Living Reconciled
Living Reconciled, hosted by Mission Mississippi, is a podcast dedicated to exploring reconciliation and the Gospel that enables us to live it out. Mission Mississippi has been leading the way in racial reconciliation in Mississippi for 31 years. Our model is to bring people together to build relationships across racial lines so they can work together to better their communities. Our mission is to encourage and demonstrate grace in the Body of Christ across racial lines so that communities throughout Mississippi can see practical evidence of the gospel message.
Living Reconciled
EP. 61: Brett Barnhill and Reclaiming Communities
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Brett Barnhill's journey from Alabama to the mission field is nothing short of remarkable. Growing up with Texas roots, Brett discovered his passion for ministry during his time at Mississippi College, spurred on by a powerful sermon on the Great Commission. His path was further illuminated by a life-changing intercultural communication class that deepened his commitment to mission work. Today, he channels this fervor into the Reclaim Project, where his experiences and insights are transforming communities. We invite you to listen as Brett shares the journey that led him to Reclaim, highlighting the impact of educators and moments of God's grace that guided his way.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Mississippi College, Anderson United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Real Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines.
Speaker 2:Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled. I am your host, ryan Crawford, and I am hanging out with some really good friends of mine Many winners, austin Boyle. Our podcast is sponsored by incredible people folks like Nissan, atmos Energy, st Dominic's Hospital. We have incredible individuals like Bob Lurie and Winters that sponsored this podcast, and we couldn't do it without them. So we want to say thank you, and thank you to all the other sponsors that we have not named, for making this podcast possible, because it's because of what you do that we're able to do everything that we do, and today I am so excited because we have a gentleman here who is doing incredible work in the kingdom of god, my brother brett barnett from the v clay project.
Speaker 3:Brother, how you doing, I'm good. How are you doing, man, if we are doing wonderful?
Speaker 1:Start by telling us a little bit about Riff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, I'm not from Mississippi Born and raised I like to call it the sister state next door in Alabama. My parents I had an identity crisis growing up anyways, because my parents are Texas transplants to Alabama, and so I grew up in Birmingham. My dad was an avid Longhorns fan and you know anything about Birmingham. Alabama college football is the lore, I should put it that way. And so, anyway, growing up my dad said you absolutely cannot be an Alabama fan and you absolutely cannot be an Auburn fan. You're a Longhorn. And so I walk around the halls of schools saying I was a Texas Longhorn. People looked at me like I was a Texas Longhorn, walked up through the hallways and so I grew up there.
Speaker 2:But the Lord called me into ministry at an early age. As such, I started praying Lord, where do you want me to go? And my youth pastor at church at the time is from Pearl Mississippi and he said you have to go check out Mississippi College. So that kind of brought me from Alabama to Mississippi College, met my wife there, fell in love with her and began kind of a journey in ministry after school. Praise God, praise God, I got a sophomore right now at Mississippi College. Yeah, that's Choctaw. So shout out to the Choctaws. We're excited, we're incredibly excited. It's a great school Peace, love. We're excited, we're incredibly excited. It's a great school, he's loving it. So thank you for sharing a little bit about, about Red.
Speaker 3:Tell us a little bit about how we got from Mississippi Conference to the Reclaim project.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. While I was in school there was an opportunity. Well, let me back up just a little bit about what I was pursuing, you know, while I was at MC. So when I was in high school, my pastor was preaching a sermon called Multiplying Exponential, and it was a sermon on the Great Commission and our calling as believers to make disciples of all nations. And I was touched by that and really given a calling from the Lord that I was supposed to go and be on mission. I didn't know where that was going to mission. I didn't know where that was going to be, I didn't know what that was going to look like, but I just knew that it was time for me to get ready. And so when I arrived at Mississippi College, I signed up. So I was out of the country. I had actually gone on a mission trip overseas the summer between my senior year of high school and college and I missed class sign-up and I didn't know that was a big deal, nor did my parents.
Speaker 2:But I showed up at school and I had misorientation and everything and I was on the football team. A typical football player had to sign up for classes. So they came in and they said well, you know, son, you need to sign up for some classes. I said classes, we're going to talk about classes. So, anyway, they put all the athletes in a room okay, so it was a computer lab of sorts and they sat us down and they said you need to sign up for classes. And there was one individual in there facilitating all of us athletes trying to sign up for classes. Well, I sat down by a soccer player who also hadn't signed up for classes. I introduced myself myself and we kind of hit it off and everything. And I said well, what are you going to sign up for? He said I don't know. What are you going to sign up for. I said let's just do it together. So we made the exact same schedule.
