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. 75: Diversity and Reconciliation with Paula Smith
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From childhood mission learner to Director of Multicultural Ministries, Paula Smith’s journey is a powerful testimony to the beauty of mutual learning in cross-cultural ministry. In this episode, Paula shares how experiences—from Uruguay to Mississippi—reshaped her view of reconciliation, moving from a one-way model to true partnership. With practical insights and heartfelt stories, she reminds us that real change starts with simple steps: a smile, eye contact, and shared humanity. Tune in for wisdom on living reconciled in a diverse world.
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. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled. I'm your host, brian Crawford, with my co-host and incredible friend, nettie Winters. Sir, how are you doing today? I'm wonderful, and you, I am doing fantastic. It's always good to have you on the podcast. I'm always good to have some good conversations with good friends, which we have one today, paula Smith, but we'll talk to Paula in just a second. We do want to give a quick shout out to our sponsors, folks like Nissan, st Dominic's Hospital, atmos Energy Regions Foundation, mississippi College, anderson United, grace Temple Church, mississippi State University, real Christian Foundation, brown Missionary Baptist Christian Life Church, ms Doris Powell, robert Ward and Winters. Thank you all so much for everything that you do. It's because of what you do that we're able to do what we do. And, by the way, if you would like to join this illustrious list of sponsors, you can do so by visiting Mission Mississippi, clicking on the donate button. That is again missionmississippiorg clicking on the donate button and you can join this group of sponsors in helping us host this podcast, living Reconciled which, by the way, is all about reconciliation, and that's why I can be more excited to talk to our guests for today.
Speaker 1:Ms Paula Smith. Ms Paula Smith is an incredible leader. With the Mississippi Baptist, she started the job as the Director of Multicultural Ministries in September of 2022. However, ms Smith has been in the missionary field. She spent 10 years with IMB. She also spent some time with the Women's Missionary Union for 15 years, but she is now with the Multicultural Ministries and we will allow her to talk to you about that and what it all entails. But nonetheless, we would love to introduce to you Ms Paula Smith. Paula, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:today I'm doing great. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We're incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Your story is one that we would love for our Living Reconciled listeners to hear, and so, with that said, I would love for you to just get started by telling us a little bit about it. How did you tell us a little bit about your story as it relates to how you came to faith and, in particular, how your faith crossed over into the space of reconciliation and generate the passion that you have currently?
Speaker 2:Well, well, it started early. I was four. Our church little bitty, little bitty town church I think we had maybe 100. And Danny pastored that church and we had mission organizations when and Danny pastored that church and we had mission organizations when I was a little girl and I had the best teacher. Her name was Alva, but she had all the little kids call her Alvu and so we were special to her. But we were also special because she let us take our shoes off when we got there and she had this big old map and she'd put down on the floor and play the music and when the music stopped, where our big toe on our right foot was was the country we studied about and if we happened to be in the water, we just swam to the nearest country.
Speaker 2:But that's where I learned early and I distinctly remember this as a kid, thinking through this, I learned from Alvu that Jesus loves me. I knew that because Alvu loved me and she told me and I trusted her. I learned that Jesus loved all the little children all over the world, that Jesus loved all the little children all over the world. I remember being shocked when I realized not all the little children all over the world know that and I thought what's the matter? Don't they have an alvoo to tell them that? But the fourth thing that I learned and it was real to me at four years old I can tell them, I can go tell them, and so that's kind of how I got started. My parents were a major influence on me and my whole family and just, we had missionaries in our home, we had invited guests. I mean, we lived in a little town, there were no hotels, so everybody stayed with us, which was an absolute delight to me, Right right.
Speaker 2:So we had lots of dear friends that would come and stay and talk about their ministries in the area in Mississippi but also across the world. When I was 10, I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I realized that I'm the sinner, I'm the one that needs His saving power. When I was 12, I felt the distinct, very distinct call into international missions. So of course we wrote the International Mission.
Speaker 1:Board when you were 12 years old.
