Glass Ceilings, Prayer Circles, And A Butterfly Book

Mississippi doesn’t need more silos; it needs a shared table. We sit down with community leader and author Tina Lakey to discuss practical hope and how coordinated mentoring, cross‑denominational partnerships, and consistent prayer can move the needle on poverty, food insecurity, and youth outcomes across the state. From the work at the Methodist Children’s Home to the bold vision of Unite Mississippi, we walk through real models that bring people together and keep the focus on serving children and families.

Tina’s leadership story pulls back the curtain on what it takes to break barriers. She rose from a frontline role to become the first woman in management at CenterPoint Energy in Mississippi, then led a multi‑state division. Her core lesson is disarmingly simple: trust people, learn fast, and lead as service. That same posture fuels her work today, mentoring in schools, partnering with churches and law enforcement, and building coalitions that measure progress in changed lives, not press releases.

We also explore the heart behind her devotional project, Conversations with God. Born from grief after her mother’s passing, Tina’s daily writings grew into a community and then a book that readers use to start their mornings. She shares the messy middle, publishing hurdles, spiritual resistance, and the persistence required to keep showing up. With a refreshed edition on the way and a new volume in development, she offers a roadmap for anyone called to turn personal healing into public help.

If you’ve wondered how to help beyond weekends and hashtags, this conversation gives you next steps: mentor one student, join a prayer luncheon that drives action, adopt ten anchor scriptures to guide your year, and choose service over titles. Subscribe, share this with a friend who cares about Mississippi’s future, and leave a review with the one action you’ll take this week.

Join us for new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month as we continue sharing stories of transformation from across Mississippi. Each story reminds us that when we contribute our unique gifts, Mississippi rises together.

Hope Mississippi's Mission: The sobering reality remains: one in four Mississippi children lives in poverty, and one in five experiences food insecurity. These statistics aren't just numbers—they're our collective challenge. Through these conversations, we discover that Mississippi's transformation occurs through individual commitments to mentor, encourage, and be present for others. The small acts of hope accumulate into the broader "miracles" we celebrate.

Transcript

Framing Mississippi’s Need And Vision

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Free audiophonic production.

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I'm gonna come one in four kids live in poverty.

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One in five are food deprived.

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Build collaboration and build hope with those who are struggling.

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Hope, Mississippi.

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Hello and welcome to another edition of Hope, Mississippi. I am so excited to share a friend of mine with you, Tina Lakey. Welcome to the show, Tina. Thank you. I'm so blessed to be here, Don. Now, Tina and I have been working for several years. Hope Rising, which is a nonprofit in Mississippi that is doing a lot of great things. This podcast is a part of Hope Rising, but we also have a vision of spreading hope all across Mississippi. So, Tina, tell me your thoughts on hope and just what brings you to the table and um you serve on the board. Tell the group just about your your hopes for Mississippi.

Projects At Methodist Children’s Home

SPEAKER_03 1:36

I did come on the board of Hope Rising mainly because I love their mission and the fact that I like spreading hope. And sometimes we use that word hope a lot. Hope to me is giving somebody something to grab onto when they feel like they have nothing. I felt like we were going to be able to do that. And of course, one of our first projects is working out at MCH Methodist Children's Home with the children out there. We are also branching out. We we have an action planning committee uh committee meeting this Friday. And this year, I'm looking, I'm hoping that we are able to reach out into Mississippi and help those out there that need us, give them hope and faith and know that they are loved and cared about. And I think with some of the things that we will look at and plan to do, we're gonna be able to do just that.

