Speaker 1: Hi there, Welcome aboard, Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're a listener to my radio show, or maybe
Speaker 1: you're just somebody who loves loves listening to podcast and
Speaker 1: it's great that you can download these podcasts and listen
Speaker 1: while you're commuting or listen at your leisure. This podcast,
Speaker 1: Love Someone with Delilah is aimed straight at your heart.
Speaker 1: I'm doing this thing with a single focus to inspire you.
Speaker 1: To inspire your heart. Now, my radio show at night,
Speaker 1: a lot of times we talk about romantic love or
Speaker 1: people call in who are falling in love for the
Speaker 1: first time. That's not what this podcast is about, not
Speaker 1: that kind of heart. I am here to encourage your
Speaker 1: heart to make the world a better place. We've all
Speaker 1: heard the sayings follow your dreams and do what you're
Speaker 1: passionate about. But sometimes in the face of these well
Speaker 1: meaning motivational mantras, you can get overwhelmed. What is my dream?
Speaker 1: What is my passion? What's wrong with me that I
Speaker 1: can't figure it out? What I'm supposed to be doing?
Speaker 1: Does that sound like you? You're like, I want to help,
Speaker 1: I want to make the world a better place, but
Speaker 1: I don't know where to start. Well, I'm here to
Speaker 1: take a little pressure off of you. I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you that you matter. Whatever it is that you're
Speaker 1: doing matters, Whomever it is that you're connected to with
Speaker 1: that matters. And I'm here to encourage you to do
Speaker 1: just a little bit more, to step out of your
Speaker 1: comfort zone. Maybe nothing earth shattering. I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: you don't need a giant bank account out or connections
Speaker 1: with the jet set. You don't need a law degree
Speaker 1: or a medical degree. The only thing you need is
Speaker 1: a heart that is willing to serve. My guest today,
Speaker 1: I love someone with the Lyla in this podcast personifies
Speaker 1: what it means to follow the whisper in your heart.
Speaker 1: Kathy Parker was a wife, a mother of four student athletes,
Speaker 1: had a full time job in a bank, and was
Speaker 1: living in the southernmost state in the US in Jacksonville, Florida.
Speaker 1: She saw an ESPN clip on TV about a suffering
Speaker 1: town in Boro, Alaska. In desperation, the town had formed
Speaker 1: a football club so that its teenage boys could have
Speaker 1: some kind of healthful activity. The inspiring activities to help
Speaker 1: them stay focused, to help motivate them. Unfortunately, in a
Speaker 1: land of permafrost. Their field was nothing more than a
Speaker 1: frozen patch of rock and gravel. When Kathy saw that
Speaker 1: little clip on ESPN, she was about to get moved
Speaker 1: off the bench, so to speak, and into the game.
Speaker 1: Kathy is on the phone lines and we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about her experience. But before we get into that,
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Speaker 2: Hi, Kathy, Hi, Delilah.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. I have been looking so forward to this,
Speaker 3: so I'm just thrilled.
Speaker 1: That's what my executive producer said when she called my
Speaker 1: executive producer of this podcast being my sister.
Speaker 3: You know, if your sister loves you and brags about you,
Speaker 3: then you're doing pretty good.
Speaker 1: Well, my sister loves me ferociously and fiercely and completely,
Speaker 1: even when I was a horrible big sister to her
Speaker 1: growing up.
Speaker 2: Well, there you go.
Speaker 3: You're blessed.
Speaker 2: Yes, I tell you.
Speaker 3: Since I had the privilege of being chosen for your
Speaker 3: book Club my book Northern Lights for August, and then
Speaker 3: people knew that I was going to be on your show,
Speaker 3: I have heard so many testimonies and I'm telling life
Speaker 3: changing stories Delilah on how.
Speaker 2: When people were going through a hard.
Speaker 3: Time, maybe through a divorce, and you know, it's not
Speaker 3: just women.
Speaker 2: And there was a man the other day. It was
Speaker 2: working on my website.
Speaker 3: And he was retired military and he was like, oh, I.
Speaker 2: Just loved Elilah.
Speaker 3: You've got a lot of fans out there.