Speaker 2:Yes, Amazing. You know Chip Henderson, over at Pine Lake. His dad pastored a mother church close to us, right there in another town, really close, and we all did our New Year's Eve party together the youth of the church, and we were praying in the new year, the year I was 12. And Gene Henderson was talking to us about surrendering everything and I thought I thought I did that. I thought I did that and I went home from there thinking I wonder what he meant by that.
Speaker 2:And through the night God's Spirit just worked with me and I remember my niece, who is my age. I have nieces and nephews older than I am, but she and I are the same age. We were all together at that. And I remember just sitting up in the bed, just exhausted and going all right, I'll do it, you know, just surrender, surrender everything. And my niece sat up and looked at me and she said what is your problem? And I said I just told God that I would be a missionary. And she clapped and she said we've been praying for you.
Speaker 2:And I thought how did I not know that? So it was a very real, very real calling to me and I insisted on writing the International Mission Board and finding out what I was supposed to do. And, of course, the first thing they said probably should have a few more birthdays and, you know, let that happen, Right? No, but I stayed in contact with them all the way through and it's just been a wonderful journey of all the different countries I've gotten to be in. And then, who would have dreamed that? I never dreamed I'd get to come back to Mississippi and work so long here at home. It's amazing, it's been fun, it is fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing. What do you consider, paula, just in that journey alone, the experience on the mission field and working with the Women's Missions Ministry what do you consider to be the most, I guess, rewarding part of that portion of your journey?
Speaker 2:The relationships. I think Even last night. My dearest friend in the world lives in Uruguay and we talk often and I think all the relationships we still continue in every country that I've been in. I still have people that we communicate often. I still have people that we communicate often. I learned so much on the mission field, about reconciliation, from being the minority you know in that situation Pastor's wife.
Speaker 2:I remember being so excited when, knowing God, came out Henry Blackaby's, and, oh my goodness, we ordered everything in Spanish. We were so excited and I remember running to my preacher's wife and telling her man, this is you know everything. And she went. Let me guess it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Oh goody, another, another thing you are going to bring to us that will make us better and all this. And and I went. But it is, it's so wonderful, it's so good. And I learned from her. She, I loved her for this. She taught me. You know we're partners. Nobody is. You know we're teaching each other, we are teaching each other and I will forever be in her debt for that. And I think that's where I began to make the connection the ground I've always heard that phrase, the ground's level at the cross, but I began to understand it then, I've been in some situations where, because I'm American and even because I'm white, I was spit on.
Speaker 2:I was you know, I just didn't. I've been in so many different countries but I think it's the Lord's. I don't know, this doesn't sound humble, but the Lord humbled me. I've had to bloody my nose a lot and just realizing people are people, are people. But I really, really appreciate my pastor's wife for that.
Speaker 1:My God, I'm just thinking about what you just said and it's humbling to even hear it and I'm grateful to the Lord that you're sharing it. But just this idea that we're teaching one another on this journey. It's so easy to acquire knowledge or, like you mentioned, to kind of acquire that next book, that next piece of that next bit of insight and to lose sight of the reality that you can still look across the aisle and find a person that maybe didn't read all the same reality, that you can still look across the aisle and find a person that maybe didn't read all the same books that you read, maybe didn't read any of them, but still has an incredible amount to teach you if you want to listen, yeah, yeah, if you're willing to listen and it's one book I read recently talks about the reality that everybody's interesting if you're curious enough just got to have your ears open, your mouth closed and willing to ask the right questions.
Speaker 1:So that's incredible. Talk to us a little bit about this journey into multicultural ministries. Just kind of hear not only how you ended up in this space but also some of the experiences that you've captured from this space that you feel have been just rewarding or challenging or stressful, or, you know, any of the above.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's really interesting how I got here. It's really interesting how I got here. I had like said I had worked, for I came home from Uruguay because I had a a brain aneurysm thing that the Lord just took care of, but I needed to come home. I stayed here, helped take care of my mother and everything. But the job opened up with Women's Missionary Union here at MBCB and absolutely it's right up my alley. It's what I do, what I love. So again, I began to get a little sick after about 15 years and I just took early retirement and once I got well but the Lord used that interim time in there I couldn't do much. It was about four years and of course COVID came in the middle of all of that. But I still just, it didn't matter if I had the job or not, I wanted to do what God called me to do, you know.
