Katy Perry’s Mom, Mary Hudson, Shares Her Untold Testimony of Redemption | EP 09

In this episode of Trusted Voice, I sit down with Mary Hudson for a powerful and deeply personal conversation about her life, her past, and the redemptive power of Jesus. Mary opens up about the pain she carried after having an abortion as a young woman, the depression and shame that followed, and how God eventually brought healing, forgiveness, and freedom into her life.

Mary also shares about her wild journey through Europe, Rhodesia, radio broadcasting, and the unexpected moments that led her to encounter Jesus. From a glamorous media career to a radical salvation experience in Las Vegas, her story is filled with moments where God was working behind the scenes long before she fully recognized Him.

This conversation is a reminder that no story is too broken for God to redeem. What the enemy meant for evil, God can turn for good. Mary’s testimony will encourage anyone who has carried shame, regret, or questions about their purpose to believe that healing, destiny, and transformation are still possible.

Chapters:
00:00 Mary Hudson Opens Up About Abortion and Depression
03:18 The Woman Behind the Public Story
06:37 The Hidden Weight of Shame and Regret
09:55 Searching for More in Rhodesia
13:13 Religion, Relationship, and the Pain of Infertility
16:32 Finding Keith, Church, and Questions About God
19:50 From Radio News to Las Vegas
23:08 The Church Visit That Changed Everything
26:26 Saying Yes to Jesus and Instant Transformation
29:45 The Next Chapter Begins in Washington DC

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

The thing is they say that abortion doesn't bother you and everybody should have an abortion, but you know what? I was so depressed for six months after that. I go back to my classes in Berkeley and I would get up at 10 o'clock in the morning and I would just sleep. I would sleep the depression off. I'll never forget it. Oh, after I got through with my classes at four o'clock, I jumped back into bed and sleep until 10 o'clock the next day. Wow. Because uh, although I wasn't aware of it, you know, of course I am now, it was killing a a real child. Right. It was a real human being. And fortunately, that baby went straight to heaven, but still, it you know, it leaves you with feelings of guilt, even if you don't even know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

This is Trusted Voice, delivering uncompromised truth, shining a light on heroes who are boldly fulfilling their destiny by walking in their true identity. Here's your host, Naomi Van White.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Well, welcome to the Trusted Voice Podcast. I am so excited to have in studio with me today an amazing woman and friend and mother, and she just has a heart for revival. She leads people from victim to victor. Victor Hictor Holm. I like that. That's good. No bugs on that. Um and she is Mary Hudson, and she has just been such a delight to just get to know you, Mary. Um, and I just think about when, well, I don't know when we first met, but when I really got to know you was about a year ago, uh, we drove to Hollywood together. We were going to uh a friend's house to a rooftop in Hollywood to pray over Hollywood and to pray for a revival. We did. And uh and then we went to a church event where it was just Jenny Donnelly. Yes, and Ross Johnson and just amazing. But on that drive down to Hollywood, I just loved hearing your heart and your story. And ever since then, I was like, I want to have you on the show because you are um just an inspiration of miracles that God has done in your life. And I know a lot of people know you as, you know, Katy Perry's mom. You look just like her, but you have so much more to your life that is behind the scenes, maybe that I think people don't know. You're a mother, you're a grandmother, and you've authored some books, and you and your husband Keith have the gathering and just all the things you've done here locally. Yeah. Um, but you know, I wanted to just read a verse that I read this morning and immediately you came to my heart because this describes you, and it's a verse we're all probably very familiar with, but it's out of the Passion Translation, Proverbs 3130. Uh-huh. Charm can be misleading and beauty is vain, and so quickly fades. But this virtuous woman lives in the wonder, awe, and fear of the Lord. She will be praised throughout eternity. All right, I'll take that. And the Lord's like, that is a verse for Mary and a verse for our audience today. You're beautiful on the inside, but even more importantly, is your beautiful heart, and just you're just passionately sold out for Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah, that's the only way to be. It is. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