Speaker 1: I tell people, when you hear something inspiring, something powerful,
Speaker 1: something that speaks directly to your heart and what you're
Speaker 1: going through, that's when God borrows my voice. When you
Speaker 1: hear me being jerky and egoistical, that's me taking back over.
Speaker 2: That was just me God.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I can mess up anything. But
Speaker 1: when I step back and let God work, it's pretty
Speaker 1: amazing what he can do.
Speaker 2: Absolutely right.
Speaker 1: And your book Northern Lights throughout the book and everything,
Speaker 1: you give God the glory for this little miracle, not
Speaker 1: little miracle, but huge miracle that you got to orchestrate,
Speaker 1: or you got to be used to orchestrate. So let's
Speaker 1: start from the very beginning of your story. Kathy Parker.
Speaker 1: He wrote the book Northern Lights, which was our August
Speaker 1: book Club pick, but the story goes back a couple
Speaker 1: of years. What did you see that started this whole
Speaker 1: journey to Alaska?
Speaker 3: Well, the reason the book goes back a couple of
Speaker 3: years is I turned in the original manuscript with David Thomas,
Speaker 3: best selling writer that was helping me, and the publishing
Speaker 3: company sent it back and they were like, Nope, you're
Speaker 3: leaving out some stuff.
Speaker 2: And I said what And they.
Speaker 3: Said, we want to know what has happened in your
Speaker 3: life that you would have such great faith. And it
Speaker 3: really took me back. I didn't really want to open
Speaker 3: up and be personal. I just wanted to tell all
Speaker 3: the good stuff, you know, I was telling.
Speaker 2: You bad stuff.
Speaker 3: But it made me really think about that and I
Speaker 3: knew why, because God healed me. He'd held my marriage,
Speaker 3: a marriage that was really in trouble, and given me hope,
Speaker 3: and that's what I was trying to do for these
Speaker 3: new friends in Alaska, give them hope. So that's why
Speaker 3: the book goes back to some of those struggles that
Speaker 3: I had early in our marriage and then throughout just
Speaker 3: in a family that was packed with a bunch of
Speaker 3: wonderful athletes and just had been given great talent and
Speaker 3: really superstars in my family. But God had something for
Speaker 3: me too.
Speaker 1: So obviously you know a lot about the game of
Speaker 1: football going into this little project. You had sat on
Speaker 1: the bench or sat in the bleachers for how many years?
Speaker 3: Oh, a long time because my husband played ball. We
Speaker 3: got married really young in college and he played you know.
Speaker 2: We're high school sweetheart.
Speaker 3: So he played high school ball, collegeball, and then went
Speaker 3: on to play professionally. And then we had four children,
Speaker 3: three boys and our daughter, and they were all athletes,
Speaker 3: and so they were all playing. So had spent a
Speaker 3: lot of time. And I used a phrase that I
Speaker 3: raised my children at the ball field, and that is
Speaker 3: so true. We've spent so much time and so much
Speaker 3: of our effort and money and everything else was spent
Speaker 3: at the ball field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's not cheap. Those clubs are not cheap.
Speaker 1: I've got girls in volleyball, and I have sons that
Speaker 1: are older that played club soccer, and that's not a
Speaker 1: cheap commitment.
Speaker 4: That is a choice.
Speaker 1: I need a new washer and dryer, or I need
Speaker 1: to get my boys signed up for club soccer.
Speaker 3: And then like you're talking about multiple children in a
Speaker 3: family that are all going in different directions. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it is definitely something that you spend a lot of time,
Speaker 3: a lot of money, a lot of effort goes to
Speaker 3: raising kids at the ball field because it's not just
Speaker 3: done for enjoyment anymore.
Speaker 1: It's a commitment, huge commitment, not just on the kids
Speaker 1: bar but on the mama bear driving them. So, so
Speaker 1: you were watching ESPN because you come from the sports background,
Speaker 1: or you're how do you had it on?
Speaker 4: How were you watching?
Speaker 3: My kids actually were watching ESPN and they called my
Speaker 3: husband and I in and they said, mom, Dad, you've
Speaker 3: got to see this. And it was about very Alaska's
Speaker 3: the most northern American settlement with no roads going into it.
