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Transcript

Bridging the Faith Gap in Corporate Culture · Mrs. PIE

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: rear wheel drive.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: 안녕하세요, You're on mute, Shelley.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we can't hear you.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: You can't hear me, oh now we can hear you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Oh, now we can hear you.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Listen, all right, so you can hear me, okay.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, there, something happened just now.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you all, after the call, when we were going live, that just something just popped up.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: So so we so thank God, we're here.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: So, thank God, we made the prayer before we started.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: This is a very special episode.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: For some reason, some things on my side are now frozen, so I know we're supposed to have this conversation.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: So welcome everybody.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: This is a very special episode of Mrs Pi.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: We're going to be talking to some amazing folks about faith at work and I really think this is going to be blessing a lot of folks.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: So shout out to everybody who's on Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube and Twitter, and especially those who are watching on Paradek TV channel.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: So I'm just, I'm just grateful for every single person you see here in this room and I'm just hoping that this, this production, goes without law, because already we're getting together fight, but we're going to have a really good conversation.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So, first off, I just want to get I try to give flowers before I start any of my calls and y'all please don't forget to love, like and share the video.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: But huge shout out to Audrey and Mckisha and Carmen and Nate, and April and Keisha for being here and for sharing their journey.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So how's?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: everybody doing.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: You can still hear me.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Are we all good?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: So I feel really bad for those of y'all who are going to be listening to this on Spotify and all the podcasts.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: So the audio version, because everybody in here looks amazing I just set up Y'all.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Y'all look so good, so thank you for showing up today, so I'm going to jump right in.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: So when I was telling people about the episode, I said I wanted to really focus on our spirituality and professionalism.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: What does faith at work look like?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So the idea was to just talk about how we can encourage ourselves, each other and folks that are going to be watching, about how you kind of bring deeper meaning into your job and purpose into your job, and we're going to share some of our own personal journeys.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: But I wanted to start off by why, like why do you think it's important for us to even integrate our faith and I'm going to throw this question to Keisha why do you think it's even important?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I know I'm going to take notes.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, you can see my pen.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, why do you think it's I'm going to Keisha and then I'm going to go to Nate afterwards Like why do you think it's important for us to even to bring, to show up with our faith at work?
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: For you, for me, I believe that it's important to show up with our faith.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: It's just a part of who I am, so it's not like I leave it at home or I turn it on or I turn it off.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: It comes with me wherever I go and I carry it with me.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And I do know that there was a point in my career since we're specifically talking about work or even in my life, where I said God, if it's not, if you're not, if you're not in it, I don't want it.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: And it had to be that way, because what I understand to be true is that no matter what you do in life, no matter what you pursue, whether you're pursuing a career, a profession, you're going after.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: You're trying to start your own business or do something creatively, you're going to hit roblox, you're going to come up against enemies and obstacles in your way, and if you don't have God on your side, if God is not for you in that endeavor that you're doing, if he has not called you to that, then you're inevitably going to fail.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: You're inevitably going to fall.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You may get so far, you're only going to get so far without Christ, and that's my feeling, and because I feel like when God is in it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: When God is with you, no matter what you're up against, he's going to give you the tools to succeed, to get over those obstacles.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: If he's for you in that endeavor.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: That's powerful.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: How about you Nate?
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: For me it's one of those things where I used to struggle with this part, because you always told, as a church person, this is how you carry yourself.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: But then in real life you don't carry yourself that way.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: You're going to be in these places and you're going to be in a certain place.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: You're going to be in a certain place.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: I used to keep myself up a lot.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: I'm a God-given person.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: I keep myself up a lot.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Then something happens and you continue to learn and it says be the same whether you're in service or you are out of service, but you're always at service and so because of that, I'm always at his service.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: And then the role that I'm in right now, the job that I have right now, is ethics.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: So I have to carry myself ethically because there's a lot of eyes and visibility on what I do.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: So I use what I do to guide me ethically because I'm like okay, I don't want to be seen as a man who's not a good character enough in his words.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: So for me it's important to walk in that space and just accept.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: You know I made a mistake with this, but it's important that my character, that people not judge my character and say, well, he made a mistake, but I know that was not intentional.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I love that, I love that.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: So I was thinking about purpose.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: This is something we talked about before and again, I'm not sure if you're all hearing feeds that I'm hearing all kinds of voices and there's nothing in here.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: It's crazy.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, there's literally I'm in a.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: There's nothing in here.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: So so I'm going to ask Audrey and Carmen about purpose and how.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: What does purpose look like?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Is it different for you at the job and how does that play out for you when you think about purpose and faith and you're walking and things like that?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: So I'll go to Audrey first, and then I'll go to Carmen and I'm going to go on mute.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: So purpose for me, you know, whether it's in my personal life or at work, is to always try to do my best.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Right, it's one of those things that I do with.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: You know, as a child, whatever you put your, you put out there to try to do for yourself, you always give it a hundred percent.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And when it comes to my faith, I mean I started, you know, following the Lord when I was young.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I can remember, you know, being at a Pentecostal church, just as they used to say, parrying for the Lord, right, just waiting for the Holy Spirit to hit me.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: And you know, even in that I gave it my all because I knew, coming out of that, that he was going to help guide it and direct me in whatever it is that I needed to do.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And giving again a hundred percent, whether it's at home, being a mom, or whether it's at work, it's really important because people see you and when they see you, they you want them to see the Holy Spirit and they don't want them to see Audrey, because, as Keshia alluded to, this is not something you can.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: There's not a light switch that you can turn it off and turn it on.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So my whole purpose is to just have people see who I am and the God that I serve is real, and there's no switch.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: And whether that is at home or out in the workplace or even just at Walmart.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Whatever it is, you still have to show up and be the person that the Lord has made you to be and take that with pride.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: You can't shut that down.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: You gotta ooze that, the faith and the grace that he's given you in everything that you do, and that's kind of my.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Thing now so.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's powerful.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: How about you, Carmen?
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Am I on mute now?