And he's transformed my life and he's transformed your life.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yes. And so I wasn't always virtuous, though. That's what you think. I know, I know. We weren't always virtuous, and that's what a lot of people might be watching today and thinking, huh, what about this lady who's, you know, uh got you know, a big family, famous uh daughter, and a wonderful older daughter, wonderful younger son, and they're all doing well, and they all live here in Santa Barbara, and it's just one big happy family. Well, actually, when I was um growing up here, because that's where I came from, I came from Santa Barbara, we used to call it for the newlywed and the nearly dead. Because it was such a boring place to live. So after I finished ninth grade, I went to a Catholic boarding school up in Monterey, and then I went up to came back to UCSB because obviously my mother didn't trust me, and she was right.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

She's like, what's Mary up to?

SPEAKER_02 4:22

No. And then she took me to um, they moved to uh Mallorca in Spain for a year and um put me into the American College in Paris, where I immediately fell in love with this guy from Carmel. I mean, gosh.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

So what you met in Paris, but he was from Carmel. So you're from California? Yes. And but you meet him.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

But the thing was that um a year later he was still in Paris, he came back, and then I was uh at Berkeley for the last two years, and unfortunately uh got pregnant. So in those days in the 60s, it was like, you know, my father was being absolutely furious, and I didn't be disowned. I didn't know what was gonna happen. Oh, yeah. I mean bad, bad, bad, big taboo. Big taboo. So my crazy cousin Jackie takes me down to um Tijuana, or not even Tijuana, but people that come over to the border from Tijuana at that time was 1967, uh, to have an abortion. And I didn't, you know, I wasn't born again. I didn't know. Who made it? I just told my best friend, okay, and that was it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

So so the father didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Uh yeah, the father did know, and later on his parents, you know, said, well, we would have kept the baby and all this kind of thing. But I'm like, so I wasn't gonna go through with it. And unfortunately, I didn't know the Lord at that time, and I didn't know that this was a living human being, but I'm thank God he forgave me, and he's gonna, you know, I'll see the child in heaven. But um yeah, so after that, you you this was I was uh a 17, I think. 17, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

So so young.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah, yeah. So young. So it was really unfortunate. But uh the thing is they say that abortion doesn't bother you, and everybody should have an abortion. But you know what? I was so depressed for six months after that. I go back to my classes in Berkeley and I would get up at 10 o'clock in the morning and I would just sleep, I would sleep the depression off. I'll never forget it. Oh, after I got through with my classes at four o'clock, I jumped back into bed and sleep until 10 o'clock the next day. Wow. Because uh, although I wasn't aware of it, you know, of course I am now, it was killing a uh a real child. Right. It was a real human being. And fortunately, that baby went straight to heaven, but still it, you know, it leaves you with feelings of guilt, even if you don't even know what you're doing. Fortunately, when I, you know, got born again, everything like that, uh, you know, they explained to me that uh, you know, God forgives you and he cleanses you from all unrighteousness, and um he throws it into the sea of forgetfulness and he remembers it no more. So why should you remember it? I'm going, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

But during that time with some years, you live with some years of regret and shame.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Oh shame, shame, shame, shame, shame.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

How quickly after the abortion did you start to feel this weight of the city?

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Oh, right away, right away. Yeah, it was heavy, heavy, heavy. And uh then I graduated from um uh college and went to Europe. I thought I was gonna go to Europe and paint, but I stopped by in um England and met this crazy racing driver who's driving an Aston Martin. And these girls from Vassar had this apartment I was staying in, and they said, We're going to this racing driver's party. Don't associate with this guy because he's nuts.

unknown 7:59

And I thought, James Bond.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

James Martin. That's all I grew up with in the 60s. This is awesome. So I ended up marrying him a couple of years later, but it was a disaster. Anyway, as far as the abortion goes, that's really a miraculous story because for uh I think 14 years after that, I was unable to have children, even though I had a first marriage, and then thank God he gave me another marriage to my husband now, 47 years.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Keith is a wow, you and Keith have been married 47 years. Yeah, yeah, in December, yeah. Awesome. Yeah. But you were married so after okay, after the abortion, then you go back to Europe, and then what happened? You meet somebody and you get married to this crazy race car driver, right? And you stay living in Europe?