Speaker 2:I sat down to sign up for classes and I signed up for a class communications. Well, it was called intercultural communication, something that I thought I might need to know if I'm going to go to the mission field intercultural communication. But it was titled Come 449. And that means it's a 400 level class, you know, for upper faculty. And so I just said that sounds like a great class. I signed up for it and so I get in.
Speaker 2:It is Friday, excuse me, monday morning 8 am, my very first college class, and I sit down and the professor introduced himself. He said my name is Robert Fortberry, I'm a missionary with the International Mission Board and I'm on furlough and I'm going to teach this class about intercultural communication. Let's say a prayer. And I was so struck. I grew up in public schools in Birmingham and we didn't say prayer at the beginning of their class, and so this was my first experience at a religious institution of higher learning and I said, okay, this is gonna be fun, we're gonna pray. So we prayed and then he began to dive into his light as a missionary and I was so intrigued and he, because he was an adjunct professor, he did not know I wasn't supposed to be in that class and so he never kicked me out and I finished the course and had a pretty good grade, if I recall. So anyway, during that class he began to. That's really where this vision from the Lord and clarity on the calling of my life of to go and make the cycles in Africa. So the way this happened I rolled out.
Speaker 2:The very next year, my sophomore year at Mississippi College, there was an opportunity for some of us college students to go to a country called Botswana it's just north of South Africa, in Southern Africa and be mentored by my professor. So he was going back to the mission field and he took four of us college students from Mississippi College and we walked alongside of them for six months as he discipled us, as he taught us what it looks like to live on mission for God in a foreign context and to build his kingdom. We were planting churches. He would drop us off in a village and tell us to start praying and prayer, walking and going and sharing the gospel in people's homes and praise the Lord. The fruit of those labors led to the planting of multiple churches amongst the Botswana people there in Botswana, which was really awesome. One of the reasons why we were so intrigued to bring you into this conversation, rhett, today, was because we were looking at your work and we see this tension that oftentimes the body price has.
Speaker 3:where it's like international emissions, we're supposed to go right, right, and then you ask the people say no no, no, we're supposed to stay, and there's work to be done here. Absolutely Reclaim Progenica, saying why not vote Amen? And you guys are in Africa, serving overseas and reaching people groups that are not in the States and gearing of all places. Marks, mississippi serving the people of Marks, mississippi, and doing incredible work there.
Speaker 1:How did you get there and what does it look like for the Reclaim Project to be on mission both in?
Speaker 3:Africa and in Mars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'll just tell you this it is an incredible blessing, and it has been so fruitful in my own walk with the Lord and spiritual journey to be able to serve in that way, to be able to say to people yeah, we're working in Africa and we're working right here at home in Mississippi, and kind of how that happened. When Reclaim was formed as an organization, it was around the heart of James 127, which says religion that God, our Father, accepts as pure and flawless as this, to look after orphans and widows and to keep oneself and be included by the world. And so, in as much as we were locked into existence by calling from Scripture to care for vulnerable children and vulnerable members of our communities, we were doing that in a foreign context because that's what we knew, and so we were doing this. But our board of directors, as it does, come up, sometimes some people say, oh, that's cool that you're called to that, but I feel called to be here. And so that touched our hearts as an organization and we began to pray and seek the Lord. What about the children here in Mississippi? What about the church here in Mississippi? What can we do to partner with the church and with communities to lift up the children in our own neighborhoods, in our own communities. And so that began a journey of prayer. So what about large Mississippi?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so as we were praying we reached out to a gentleman named Lance Reed who was a Chick-fil-A owner operator. He was a friend of one of our board members working in Oxford. He owns the Chick-fil-A's in Oxford and so as someone he was very active already in the Quibble County community and they were doing some leadership training that they had started in the schools. And so our board reached out to Lance and said Lance, we want to do something in Mississippi. What do you think? He said, well, you need to go to Quibble Hattuck, because God is already doing something incredible there. And so our organization got in the car, we drove up to Osser, let Lance in the car, drove all the way across Batesville into Quibble County and we pulled up to Marks Mississippi and from the very beginning God began to orchestrate a beautiful partnership between us and the school district.