Speaker 2:So we teach English as a second language. You know, in many of the churches in the metro area I was on the board that, the task force that put together the conferences and so forth and so on, and so part of that time I just had to have the people. So Friday nights became y'all come nights, bring whatever food you got and just come. And we started inviting. It started off with Christians just coming together to pray. Then we said why don't we just invite our friends that we meet in ESL or that we meet through intercultural fellowship? Let's just invite our friends, you know. So we started getting Christians and non-Christians and from. I should have kept count of how many different countries of that I can go through and think over 20, I'm sure I can go through and think over 20, I'm sure African-American, ethiopia, you know, and there's South American countries, asian countries, just everybody. And so on Friday nights everybody would come to the house and we got to where we specifically would invite different ones, probably never more than 20, 25 there at a time. But when we invited them we said we're going to eat, yay, and we're going to pray. And so nobody upon nobody rejected us praying. But I'll never, never, ever forget one young man that I truly believed was a Christian. He was Korean, I knew his wife was a Christian, but when we prayed we thought we were all Christians there After we prayed, and he didn't participate in that. But after we prayed he said I don't know what y'all have, but I don't have it and I want it. And the man from the Republic of Congo led him to Christ and you know, just to watch how the Lord just brings. There's a quote in our English as a second language training. It says God transcends cultures and he certainly does. Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:But the reason this job opened up is because COVID hit and my income went away, because the people that I was teaching English to their income went away, so I needed a job. Their income went away, so I needed a job. So I taught for a little while at Bellhaven and at MC, just English stuff. And then I called MBCB and I said y'all got a job, you need the yard mode. Is there something I can do? What can I do? Plug me in and their graciousness. I worked at Camp Garroway for a while and came back and was a ministry assistant here for a while in different departments. And so Dr Parker said we want to start a multicultural ministries department and I said man, yes, I think that's excellent. And he said we don't have the director yet, but would you like to be the ministry assistant? I said I am so there, I can't wait.
Speaker 2:So, they had me in here before there was a director, was a director, and so in my mind I knew that this overall ministry would entail. They were telling me we know we want in here our black churches, our African-American churches, of course, asian and deaf and special needs adults and our Choctaw Indians. And so I went. It doesn't get any better, that's just terrific.
Speaker 2:So they told me. They said well, you know, we think we have somebody that was going to be the director and we're talking, we'll see. That was going to be the director and we're talking, we'll see. So do you mind, paula, if you just send out a letter to so-and-so, just kind of get us a database going, or whatever like that. So I just started doing stuff with the connections that I already had through the missions, organizations and all those kinds of things and I don't know. I think I worked something like had to have been four months, five months, something like that, without a director.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And I kept, you know, hoping, oh, I can't wait till that director gets here and think of what we can do. Yay, and one day here comes two guys in you know, and they said we need to talk to you, and they shut the door. And I day here comes two guys in, you know, and they said we need to talk to you, and they shut the door and I thought I did something.
Speaker 1:I don't know what I did yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:So we went in and they said we figured, since you're the person that's going to have to work with this director, you needed to be in on our discussions about this. And I went oh yes, I've got somebody in mind if you don't. Yes, yes, I've got somebody in mind if you don't. And so they went on and on and they talked around the world and I was thinking, I don't know, I don't think they've got anybody in mind. So finally I just blurted out, I said do you mind telling me who you're thinking of? And they went well, you and I went wait a minute, but that's how it came about. And so immediately we started getting contract consultants.
Speaker 2:So, these are people that are part-time. They have their own full-time jobs, but they graciously work 40 hours. How does anybody do a part-time job? These people don't. It's full-time. They get paid for 40 hours. How does anybody do a part-time job? These?
Speaker 1:people don't. It's full-time.
Speaker 2:They get paid for 40 hours a month. Dear dear Lowell Walker, who is my brother.