Statewide Collaboration And Unite Mississippi

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Absolutely. You know, part of the idea of hope rising for this nonprofit is to have a huge vision for the state. We have lots of nonprofits that serve locally, but we wanna be a builder of collaborations. We want to spread the success of projects throughout Mississippi, which reminds me we also serve on another board together, Unite Mississippi. Can you tell a little bit about the mission of Unite Mississippi? You got me on the board, and we're the only two females on the board, but we have a a real voice about the needs in Mississippi. We still outnumber them.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

George Hester had a vision. He and Chip Muskelli started this. He was a part of Roaring Lions, and Chip had started the Unite Foundation. George had a really he does have a heart. He's the president of our board right now. And he, I am so when I think about what George said when I first heard it, we go, we bring people into church, and they come in and I join our church, and then we say, good luck. We don't disciple them, and we don't teach them how to disciple. And that's one of the missions that we're doing. Mentorship, we're working with the youth in our communities, mentoring in a lot of our schools, going out in our community. Paula Howard Duck, you know, she is our director. She and I went yesterday to Midtown, helping read to children there, helping them pull up their scores and in their reading, and such a blessing to go in there. And these children with big smiles on your facing sitting there just waiting to learn.

Mentoring Youth And Crossing Divides

SPEAKER_02 4:19

One great thing about Unite Mississippi is that it crosses all denominational and racial lines. We've got law enforcement that have joined to be a part of it in because they've seen the success of mentoring programs in the Jackson area, but the vision is to expand that out. Let's just talk a little bit about the luncheons that Unite Mississippi has.

Prayerful Luncheons That Mobilize Action

SPEAKER_03 4:43

It's the most amazing thing. You walk in across domin denominations, I mean, across fates, people come because they want together and learn about the Lord. This last one, and I I can only speak to it because it's probably I'm still on a natural high. When you go into someplace and you're sitting many times with people you don't know, you get to know, but Al Reno was the one speaking. And so he said, We're gonna, we're gonna talk about prayer. Well, you know, when somebody tells you you're gonna talk about prayer, you just sit back and you think we're gonna talk about prayer. Well, guess what? It was a participation to talk about prayer. He had us join in groups, and we got up and we talked about issues and things around our state in our cities, and it was the most amazing thing. We all left there. First of all, being able to empty our heart of all the junk and fill it with God's goodness with others was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

We can do so much more together than we can do individually. And so the vision of uniting people all across Mississippi. Could you imagine if all across Mississippi on the third Thursday for lunch, believers came together and asked God to heal Mississippi, to bring hope to the darkest areas? I I think of all the challenges of lack of food and poverty and crime and things. And so much of it is people absolutely do not see that tomorrow can be brighter than today, and that they have power over that, and that there's joy in serving and helping spread that hope. Now, we talked about George being the president of the board of Unite Mississippi, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that you are the board president of Hope Rising, and we so appreciate your service, but you have been a leader for years. Tell the folks, let them know just a little bit about your professional career.

Poverty, Crime, And Spreading Hope

Tina’s Career And Breaking Barriers

SPEAKER_03 6:55

I retired from Center Point Energy in 2017. Prior to that, I started out with the company as a frontline employee. Little did I know what God had planned for me, but he always knows, and we can always trust him. As it turned out, I won't go through the long thing, but through God's grace, I ended up the first woman in management in the state of Mississippi from Mississippi. After that, I was the financial manager on the coast. We had three district managers. We had one in Oxford, one in Laurel, and one on the Gulf Coast. One in Oxford retired. Now, understand and know this is a male-dominated, at that point in time was a male-dominated world. The president of our company saw something in me I didn't see in myself. He asked me if that is something I thought I would like to do. And I basically said, I don't know that much about operations. I know accounting, I know finance. He said, but I know you. It's only 20% knowledge, it's 80% trusting your people. And he said, I know you will learn. So that was the beginning. I became the district manager in Oxford, and there were three of us. And then we had another district manager to retire. So we became two districts. You know, that's what company does. We downsize. There was two of us, and I moved to Bridgeland because the territories were much more vast than. Several years later, we had a VP that was an and a total division office with employees in it. Well, they decided to downsize, and we became one division, which was Mississippi and Louisiana, was together. So they only needed one person in Mississippi. And they decided they were gonna make them a director. It was myself and the gentleman on the coast. God saw fit that they saw fit that I was chosen for that position. God knew all alone that was gonna happen. What he has allowed me to do through that, what I'm doing now after I've retired, I made so many connections and was so involved in so many activities and serving on boards. Please note I said serving, I don't sit on boards. It shows prayerfully what it will do is show other women who don't realize I can't do that. I can't there's no way I can do that. Yes, you can. You know how you can? With God's help. You gotta do some work. It's not easy. But you know, when we listen to God and we trust Him with our life, every part of it, great things can happen. And it did for me.