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, we can hear you Okay.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: So for me and some of you already kind of know a little bit about my journey but I actually separated my purpose as a Christian with work because I was raised you know a lot of people of color.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I raised, you go to work, you put your head down, you do a good job.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: You know, you do as you're told, and so it didn't dawn on me to focus, to put my work and my personal life together.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I was at work to work and then I would go home and it wasn't until I just I felt this boy, like I kept asking God, what is my purpose?
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And, like everybody already alluded to, you can't separate who you are as a Christian with who you are at work or at Walmart or you know, wherever you go.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: You have to walk that Christian walk 24 seven.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And I would say I'm still on the bottle when it comes to my purpose, like I haven't gotten to the stake or to meet yet.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: So the moment that I actually accepted that and understood that and started to walk in that, I started talking about God more freely, more openly, as it applies at work, there was no filter, like I was talking to my boss about a challenging situation and she made a comment and I said, yes, I had to go into my prayer closet, right, it just comes out, you know, naturally, because you have to let that light shine, you have to let the God in you naturally come out.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: So when he said, do not be ashamed of me, always thought about you know, like Peter denying Jesus.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: But when you don't just acknowledge and walking who you are as a Christian, it's almost a version of being ashamed, right, because you're not walking and who you are as a Christian.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: So I don't think you can separate your Christian.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: It's one in one.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Because God put us, he knew where we were going to be in every single point of our lives, right?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: So every moment is an opportunity to make a disciple, every moment is an opportunity to let God shine in us.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So I don't think you know you can separate those two.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's absolutely powerful.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Go ahead.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Was somebody gonna jump in?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, so so, mckisha and April, I was thinking about what are some of the challenges because, again now we're saying this as folks who have been through some things, y'all.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: So it's not you know, just bear that in mind.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: We've had experiences, we've had trials, we've had tribulations, we've had, you know, we've had great days, we've had terrible days.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that everything around you is automatically just easy peasy and we're smiling all the time, and it doesn't mean that we're included in all, you know, every single group.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: It's just not that case, because we, I think we walk in a different path.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: But I wanted to find out a little bit more about, like, what are some of the lessons you've learned?
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Or in the way that you showed up, you know, as a woman of God, right, as a Christian, what does that look like in terms of, maybe, the challenges, again, just for the opportunity for us to help somebody who might be going through it right now.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So I throw it to April and then to Mckisha and then I'm gonna open up to everybody.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, am I off mute.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Can you all hear me?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, I would say for me personally, some of the challenges that I've had just with faith and career-wise piggyback, kind of similar to a journey like Carmen.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I grew up very religious in a very religious household where it was the same thing Parents, you know you go to work and work is work.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: You know you're receptable there and everything.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: But then when you're home, you know you go to the kingdom hall and all these other things, right.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: It was kind of like separate right.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And then when I got kind of when I went over to college and I started seeing other people's journey within Christ and how they were open right to it, it kind of to me that was like okay, wow, well, you can be open with praising God and not just kind of reserved with it, right.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So that started opening my eyes, especially in the workplace.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And then I think it was maybe a few years ago where one of my peers at work would always speak, you know about God and you know so thankful for how he showed up and everything for her.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And I remember looking at her and I was like and looking around like is anybody, you know, is anybody looking at her you know strangely, or anything like that, and I'm proud of her for doing it, because I feel the same way.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: But again, my whole life I had to.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I was taught to be reserved about it, right.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: So with having those lines kind of intertwined and meshed together, what I've learned is it's okay to be thankful for God.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: It's okay, like in a meeting, to be like you know what.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I'm here only because God gave me the strength to be here.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Everybody's like yeah, I understand that.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: It's okay to speak freely and just let it flow from you how I've learned, because the more that you kind of hinder yourself and try to hold it back, it always seems the backfire on you, right?
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: So one thing, the main thing I've learned professionally is to you know people say like let go and let God.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Like let him show up in the situations that you need him to show up with.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Like everything is already planned for us by him.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: We just have to let him take the lead.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: And especially this year in my career, I've learned to do that a lot.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: You know a lot.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I've had to step back and be like you know what.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not in control of this.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Someone else is.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I'm stressing myself out for no reason when I just need God to just be in my life the way it needs to go, professionally and personally and everything else, and it's led to less stress on me but it's strengthened a lot of relationships as well.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: But then it's also kind of made me question other relationships too, right, professionally and personally, just what Hal is perceived.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So one thing I can say is just be true, you know to yourself you may think people are looking at you quote unquote crazy for speaking about God or thanking him, or you know playing your music in your ear and they hear gospel or whatever.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: But it's okay because that's your path, right, that's your path.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: You shouldn't have to hide who you are.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: You know spiritually from anyone.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: How about you, Mekisha?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Well, as you guys know I had to learn that my service, even at work, is done to the Lord.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: So every day, learning that kind of puts me in a different headspace, because I know I don't have to worry about trying to get accolades or trying to impress, because I know Jesus is my work, my excellence is to him, and so my focus switch to trying to get accolades and make certain people excited and happy and stuff, because God just wants to say I will you let you pray in secretly, I will reward you openly.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: So I had to get to the point of maturity to know that man doesn't control my destiny.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: God has a purpose for me and I have an assignment.