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Uh yes, for six years. And then uh in Rhodesia. We he had uh hit and run, and then he moved to Rhodesia, and I moved to Rhodesia after that. We lived on top of a mountain. Oh my god called Leopard Rock. It went out. You could see all the five mountain ranges into the Mozambique, and I remember crying out to God. I had a beautiful house that he built out of African mahogany, and it uh, you know, we had uh we had hundreds of macadamia nut trees, and that's what we were gonna live on. But the thing is, during that time, '72 to '74, we were living there, the um Africans came in that were trained in Moscow to be terrorists, and uh they started killing all the white farmers in the valley, and we would hear about it.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

And um, and you're like, we're white farmers. What are we doing here? Yeah, yeah. Were you farming the macadamia?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yes, yes. And we had a group of uh Africans coming up every morning at six o'clock, and they would bring their Bibles, and um They were trying to evangelize you. Oh, yeah, yeah, they were, but they didn't really say anything, they'd leave their Bibles around, and I'd say did they speak English? I mean, was there a language barrier? Okay, okay, so there wasn't a language barrier. Cecil Rhodes founded that country, and um then they had, you know, um Ian Smith, who was the prime minister, and they were trying to get him out, and eventually they did. But Rhodesia was the only country in Africa that taught the Africans how to really roto till their ground, really how to do the agriculture correctly, although the news media was totally against them and said, you know, they were stealing um, you know, making victims out of them. Well, no, they were making uh prosperous farmers out of them. But anyway, um I would look down over this beautiful mountain range, five mountain ranges into Mozambique, because we were right on the edge of Rhodesia and Mozambique, and I would cry out to God and I would say, God, there must be more to life than this. Because we had a great life up there. It was beautiful. And they were at Leopard Rock Hotel, we go to dinner, they'd have a 12 uh whole golf course up there, and um, our friends that had um uh tea plantations, we'd go over to their house and we we'd have tea. Well, that was Jim and Tonic, but we had tea. And uh nobody knew the Lord, nobody knew anything about Jesus, but I just had it in my heart. You know, there must be more to life than this.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Well, because God puts that vacuum in each of us. Oh my god. He created us for eternity. Yes, and there is a destiny for us, and you were like, where is that? What what's lacking? Yes, that was totally lacking.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

And so I would um, you know, this would go on until finally one day we were coming back from one of our friends' house, one of their uh, you know, tea parties, and we were going up to Leopard Rock Hotel for dinner, and as we came around the corner, uh we cat we would pass by our house, which is on an incline drive, and our workers were taking a load of bricks up to the house to build something, and it was going chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chuck, chug, really slow. So this um crazy uh raising driver I was married to at the time decided it was way too slow. He jumped out of his car and jumped onto the um load of bricks and he floored it. And as he floored it, the load of bricks went up over him and knocked him down to the ground, compressed his spine to the thickness of an English penny. Oh, I mean, it was horrible. And he lived. He lived, but he had to be shoveled back down to uh Untali, where we were up 25 miles up the switchback of the Leopard Rock Mountain. He had to be switched down there and stay there for six weeks while I stayed up in the uh and you were in the vehicle, but you weren't injured? Uh no, he jumped off the vehicle we were in and onto the load of bricks, onto the tractor trailer, and he he floored it, it it flipped on him and compressed his spine. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I know it was a lot.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

If God wasn't trying to give you a wake-up call. Yeah, well, he tried to send or give your husband a wake-up call.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

No, my mother had come over, my mother from Montecito had come over uh six months before and said, you know, Mary Christine, you really need to come home. This is not a safe place to live. I'm like, oh mother, you're such an alarmist.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