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I'm reminded of Moses in the Bible, and I'm bad about giving God ten reasons why I shouldn't do something when I feel him calling me to do something. But the reality is that the older we get, we know God provides all that you need. So if you're listening to this podcast, I hope that you will hear our testimony that he provides. He oftentimes, you you literally broke the glass ceiling in the energy industry for women. And although you did not feel adequate, God provided all that you needed, and we can trust him. He is our ultimate hope.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

There's that hope word again. And I think that's done what I I see you wanting here, and and what we want with hope writing, with hope Mississippi in your podcast. We want everybody to realize they too can that have that hope, that hope that God gives. We can't do it ourselves, but He can do anything. I I'm I'm excited about what we're going to be doing next.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I want to talk about the joy of serving for just a minute. You talked about how throughout your professional life you've served and and things, but then you have gone on to work with numerous nonprofits and churches and things. And there is so much joy in giving in those.

Joy Of Serving Over Holding Titles

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Let's talk just a little bit about that. It's interesting that you mentioned joy. God and I had a conversation about joy this morning. And joy doesn't always mean that everything's going to go the way we want it to. It just means that we can have joy in the fact we know God is walking with us. I do, I I have served on, and I I am s could serving on boards, but I serve because that's the word, that's the key word. You know, so many times you hear people say, I need to be on a board. I don't need to be on a board. I need to serve. When we go into those things, you know, when I I tell everybody when I retired, I took the best part of what my company allowed me to do with me. When I was working, part of what my job was was to go out and work in the community and serve and help others. I still get to do that now. And that brings me joy untold. I work with the children out at Mississippi's Children's Home and serve on that board. Of course, Unite Mississippi, Hope Rising, those, I guess those are the three that are really important to me. I also serve on a American Heart Association board, which is near and dear to my heart. My mother passed away with heart disease. So it's very important to me as well. We can serve God no matter what it is, no matter what board we're on. When we take God into that board room with us, and we make sure we're being respectful and kind and doing our part to change this world. It doesn't matter what it is. It's that we're following God's lead and he's sitting at the head of the table.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

God doesn't call everybody to serve on a board or to the energy industry or even to be lawyers. But he has a plan for each and every one of us. And if you're listening today, our prayer really is that you will step up and serve and experience the incredible joy that fills your heart when you know that you've made a difference. So get out there and work. Okay, I hope y'all don't feel too worn out with me and Tina talking because we we we're busy ladies. But another area, and this is an area that you and I have spent a tremendous time together with, is your devotion book, Conversations with God. Talk about how you began that ministry and then it was on Facebook each morning, and now you've expanded. So tell the folks a little about that.