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I'm on the assignment and once the assignment is over, my next purpose is gonna be in place.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Because he says I order your steps right, the steps of a righteous man is ordered by God.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: So my steps are ordered.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: There's no accidents, there's no coincidence, because God had already ordered my steps, even in my mistakes.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: He already gave me a way of escape, even in that.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Because he says when the enemy comes in like a flood, right, he will raise up a standard.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: So even in the midst of my situations and things that I thought that I was in control and he's like girl bye, you are not in control.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I am steering this ship.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I'm just allowing you to ride this ship.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying Because I'm the one.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I knew you before you was in your mother's womb.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I ordained you then for a purpose that you said yes to.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: So you are gonna walk in this assignment even though trust and believe.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Some days I'll be like you know what, god, I'm gonna try my own path, but then I'll be like Moses if you're not gonna go with me, I don't wanna go.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I don't wanna go if you're not involved, if your glory is not going with me.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Now I might be like, oh, I'm tired of the situation or tired of everything going on, but from the heart of it is like, okay, god, I'm gonna stop playing, because if you ain't going, I really know.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: If you're not gonna go with me, I don't want it.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I don't want the success, I don't want nothing if it's not overstated from you, because I know it's gonna take me away from you and it's gonna be a disaster.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: So if it's not from you, close it, lock it, secure it, whatever you gotta do, remove it, whatever you have to do, because so you can protect me and keep me safe.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So that's where I had to do.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Wow that's a whole sermon y'all.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So I'm just gonna open it up for just to talk about our experiences and things that we might have gone through.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: On the other side, we overcome it, or maybe there's situations that we're still in.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I was telling Audrey and Mckisha before we went live in the green room that my lesson, so we're in the month of August and it's new beginnings.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: And just this morning I was like whoo-hoo, here we are, at 7.18 pm, eastern Standard Time.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh no, there's another lesson coming and this one is about trusting God and I'm not ready for it because I can't, you know.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: So we're just talking about all of these things that happen along the way, and I know in my heart and head that it's.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: There's a pruning season also.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: That happens.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: So that's why I wanted to make sure I said that, look, all of us are on a different path in our journey.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: We're not saying this life is easy.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: It ain't.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: It's easier to be honest.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: It's easier to be out there doing YOLO and FOMO or whatever right, and not caring about you know what the Lord thinks, or thinking about what happens after you leave this earth.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Quite frankly, that's what a lot of people are doing.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: They don't wanna care, you don't wanna think about, you know, being subjected to or under anyone's or God's authority.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: That's why people kind of go crazy and do whatever they want.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: But when you truly accept the Lord you can't go back.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Even if you're empty, like your brain, your heart, your soul, you cannot go back to the life you came from because you understand what the path like.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: So I just wanted to hear from y'all just again.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Just chime in and share your experiences and tests and challenges that either you've gone through or you're coming through or you know, just kind of share with our audience.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, I came off a mute, but I saw Keisha hand go up.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: I didn't know if you were about to say something.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: You go ahead, aindra, okay, well, just with not even balancing you know your faith right with work.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: But, justin, so personally, my testimony is, like I said, I grew up very religious, right and everything.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And there was a point in my life, like around 2017, 2018, where I was one of those YOLO people, right, shelly?
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, where I was like you know what?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I have a good job, I have my plans, I have money, I'm having all these kinds of things, I'm making decisions like just willy-nilly with it, right, just going off of feeling and want, right, and not what God had for me, right?
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: So I totally went off of straight Life.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: My life like turned into a huge mess is the understatement, right?
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: And then one day I woke up and I was like something has to change, I need to go.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I moved away from my family you know my faith, base, everything and then one day I was like you know what?
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: This isn't working for me, something has to change, because I'm not happy, I'm sad, I'm confused, I'm lonely, I have no guidance, right, and it's because I veered off that track of you know, letting God lead me where I need to be at and as soon as, when.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I tell you all, as soon as I made the decision to find my faith again, to at least try to start living my life the way that I need to live it again.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I got time to spend with my grandma before she passed away and become like her best friend.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I literally had gave up everything in my life and I came back and I had.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I found a job, I got another apartment.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I literally was able to just furnish and rebuild my whole life, materialistically but faith-wise.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I had my family and my friends there with me and guided me.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: It was like, hey, god loves you, come to church, come to church with us, come to church with us, come to church with us.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: And finally, one day I was like, oh, it's gonna be fine, I'll come to church with you, right?
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And it literally changed my life because I had veered from you know, actually going to church to where I veered from, you know only that neither is my Bible or something like that, and I'm okay that.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I wasn't okay with just that.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I needed to be around like-minded people in order to, in order to steer me back on my path.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: One bad apple can spoil the bunch, okay, if you're not there, it's true, and the way, like my God has blessed me since then is imagine I met my husband, like I was at a point where I'm like you know what, I'm gonna live my life for myself.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: And I remember I wrote on my refrigerator things that I wanted and a partner in life I wasn't even thinking about a husband at the time, but things that I wanted and a partner in life and I had it right next to a little card.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: At the time I was going to Passion City Church and it was a card from their 2020 kind of convention, right Like a seat of a space, like hey, pray for these people in this section.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: So I had that on my refrigerator and I one day I was like you know what?