Speaker 3: It's on the frozen tundra. And if you don't know
Speaker 3: much about the frost, I knew nothing about the frozen
Speaker 3: tundra Alaska to me was mountainous with evergreens, but the
Speaker 3: tundra is not like that at all. It's very flattened
Speaker 3: and barren and no trees, no bushes, it's just the
Speaker 3: frozen tundra. And so they had started a football program there,
Speaker 3: and the reason why is because in this isolated community
Speaker 3: of less than five thousand people, they had a lot
Speaker 3: of social problems that came from kids not staying in school,
Speaker 3: and so their dropout rate was extremely high and their
Speaker 3: team suicide as well as drug use, just things that
Speaker 3: kids could get involved in when they had a whole
Speaker 3: lot of time on their hands, when they were not
Speaker 3: motivated that kind of thing. And they had done a
Speaker 3: survey and ask the kids, well, what could we implement
Speaker 3: in the school. They were given a one time funding
Speaker 3: to implement a program that would keep kids in school,
Speaker 3: and the kids came back and said, well, if we
Speaker 3: had football, but it was extremely problematic because there's no
Speaker 3: roads going in or out the closest communities five hundred
Speaker 3: miles away. They'd have to fly to play every opponent,
Speaker 3: or fly the opponent in, and then where are they
Speaker 3: going to play a game on the frozen tundra? When
Speaker 3: it does with the ice during the winter. In the
Speaker 3: summer months, it just turns into mush.
Speaker 2: So they played on.
Speaker 3: This gravel covered field and you can imagine the cuts
Speaker 3: and sprained ankles and all the things that came from that.
Speaker 2: So it was a real.
Speaker 3: Eye opening special that we were watching.
Speaker 2: But I knew that that sport would work.
Speaker 3: I had seen what had.
Speaker 2: Done in our community.
Speaker 3: My husband was coaching, and I saw him mentoring young
Speaker 3: men and we'd have them over to our home and
Speaker 3: they stay with us, neat with us and all that,
Speaker 3: and I knew that it was something that could have
Speaker 3: a profound impact on that community. In fact, they even
Speaker 3: said to my husband, I said, I understand why people
Speaker 3: will get up in arms about the money that it's
Speaker 3: going to cost. I said, but that football program is
Speaker 3: going to save their lives. And my husband said, you're right,
Speaker 3: Well what do you do about that? So I had
Speaker 3: never been to Alaska. I didn't know anyone from Alaska.
Speaker 3: But my husband was overseeing putting in an artificial turf
Speaker 3: field in our area in Sunny Florida, and it was like.
Speaker 2: God said, if your kids need this, how much? Just more?
Speaker 3: Do they need it there where they can't even grow grasps.
Speaker 3: So I had this bright idea of raising the funds,
Speaker 3: giving them an artificial turf field like the one we had,
Speaker 3: and teaching them how to play football.
Speaker 1: Okay, I be right there for just a second, Kathy,
Speaker 1: hold on, we need to hear a lot more of
Speaker 1: this amazing story, but I also need to give some
Speaker 1: time to this message.
Speaker 4: So how soon.
Speaker 1: After you saw this special on ESPN did you have
Speaker 1: this bright idea of, Hey, you know what we're putting
Speaker 1: artificial trip in here in Florida, Let's just head to
Speaker 1: north to Alaska and do the same thing there.
Speaker 4: How soon after that thought came to you.
Speaker 1: Did the thought come to you that this is going
Speaker 1: to be a really hard, almost impossible task.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I had this tendency of jumping off
Speaker 3: the cliffs, you know, And I think that it was
Speaker 3: quite soon. It was that same day that we saw
Speaker 3: that special on ESPN. I announced to my family, what,
Speaker 3: you know, I felt like God had shown me and
Speaker 3: that what we were going to do.
Speaker 2: And they, again, you know, Mom.
Speaker 3: That's that's impossible. And my husband was the same way,
Speaker 3: and I kept trying to get him to let me
Speaker 3: talk to the turf company that was putting in our field,
Speaker 3: and finally he said, Okay, I'll get you a meeting,
Speaker 3: and I just kept talking about it and talking about it.
Speaker 3: I think that I really started realizing how hard it
Speaker 3: was going to be, but I was already well into
Speaker 3: the process.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I tried giving it away. I tried renegging, I tried
Speaker 3: everything you could do to say, uh, I've made a
Speaker 3: big mistake here, but.