Speaker 2:We sat down with some leaders that day, including the mayor of Marks Mississippi, the former superintendent, dr Evelyn Jocel, who had been in that position for a couple of years and was installed as the school was an F-rated school, as many schools in the area are lower rated and under-resourced. And we began to ask the questions what are the biggest needs in this community? And I love that our board I was in Africa at the time full disclosure, we were, you know, head down doing our work there. But our board sat down and listened to the community and said what are the biggest needs in areas where you need help in this community and how can Reclaim Health? And so, being the school superintendent, dr Josel piped up. She said well, I'll tell you right now exactly what we need. We need teachers.
Speaker 2:One of the biggest struggles across our whole state and in our nation, especially in Mississippi Delta, is how do teachers? And she said, I have a huge percentage of teachers in my classrooms that are not certified and that are not qualified to be teaching these courses and, as a result, our students are not learning. And so she said, we need certified teachers. And secondly, not just teachers, but we need housing for those teachers, because when we do get teachers, they end up residing outside of the community and and their turnover is pretty high. A lot of times they'll stay for one year but then they're not putting down roots in the generality and they're going to be gone. They can't invest extracurricularly as well as schools.
Speaker 2:And so she said and the third thing we need is Lord, we need Jesus in this community. Yeah, so our ministry, she's the, the, the wife of a missionary baptist pastor in lambert, mississippi, three miles south of marks. And so, uh, she, she just said that's what we need in this community. So we said, okay, the jesus part. All right, we're all, we're on board with that. You know, we, we're all about it. But let's talk. Let's start talking about what this looks like to help quibman County find teachers and retain teachers and provide housing.
Speaker 2:So before our board had left, they had identified, with some of the other community leaders that were there that day, a building in downtown Lawrence, mississippi, which was the cornerstone building there. It used to be a drugstore and a building that's been vacant for about as many of the downtown buildings still are, and it was an 8,000 square foot building, has 4,000 square feet above and 4,000 square feet below, and so that week we had to plan to renovate the upstate, to purchase and renovate the building to provide apartments for teachers in the Quibman County community and then, downstairs, to have after-school educational enrichment for the school district, and so we named the property the village, after the African proverb it takes a village to raise a child. We all are familiar with that saying and that is the heart of our ministry is that we want to come alongside the school district, the community, the parents, the families there to love these children well and provide for their needs through teachers and education. So that kind of hacks our plan. Talk to me about how reconciliation what?
Speaker 1:how does your work foster reconciliation in a place like?
Speaker 3:Marks Mississippi, and what lessons, what challenges, what hurdles have you stumbled across in terms of doing that work on the way to bridging the gap between black and brown and white in this community in Marks Mississippi?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'll say you know, initially, when we hacked the spread, I'm proud the way that our organization came into the community and said hey, what are the needs? We want to listen, you know, and find out what just can I stop you there and just say how incredibly thankful I am that your organization operate with kind of humility.
Speaker 3:That didn't assume that you knew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, because, so many times and when we're talking about missions, there's like hey, we have a model, we have a plan.
Speaker 2:We're going to bring that model and bring that plan into your community.
Speaker 3:Regardless of whether or not you think you should not stay set, we know what's best for you.
Speaker 2:We know what's best for you, and there's an incredible amount of humility and also wisdom in the ability to go into a community and say we may have resources, but that doesn't necessarily mean we have mouth, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so let us bring resources, but also let us curate knowledge to ensure we understand what's happening in the community so we can help the community. So I'm incredibly grateful that you guys took that approach.
Speaker 2:You took the words right out of my mouth. I think that is what I'm so proud of, even though I wasn't a part of that meeting. It was merely spirit led, and has continued to be spirit led in that humility of Christ, to step in somewhere and ask what the needs are. And so you know, I think, what, what has helped us foster that reconciliation in the community which hasn't been easy and I'll get to that but I think it's the willingness to listen and then tell the story and champion that community. And so what has fostered reconciliation?
