Latest / Mrs. PIE / From Mourning to Ministry: Carla Howard's Journey of Faith and Transformation

Transcript

From Mourning to Ministry: Carla Howard's Journey of Faith and Transformation · Mrs. PIE

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Lindsay O'Connor.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Good evening everybody.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I am so excited.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I hope everybody is doing well.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: We are launching our new series called Wildflowers, and I'm really excited to be sitting here with Carla Howard.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you a little bit about Miss Carla before we get started, but I just want to let you know Wildflowers is a limited run hosted by myself, mrs Pi, and it really is centered on the reminder that, even in the harshest conditions, through faith you can blossom against all odds.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: So a little bit about my friend before we get started.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Carla Howard is our special.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: She's joining our special guest lineup of women who face adversities and really came out stronger, full of grace, a heart of gratitude and with faith as her compass.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: She's a licensed minister, a women's ministry conference speaker, an event host and coordinator, and, after a lot of years of teaching women's Bible studies and hosting different community gatherings and speaking at conferences and a lot of you guys have worked with her over the year she really accepted her public call as a licensed minister in 2020.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: And so I want to dig into why she made that change, what led her to do that, and then just talk about how her faith played a crucial role in overcoming an obstacle, one of the obstacles we're having tonight is a little bit of technical difficulty because we've been fighting to get just the system set up.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So I'm so honored that you would join.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: This is again.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: This is such a big deal to have you here for me.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I am honored.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: There's already shout outs coming into the room for you.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So time for a slice of blooming pie.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Pie stands for proud and inspired and power for those who know, and hope those who don't know.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I was so excited.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you, carla, and how you doing.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, I am well, I'm blessed.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Thank God for this opportunity.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I thank God for you, shelly.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: You're such an inspiration.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: That pie is more than a slice, so it definitely describes who you are, who I've known you to be in such a short time.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: But I am well and I'm excited to just share and love on some people through this broadcast.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I love this, and so a quick shout out to those who are watching.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: We have a lot of people that watch the replay and also listen to the audio version.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: So, for those of y'all who are in the know, you know that our audio version comes out on all the podcastries Spotify, Amazon, Apple, iHeartRadio, I Heart Radio, I Heart Radio wherever you get your podcast, you can literally Google, you can find or steal here If you'll hear from Miss Carly in that way.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: But for those of y'all who are watching us live on the Facebook streets, on LinkedIn, on YouTube, on Twitter, and a special shout out to Parade Deck Live Did you know you're on Parade Deck Live TV?
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Sorry, you're on Parade Deck Live TV and so this is an honor just to have you join us.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I also wanted to give a quick shout out because when this came to me about wallflowers and why I think this is so important having you here, that the person that I reached out to like as soon as the idea came was my road manager, my road dog, Nate Todd, and he happens to be in the chat.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: So I want to give him a shout out for really helping me pull wallflower together.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And so now we're talking about your journey, and I understand that you became a licensed minister in 2020, but you've been in ministry for a long time, right?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, actually, my mother, she was part of a women's group and she's the lead in Bolshevik stuff.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And so one Saturday she like she said, come, go with me to my women's ministry meeting.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: And I went with my mother and I was just sharing, I was the youngest woman there and I just started sharing and they started inviting me to speak and I'm like I don't, you know, I'm speaking to these elderly, older women, you know, who I love dearly, and they just undergirded me and supported me and let me come and be on their platform and just share as a young woman.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And so that was my first platform of speaking at women's meetings, women conferences.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: And, just after years of ministering and just wanting to get more biblical background, in 20, the end of 2018 through 2019, I was a member of Highland Christian Center in Portland, oregon, and decided to go to Bible college and so I could just expand and, you know, have that another layer of teaching under my belt, so to speak.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, and it became or license minister, got my license in February of 2021.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Wow, that's incredible.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: First of all, congratulations on that.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: That is a huge, huge accomplishment.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And so, as I was, I was I was preparing for this.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: So, for those of y'all who are not in the know, there's a certain event that's coming up on October 21st.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: If you're here in the Atlanta area, you'll get to see this carl in person if you bought your ticket.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: If you didn't, you'll catch her on the next one.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, but as I was thinking about going into this this week and I think, with all and everything that's going on right now, there's such a huge sense of despair and chaos, even among believers, and so I want to get your take on.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: You know what are you thinking about.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: You know how we should be responding as believers right now.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I definitely personally think that we should just be responding according to the word of God because, first of all, god lays it out for us.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: He says in this world you will have trouble, but I have overcome the world, so he's overcoming for us.