And then look at what happened to me. I know, but you were not raised in a Christian home, isn't that right? So your parents didn't know the Lord. No. You had no upbringing.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

I mean, I'd go to all Saints by the Sea, okay, or I'd go to the uh Mount Carmel at their monastic for Easter and Christmas. Right. But it, you know, that's religion to me. That is religion, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Totally, totally different. I was raised in so much religion.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

And I got born again, it's a relationship with Jesus who that's with us right now. Yes. It's so awesome. And so anyway, I wanted to continue about the story about the uh uh the abortion because 15 years into that, 13, 15 years into that, I still could not have children because what the abortion had done was taken so much scar tissue and wrapped it around the fallopian tubes, so they were squeezed off. And so finally, when I had my wonderful first daughter, Angela Ann, yes, that's a pretty name. Yeah, she's amazing. She's the organizer, she tells us all what to do. Well, that's the firstborn.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

I'm a firstborn too, so I know what that's like.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

I was the only born. I had six half-brothers, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Um wow, six half-brothers. Yeah, that was exciting.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

They didn't like me because we got both parents.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so you you were firstborn and then six brothers.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

No, they were born before me.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Oh, you were, and so you were the baby. Not you were the only girl, but you were the baby. Oh boy. Oh, I'm telling you. I can picture that now. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Been a little bit more. More of them went back east and they would come in the summers and they would just give me a hard time. And then the other two, you know, their father lived here, but he was much older. And anyway.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

So they so back to the abortion because it's really awesome. So many women deal with that. Yeah. One out of four women have an abortion. Wow. And it's not talked about enough. I know. The we believe life begins at conception from that first moment that the egg and sperm meet. But actually, scientifically, it's proven that there's a light explosion that happens in the body when that egg and sperm meet. Wow. But you know, the trauma that takes place is just shoved under the carpet and not talked about. Yeah. And not just for the mother, and this is maybe for another show, but for the father. I I've been talking to more people and not I want to get back to your story, but how abortion does affect the mother completely. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

It just had me in tears.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

But it also affects the father. So, but that's that's for another time too. So, so tell us where where you're at now. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

So I'm what um I I uh got away from the crazy racing driver, uh, flew home. Uh and were you were you trying to get pregnant with him?

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Because you were you were I sorry to interrupt you, but you were saying how the scar tissue had wrapped itself around the falapian tubes. Yeah. And so the doctors told you what? You can't conceive, you'll never get pregnant.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Uh well, they didn't know that until I had a C-section open me up and saw these uh scar tissue wrapped around fallopian tubes.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

So did you get pregnant with this race car driver? No. You didn't get pregnant then? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

I got married to Keith. I found Keith in church in Las Vegas, and uh we got we got married in Las Vegas and at the landmark hotel, and then but did you know the Lord then? I know we're kind of jumping around. I got saved uh in 1977, and um then actually I got that's another story. I got back, I got I was backslidden because they told me that uh this woman in the church had cancer. So I asked one of the elders, I said, why would God why did she have cancer? Why wasn't God gonna heal her? He said, Well, maybe she has cancer because God's trying to teach her something. Well, that doesn't line up even with Catholic theology. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Like God's good in your heart to know that that was not true.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

God is a good God and all good things come down from the Father of lights. Yes. The devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Yep, but Jesus has come to give you life and that more abundantly, and he wants a relationship with you. And if you don't know him today or tonight or whenever this airs, know that he's calling out to you, he's using us today just to cry out to you and just say, Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart, be my personal Lord and Savior. And he will come in. Yes, and then find a good, full gospel church, and he's gonna build you up to you and disciple you.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Yeah, heal your heart. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so take us back, race car driver in the hospital. He gets, I guess, out of the hospital. He lives.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

I left before he got out of the hospital. You're like, I'm having my mom was right. I stole the grandfather clock in the house. I'm out of here. And so I flew back to Los Angeles. And um, this wild life is too much for me. I said, give me the you know, nearly wed, nearly wed, nearly dead Montecedo. That's fun, and I'll I'll stay there. Sorry, Lord, I just messed up. Uh you thought Berkeley was wild. Oh my goodness. I watched Mario Savio and all of these other crazy things. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