Speaker 2:Yes, my brother Pastors Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Tupelo and he is our African-American consultant and truly he is my brother. My brother, my only brother passed away last year and I just told Lowell. I said, lowell, I don't know how I'm going to live without my brother. He was so dear to me and Lowell's my brother. Now we call and we talk for hours on the phone. He and his wife, jacqueline, are dear. We have Rocky Sibb, who is a story in himself of how the Lord brought him to Mississippi and saved his soul and taught him Spanish, because his native tongue he's Mayan and Spanish wasn't even his first language.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:And he is our Hispanic consultant. Ray Duplessis is um. Dad was not Choctaw, his mom's Choctaw. So he says he doesn't know what he is. He says when I'm with Choctaws, I'm white. When I'm with white people, I'm Choctaw, so I don't know. But he pastors a church on the coast but is an incredible, incredible help in doing a fantastic job with our Choctaw ministry.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Vicki Stewart is a child, she's what they call a CODA, a child of an adult, of a deaf adult, and so her first language is ASL American.
Speaker 1:Sign Language yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I have learned tremendously through Vicki the incredible need that we have in Mississippi. There are zero, zero deaf churches in Mississippi. We do not have a way to minister with deaf people. And then we also I'm working better on this special needs adults. Our discipleship department takes care of special needs children and we're working with special needs adults. Our discipleship department takes care of special needs children and we're working with special needs adults, so it encompasses a wide variety that is fun to watch work together. Sometimes our African-American churches sponsor. They sponsored a basketball camp for the Choctaws.
Speaker 1:That is fantastic. That is fantastic. So tell me a little bit about your greatest. You've been in a role now since since 22. You've watched and observed these ministries interact. You've seen, you know peaks. You've seen peaks, you've seen valleys. What do you believe, as it relates to today for the church? What do you believe to be some of the greatest challenges as it relates to crossing over these cultural, ethnic lines and building, you know, deep fellowship, deep gospel relationships? What do you see as the great challenges right now in your work?
Speaker 2:Honesty, not being afraid to just ask that question or learn from that answer. Ask that question or learn from that answer.
Speaker 1:I stepped in it this past weekend.
Speaker 2:I had a wonderful. We had our African-American leadership.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, I was grateful to be a guest there. I was grateful to be a guest there.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, but in some conversations I just and dear, dear people, we've known each other. I mean, I'm just learning more and more and more about culture and I think I offended someone and went back and apologized because I did not understand culture, because I did not understand culture, and I love the going back and apologize, the making up, because, it just takes the relationship that much deeper.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:It's been a challenge. It's been a challenge for several. Understanding the deaf culture is another whole culture in itself, the go-between of cultures to our white culture and getting our white culture to understand just different things, just what you were talking about earlier with your women having meetings with the elders. You need somebody that can say, okay, this is what's happening here. Let's think about what does that look like over here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and is that a slap in the face or is that a help? Are we working together? You know, is maybe what we need to do is tweak it a little bit. So those have been challenging, but so deep in learning, it's been incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I say I say often, paula, matter of fact, I was teaching, doing some coaching in Meridian this week and we were having conversations around this. But there's a set of ground rules that we have at Mission Mississippi and at the church that I serve, at City Light, as it relates to how to engage in deep and healthy dialogue across difference and across divides, and we say all the time that one of those ground rules is that vulnerable conversations can be, and must be, unpolished, and what we mean by that is that, if you can, only you know that's the trade-off you want. You either want vulnerability, and vulnerability is what leads to community, it leads to depth, it leads to intimacy or you want polish, and when we say polish, we mean you want us to. Basically, you want to make sure that I say all the right things and that I never fumble over my words. And if, if, if, you create a space where polish is the value, then you'll never have vulnerability, and if you never have vulnerability, you'll never have death.
Speaker 1:But if you create a space where vulnerability is the value over polish, then there's going to be plenty of occasions for us to stick our foot in our mouths and say something that was offensive to the other culture, unbeknownst to us.