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: So you know, when we're going through trials and tribulations and hardships, just go back to the word to know how to navigate.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Because if we try to navigate in this world without him trying to overcome, we will be pretty much in the sack with the world.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: We would be hopeless.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: You know so I always just Lord, you say it, and this is my staple scripture, lord, you say it that in this world we will have trouble.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So why am I surprised?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Because you have hidden nothing from us.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: He's made everything plain for us to continue to walk by faith and not by sight, you know so, yeah, yeah.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: So I would just say go back to the word of God, that's it, yeah.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I love that, I love that, you know.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: So.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Is there a time period in your life where you'd say was maybe a critical point where you really relied on God, like a season or a situation that you've overcome where you're like yeah, no, that's, that was all?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: One, two, three, four.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: She's like every day.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Well, there is one significant time.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I was married for five and a half years and my husband passed away from cancer in September of 2020.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And just during that time Thank you, you know, you have a spouse and you used to have in that person with you, someone to talk, to laugh with, whatever I mean, we had a wonderful marriage in that short time and when he passed away, it was just like what do I do?
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And that came, you know, that question came some weeks after he had passed away, because in the beginning, the Lord just filled my heart with joy, like I was, like I'm supposed to be grieving God.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Why am I so full of joy?
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: You know, and it was just, you know, the word says hide the word in your heart so that you may not sin against, against God.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So God just told me he said the word that you have already stored up in your heart Is the strength, is the joy of my strength, that you're in for this season.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So fast forward.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: About Two years after he was gone, I came to Georgia to visit my daughters, and it was from April, like 2022, to about June 2022.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I came back home, which was Portland, oregon, july.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: God said sell everything in your house and go back to Georgia when I tell you I, in one month, I packed up my house, sold everything and was back in Georgia by September 5th.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: And so, wow, like yeah, it was a, it was a quick turnaround, and I'm like, okay, god, this is, this is really you, you are ordering my steps.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: But you know, doing that to me two year period, it was just like what do I do, god?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: How do I live?
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Now you know, in this age and this stage, that I am without him and All I can say is just, he was my rock and my fortress.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: He was all that I had.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: He was all that I had.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: And so I said, okay, whatever you want me to do, because I'm just kind of like that.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: You know the word says he'll take the foolish things of the Took on the wise, and so I'm kind of like that foolish girl.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I'm like God, whatever you want me to do, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it, and that's.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: He just carried me through those From 2021 to 2022.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: He carried me through.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: It was hard, but he was the only one, the only one that I could lean on.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: That's, that's, that's all I could say.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Many nights of tears and crying.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Do you have any words of encouragement for?
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Do you have I'm sorry to cut you off Do you have any words of encouragement for?
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: For widows then, in particular who because you know again a lot of women who have lost Spouses or folks have lost partners, especially over that, that, that time period coming out of the pandemic, and I wonder if you have any words of encouragement, because a lot of times Christians will just tell them just pray about it, and that that doesn't help, you know, if you don't know what, what to pray for.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: But do you have any words of encouragement you can share with widows in particular?
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Sure, I'll tell you a scripture that God gave me during my time of grief.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: It's about the woman whose husband had died and her son died also, and the Lord was on his way to another assignment and he saw this woman passed by.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: He touched her son's coffin and raised him from the dead and he told her you don't have to cry, don't cry anymore.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there at night, and when he told me that I was like okay, god, but I will say whatever.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Grief comes in many ways At different times, I would just say keep the memories alive.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: You know the memories of love and laughter.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Keep them alive so you won't go so deep into grief where you feel like you have no life left.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: You know, cry when you need to cry.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: That's what I say.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: You cry when you need to cry.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Don't let anyone put a time limit on how you heal, because what God showed me was that those tears are your healing.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So let them flow.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And so I would just advise you to just take one day at a time.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Don't try to rush into being better, but go through the emotions of what happens, you know in your heart.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Go through the motions, and so I can say that I'm better for that today, because I allowed myself to feel it.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah, and just continue to cry out to the Lord because he's not going to turn you away.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what about?