Speaker 2: Just could not.
Speaker 3: It was such a burning in my heart that I
Speaker 3: just could not give up on it. And so when
Speaker 3: we held a press conference at our high school and
Speaker 3: announced to the world, that was probably the hardest thing
Speaker 3: that I had to do because I.
Speaker 4: Knew then there was no going back.
Speaker 3: There was no going back.
Speaker 1: You're exactly right, there's no going back because you said
Speaker 1: it publicly and you can't take it back.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: And so that I was sick, I mean just literally
Speaker 3: sick to my stomach. But we did that press conference
Speaker 3: and the story just spread, like all across the United States.
Speaker 3: We started getting cards in the mail from people all over,
Speaker 3: just ordinary people that would say things like, you know,
Speaker 3: athletics had a great impact on my children or my grandchildren.
Speaker 3: I want to be a part of this. We had
Speaker 3: a family whose son was killed on nine to eleven
Speaker 3: in the World Trade Center, and it was some money
Speaker 3: from his estate. They said he would love to be
Speaker 3: a part of something like this, and just people from
Speaker 3: all over wanted to be a part of it, and
Speaker 3: they started giving. And so that was extreme motivation to
Speaker 3: keep going. And yes, there were tremendous obstacles, so many
Speaker 3: times where we thought that it couldn't happen. We had
Speaker 3: six hundred and fifty thousand pounds of products transported out
Speaker 3: of the state of Georgia, Pennsylvania and Canada into a.
Speaker 4: Place how many pounds.
Speaker 3: Going into it over six hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Speaker 1: Six hundred and fifty thousand pounds taking it to a
Speaker 1: blaze with.
Speaker 3: No roads exactly, and it went by every means of transportation.
Speaker 3: Ups was a huge component through the lower forty eight
Speaker 3: through semis and trains and then tote a big barge
Speaker 3: company out of Seattle. I mean, just and on and
Speaker 3: on partnering together to see this come to fruition. So
Speaker 3: from the time frame Delilah, when we made that announcement
Speaker 3: in that press conference, that just you know, just made
Speaker 3: me so I was so afraid to do to watching
Speaker 3: them play on that bright blue It's bright blue with
Speaker 3: yellow enzones and sits just one hundred yards from the
Speaker 3: Arctic Ocean. It was less than six months, so it
Speaker 3: was just a tremendous miracle.
Speaker 1: Wait, did you go to Barrow before that trip?
Speaker 4: No, that was your first trip. Was actually delivering.
Speaker 3: It first trip. We'd already sent installers there to work
Speaker 3: on it and to get it ready. I actually flew
Speaker 3: in with thirteen others from Jacksonville, Florida and national media
Speaker 3: to watch that first game.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: So you didn't go up there beforehand and meet the
Speaker 1: kids and meet the coach and get inspired that way,
Speaker 1: You just kept working diligently behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Most of our communication was over the phone.
Speaker 3: Now, we did bring the team to Jacksonville during that
Speaker 3: time after we had made the announcement. Our head coach
Speaker 3: at the time in Jacksonville, Florida, Darryl Sutherland, just a wonderful,
Speaker 3: godly man, and he said, Kathy, it's not good enough
Speaker 3: to just.
Speaker 2: Give them a field.
Speaker 3: We need to teach them what it's like to be
Speaker 3: student athletes. They need to come down, participate in spring
Speaker 3: practice with us, stay in our homes and so we
Speaker 3: did that and that was life changing for us. You
Speaker 3: know how when you go and you want to do
Speaker 3: something for someone, you think I'm just so going to
Speaker 3: bless them, that you end up being the one so blessed.
Speaker 3: That was exactly what happened. When the team came to Jacksonville.
Speaker 2: And stayed in our homes.
Speaker 3: Our eyes were open the things we had taken for
Speaker 3: granted for so long, and just an amazing thing to
Speaker 3: be able to reach out and help that community and
Speaker 3: get a relationship with people that had really sort of
Speaker 3: been forgotten. They're on the outskirts on that North.
Speaker 2: Slope Borough.