Conversations With God: From Posts To Book

SPEAKER_03 13:39

My mom came to live with us when my daughter was born. Because of my job, I had to travel a lot. She came to live with us and take care of her. She lived with us for 26 years and then she passed away with heart disease. Now, she was 93 years old. God allowed her to live a long, good life, but in our hearts we still miss them. And because she had been right there with us for 26 years, we were grieving. I love the Lord, I talked to the Lord, but in this case, he came and sat with me. He walked with me in the garden. He shared with me. He gave me scripture. I can't even tell you. And then he said, You need to write it. Well, I did. I wrote it for a long time, and I kept it. Ten years worth. Then he said, Okay, I've sat with you. I've comforted you, I've helped you. I need you to share what we talk about. Thus conversations with God. I've been writing them, yes, and posting them online on my Facebook page for so many years, and the most amazing thing about that, Don, is I've gone through a lot of cancer, different things that have happened, and not once in that entire time have I missed one. That is amazing. I listened to God and I started posting them online, which I've continued to do that now for several years. And then I met Don Bean and several others who had been encouraging me, Tatina, you need to do a book, you need to do a devotion book. Not everybody's on Facebook, not everybody does it, so but you came up to me and you said, You need to do a devotion book. Probably looked at you like a deer with headlights because I didn't have a clue. But God knew you did. You had just what it was gonna take to get the book started. Someone had started it for us, and I can't even remember what it was in, but it was gonna be like 700 pages and impossible for a book. You took all of that and you worked tirelessly for months, sorting through it and helping me. I'm sure God guiding you, no doubt in my mind. At one time I called them stumbling box. What I'm learning is there's no such thing as a stumbling block. Sometimes God puts up firewalls for us, but he always shows us what we're trying where we're trying to go. We can't, he doesn't want us to go. He just diverts us around. And when you got to where you had it to the point that you said, okay, we need to find someone to help us get this out. You set it up. I didn't even have the book. It was on your Amazon account. So Gretchen Cook at the Methodist Children's Home, who had published quite a few books and done it, she said, I'll do it. She actually is the one who hit the print button when we decided to print it. But in and through all of that, Satan was right in the middle. I can't tell you how many times we reproofed that book and everything. We would get back a proof copy and there was gibberish all in it. And finally, it was God's test. I said, Okay, God, I've gone through this. I'm trusting you that this is what you want. Gretchen hit the print button and it worked. I mean, sometimes we allow Satan to get in our head, and we even see things that aren't there, or we allow ourselves to. So I'm blessed today that the book is out. I shared the book with someone today at a luncheon. I had a friend call me and said he wanted one of the books for his daughter-in-law. He said, Tina, my wife and I read this every morning. It's what we start our day with. That's very humbling to me. Don't get me wrong. I do not take credit for this book. It was given to me through the Heavenly Father, and by God's glory, I give him all grace for it.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Well, it is truly a gift that you have. And I can remember, it's kind of funny your story, because as I was trying to help you compile that book and get it right, my mother was going through a terrible time with cancer. And I think that she passed after we got the book out. What I know is that it seemed like when I was hurting the most, God would put that right devotion that I was typing or making changes to in my path to be encouraged and to know that he is right there with us. When we talk about conversations with God, you don't have to email him. You don't have to text him. He is right there, just a thought, a conversation away. And I know that book has been an incredible blessing to people. And we're looking forward to the next book, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:27

All in God's timing, as I say, as you know what we're in the process of right now. You can't get the book online right now through Amazon because you had to unpublish it in order for me to go back and get it set up, just because it was a lot of logistics.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Okay, let's just go ahead and say it taxes, taxes, and things like that. Yeah.

Publishing Hurdles And Perseverance

SPEAKER_03 18:47

We're in the process of doing that. But again, God has placed someone in my life that is says, I will help you. I will take that and I will get it set up. She had just had to do this with something recently trying to separate her book from someone that she had authored with it. And so she knew the process. So she has taken it. This book is going to be reprinted. I mean, it's going to go back into print. And just to let you know, Don, she said, Tina, I went in and looked and I saw all of these devotions books, conversations with God. She said, We need a tagline. A friend of mine that I went to school with years ago, she passed away, God rest her soul, several years ago when I was doing it. But at the end of every one of my devotions, in the small prayer at the bottom, I always say, Oh, how I love you. So talking to God. And she said, You need that as a tagline. I didn't do it. But guess what we're doing now? That will be a tagline down on the book, just to separate it from all the other conversations with God. We're hoping to have that one back out next month or so, maybe two months. And then we are looking at the next one. And I'll give you a little preview. The cover will be very similar. I loved my cover because, you know, you ask me, what do you want on the cover, Tina? I said, I want it simple. I'd like it to be green because green denotes new birth, new life. I want a butterfly, which is transformation. And that it turned out so beautiful. I mean, it's just perfect. It's simple, but it says it says it all. So this time I'm thinking, we're moving forward, we're moving into the golden air. Prayerfully, Christ is coming soon. And it was like he gives me an image of a goal book, a very subtle goal book with a gold butterfly. So I feel like that might be something coming, unless he changes me and uh changes my mind, but I am excited about it. I don't know when that exactly that's because you know better than anyone. This one will be starting from scratch again. So we've got to get through the first one and get it redone. But yes, I'm looking forward and excited about sharing more of my conversations with God.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Wanted to ask you about, or just let's just talk a little bit about the goodness of God. I I have known you for several years now, and I know that you talked about your mother passing, you've battled different medical issues and within your family. But through it all, we can attest that God is good. He is our hope, and that he meets all of our needs. Can we talk about that just for a moment to those that might be struggling listening?