I was even a conservative then. I was crazy.

unknown 18:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Well, it's it's like the prodigal. It's like, you know, you sometimes we sow those wild oats, and you were out there sewing, sowing those wild oats going, okay, Lord, come back home. Mary, Mary. You don't have to be with the pigs. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Oh, forget the pigs law. Forget the pigs. So funny. So anyway, um, I got born again in 1977.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Then I I got but we have to hear, Mary, how you got born again. I mean, what what brought you to the place of going, I need a relationship.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

I need Jesus because Well, I got over to Las Vegas because I was a radio uh person, KTMS here in Santa Barbara. Okay. And the uh the only way I got that job was because I got mad because I saw a story on K E Y T, and uh my mother was a friend of the owner, Mr. Luton, so I called him up and I said, Mr. Luton, this is totally wrong about Rhodesia. Rhodesia is not taking advantage of the black people, it's the terrorists coming over from Moscow wanting the third largest chromium shop in the world used for satellites. And he said, Okay, Mary Christie, if you think so, I'll send a reporter down there. And uh And you knew because you had you had been there, so you knew this is the truth. It was the truth. Everybody knew it, but it wasn't getting publicized like a lot of things today. Right. And um, so this reporter came along and he interviewed me, and I got really passionate about it, and he said, Wow, you should be a reporter. And I'm going, Yeah, you're right, I should. There you go. Like, I can tell the truth. Right. I mean, if reporters would just tell the truth.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

I know.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

So then I decided I'm gonna go on KTMS in the radio, and they didn't agree with me, and so I had to spend six months bugging them to get the job at KTMS. Oh my goodness. I'll be the first woman radio personality on that show. I mean, this was 1976.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Wow, now that's a claim to fame. We need to add that into your bio, Mary. First female radio host.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Yeah, so they taught me the the I finally got the job after six months of being persistent, not bugging them, but persistence. Yes, graciously persistent. Graciously persistent. And they showed me all the ropes and how to uh cut and splice and do uh edits and make your own uh tapes, and you know, you can't go over 45 minutes because you lose somebody. They, you know, don't have the patience. And um, so then this the reporter from KTMS moved to Las Vegas in the meantime, called me up and said they're starting a big uh hundred watt station there in Las Vegas. You should come and try out for it. I'm like, Oh wow, I'm living on the beach on Miramar Beach with my girlfriend, and we're going body surfing every morning before I get uh to work, and I want to go to Las Vegas. Go to Las Vegas where it's hot and no ocean. But the girlfriend said, you know, you really should try it. This might be uh a sign. She didn't know the Lord, but right she was, you know, the Holy Spirit was using her. Right, for sure. He uses a donkey, so he can use anybody. Yeah, right. So I go over there and It's awful. It is cactus and it's hot as Hades. Oh, that sounds miserable. Yeah, it was a it was miserable. And I said, I'm not doing this. So I get back and he uh made me an offer where he doubled the pay. And I'm like, oh double the pay? Can I handle the heat and the cactuses? Well, maybe forgotten the thing. It's a brand new uh a brand new radio station. They had people coming from three different states, and it was so fun. And we were uh you know reporting. We I finally did go. So then I ended up Elvis Presley died. We reported on the that. Wow, what a time to be will meet going on. Yeah, wow, fabulous. And we're doing all these stories and um talking to Washington, D.C. and trying to get a job there and all this kind of thing. My uh husband says, Yeah, they thought you were gonna be next Barbara Walters. I'm like, no, maybe so. I could see that. I can see that. But um, so uh let's see, where where was so so you're in Vegas?

