seven, but uh I work out, you know, at least three times a week, at least three times a week. So I I exercise, I make sure I take care of that because that gives me fuel, that allows me to clear my head. One of the other things that I do for self-care, of course, spiritually, is my devotional. You know, I'm gonna do a devotional uh, you know, at least, you know, once or twice a day. Uh, I'm always just trying to, you know, hear what the Lord is saying or speaking to me in in in through that devotional through his word or you know, in this season for my life, or maybe even for God's people. So I have to make sure I take care of myself uh spiritually. And then of course I'm gonna add a little uh you know, the things that I really enjoy as far as massage or you know, travel and things of that nature. But banking, I've also learned that baking uh is one of my self-care activities. It is very therapeutic for me.
SPEAKER_04:What do you mean when you say banking?
SPEAKER_02:Baking, baking, like oh, you always bake.
SPEAKER_04:Not a good come on, pound cake, come on, pound cake. Okay, I'll be crazy. I'm becoming a pound cake lady.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, okay. Uh just uh do you do like a sour cream pound cake or seven up or no?
SPEAKER_04:It's a uh like sweetened condensed milk, and you know, I don't want to give out all my secrets.
SPEAKER_02:I got a little bit I've seen a little Queen of Rose uh pound cake shop in the making.
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna give me a little, I'm gonna give me a little label and put me a little something out there.
SPEAKER_02:I see the roses on your box, Queen of Rose cakes.
SPEAKER_04:Oh come on, Katina. I might have to say another yes. Yes, I might have to say another yes. I love Katina that you know you have allowed God because I I think what people don't realize is that it is not always easy to go from one stage to another in God. It is not always easy to say yes when you're standing on one stage that you were shaking in your boots saying yes to that one, and then you just got comfortable there for God to pull you and say, Now I want to put you here. Um you you have so gracefully gone through your seasons of elevation. Um, and I I really appreciate that about your story and about the way that you're telling it. I'm wondering, because you know, we're we're thinking through kind of our act one, our intermission, and now as you've just been kind of walking through your reinvention, how you've allowed God to reinvent you, you have literally, you know, I uh the the imagery is so strong that you really just allowed God to put you in the potter's hands and said, make me into something new. You know, I'm willing to be made new in your hands. You know, I think that there's so many people out there who are wondering how they're gonna say yes to what they feel God calling them to, and and knowing that they're gonna have to submit to the to the making, to the to the forging, to the to the fire, to the you know, all of the processes that come with being in the hand of God and allowing him to mold you into something new. I'm wondering what words of inspiration, encouragement for people who are waiting to step into their second act, um, what what can you give them in this moment?
SPEAKER_02:You know, the one thing, you know, the the Bible tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. That does not mean that everything that uh God calls us to that is gonna be absent of having that feeling of fear, but you just have to talk that fear down and call it out, uh, you know, to be call it out to be what it is, and then ask God to again allow his power, his love, and the sound mind that he has given to you to completely override and overcome what is showing up as fear. Because, you know, and and here's the thing, you know, as much as you know, fear can be a healthy thing to, or let me say that feeling of fear can be healthy because it lets you know again that you're not putting all of your trust in you, you are trusting now, God. You know what? I don't feel really equipped for this. So God, I'm getting ready to call on the strength that I know that you have because greater is He that's in me than He that is in the world. And so uh, you know, God, I'm calling up on you to do the things in me that I cannot do for myself. Um, so I would just say to anybody who God is trusting with uh the bigger things, you know, and trusting you to do the greater things than that you've ever felt like you could do, uh, trust God, you know, trust God. God will never ever call us to anything that he has not already prepared and equipped us for. The word of God tells us that, you know, those whom He who whom He's called, He's already equipped, He's already justified, He's also qualified us, and so we just have to be willing to walk it out and to trust that God is going to take us, not just part of the way, but all of the way.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Tina, that's so good. Anything else that we can talk about with your journey here today?
SPEAKER_02:You know, um, I think we've covered it all, you know, um, because I mean, seriously, you know, God has been uh just so faithful and even to the point now when um, you know, I was called for the role. I was called back from Chattanooga uh to come back to Nashville to the church um, you know, that I had uh attended, Mount Zion, uh, before I left. And the thing about it's so crazy. I was only in Chattanooga for 18 months. My plan was to stay at least uh three years, and this role opened up and I was like, you know, God, you know, how in the world am I getting ready to go back and be there? Well, and that particular time I when I accepted the position, it was not for the associate pastor of congregational care, it was for the executive director role. I probably would not have accepted the role had it said associate pastor, because I probably would have said, God, I'm not ready for that. I don't think I can do that. Talk about that P word as God would have it. I had already accepted the position, and then the title change came probably within the first three months. And I'm in that thing now, right? I'm getting ready to get married in like seven months, and uh, there's no way that I can back back up out of this, right? So I had already accepted a job, and God said, I know this little knucklehead child of mine is not gonna accept this job if it's got the associate pastor title attached to it. Let me go ahead and get her in here, and then I will allow the role that I have already assigned to her, the title that I have already assigned to her. Oh my God. It's gonna be assigned. And so, of course, on my door, that's exactly what it says. So I'm having to continue to um embrace and so that was that would be one of the other things that I would share with people who uh God is calling to to greater responsibility and uh you know uh a greater anointing, a greater calling. Uh, you're you're not gonna always be ready for, but God says if all he needs for you to do is to say yes, he continues to shape you and make you and mold you into who you would have whom he would have you to be, even as you say yes. So you don't have to always be a hundred percent ready.