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: What about the folks who say you know, I don't hear from God, I don't hear from God?
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: How do you, how do you help those individuals who say I'm not one of them?
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Let me just put on the streets, I'm not one of them.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: But how do you, how do you, how do you hear from the Lord all day long?
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: How do you?
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: How do you help people who say you know, I don't hear from God, I don't hear from Jesus, I don't hear from God.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Well, you probably do.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: You probably do hear from it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: But what I found to be true is be still, because you know when you're moving around and you're you know your thoughts are everywhere.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: You have to pull yourself together and I believe that we know ourselves, just like God knows us.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: We know our personality, we know what we have to do to come to grips with ourselves.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: So it's like pull yourself together, sit down, take a, take a chill and once you be still, god said he will hear you and he answers.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Now we have to take accountability for ourselves as well.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: If you really want to hear from God, you will.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: You should stop, just stop and take a moment to say God, ok, I'm going to be still and I'm.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I want to hear you.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I want to hear you.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: You know, just be straightforward with God.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I don't hear you, I don't know what you're saying.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: God, I need you to show me.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I need, I need to know that you hear me.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I want you to sell cloth balls off the wall.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, keep asking, yeah and just being open, or being open and then listen, because I think a lot of times when you know where folks are Praying, praying and it just becomes a monologue, so you're only talking to yourself.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: You still need time to actually hear.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: You know, how do you keep your faith strong?
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: How do you?
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: keep your faith strong.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Number one.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: When I find myself waning away from the faith, from my faith, I calm myself down.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I do I actually be still so that I can know God.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I allow the Holy Spirit to tell me when to move, when to come, when to go, what to say, what not to say.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, my total reliance is on Him, so I have to be still, whatever that looks like, by going, taking a nap, turning the TV off.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Get in the Word even when I don't want to, but I guarantee if I pick up that Word.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: God is going to, he's going to speak to me and you know, I just keep feeding off of whatever the Spirit is drawing me to.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: I just keep feeding off of that until I feel like I can totally trust God, where I'm standing on a firm foundation of faith and just walking in it.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: So, as you're walking in your faith, do you have any words of advice from, maybe, women who are older women?
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: So I remember growing up in the church and we went through many denominations.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: So we went to Catholic school.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: I'm Jamaican, we went to Catholic school.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: My mom was Methodist minister.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: My husband and I go to a Presbyterian church.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: He was Baptist.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean Like we've been already and one of the things that was constant back in the day was the motherboard, or not even the motherboard, but having older women that were in the church to give guidance, tea parties and you know what I mean, just things like that, and they were respectable women.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: So I'm not saying like an older woman does do whatever, but they were respectable women within the church, different ages, and they kind of brought the young women together.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: And I think, as I'm looking at different churches now and again, having been experienced many denominations, that part of that culture in the church is missing and I wanted to get your thought on what we can do to maybe revive that in a different way.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Or can we do that because of how the culture is now?
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts about that?
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the chatter saying we need to go back to that.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: We can Speaking on that today.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Well, last night, as I was preparing for bed and I heard the spirit say holy women of God and godly women.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: So I'm like you know God, what is that?