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I'm just fed up.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna write down all the things that I need and a partner.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And the first thing was they have to love God, they have to have a family, like faith.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Then, like before, it was all these other things.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: But when I started just putting my faith back in there and being around like-minded individuals in my family that God led their lives and everything came next, he started to lead my life the same way.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I just had so many blessings since then and I haven't looked back.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I want him to keep leading me.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Wow, Thank you for that.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Go ahead Kisha.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Gosh, I don't even know where to start.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: You know, when you think about from the time when I was conceived to now, you know, I'm gonna be 45 years old next month, I'm starting my birthday countdown and it's like the journey has been so rich, so much has happened has led me to this point.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: But I guess I will start with by saying, you know, I didn't grow up in a super religious home.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: My mom took us to church on the Easter and the holidays and things like that, but I had a praying grandmother.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I had a praying grandmother and my grandmother, you know, really introduced me to Christ.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I remember being very young and her bringing over my first Bible to the home.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: And you know, there were times when I was growing up where I felt mistreated.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: My parents were very I have very young parents.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: My mom was only like 16 when she had me and she married my adopted, my stepdad, who's my adopted father.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: He adopted me when I was 12.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: And he's my dad.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I call him dad.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: He raised me, but this man is he's an incredible person.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: We had a lot of turmoil growing up.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I honestly, you know now that I'm an adult, it's hard to raise a child that's not your own, even when you adopt them.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think he struggled with that, but not only that.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: He grew up, and it's important for me to tell you this, but he grew up in foster care.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: His mom left him when he was young and he just has this very had this and still does, this very strong determination to make it in life.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: You know, he's got like four or five degrees, he's working on his PhD, he's retired, he's, you know, he's an incredibly successful man, incredibly successful man in spaces, that where people don't look like him, and you can imagine the type of aggressive energy it took to get there and be in his daughter.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, and I'm a no weak person either, you know, and I don't like to be controlled, I like to.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I have a mind of my own.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: So, you know, I ended up going to live with my grandmother.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: We actually I had we actually with his job, cause he's an engineer we ended up overseas, in Holland, and I was trying to finish school and when I was about 17, 16, 17, I went to go ahead and I just went back home to the States and I lived with my grandmother and I finished out school and, you know, of course, when I moved in with her, we were going to church and that's when I really started going to church on a regular basis and really really just feeling God.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Like even growing up, I felt God's presence.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I felt like he was there.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I knew, I knew there was a presence, right, so I go.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: When I went off to college, I would pray when I wanted something.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like a steady relationship with Christ and I remember when I finished school wanting a job, wanting all the things, and I was living in New York I'm from New York, living in the city and wanting all these things, and I used to write down my prayers and put them in my bra and walk around Like I used to do, like little spiritual things like that and not, you know, not really having a relationship.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Again, it was praying when I wanted something or when I needed something or when I needed God to deliver me and you know, or when I was going through something.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't a consistent relationship and there was a point where, when I was getting ready, I was thinking about moving out of New York.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I wanted to leave the city and I was thinking about different places and I landed in Georgia and one of my goals was when I moved to Georgia.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start going to church on a regular basis.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start working on my relationship with God, because I realized that some things from my childhood were following me into my adult life and that was like something that I understood about myself.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Like I was struggling with my mental health and I realized that it was because of my child.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Things in my childhood that I had not processed, that I had not healed.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: And so I did that.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I came to Georgia and I did begin working on my relationship with God and it was just gosh.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I don't want to take up all the time, but the journey has just been intense.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: It's been an amazing journey, but when you start opening up doors and you start, I've been through so much deliverance and I feel like I'm in a place now where the storm has settled a little bit, but God's like we're just getting started and when we have time, I would love to share some details, but I'm going to pass it to someone else.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: But I will just say that God is real, he has been so good and I know Christ, not because what somebody told me, but because of what I've experienced with him.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I know that when I was in my darkest hour, when I was in my darkest moment, it was Jesus who came for me.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: It was Jesus who held me when I didn't want to live anymore, when I just wanted to end it all.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: And I can't go to a point where I just decided to stay in his arms, that I wasn't going to keep getting up and trying to do it myself.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I am glued, I am honored.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: I am trying not to bust out in tears, keisha, because your testimony is going to save someone's life and I know it with every atom of my body that you needed to say that.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Somebody needs to hear that and I'm also grateful that you share that.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: It's not again.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: It's not about it's a relationship and it's not about a Christmas list or you run the God like a laundry list or like you run a.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Target run or it's not that it is a constant relationship and it happens over time and I absolutely hear you and I hear your heart and how much you love Christ.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: And I think someone mentioned I'm not sure if Carmen said this it really doesn't matter, it's not even that, it's not even just at work, it's our lives.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Like this is like we're not faking it.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: This is literally who we are and we're bringing the experience to work because that's where we are for the most part, but this is literally who we are.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: So I recognize that each of you carry something totally different.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Keisha is the person who, if I ever need a Bible study or a conference, I'm going to her because she knows where to send me.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Like, everybody carries something different, but it is through this refinement and the purification and then what ends up happening is, as you go through those trials, you learn how to treat people who you work with, no matter how ugly, nasty and crazy things get.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: You get refined so that you can operate like that.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: So let me pass to Carmen and Nate and Audrey to have you guys chime in and share what's on your hearts.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Anybody can go.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what?
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: For me, the key or the change started to occur once I realized that it's a responsibility.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: That's the thing that most people who haven't found God, or when they stay away from Him or they don't want to be connected.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: It's the responsibility Like any successful relationship, whether it's a marriage or a friendship, it's a responsibility that comes with that you can't just say, well, today I'm going to be Shelley's friend, then tomorrow I forgot Shelley's birthday.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: It's a responsibility as your friend.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: It's my responsibility to remember who I should remember your birthdays and your anniversaries and when I talk to you, to not just come to you with a target list.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: So, being a man of God, it means that I have to be responsible to make sure that I pray for not just the things that I want the new car, a house and a successful job or the baddie on my arm.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: I should be praying for forgiveness, not just for people to forgive me, but for that I can forgive other people.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: And that's the tone that you have to set.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: And so, like, because I have two daughters, that's important that they see how my father moves, because as my father moves, that's how I move.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: So, in order for them to find the right man in their life.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: I do things based upon biblical principles.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: I treat them a certain way, I speak to them a certain way.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: I try to make sure that if I'm out of pocket with them and he sets that on my heart like Nate, you know you was wrong.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: You need to go back and apologize to your daughter, and so we have to have those conversations Because, again, it is a responsibility that God has given me as the man to say you're going to set the physical tone for these ladies in your life, and so acceptance of that responsibility is the key for everything.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Wow, thank you for that.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: How about you, audrey, or Carmen?
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I was just sitting here thinking about all that's been said so far and one of the things that I'm really grateful for is God has given me a spirit of just being.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: You know, people always say Audrey is just very quiet.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I'm quiet because the Lord allows me to see, listen what's going on around me, so that he can guide me and direct me on what I need to say and what I need to say.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: So I try not to just mouth off, because if I mouth off it's going to be Audrey speaking.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: But if I allow the Holy Spirit to use me, then I say what the Lord wants me to say at the right time.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes it might take me a day to think about what happened yesterday.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: But I'm grateful for the fact that he has given me that so that I can then speak.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: And again, it doesn't even have to be anything about the Bible, it's just direction at work, just guidance, just looking at the people that are in my group or in the group that I work with and how things are going, and know that they're wrong, right, and taking that time to be able to lay out the plan that the Lord has put in my heart and present that and get the right people on board with what the Lord has said.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: It's not, audrey, because I may have done something totally different, but it allows me to just write everything down and present it in a manner where God's like don't worry about it, just do what I ask you to do and you present it.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: And I got to come.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: And it's so funny I hear a lot of people talk about and we've had these conversations.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I've been so blessed in that I got laid off to Lexus, not once, but twice, and I'm a boomerang.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Boomerang is when they let you go and they realize they really need you and they call you back.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: And when they call you back, guess what I was hurt, can I tell you?