Speaker 1:But if we create the kind of vulnerability where people allow that lack of polish and they allow the words to fumble out sometimes of our mouths, and they say the words to fumble out sometimes of our mouths and they say that's okay, that's okay Brian, or that's okay Paula, we, we, you know that that was offensive, make no mistake about it, and culturally that's offensive, um, but I know why you're here and I know that you desire to build something deep with me and because of that I'm okay with the offense.
Speaker 1:We can work through it, we can address it, we can learn from it and grow from it, and then we can keep moving with the expectation that there's probably going to be another one of those along the way, because you're learning and I'm learning, we're crossing into these unknown spaces and you're learning and I'm learning, and because of that there's going to be more of those that come along the way. But we're committed to one another, we're committed to this journey and so we allow space for, you know, abuse in our words, so just harshness and meanness and smugness and ugliness. But it is space for unintentional but just hey, we offended, we didn't mean to, but we did, and so creating space for that is incredibly important. Is that a challenge just across any of those cultures that you engage with on a regular basis?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I don't know if I have grown so accustomed to being the only white person in a group that I don't see it anymore. I mean, I truly I realized that one point this past weekend. I was the only white person in the group, but I did not realize it until I think the next day. But I did not realize it until I think the next day because I just I just don't see it, because I'm so. Folks are so dear, you know, they're just so dear and I feel people make me feel so comfortable. I don't feel the difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, discomfort becomes comfort over time, right? Yes, it's just. Over time it's uncomfortable to be in these unfamiliar spaces, but those unfamiliar spaces become familiar. Yes, so eventually it's just like these are the people that I hang around with.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, that's true. That's true. Well, our ministry assistant here in the office is Hispanic and of course, we talk in Spanish all the time and I learn a lot from her. It's a different culture because she's from Mexico. I served in South America, in Uruguay, and you know two totally different cultures and a lot of Spanish is different. So I always have to ask what does that mean? Yes, but I have, you know, we polish on each other, as you say, we polish going. I'm not sure what that means, or I wouldn't say it that way if I were you. Oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Ok, yes, say it that way if I were you oh that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it helps to have that tight relationship that will correct you, that will just say we shouldn't do that, or this is why that helps to say this is why, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know even what you just said there. I would love to peel that layer back just a little bit, because you said something incredibly interesting as you talked about the difference in culture. You know, just like you have African-Americans, but you got Mississippi African-Americans, which are not the same as Michigan African-Americans. Take it from somebody who has kinfolk in Saginaw, michigan and Detroit.
Speaker 2:Michigan.
Speaker 1:And there's a different culture, a different, a different way of interaction and engagement when you, when you travel up north or the travel east coast, and so I would love for you to talk a little bit about just that dynamic in and of itself, even in the Asian community.
Speaker 1:Of course, I have some friends that are in Asian ministry in Mississippi and they talk about oftentimes how there's this very sneaky deception that enters into missionary work where we say, hey, we're going to plant an Asian church, quote unquote. And then you think, hey, we're just going to plant an Asian church, and then Asian people are going to show up. It's like, no, no, no, these are different cultures, different dialects, there's different histories here, and so you can't just roll out the red carpet and say, hey, whoever is Asian is going to be welcome here. You have to do really, really, really deep work, the same kind of work that you have to do across any ministry, any church, to ensure all people are welcome. So we got cross-cultural ministry, but then we got all these subgroups within these cultures. Talk to me about the complexity of that as you work through that as the director.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, if you think about it, you're so right. We come at it from the mindset of the Revelation 5-7 in heaven. Yes, from every nation, from every culture, from every tribe and we're all worshiping Jesus together. What does that look like? Give us this day our daily bread, that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What would that look like on earth, and how can my church do that?
Speaker 2:You know well, we have a I have a wonderful church that does have a mixture of African-American and internationals and you know it's still majority white but there's such a mixture and you know we kind of get a glimpse of that here, just a glimpse, but then we get a glimpse of the other too, when I get a phone call from one of our Hispanic churches that they're saying, OK, we've got, you know, three deacons and we're all from three different countries and we all think differently about church polity. And so how do we, how do we handle this idea? Or Hispanic church? You know there are 20 countries, South American countries, that speak English. I speak Spanish, Excuse me. And if seven of those are in one church and most of our Hispanic churches do have that many and more cultures in them, Potluck, Think about potluck Dang. You're going to bring food from you know Right?