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Because we've defined holy as an outward appearance, like, oh, you can't wear, holiness, long dresses and long skirts and all that, but God has that.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: That is my mission is to bring that back into the church for the older women to teach the younger women.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: And we can't, we can't wait for culture to change.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: It's not going to change, so we just have to be.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Each one, reach one.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: You know, I want, I want to go and that's been my ministry to single mothers, single women, just you know to help them with their families and on how to be single and how to love God, because it's not about rules and regulations, it's about how much you love God.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: So I do want that to be put back into the church and into the hearts of young women, as we can see, whoo yeah, I won't say all of them, but the majority of them.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: And then the older women have to have that desire and not try to fit in.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: But definitely we need that.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: We need that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I agree, and you know, and there are, you know, older women.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: So there are older women.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: I was always the kid who was wise beyond her years and I'm I'm okay with that, I'm the old soul and I'm okay with that.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: But even you know, as I'm watching some of the older women, I'm thinking I could teach you what they are doing.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: So it's a, it's a, it's a thing, it's a mix, it's like.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: It's like.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: You know, we pay for mentors, we pay for coaches, but none of us really have spiritual mentors or coaches unless we go.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: It's got to be the pastor, pastors wife or the pastor.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: You're not, some of them aren't equipped to do that.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: So you know it's, it's, you know I love that.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: And so for those of y'all you know, make sure you're.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: If you're interested in your, your church or your organization that's looking for that kind of leadership or help, you know to get in touch with Carly.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: You can also find her information on grace and grit mediacom and you can reach her there.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: But definitely, you know, definitely an opportunity for you know, especially especially churches, especially mass churches, that don't have that reach or the connection back to the young women in the church, you know, to be able to say you know, let me, you know, let Carl it, you know, build a program for you to help you guys out.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Y'all need it For real.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so okay, yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: We definitely need it.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: So.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: So, as I was thinking about you know, I got a couple of questions for you and I wanted to ask one of the question about this is not a cheat y'all.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, this is not a cheater setup, but is there a person who's been your daughter's gonna get me Cuz it's gonna be a hard one to answer is there a person who's been a source of inspiration or support to you?
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, I Tell you so.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I was raised by my aunt and uncle, my mother's sister and and my mother.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: My two mothers, my mother and my aunt, were my biggest support, especially my mother.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Like this woman, she was a prophet, she.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: She was resourceful, she was a proverbs 31 woman to the T and she helped raise grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: She was a seamstress, she sold for people, she was known in the community, she was vocal.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: She didn't bite her tongue, but she was.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: She was everything that you could want in a woman Very resourceful.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she is.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: She was my biggest supporter.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: She would, she would love me.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: She would, she would whip me and love me at the same time.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Like at the same time.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: At the same time you'd be like, did she just tell me off, but hugging me at the same time, you know.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: But my aunt was up.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: My aunt was one of those holy women of God who loved people, and Her, my uncle, were Upstanding people in the church.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I had a great Foundation with them Christian foundation.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Our household was built on that and then I went to live with my mother when I was 13 and it just carried through because their mother was the same way.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, those are my and then some really good friends that I have that I could call to this day.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And and, yeah, I've been a big support in my life through my ups and downs Birds, dafts, yeah, so it's been a blessing.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: It's been a blessing.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: So my last question is what do you want to be remembered for?
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: What do you want to be remembered for?
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Right here Love OB, like I would tell my children I say now I Can't leave you a whole lot of money, I Don't have riches and gold, but what I do have is love, and that's the legacy that I would want to leave and want people to remember me by after I'm gone, is that she loved people, no matter what, if they treated me, if they were good to me or bad to me, I just Love them, just love them, just love, just love, because that's the, that's the foundation.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: You know that our life should be built on those of us who are believers, and it is the foundation that everything else is built on.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: You know, the greatest of these Three is love.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: That's my legacy, it was, it's my inheritance.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: So therefore, yes, oh, I love that.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: It's mine inheritance.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Therefore, it is my legacy.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Well, carla, we know that for sure.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: That love is your heritage and there are a lot of people outside of your family who's Benefiting from that love, me included.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: So I am.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: So I said I'm so honored to kicked off this very special series with you leading the charge.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: I know that some seeds were planted.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I know that people gonna be blessed.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: I'm over here, my skin's on fire like ah, y'all.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Y'all even know what you just got.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Y'all have to catch it.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: When you listening to it on the audio, it'll hit you, you'll be all right.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I'm so honored and grateful.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you for everything that you do.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I love you.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: You inspire me as well, so keep doing it for the Lord, and you know I'm here to support you at any time.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're gonna hang out in the back.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: A man hang out in the back and then we're gonna run the outro.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Hopefully plays y'all if there's a glitch just hang in there, thank y'all so much for watching and come back.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Come back next week.