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I was devastated the second time because I didn't even get to go into the office.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: It was over the phone.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: So I was broken.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Broken and broken to the point where it affected my family.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: It affected me being a wife, it affected me being a mother.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: It took only God to bring me out of that, because you feel like you've given everything and the Lord is like I didn't tell you to give everything to them.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: You was to give everything to me because I put you there.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: They didn't put you there and it wasn't until it took two years, took two years for me to get myself together and it was God working on me so that I could.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: When they called me back, it was his time.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: It gave me that time, gave me that chance for him, for me to get back where I needed to be with him.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: So, therefore, when he called me back different positions and they were like you need to back and you're going to create this position for you I went back and they realized, even going back, they weren't paying me enough money.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I was like I'm going back, lord, but you know, something got to happen and it did, it did and it all worked out where I got the position that he wanted me to have and I got the money that he wanted me to have.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: And all of that to say, you know, sometimes I was listening to Jake on Sunday and he was talking about God snatching you out.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: But God snatched me out because I got too into myself when I was at the position the first time.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I was big director, this, that and the other right.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: No he snatched me out.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: He snatched me out and he humbled me and he, you know, made me a better wife and a better mom, because that was the important thing, because my son was young and the Lord's like you've been, I've been so career focused that I didn't know what it meant to be a mother.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: So he pulled me out of that so that I could spend time with my child when he needed me, dropping him off to date, and he was the most important time of my child's life and you know, it made me a better mom, I mean, and a better one because now we can grow together.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: So sometimes I'm saying all that to say you know, sometimes if you get too big for your child, the Lord will snatch you out.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: He will snatch you out and he will build you up to where he wants you.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: So then you know, when you're making, you know one step, he's making two, and you know it's a reminder that we don't, you don't do this on your own Every day.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: You got to, you know, when you wake up, you just all right, lord, remove me out of the way you go forward, because I can't do it without him.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I can't do it without him.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Wow, that is thank you.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: I can't, I'm at a loss for words.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: You said so much and there are so many moms that are facing this same situation, that toss in between showing up for your kids and showing up for the job that you desire not necessarily the right one, and that is that is so hard.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: And then when he yanks us out, you know learning that lesson and then being able to rebound what you did.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: You overcame that and you did, and now you're in a much better position and, as a mom, to just yeah, I mean, it's bringing back days when I was choosing work over my daughter.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I did it so many, so many years, so many times, and it's just bringing all those memories back.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: So so let me tell Carmen.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: And then I want to ask you guys, if you, what would you say?
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: Because you know we're on LinkedIn at least I'm on LinkedIn streets all the time and y'all see these reports about job losses and I was on there earlier today and there were a couple of other large companies and numbers like 5,000 cuts, 10,000 here.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of people who are dealing with job loss right now and they may be people who don't know, God right.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: So what advice or what encouragement can we give to those folks?
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: And again, for those who are on the live, most of our people watch the replay and listen to our podcast, so, so what can you share with them?
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: And then, Carmen, before we answer that, I want to just make sure you got a chance to share what's on your heart as well.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: So for me, you know, we ask what does faith at work look like?
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Looks like, and we talk about praying and talking about God.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: But Audrey kind of already like touched on it Sometimes faith at work looks like you being faithful at work, yes, right.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: So for me, a long time, when I was at work, I walked in the ways of work.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: That was my expectation.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Like I said before, I'm at work, right.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: So if such and such has the same skill set, why are they getting promoted?
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I was doing the comparison thing and justifying the comparison thing because it was work, right, like at home.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: I know I'm not supposed to compare right At church she sings soprano, I sing alto.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to compare.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: But at work I was walking in that worldly thought because I'm at work.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: So why are these things happening to everybody else but they're not happening to me, right?
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: So God finally showed me you have to walk in that faith as you would a personal issue, the same way you would as a work issue.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: So he finally showed me don't worry about her getting promoted, don't worry about him getting promoted, because him getting promoted is not what you're going to look like when you get to that level.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: So quit comparing yourself to what this person is doing and what that person is doing, because I have, even though it may be the same title.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Your purpose is going to look different in that title.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: Come on now, ready Right.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: He was telling me you're not.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: And he was telling me I didn't say you weren't capable.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I said you weren't ready for what I have for you and what the purpose I have for you to walk in that role, because it's bigger than what, like you know, the job wants for you Right.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: I have a purpose for you in this role.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: So you're not ready.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: So I need you to sit your butt down and learn the lessons that you need to learn, because when you finally elevate, I'm going to get all the glory in all of that Right?
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: So you are doing this for me, not because Katie and Karen and Kathy and everybody else is already at that level, you're like, but I'm better than Katie and Kathy and Karen, right Like into that worldly thought, and we have to show up at work with that same faith as if we were dealing with our marriage or our children or you know the same thing.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: We have to walk that walk.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: We can't forget that God put us in that spot for a reason and quit worrying about everybody else.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: So, and really quick, about the, about the um the layoffs?