Speaker 2:You know, we came in, and if you know anything about Mississippi Delta, it doesn't matter what color your skin is. If you came in from outside of Mississippi Delta into Mississippi Delta, you're not our people. You know, and that has been something that has been challenging in terms of people coming into the community and saying, hey, we're going to do this program, we're going to do this program, we're going to launch this new thing. And I feel like, in a lot of ways, people just kind of sat back and waited and looked and said, okay, I see that they're here, but I think they're saying you're ready to be here, or is this a project? Or, you know, is this something that needs to be a project? Exactly, exactly, absolutely, and. And so, anyways, as we came in, what I loved about our team is they immediately began to serve. They listened to the needs of the community and they began to serve. And I think one thing that has fostered that is not that we stepped into a position of leadership or trying to say, hey, we are the ones making any kind of change and difference in this community, but we came to serve the institutions in the community, right, and that earned a lot of trust and credit from the community, and that we were bringing in people to come and serve as teachers.
Speaker 2:So at our inception, the heart was for the orphan right, the fatherless, and, as the scriptures teach that, god is the defender of the fatherless, he's the defender of the weak, he's the champion of the four and the downtrodden, and so what we identified as a calling for our organization is for those children to be reclaimed into the family of God, to be brought into God's family as a way of redemptive quality.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, we have all been adopted, we have all been redeemed, we've all been brought into the family of God, and so it is a biblical word of reclamation, redemption and restoration that we play to. So we have identified these and when you look at this, there's a of rv words that fit into kind of the, the rehabilitation and renovation, uh, that we see god's work in our lives and what we want to see god doing in our communities. Right, if we want to say reconciliation is an re word and we have that in common with other organizations who were Christ-minded and want to see that happen, so that reclaiming is that original identity in Christ and that we are in fact one race of human beings, together with it Now.
Speaker 3:he talked about this thing of reconciliation and looking out for reconciliation. How did you overcome being an outsider?
Speaker 2:Yep, well, not easy, that's where.
Speaker 3:I started and still I would say the burden is out, I'm sorry, yep.
Speaker 2:Well, not easy. That's where I started and you know, still I would say the burden is out. I'm not even going to give ourselves as much credit. You still announced it. Well, you know you are, but it's the hidden delta. That's true. How old have you been? How old have you been? So we opened up our building in 2017, which was seven years ago.
Speaker 2:But I'll say the very first teacher that we recruited and sent to Quitman County, his name, is Daniel Meyer. Daniel came in with the humble attitude to serve. He came in. There was a need for a ninth grade biology teacher. It was a state-tested course. They didn't have anybody to teach this subject, and so when Daniel came in with his degree and his qualifications to teach the subject, he not only did his job, but he excelled, and he did it with excellence, and people took notice of them, and so, through his leadership of being a servant leader and the teachers that followed him behind, daniel taught for six years before he eventually moved out of the classroom and into a ministry role and has moved on from that as well, but he set the tone for our teachers to be there and to serve and to love.
Speaker 2:So, from the very beginning, when people thought about replan, they didn't even know the name reclaimed. They knew the village. So there was a lot of he kind of like you know what is this? What is this new organization? They bought the building downtown. You know what are they doing and so, but I think over time, as people saw the commitment of our teachers and our staff to love the children, that was when they said, ok, these people are good, they're here loving and they're serving. And, yeah, we accept, and I think I was.
Speaker 2:There's a process and a still process, as you asked, but I think earning that trust does not come easy.
Speaker 2:You know, our program fosters relational living in the community, which is something that differs from some of the other education programs out there, and that's not a non-hominy of them, because I think our state needs all the partnerships we can take in the area of education.
Speaker 2:But what's unique about our teacher fellowship is that these teachers are called to be in the community to live in relationship with their neighbors, and they live in Quibman County and I think that's something that has been unique about our program is that people said hey, you know, they're not just driving in from out of town, which was often the case with different things that would be started and taken place in Quibman County. That's not a lot to those people coming into service, but what was unique about our ministry is that people uprooted their lives and said we want to be here with you. There was a time for years at our exception when Marsh, mississippi, was designated a food desert. There was no grocery store but yet they looked at an organization whose people were willing to come and live in the community and commute to Baysville or commute to Clarksdale to go buy their groceries, just like the residents in the community, and I think it earned a lot of trust.
Speaker 3:I want you to go back to the time you're stepping off the plate. How did that process go? Because we're hearing about Mississippi end. But I think just as compelling is the global, is the African end as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, that time was super formative and learned so much, having the opportunity to opportunity, mentored by missionaries who'd been doing that for 20 years and I could I could literally sit here and list off a thousand lessons that I learned. But one of the biggest changes that happened when I came back from being able to want specifically to those six months we're all very impressionable at that age. But when I came back to mississippi college number one I realized, uh, wow, you know this, I was the, I was the only white person in the room for six months in africa, right. And when I got back, uh, out to america, I realized, okay, man, I felt more comfortable a little bit in Africa with my friends and my brothers and sisters in Christ there, and I had come to love the diversity that I experienced there so much that I craved that.