SPEAKER_04:God gets you ready as you go, and it's so funny because you may not have felt ready for it, but the Lord put you in the position before he gave you the title, and I think that's key. You were already doing the work, he just transformed the way that you do it, the breadth of it, he widened the scope of it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, um enlarge my tent.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and listen, people, we pray these prayers so casually, but God is so serious in this hour. You know, I, you know, the Bible talks about how, you know, your young men and your daughters will prophesy, and how there is a generation coming that I believe God is raising people up. He is raising, he is raising up those that will lead the next generation into one of the most glorious seasons the church has ever seen. Right. There there are people coming, and there are people who have been lying in wait who are gonna go through journeys similar to what Katina talked about today. They're gonna go through journeys of I was working in insurance and the Lord called me. I was teaching in the public schools and the Lord called me. And right now, what we see in a lot of different areas, it looks like a great resignation. It looks like people are leaving these fields, but I believe that God has territories and He has uh purpose-filled assignments that we're about to step into, and there has to be people like Katina in place to take care of those people who are coming because they are gonna be ready to move in the yes of God. They're gonna be ready to prophesy, they're gonna be ready to preach, they're gonna be ready to pray, they're gonna be ready to get out there because they're they're gonna be finding God with that enthusiasm that a lot of us in the church have lost. They're gonna be coming in with that zeal that a lot of us who have been here for a long time, we've slowed down in. But I I don't know where everybody who's listening to this to this podcast today, I don't know where you find yourself at on your journey, but this is the season to begin to get in place because whether you are a person that's gonna be on the wall and you're gonna have to call out to the people to keep the people of God safe, or whether you're gonna be the person that's gonna be counseling the people, or whether you're gonna be the person caring for the people or preaching to the people, whatever your thing is, the body is coming together. And not just the people that we've known, but the people that we haven't seen yet. And I just think that the work, Katina, that you've done since I've known you, I did not know pre-call Katina. You know, I met Katina as she was moving forward into what God was calling her to do. So that's the only Katina I've ever known. But I can tell you that even in my own life, in times where I doubted myself, in times where I didn't want to acknowledge a call or acknowledge who I really was, that it was the love and care that poured out of you as a servant of God, as a minister of God, and as a big sister that allowed me the opportunity to believe that I could actually be everything that God was calling me to be in that season. So I thank you for who you've been in my life. And I know that there are some thousands of lucky congregants at Mount Zion who are so grateful for your service and grateful for your yes. I know everybody that knows you and is around you knows you to be a gem of a person as you've always been. And I want you to know that just like I prayed for you back then, I'm gonna be praying my sister through, and I'm still interceding and praying on your behalf because the work and the impact of your life is really so significant in the body of Christ and in the lives of people.
SPEAKER_03:I appreciate that, Jaquita. I really, really do.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much for your intercession just over the years. We're uh 13 years in uh now. So I know, Lord, look how far the Lord has brought us. Look at what the Lord has done. You have been a blessing to my life for sure. And so uh I appreciate you guys allowing me to be able to share just a little bit about my journey with God, uh, just in this calling and this journey that He has had me on. And so I just pray that what I've shared tonight will be a blessing to many and that people will step out onto the face of the deep and trust God to take them higher.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. Listen, y'all. If you have not yet, I hope that you guys watch this whole thing because this was absolutely amazing. If you hadn't have not yet, please like, please share, please subscribe. If you're new to the community, please say hello. We love interacting and engaging with you in the comments. Y'all, you have had the privilege of hearing the story of none other than Pastor Katina Parish Park, right? And so I want you guys to continue to move with us. We're gonna continue to engage in these stories as the God will as God will have us to do. But for tonight, I want to let you know you do not have to stay stuck in your intermission. You can raise the curtain and step into your second act. Bye, guys. It's been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you once again for listening to the Unlearned Podcast. We would love to hear your comments and your feedback about the episode. Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and to let us know what you think. We're looking forward to the next time when we are able to unlearn together to move forward towards freedom. See you then.
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