Reprinting Plans And Next Devotional

SPEAKER_03 21:33

One of my favorite songs is The Goodness of God. I sing it a lot, you know, but you know, even when we grow close to God, we have our moments that when we get discouraged. And but God is so good. I've shared this story earlier with someone I was having lunch with, which would fit. I tell God, God, I don't care about being rich. But if you're good with it, I'd rather not be poor. If I'm too rich, I'm gonna think I did it. If I'm too poor, I might do something I shouldn't do. So Father, just I want to stay in the middle where I have to depend on you, your goodness, your grace, your mercy. And when I pick up my cup, I want it to be half full. Not full. Because if it's full, I've not shared it. Just help me keep it half empty and refilling it so I can continue to share God's goodness with everyone I meet. My prayer every morning when I get up is that God let someone I meet see his light in me. There is no one or nothing that can outgive the goodness of God. I am living proof.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Absolutely. I've gone back into the law practice, and folks come in my office and I think, oh, you just have it together, and they sit down and I find they're broken just like me. And so God uses broken people. Sometimes He uses money to break us, sometimes health, sometimes relationships, all kinds of things. But we are all completely, totally dependent upon his grace. There are people out there that are hurting that need you to share that hope. If you're listening, don't just be a wallflower. Get involved. Make a difference. There will be joy that comes through that. You've heard Tina's testimony about how God provided everything she needed to do things that she would never have dreamed of doing before. There is incredible joy when you can look back over your life. It's not braggadocious to say I did that. I did that. It's thank you, Jesus, for letting me be a part of that. Thank you for letting me be a part of this. I thank God for letting me be a part of Hope Rising and Unite Mississippi. I know both of our hands are just up saying, God, whatever we can do to bring revival across Mississippi, to get into those homes of brokenhearted, to spread joy to every homeless person and every person that lives in a mansion that doesn't know they're broken. So my prayer is that God takes this podcast and uses that. Give us one more thought about hope for today.

The Goodness Of God In Hard Seasons

SPEAKER_03 24:28

I'm going to share one thing with you. My devotion for New Year's Eve, God gave me, and it's never happened before, and I didn't know how I was going to use it. He gave me 10 scriptures. And then think about 10 scriptures. Instead of New Year's resolutions and what I'm going to do in the next year, he gave me 10 scriptures. I think about the Ten Commandments that he gave us. And so I took those and the very first one, and he gave them in a line. It was on December 31st. It's it's on my Facebook page. It starts out, the former things are gone. Don't dwell in the past. I'm doing a new thing. Do you see it? It starts up. Can you perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and dreams in the deserts. Isaiah 43, 18 and 19. But that was the first scripture. So we can't dwell on what we did in 25. So if you had a hard time in 25, if it felt hopeless. It felt like you just could not make it. I guarantee you, God is that hope. And find you 10 scriptures to be your new year's moving forward. This is what I want to do. He'll give them to you. He did me. Now, he gave me some that I didn't know that I'm gonna have to memorize because the best thing any of us can do is carry God's word in our heart. Yes, reading the Bible is awesome, doing devotions is incredible. But as I have done this and each day I repeat one, and then I add to it, and then I add to it. Remember, God's word is hope. It is our only hope, actually. So if you're looking for that, I know just the place to find it.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Okay, guys, if you are on Facebook, you can find Tina every morning. Tina Lakey L A K E Y. Search that and you'll find her, and I promise you'll be blessed by the devotionals. Have a great day, and I look forward to talking with you soon.com.