Speaker 3: People of indigenous people. They're Native American people, and they
Speaker 3: have amazing cultures, amazing things that they hold strong to,
Speaker 3: like taking care of their neighbors and respect for elders,
Speaker 3: and just amazing kind of way of life living off
Speaker 3: the land, sea in the air, not taking anything for granted,
Speaker 3: and we had gotten far away from some of those
Speaker 3: concepts and so making the relationship with these people and
Speaker 3: just seeing what wonderful, wonderful people they were, it was
Speaker 3: an amazing thing for us. It really really blessed us
Speaker 3: much more than we ever blessed them.
Speaker 4: And your kids.
Speaker 1: How did it impact your four kids when that was
Speaker 1: going on, Well.
Speaker 3: To be caught honest, when it first started happening, they
Speaker 3: were like, mom has lost it this time, and she's
Speaker 3: really good to embarrassed. This is not gonna be good.
Speaker 4: But that's our job, isn't it.
Speaker 2: You know it is.
Speaker 1: I constantly come up with ways to thoroughly embarrass my
Speaker 1: children just so that they will have stories when they're older.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I rolled down the windows of the
Speaker 1: car and sing out loud at the top of mountain.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So they were very skeptical at first,
Speaker 3: but then when we ended up bringing the team and
Speaker 3: they got to share, especially with athletes, Laila, you know
Speaker 3: your kids, you spend so much time on your diet,
Speaker 3: your exercise, your performance, your workout, your you spend so
Speaker 3: much time on that. But to be able to take
Speaker 3: something that you're good at. My kids have been playing
Speaker 3: ball since they were babies, So to be able to
Speaker 3: take something that you knew how to do and teach
Speaker 3: someone else who've never played that game before, that was
Speaker 3: an amazing thing to see happen. And it was so
Speaker 3: rewarding for our kids to be able to transfer their
Speaker 3: knowledge onto the team who'd never played.
Speaker 1: Now, do your kids or anybody in your community that
Speaker 1: helped take on this challenge, did they still have relationships
Speaker 1: with the team in Barrow.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: In fact, I'm going in about a week and a
Speaker 3: half back to Barrow. I've been several times and the
Speaker 3: name has changed to the Kiavik and that it. The
Speaker 3: people are amazing. The relationships have grown strong. Now the
Speaker 3: young people that we've helped on that first team have
Speaker 3: grown up and we get to see what kind of
Speaker 3: a husbands they are and what type of fathers they are.
Speaker 3: We went to that first game in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 3: and then seven years later I went on my second
Speaker 3: trip and we had a party and had a gathering
Speaker 3: of all that original team that could come just to
Speaker 3: see how they turned out who they were, Because, quite honestly,
Speaker 3: if these were young people who had not turned out
Speaker 3: to be great citizens and community leaders and fathers and husbands,
Speaker 3: and there would be no story because it would not
Speaker 3: have worked. It would have been a waste of money.
Speaker 3: But they were just what had happened in their lives
Speaker 3: and the things that have happened through them being able
Speaker 3: to participate in that s forard and to have it
Speaker 3: was an amazing thing to see.
Speaker 1: So did they see did the school see like a change?
Speaker 1: Was there a drop in the dropout rate? Was there
Speaker 1: a drop in the suicide rate? Was there an increase
Speaker 1: in test scores? Did they see the direct correlation?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had that data pretty quickly. Within two years
Speaker 3: of starting the football program. The graduation rate had been
Speaker 3: in the forties. It went into the high eighties. So
Speaker 3: it almost.
Speaker 2: Doubled in two years.
Speaker 3: Wow, we had tremendous data to pull from as far
Speaker 3: as what had happened in the school. I will tell
Speaker 3: you in twenty seventeen, just two years ago, that football
Speaker 3: team won the state championship and I was very fortunate
Speaker 3: to be able to attend that game. And of course
Speaker 3: I'm just crying and thinking it cannot get any better
Speaker 3: than this. And then over the intercom they announced the
Speaker 3: highest GPA for the football teams in the state and
Speaker 3: they won that one too.
Speaker 4: Whoa, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it didn't just didn't just it wasn't just a
Speaker 1: football game, right.