Speaker 2:Do you like that kind of food? No, we never eat spicy. You don't eat spicy. What's wrong with you, you know? Whatever.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:One really incredible, wonderful thing I learned through our Chinese ministry. I was visiting a Chinese church in Starkville and I would say, well, I'm sure everybody in there spoke English, I'm sure they had the service in Mandarin, but I had an interpreter in Mandarin. But I had an interpreter and I was thinking, just, you know, observing, thinking, I wonder is it time that we just try to? Instead of starting a language church, maybe we should just try to start coming together more? So I'm really pondering that I was listening to the sermon but I was still pondering Squirrel, and so I was just about to go. Well, lord, maybe we need to really concentrate on that more.
Speaker 2:And so they were having a baptism and one lady was giving her testimony. So they were having a baptism and one lady was giving her testimony and she came as a teacher at state and she said her whole focus was on I can't wait to get into the culture. I want to experience everything, the culture of the South. You know she wanted to experience everything. Well, she had fellow teachers who were Christians, who invited her to everything, and she said she was especially interested in the church services. She'd heard so much about the Christian cultural of the South.
Speaker 2:She got involved in one of the churches. She said, you know, she began to hear about Jesus and sounded like a great man. She'd never even heard of Jesus before, never heard the name Jesus before, and she was really into it and was on the. Should I do I need to surrender to this? Is this you know? She was right there and someone at work said well, I don't know why you don't just go to the Chinese church. And she immediately jumped back at him. She said I didn't come here to go to Chinese, to go to Mandarin. I came to learn the culture. I came to do this. But then she felt guilty.
Speaker 2:And she said no, I should go and support you know who? This is the first time she went, she heard the gospel in her language and she said yes to Jesus. And that to me. Her testimony to me was yes, we do need language churches. Yes, the deaf need ASL as their first language churches yes, the deaf need ASL as their first language, not an interpretation.
Speaker 2:They need ASL, yes, so that's part of the mixture of that. But I agree with you totally. Even in our African-American churches, we have a lot of our pastors when we come together, for we have a lot of our pastors when we come together for church leadership conferences like this. Even some of the dilemmas that we have you talk to somebody from pastoring a church in the Mississippi Delta with somebody from the coast. Yes, and it's different. Yes, we have to think differently and plan differently on those things, which, to me, is just another one of those. You think about the awesomeness of God and, of course, use the stars as an illustration with a telescope and you can see more stars, more galaxies, more. Yes, but you just live in Mississippi and just start knowing cultures in Mississippi and you see stars and you see, God above everything oh
Speaker 1:my gosh, he is above everything. Oh my gosh, it is so much complexity and culture in the state alone, and God himself is the connector. The wider complexity I get a chance to glimpse and I realized that you know, you start driving, you know, a few miles down the road from Jackson, mississippi, and you cross over into Hattiesburg, and it's a different culture. It is not the same as the Jackson culture that you may have been exposed to, or the Vicksburg culture, and you drive a few miles further or farther, into the great city of Biloxi, and it is not the same as Hattiesburg and Jackson, et cetera, et cetera. And so, yeah, god is incredibly complex in that way. Nettie man, jump in, brother, yeah, hey.
Speaker 2:Nettie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like a foreigner coming into this conversation, but you know, I listened to you from four years old up and as you were talking about your experience coming to Christ and all of that, what I was thinking the whole time you were talking about the Day of Pentecost is that you didn't realize that other people didn't have the opportunities you had and you didn't understand why they didn't know what you knew. You know, the day of Pentecost some things happened, that different cultures from all over the world were there, but they understood each other. And one of the things that have become clear during your conversation is that we are missing, but we don't know what we're missing until we know what it looks like, what it sounds like and how it, in part, take into our everyday lives. In other words, we've had this shepherded stuff before Christ Can I say it that way? And because we had that before Christ, we brought that in. And so when you start reading the book of Acts, throughout the book of Acts, you'll find that a lot of our culture, our customs and our class and color and all of that other stuff that was going on with us in our secular lives is that we brought that into the mix into our Christian life. So now we're having to work hard to bring back that which should have been there to begin with, because you don't sign them on and the preacher will tell you you know the people that don't show up, you know the missing part of us. You know when you're not there there's an empty space when you're not there, but we don't even know that the empty space is there until somebody fills the space and then we realize how much we have missed because we got this separatist, individualistic kind of attitude towards things and so difficult conversations.