Speaker 2:When I got back to Mississippi College and so I started seeking it out, I found that while I was there, god gave me just kind of a window into what we call the Revelation 7-9 vision you know where John talks about in the book of Revelation and there before me was a great multitude that no one can count, from all nations, from every family and tribe worshiping around the throne.
Speaker 2:And I think when I had stepped out of my comfort zone and stepped out of my normal day-to-day relationships, I experienced that and what that led to me creating was the opportunity to have that at home, and so I began to pursue that, not only on campus but around the city of Jackson. I was led to Mission, first there in West Jackson, lethic. Then I jumped right in, I said hey, I want to be a part of what God's doing in our city and started volunteering there, got involved with after school tutoring, was a tutor. Then I got involved with City Church in Jackson, with Luke and them, and I got involved at that church and I saw so many young people, through their apartment ministries all over the city of Jackson, come to faith, got to pray with them and I was motivated by seeing myself outside of the homogenous church that I had grown up in. God had given me a vision of that multi-ethnic church while I had been in a foreign context, so much so that when I got back to Mississippi I craved that in my everyday walk.
Speaker 3:What kind of you mentioned challenges and you said we were going to dig into those a little bit. You talk about the challenges of crossing those ethnic racial barriers in Africa, crossing those racial and ethnic barriers here in the States in Lawrence, mississippi. What are some of the most prominent that Reclaim Project face as it relates to barriers that you have to cross? What are some of the lessons that?
Speaker 2:God taught you through crossing those barriers. You know, I think a lot of times we're afraid and this is from personal experience we're afraid of acceptance in another group. You know, and I can say that from personal experience, to cross a boundary that you might be afraid of crossing is a big hurdle. You know, and I can say that from personal experience, to cross a boundary that you might be afraid of crossing is a big hurdle, you know, and but what we often find is that when we are able and encouraged to step across that boundary, in that barrier, all be them invisible, what we find is we there was no reason for that fear, because the people that we encounter on the other side of those barriers are just like us and there's rich relationship and friendship there and we're able to foster those relationships. And so I think some of the some of the difficulties is is just relationally trying to help facilitate those things. You know we would.
Speaker 2:When we first started in Quidna County, a lot of people wouldn't come into our building. You know because, number one, the building had been a place under segregation laws in Mississippi where black people were not invited into that building. And now, once this building is reopened, we're trying to have an area and a geographical space where all people are welcome to come in. And so I know people from the older generations in Quitman County who just wouldn't come in the building, you know, because it was not a safe place. Praise the Lord, I can testify today that we have meetings all throughout the day in the village and it has become a community meeting center.
Speaker 2:It's been so neat to watch that transformation and there's still work to be done. I mean, it's a continued progress, but what it takes is time and being willing to step out of our comfort zone to meet people along the way. And so what's been neat is just watching trust be built between our organization and our team there on the ground. And what does that look like? It looks like serving, and I think what's been neat is to see all of the people who are in and out of those doors every day now. And I remember from the beginning, and even a lady her name is Pat Love, she's on our staff now Grew up in Footman County and she tells story after story after story about this particular bill county and she tells story after story after story about this particular built, you know, and just how, and it brings moves her to tears just thinking about that. What god is doing in the community by restoring the visible place where our ministry is what?
Speaker 3:yeah, I'm glad you made that point. I want to re-emphasize that again. So so often we're miss mississippi, we are all over the state and I ever recall numerous experiences where we would have these meetings and it was not known in historical situations, and all the white people showed up and other black people showed up, and then we wondered why. And then again it expressed to us what they think. I said wait, you all playing this with me. You're just like y'all set us up here. How does this work?
Speaker 2:Well, I think, as you mentioned and as I was speaking to earlier, it was a gradual presence.
Speaker 3:Continued presence. So intentionality and patience, and patience, and patience.