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can tell you, i'ma say it real quick I was.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: I lost, um, my my first marriage, um, I had three kids.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: I was doing everything on my own.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I lost my first job.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: I had got to the point where I had $2 in my pocket and I had three babies to take care of and I finally got on my knees that night and I said, lord, you know what, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, there's nothing else I can do.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: So if you want me to get my babies and load my car and live on the street, that's exactly what I'm about to do.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: I had, i'ma tell you, I had $2.11 in my pocket and back then I'm dating myself a roll of turkey sausage was a dollar and a box of rice was a dollar.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: So I and you know we keep vegetables, you know we you know we have to go to the house.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: So I went to the store, I bought me some turkey, I bought me some rice, I put some vegetables in together and that next morning I got a call um from my current job.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Today, Wow, the very next morning because I said, god, I am going to deliver newspapers, I'm calling the newspaper people.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow I'm going to deliver newspapers, I will go work at McDonald's.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: You tell me what you want me to do, and the next day I got a call.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: So for all of those people out there that don't know what their next steps are, if you don't know the Lord, you better get it known.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Today I tell you what.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I have a similar story, because I've been laid off a couple of times.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, been through some layoffs and I can remember when my baby was my baby he's 14.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: He got to start high school tomorrow and, uh, but when he was a baby, I was working at this small company.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I was an operations manager at a staff firm and I went on maternity leave, right, and I'm thinking everything's all good, I come back from maternity leave, I'm ready to work, and it just seemed like there's some funny energy in the air.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: And so I'm there for about a week and I get laid off and I just came back and, you know, I have my baby at home and it's like.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: This is what my prayer to God was like Lord, I got two degrees and I am more than capable of working and getting a job.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I said but if you want me to go, get in that line, I will be in that line.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: On Monday, I said, don't play with me.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: I just got real with God.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I said I don't want to be here anyway, I will get home and I will.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: I will be that.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: If that's what you want, I am more than capable of working.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: This is, this is your you.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: You tell me okay, and and and I'm his child, so he's like oh yeah.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: She talks to me, but I'm going to help her and I tell you what.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: They gave me 30, 30 days notice.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I my last day on that job was a Friday.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I started my new job on Monday, making $20,000 more than I was making at that job.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: And I was like Lord, amen.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: But let me tell you, I worked at that job for about two and a half years before they laid me off and I was like Lord, here we are again.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: And I ended up starting I, and that was the job I had before I came to Lexus and I said here we are again, lord, and I was in Lexus Nexus.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: When I tell you, they were paying me some pennies on the dollar Okay, it was a, it was a contract position I was like I go to Walmart for this.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: This is crazy.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: But I knew Lexus Nexus.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I knew because I used to use it in school.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: I went to school for communication, so we use the tools in college and I said, you know, this is a great company.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe I can come here and I can, you know, find a position.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: And I did.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: And I did find a position and it wasn't paying what I was used to salary that I was used to making.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: But I tell you what I stuck with it.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: I went back to school on their dime, I went and got my master's degree and I stuck with it and now my salary has exceeded what it was before.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: And.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: I tell you, god has been so faithful and it was not an easy journey.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like boom, boom, boom.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: It was some blood, sweat, tears.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: It was some truths in my face.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: It was it took some not getting promotions, not getting roles that I knew I was qualified for, that I needed that.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: It wasn't because I wasn't qualified or I couldn't do the job.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: It was because you should, you need to to to work on how you dealing with people, because you know I'm like I'm coming to work and I'm doing the job and we're going to get this done and we can be friends later.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: But I need to check myself on that, because relationships mean everything at work.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying and you know I've made up, been, you know, a little harsher.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I may not have been as forgiving, because I think I'm being excellent, I think I'm having a high standard where, when you have people reporting to you and they make a mistake, if you don't give them the grace because I wasn't giving them the grace you know what I'm saying and I had to learn that when I said I moved to Georgia carrying a lot of baggage, I had to let go of some things because it because it was affecting my career, it's affecting my myself as a person.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Like, when you're carrying all that baggage, you don't want to deal with people.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: People are the enemy.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: And sometimes we can just like I know for myself drown ourselves in the work and forget about the people.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: And I had to come up and it.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: And I tell you one thing the relationships that you have with the people who really care about you, when you open yourself up far, are so worth the little petty stuff for the people who are your enemy, or people that don't like you, or people that are not going to accept you for being your true self.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: The richness of the relationships you have when you open yourself up with the people who do accept you in your authenticity, far outweigh all that other stuff.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean that your haters and everything, if far outweigh, it's worth it.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: It is worth it to feel that, to have that richness in those relationships.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: And so and I couldn't do it without Christ he is the healer of all things, you know, and when I pray, I don't pray.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: I, yeah, I want things.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to say I don't want things, you know, but prayer for me is healing.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: It is healing, it is a daily practice, because when I was at rock bottom, I said Lord, what do you want from me?
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Because I'm going to God and I'm praying and I can't open my mouth because I have so much pain inside and I can't even talk to God because I'm so angry and I'm so mad and I have so much pain inside.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: But I don't want to admit that.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: I'm angry because I don't like that word.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: I don't like being a black woman and labeling myself as a black woman.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Right, I had to admit and I said God, god told me, he said I want you to open up your mouth and talk to me and I was just at the point well, god, I'll do whatever you say.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: And when I started praying to him and I started opening up my mouth not just coming to him in meditation, but just really opening up my mouth and pouring out to him every day, every day we have an appointment and things started to change.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: I just had so much healing and now it's like Lord, where is my prayer clause?
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to get to my prayer clause.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: If I don't do nothing else, if I don't do, I'll be like God.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: We got some things we need to discuss today.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: You know, I got my name, I got my journal, everything.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: And it's like you said, it's a relationship.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: It's a relationship with God and he is just.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: He's always there.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: He is always there when we need Him.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: You know, the prayer closet is always open.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I don't have to make an appointment.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: I don't have to pay $1,000 for a session with God.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: There's no seed needed, right, no seed needed.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: And it's just.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I just am just in love with the Lord.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I can't and I'm not perfect.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I am not perfect person, by any means, but I know that I know who God is in my life and I know that he is always working on me and I know he's brought me such a long way.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: He has brought me such a long way, like just delivered me from so much that I can't even.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: And in when I think I'm just delivered, something else comes out.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, and it's just a journey, it's all a journey yeah, it's a journey, and I'm just so grateful and so appreciative I really am.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Well, April, were you gonna say something?