Speaker 3:Honesty, as you said earlier, from my perspective, has been my greatest challenge. So you've highlighted most of those things. Those are the comments or questions I would have had for you that you answeredics, african-americans, the guy that can't figure out whether he's white or Indian Chow Chow, I mean and that we ought to be interchangeably like that, that we don't have to go there to appreciate the full body of Christ and how rich the body is in terms of diversity, in terms of ethnicity, and that we're all one race, and so you know. I love the part of your story that you went from four years old to 12 years old to the countries and came back and you're doing now in America what you were doing when you were out of the country and how the richness of bringing us together.
Speaker 3:We don't know what we miss until we all get in a room. And the same thing with family. I have these opportunities to be with family, most of the time doing sad occasions like a funeral. Then we'll say, oh, let's not wait till the next person dies to get together, right, isn't that the truth? That's what we said at the last funeral and probably what we're going to say at the next funeral. And then occasionally we get the opportunity to get together for weddings. But outside of those things, unless you have an intentionality of a tradition of bringing the family together, whether it be your natural family or the spiritual family or the blood family, however you want to mix that. So we coin this term intentionality. It must be intentional.
Speaker 3:God bless you and I really appreciate your story and what you're doing in that. So God bless you and I really appreciate your story and what you're doing in that.
Speaker 2:So God bless.
Speaker 3:That's what I had to say, Mr Crawford. I'm so excited to be your incredible friend every week. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Excited to have you as an incredible friend. It's always have you jump in with some with some good wisdom to leave us with. Let me close out by asking you this, Paula there's people, obviously, that are listening to this broadcast or podcast. Rather Many of them are incredibly interested in the work of reconciliation. But, from your vantage point, if you could give some counsel to people as it relates to how to engage in the work and the experiences that you engage in, how to cross aisles and spaces and places that maybe they're not familiar with, what kind of counsel would you give our listening audience?
Speaker 2:The first thing, I think, is that it's just smile. Smile is international. We see people every to start taking notice. You know, for example, I bought a red car one time and I was so excited and then, all of a sudden, everybody, everybody else, had red cards too. You know. So start looking. You know, as Brother Nettie said, be intentional about looking and noticing, because we just pass by people every day that you know, unless we're looking, they're just they're not there. As we're looking, they're just they're not there. But smiling at somebody, and be the first to you know if they're not smiling or they don't smile back. You know, pray for them. Just God opens doors all the time. You know. Sometimes you go, okay, let's have a breather, you know whatever. But I think the Lord intentionally opens doors as well. So my counsel would be to smile, make eye contact and be the first to just acknowledge we're both human. Let me just treat you as a human.
Speaker 1:Paula, that's incredible counsel, counsel that I will incorporate into my own life, and so thank you for sharing it and thank you for being, on this episode of Living, reconciled with us.
Speaker 2:We have gleaned oh thank you.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, we have gleaned so much and learned so much from you, and so hopefully, we will be able to have you as a guest again. So thank you so much again.
Speaker 2:Well, you know how much I appreciate y'all and candy.
Speaker 1:Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, Don't forget my beautiful bride, who is most of the reason why I am what I am, next to God's grace. So yeah, for those of you all who are listening, again, thank you for joining us. Paula Smith can be found on the Mississippi Baptist page under their Multicultural Ministries. Again, she is the Director of Multicultural Ministries and Paula can be reached if you have any questions or would like to reach out to her for any ministry needs. She can be found in that way. Again, many thanks to Ms Paula Smith. And, on behalf of Nettie Winters, this is Brian Crawford signing off saying God bless. 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 that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.