Speaker 2:It is now Exactly, and patience, exactly it does now Exactly, and I think you know the commitment to something that's bigger than numbers or a project or anything that we're trying to achieve for ourselves. It's a commitment to reconciliation, to seeing what is broken in our state restored and redeemed and reclaimed back to how it should have been in the first place. And and so I think that the way that we came in to allow teachers to come and serve the children, teachers to come and serve the children and then when, specifically when we opened our building downstairs, the village, it was a place for children to come and to learn and to be empowered through education, and I think that's something that everybody can get behind. It's something that we all know is a problem in our state and something that needs to happen.
Speaker 3:You know, what you've described in some sense is the idea that they're going to have a teacher airport where the students from other states or other locations come into the objects of not only as rush for the education, of all opportunities, and spend time there and do something. I know a little bit about that, but most of the time they come here spend their two years and they're gone, and so what you're demonstrating here is a long-term commitment that requires a lot of love and care and commitment on our part. You know, when Jesus says, go into all the nations and teach them, we forget about the teach them. We forget about the teach them, but also we forget the fact that it takes us time Absolutely To get what we the teach them. We forget about the teach them, but also we forget the fact that it takes us time Absolutely To get what we can teach them. You know, out of the past I used to say I'm fully equipped to say for the work of the ministry, but the sacks got to show up.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:And so sometimes the sacks doesn't show up because of all the historical dilemma that we find ourselves in. And so we always try to answer this question about how we got here, why we can't stay here and how we're going to get out of here. So that's interesting to me that some of your reconciliation as a nation will be claiming the children, as you call it right, or not reclaiming.
Speaker 2:I'm compelled and we want to put a bowl in this conversation, but what lessons has Quickman County, barks, mississippi, africa and the people therein, what lessons have they taught you? You know, again it goes back to the humility piece, but we're always thinking that there's something we're going to teach them right. What lessons have they taught you in this experience? Absolutely Well, I say I'll start with Africa, that I bring it home to Mississippi. One of the things that I've learned yeah, I grew up in a tradition of church where we did things differently than the way that things were done in Africa, and experiencing the way that the church operated there was so incredibly life-changing for me.
Speaker 2:So I could name a hundred different things, but I think one of the things that has particularly changed the lives of my wife and myself and I say my wife because she challenges me each and every day in my faith by the way she prays, and if you ask my wife where she learned to pray, okay, she might bypass even her grandmother and all the relatives that have come that have been believers in our family, and she would go straight to one of the pastor's wives in Africa. Her name is May Manea and, to this day, my wife. If we have a problem or we have an issue, whether it be family or ministry related or a need, she will call her and say May Manea, what do I do? Do I do this lady the pastor's wife's name, and she'll say well, have you prayed and fasted? And uh, I mean because it's like why do we keep asking the same question?
Speaker 3:uh, pray and fast, and we're doing all this is on national. Yeah, we go.
Speaker 2:That's why we're exactly, and so, uh, but you know that has changed us so much, so, um, that we have, for the first time as a family, uh, uh, taking the lord's call and the lord's commandment seriously. He's always been there in his word, but when we saw it, lived out by the church in africa to pray and to fast and I'm not even talking about the adults now, this could happen without going to Africa. Right, that's true, that's true. But where we experienced it, and we saw it modeled for us, was something we just never experienced in our own church tradition. But it's not just the adults in the church there, it's the children that we're caring for, the children, the vulnerable children that are at risk of hunger there have been willing to pray and to fast. I'll get emotional about it when I talk about them trying to pray for me. You know, and it's just this humbling thing, that we need each other. You know we need each other, and I think that's something that I've learned in Quintin County as well.
Speaker 2:Just seeing physical poverty does not mean spiritual poverty. There's a difference. Where there's wealth, there can be a lot of spiritual poverty, and I have learned that in Quintin County, coming from a background where I had what I needed but might have had a lack of spiritual poverty, and I have learned that in Quinton County, coming from a background where I have what I needed but might have had a lack of spiritual richness, I have learned that in Quinton County, with many of the pastors and other individuals and church members there that I've encountered along the way who have such a deep rooted faith and trust in the Lord, and that's what I've learned. This has been a wonderful episode of Living Reconciled. If you have not yet subscribed to our podcast, are you waiting for it? You can go to any podcast app and you can subscribe to Living Reconciled by searching Living Reconciled Mission Mississippi. Also, please feel free to share with your friends and family.
Speaker 3:On behalf of myself, brian Crawford Lady.
Speaker 2:Winters, Austin Boyle, Brett Barhill, signing off saying God bless.
Speaker 3:God bless.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.