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Okay, so in Vegas have this amazing.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

And so the owner comes to us one day, yep, and he says, Well, you're all fired. I'm like, what? Oh he said, yes, we ran out of money, so you're all fired. And I'm like, Oh my god, I've got my apartment, I've got my stuff. And I mean, I'm sure my mother could send me a check or two, but who wants to do that?

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Right. You've been on you've been on your own. Yes, now what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 23:29

It was terrible. But you were out of the balcony of my apartment, right? And I looked across the uh horizon, there was this weird-looking geodesic dome church in the distance. Wow. And I thought, you know, my sister-in-law, Michelle, is always praying for me, telling me I should go to church. And I'm like, I might as well just try it. So I went down there and I uh didn't give my heart to the Lord. Now, was it a Bible-believing church? It was an assembly of God. Okay, it was a great church, terrific music, and everything like that. And I go down there and um all of a sudden, uh, you know, I give my name, I give my contact, everything like that. I didn't get saved, but what they had was something called visitation teams that they sent out every Tuesday night, and they had my ad. They had your name.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Yeah, and God had your name, Mary. More importantly, God had your name. And and who was praying for you? I wonder. Your sister-in-law.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

It's just she's very quiet, very um now.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

This is not Keith's sister.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

This is it was my one of my half-brother's wives.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Okay, yeah. So the power of prayer. Yes, we're gonna talk about that in our second show more with you. Yes, it was amazing. But the power of prayer, and you didn't even probably know what her prayers were doing. No, not at all. The Holy Spirit was working behind the scenes. Oh, yes, very much so.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Calling you, yeah, calling you in. So you went to the church, so they have your name and number. Yeah, and they came and knocked on my door, three people. Okay, and uh, as they explained the plan of salvation to me and said, you know, Jesus died for your sins. And um, at that time, I mean, I probably was a really good sinner. I was like, you know, going to all the shows, I get everything free because you're getting all these comp tickets. Right. I go to all the fights with Muhammad Ali. And then I had a boyfriend who was my photographer for the review journal. And uh, I can remember uh going to meet Muhammad Ali, and he just became a Muslim. Oh, and uh he had five women sitting around him, and I said to him, Muhammad, how can you say you're so religious with so many women around you? And he said, Girl, you made the biggest I'm not gonna use the word uh mad at you. I thought, hmm, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

He did not like that question at some point. No, no, he didn't like that question. So anyway. Now God was using you without you even knowing it, maybe in his life. Oh, maybe, maybe, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

But that was uh quite a tumultuous thing, and I have a I have a picture of that actually. Oh, we'll have to show it on the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll have to give that to us. Oh my goodness. And then I would interview um, you know, Jane Fonda, and we've interviewed and we prayed with her to get born again, and it just didn't stick. Yeah, maybe it'll come back. Yes, and uh we interviewed Frank Sinatra, and he was carrying he was pushing Joe Lewis in a wheelchair into a party. And the week before he had decked a reporter for making some kind of cheeky comment. So I was being very measuring.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

So you already knew him from just the industry.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

No, I didn't know. Oh, okay, okay. But I've heard that. I read everything, I read everything. Yeah, yeah. So you're so smart. That was really fun. But um, so they come and they come to the door, they knock on the door, they give me the plan of salvation. I had a you know, glamorous life. And um they said, Well, do you want to ask Jesus into your heart? And I'm going, No. Of course not. Why would I want to? Because you're thinking. And they said, Well, what if you were gonna die tonight? And I'm like, that really threw me out for a lip. Wow, that threw me for a loop. Wow. And um made me reconsider.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Right, right then and there, or after the and I decided, yes. So while they were sitting, so your their first visitation there?

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Yes. So then I said okay, and we prayed together. And I asked Jesus in my heart. My whole life changed. Didn't want to drink, didn't want to smoke, got rid of my boyfriend, everything. Wow, just like it.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

But now did that happen instantly, or was it I over the next week? So you just radically turned your life. It was it was just instantaneous.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

You felt I felt Jesus. I felt the presence of God just like I feel the presence of God right now in front of you. Yes. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

Yes, it was wonderful. Well, and in the back of your mind, you maybe didn't realize you had all that guilt still from your abortion. Oh, absolutely. And so were you sitting there going, Oh my goodness, if I die tonight, what about what happened decades ago of this abortion, too? Was that awesome?