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I had a question for all of you, for you all.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, off of what Hisha was saying when we're on the other subject, but first, just hearing just your testimony about work Hisha and Carmen's as well, and I have a similar story as well that it's like it can be only by God that brings you out of those situations right when you don't have anything, he comes back.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: But the question I had, hisha, you said that you felt you know God's presence right, like when you start, you know, going to church with your man, and I wanted to ask you all what does God's presence feel like to you all individually?
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll let somebody else start.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: It's amazing, it's okay.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's scary.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: I grew up for a very, very long time.
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: Angels have followed me always, so I've always had encounters.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: I didn't really understand what it meant for a long time.
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: I'm Jamaican, so in our culture it's not really shocking Like in the US.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: For some reason people believe more demons than angels exist, but it's just not the case.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: But angels have always been around me, always followed me.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I've always had encounter, always had a connection there.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: I knew I knew it was the Lord, and so there are times when it's it's it's scary, like it's scary because you're not like I'll be in deep worship or prayer.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: I had this.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: I had two.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: I have two things I'll share with you.
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: One one experience I had I had last year.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: I was in in my house we have a library.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: I was in the library.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: I was in deep, deep, like on the knee, worship, crying out, and I was.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: I was asking the Lord to show me what was on his heart, because I felt like I wasn't holding on my part of the bargain.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: Because I was.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: I had my list and then I realized I like he didn't care about my list and so I was.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: I was praying for days like, just show me what's on your heart.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: And and then what he showed me crippled me.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was floored down, but I felt the presence in my library and I knew what.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: I knew exactly what it was.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: I also I'm very blessed to have women who've been placed in my life, who confirm things to me, because sometimes I think I'm crazy.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: Audrey, you won't believe what this happened, right, you know.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: So I have confirmation around me.
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: So so that was one and it was scary.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: And there's, there's been, times that I get dreams.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: I get a lot of dreams, but I have, you know, I have, I've figured out how to understand and receive, and these are things I ask for signs and wonders.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: So when I get them, I'm just okay, I know where it, where it came from, so so the so the short answer is it's amazing.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of times people miss the presence of God because it's not always like that kind of an encounter.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's in the softest of things, sometimes it's you know, sometimes it's just a breath and you know it's.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: You just know if you're in the spirit.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: You absolutely know, you know when the Holy Spirit is involved, and there's all these confirmations, so you don't think you're crazy or you're, you're losing it, but it's amazing.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: It's amazing and it's open to everybody.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: It's not special.
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: I tell people all the time just a happy vessel.
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: I'm broken and I'm chipped, but I'm a happy vessel.
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: So it's not, it's not relegated, just to me.
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: You don't have to seed money to get it, it's free.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so I'll toss it to somebody else.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: For me it's, it's very, it's very calming, it's a sense of serenity, because I am naturally high, strong, so I'm, I'm.
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: I always feel like I'm tense about everything.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: When something is occurring, I get, I'm easily excited.
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: So my blood pressure runs high, my hands sweat, I'm just always my motor's always running when I'm in those spaces of confusion and I stop and God just kind of slows me down.
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: It's almost like when you running fast and then you come to a stop and you feel the wind just kind of yes that's what it feels like, and when I'm in that space, I can feel his presence, because I can hear my heart beat, slowing down, and I feel that presence and it's like okay, nathan, just relax.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: You worrying about a bill, you worrying about this, you stressed about that, you worrying about a thousand one things, and all I need you to do is just look me dead in the eye and hear what I'm saying to you.
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: Just relax.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: Everything that you need you, you've already got it.
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: I've given you every tool you need.
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: You just need to slow down, open your hands and realize that it's already there.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: And so like, as we're talking about the pressures of being at work, and it's like one of my aunts told me she says, it's not about who you work for, it's whom you belong to.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Come on now.
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: That's the key to your entire process, because we're in a bar to job and she's like okay, companies, let you go.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: They changed directions.
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: They may come in and say you know what, everybody who's wearing black shirts, we're letting you go.
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: Today, with Georgia being a right to work state, there's nothing I can do.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: Let me put on a blue shirt, it doesn't matter.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: They're going to say this is the direction that we're going in.
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: But just like I found one job, I lost.
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: I lost my job, the last job I had.
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: I lost it in the midst of a divorce.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: So I'm going through a divorce, I lose my job, and then my youngest daughter, her mother, tells me well, she's got to come live with you now.
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: So all this is happening at the same time and I'm like okay, yeah, sure, oh, yeah, I am 48 years old or whatever the age was.
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: And I'm like what am I supposed to do with all of this?
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: And he's like, dude, you doing that, you doing like Jonah right now, you acting just like Jonah, I need you to get out of the belly of the beast and just stand still and everything.
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: I was the part time job I was working at.
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: It was through a temp agency.
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: A friend of mine worked at the company I work for.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: I say hey, man, I'm looking for a job.
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: He was like you know what?
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: Send me your resume.
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: He says we're going to get your interview on Wednesday.
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: I came in on Wednesday.
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: They called me back.
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: He said on Thursday.
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: He says I don't know what you said in that interview, but they're going to offer you a position on Friday, not the time.
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: The company was hiring temp to perm.
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: Everybody was coming in was temp to perm and for some, when I got hired, I didn't go to him to perm, I came in straight permanent.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: And the manager was like how did you go permanent?
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I just got hired.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: So because he was like you should be filling out the form for for your hours through the temp agency and I was like I don't work for that company, I work here.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: And the manager who hired me was like your benefits and everything starts on this day and everything started the day I.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: Everything kicked in and I was like, oh and again that phrase that mine is not who you work for is whom you belong to, and I try to.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: I keep that with me here and here and, like I said, when I'm, when I start stressing, I feel his presence because I just start, everything starts slowing down and I see it starting to occur and I'm like, oh okay, yeah, it's, it's, it's all good.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: And that's that feeling for me, it's a feeling of serenity and just being at peace with, like you know what, if this is the direction that man is taking me in, that's fine, cause God has taken me in a totally different direction.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: I'm not supposed to be in this position anymore.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be here because I am connected to the most powerful thing in this world.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: I don't have a just a super life, I have a supernatural life.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: And that's important yeah.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: So, you know that that's how for me to April.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: That's kind of how it all works inside of here.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, carmen.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: For me, it's just two things April peace and confirmation.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to learn how to listen, like you say.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: How do you know it's God speaking to you?