SPEAKER_02 28:18

I'm sure it was working in it, yeah. Right, right. Yeah, and and all the other things. Yeah, I mean, I'd I'd uh escape from this uh crazy racing driver going halfway across the world. And uh wow, you know, all those things that uh I'd done. But God forgives you of every single one. He throws it into the sea of forgetfulness, yes, and he remembers it no more. So, like I said before, why should you?

SPEAKER_03 28:44

That's right, that's right. And it was now for everybody it's not instantaneous, but for you, it was like you immediately felt the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh yes, and you were ready to go all in. Yes, and you surrendered all. I did. And it sounds like you felt so free at that time. I did at that moment.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

I went down to church and got filled with the spirit speaking tongues.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Wow, to this same assembly of God church. Yes, praise God was great. Wow, what a radical transformation.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

It was, but the only thing is I didn't get discipled enough, probably. And then when I asked them why this lady has cancer, and they said maybe God wants to teach her something, I'm like, oh, so this was in this same church then.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Yeah. And and how many years or months were you knowing the Lord before?

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Probably about six months later. Okay. And so they told me that, and I was shocked. And unfortunately, immediately backslid. And you know, when you backslide, a lot of times it gets in seven times worse. Right. And it's definitely seven times worse. Wow. But God took me on another journey. Um, I was I moved, I got another job after that one station closed down as a radio news director of a CBS station, the CBS station, K L A V, okay, in Las Vegas. And um, by February, I got an uh invitation from the White House to go and uh interview Jimmy Carter.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

Oh my goodness. She got an invitation from the White House to go interview Jimmy Carter. Okay, so he was the president at the time. He was the president of the 1979. This is the the, you know, I'm honored to have you in our studio, Mary. I mean, oh my goodness. No, okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

He would have 30 uh press people a month.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

But still, what what an honor. Again, God handpicked you to go to DC to go to the White House to interview the president. That doesn't happen every day.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

That doesn't happen every day. No, and I was the first woman to speak up when we were had the big cabinet meeting with all the um uh cabinet heads and everything like that.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

You were well, you have a lot of courage, Mary. You have a lot of courage and boldness. Yeah, I love that. You do you do? Yeah, and so that's why the Lord's put you in these strategic places because he knows you're gonna open your mouth, and now you're opening your mouth for Jesus. Yes, absolutely. For the last 47 years. Praise God. Yeah. Well, we I want to wrap this show up because we are about out of time. But we're so any final thoughts, but we are wow, I can't wait for the next show because you're just getting you're just getting started about, okay, you you've come to know the Lord, but now you know the enemy kind of came in and tried to tried to steal you back.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

And now it's getting really good because when I go to Washington, DC, my whole life changes. What?

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Okay, so y'all, you got you gotta save that for the next show, Mary. Because we want to hear how your whole life changes even more. Yes, yes, it was awesome, which is so exciting. So this has been so, so awesome. So fun. So so fun. And so God has such a special call on each person's life. Yeah, yeah. And we don't know the journey after that he has us on. And you know, what the enemy intended for evil, he turns around for good. And for the next season.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

It was the Holy Spirit all the way.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

It was amazing. Yes, it was just like a flow of and and now you can look back and you can see the ways that he was working and preparing you. And we're gonna talk more about that in the next show. And he's still using you and preparing you for yet the next season. So, Mary, thank you so much. Oh, thank you, Nail. So fun, we'll have a great time the next time. We're just getting started. Part two, boy. I'm telling you. So, thank you for joining us today on Trusted Voice Podcast. You were created for an amazing destiny. That's right. So go live it out. We'll see you next time for part two with Mary Hudson. Check out our cute merch line. All purchases help support our ministry and this podcast.