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: The one thing that I learned that if it follows his wheel that's one indication, right, like if it follows his word, if it follows his wheel, that's him cause.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: His word is what speaks to us, but it's peace and confirmation.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Like I got in an accident on a highway.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: I was with my daughter, with my children, and I thought that somebody was trying to cite Swatney.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: We on a busy highway and I'm thinking this car is rolling right up on me, right?
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: So I'm in the fast lane with the median and I just veer, and all of a sudden the car just starts spinning across the median to the other side of the highway and then I go through the fence.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Not even 15 minutes later, a police officer comes up to the car and he said ma'am, I don't even know, but I just happened.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: He was on the same side of the highway as I was going this way and he just said I just happened to look at my rear view mirror and saw you spinning across the road.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: That was confirmation, right, like confirmation.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: And then when, shelly, when you talk about dreams, I'm always the kind of person who's like I'm not good enough for God to use me the way he uses other people, right?
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: That's why I said I'm still on milk when it comes to my purpose and my mother passed away of cancer.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: When I was younger, I didn't even think about it.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: When I was younger, I had a dream that my mother died on a roller coaster and then completely forgot about the dream, right Like, never thought about it ever again.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: I was probably like 10 years old and I had this dream and I'm like I'm not telling my mother that dream, right Like, and completely forgot about it, got it, raced it from my memory for a while and then, when she passed away, we found out she had cancer in May.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: She died in July and my family was flying to Houston and going to Georgia and we were just all over the place and in that moment, like Chely said that still playing voice, god said I showed you this.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Her journey with cancer was a roller coaster ride.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: She passed.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: You know, that was my dream and I don't think he showed me that to give me insight about my mother.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: I think he showed me that to give me insight that I need to start paying attention to my dreams.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: And I needed something that impactful to get.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: He needed to do something that impactful to get my attention.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: So for me it's like peace, and confirmation.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's powerful.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for me it's just calming.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: I was telling Chely yesterday, you know, God was just been working, just doing a lot in my life and not necessarily all good stuff, right, but it's good for me and so it's just clean up and you know organizing and things like that so that I can hear, so that I can hear what he has to say to me, and so it's just really calming.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: Yesterday I felt his presence so powerful.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: I was walking around my house like this, like in awe, because his presence was so real.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: It was so real and I felt speechless because he was.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: It was just so powerful and so calming.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: And the day went by.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: I was like you know, normally it's like, ooh Lord, if God helps us, they hurry up.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: Yesterday the day went so fast and I'm telling you, I went through my entire house and prayed through my entire house.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: I closed every time I prayed in the room, because that's how his presence was.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Every time I prayed in the room I closed the door.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: My husband and my son came home and they were like, why are all the doors closed?
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: I said because I went through every room in the house and I prayed.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: And my son he's such a little smart today.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: He was like would you lock yourself in there?
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: I said nope.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: I said I prayed and kicked everything out.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Then I opened the front door and kicked everything out the front door.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: He was like you gotta be.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: I was like, no, when you go in your room and you don't sleep like a baby, it's just a calming thing and some, like I said for yesterday, it was just an awe because it was so powerful and it doesn't happen like that all the time, but I definitely.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: We were there yesterday and whenever I start to feel stress, I'm kind of like made.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty high, strong and I can get anxiety if I don't check myself.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: So I have to just kind of sit down and pray and ask God to help me and he typically does.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: But it's really a calming for me when I'm in God's presence.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing that.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: So we're gonna have Kisha and then I'm gonna walk us through our clothes.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: How about you, Kisha, Well?
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: gosh.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: Sometimes God's presence is so supernatural I don't even know how to put it into words.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: You know, we just feel an energy around you and you know you're not alone.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: You know, I remember the first time I was able to speak in tongues, I got filled with this spirit.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: It was one of those things.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know what was happening to me.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: I had gone to a new member meeting at church and came home and I was listening to some worship music and then something just started pouring out of me and now I can't shut up.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: You know, so many years ago and it has transcended.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: But it's just a supernatural experience.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I just feel his protection.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: God speaks to me through my intuition, like I can literally hear God speaking to me.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of dreams and when I do dream, I don't remember them.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: So sometimes God speaks through people, through their dreams, and I'm always like, ooh, tell me about your dreams, cause God doesn't talk to me that way, but he talks to us in different ways, cause I ask people say, oh my gosh, I can't hear from God, or God doesn't speak to me.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: I hear all the time.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: I heard you the first time.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm doing it, I'm going, but you know he speaks to us in different ways and we just have to embrace our kids.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: It's just a supernatural experience, I would say.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: This was so amazing.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to have to come back at the top of the new year and kick us off with another round and we can't see how many people were in LinkedIn.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: I just grabbed.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: I just saw the comment that those numbers don't show up and we can't see who's on the Parade Deck Live TV.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: So you know we can't.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: But whoever's watching this, like I said, whether the live or the replay, I absolutely believe in my heart of hearts that this will bless you.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: For anybody who's going through anything you know, just know that you're not alone.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: And if you have nobody else.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: There are at least seven people, eight people on this side of the coin who are standing in agreement that all things are working together for your good.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: I am so honored.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: Thank y'all so much for doing this, for being honest and open and putting your hearts out there.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: This is tough.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: This is not something that is that everybody does.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: You know, people say authentic, but they really don't mean it okay.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: We mean it.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: You know we absolutely mean it, and so we're going to tell everybody goodbye and if you guys can just hang out in our back room and you know while we run the closeout.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having us, Shelley.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you, shelley.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: Hi, shelley, keep that in mind.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you, shelley.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: I will see you next week.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: Thanks, 198.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: No-transcript.