Speaker 3: It really had so much more to do about who
Speaker 3: they were and for other people caring about them. They
Speaker 3: became pretty well known throughout the United States is that team,
Speaker 3: and they had a lot of publicity. They had ESPN,
Speaker 3: they had Sports Illustrated to do something on them, they
Speaker 3: had the NFL network do a whole series about that
Speaker 3: team called Football Town. So they've had a lot of
Speaker 3: publicity that came from that, a lot of things that
Speaker 3: let them see that there were people who really cared
Speaker 3: about them, and they had fans all over that were
Speaker 3: pulling for them. So all those things really helped them
Speaker 3: to become even more proud of their community and their
Speaker 3: heritage and their culture. And so it all worked to
Speaker 3: get other people started really coming and supporting the games
Speaker 3: and the youth and putting back into the community. So
Speaker 3: it started prospering in every way.
Speaker 1: And is it still growing? Are other people continuing because
Speaker 1: the turf isn't gonna last forever and there's got to
Speaker 1: be other things done. Are other people continuing to build
Speaker 1: this this blessing?
Speaker 3: Well, I will tell you this, and this was a
Speaker 3: really great example of the impact that has been seen
Speaker 3: in Barrow. There have been over a dozen artificial turf
Speaker 3: fields put in the state or high schools that are
Speaker 3: in a remote areas. So other communities and I've talked
Speaker 3: to some of the leaders in those communities, and they say,
Speaker 3: when we saw what happened in Barrow and the change
Speaker 3: that happened there, we want that for our community. So
Speaker 3: they were just going forward with that and it's just
Speaker 3: swing back into the youth Ofalilah. And that's how you
Speaker 3: make great change, is just a community that has said
Speaker 3: number one, they admitted that they had some problems. They
Speaker 3: admitted that they had some things that needed to be corrected,
Speaker 3: and I think that has to be the first step
Speaker 3: is you have to admit that, okay, we need some
Speaker 3: help here. And they let someone like me, an outsider,
Speaker 3: come in with these crazy ideas and partner with us.
Speaker 3: So it was an amazing partnership between the most southern
Speaker 3: community and the most northern community in relationships.
Speaker 1: And what would you, Kathy say to somebody who sees
Speaker 1: a story on ESPN, or sees the story on the news,
Speaker 1: or picks up a magazine and reads a headline. In
Speaker 1: my case, it was an email that I got where
Speaker 1: a lady said, would you adopt my children? We're starving
Speaker 1: to death in West Africa? And I'm like, whoa, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? And three months later I'm on
Speaker 1: a plane flying to West Africa and adopting an entire
Speaker 1: refugee camp.
Speaker 4: Wow, what would you say to somebody who is in
Speaker 4: that situation?
Speaker 3: This is what I would say. I look back on
Speaker 3: this project and I thank God that I didn't give
Speaker 3: up on this one, because I could have many times.
Speaker 3: It was very difficult, had tremendous obstacles, and I thank
Speaker 3: God that I just didn't miss it. I'm sure there's
Speaker 3: been many opportunities that I have, but now when i'm person,
Speaker 3: it was something I remember. I remember that I don't
Speaker 3: want to miss it. I don't want to miss it anymore.
Speaker 1: So who do you think reaped the bigger blessing out
Speaker 1: of that ESPN special?
Speaker 4: The community?
Speaker 1: How do you say their name now that they've changed
Speaker 1: it back to the indigenous name Utkiavik Utkievik. Who do
Speaker 1: you think received the bigger blessing? The community of Utskiyavik
Speaker 1: or the community that you built in Jacksonville and the
Speaker 1: community that you're a part of.
Speaker 3: I think in my case, I feel like our community
Speaker 3: in Jacksonville got the biggest blessing. That's the way I feel,
Speaker 3: because it opened up our eyes just so much that
Speaker 3: has continues to happen because everyone that was involved, it
Speaker 3: built our faith so much and we started looking for
Speaker 3: other opportunities and we're able to start a nonprofit and
Speaker 3: help there and there, you know, just in several different areas.
Speaker 3: So I think that it just continues to multiply. I
Speaker 3: don't know that it will ever stop, and I hope
Speaker 3: it doesn't.
Speaker 4: I hope it doesn't.
Speaker 1: I hope this thing continues to grow and that bridge
Speaker 1: that you've built between the northernmost point and the southernmost point,
Speaker 1: that that bridge becomes a super highway of love.
Speaker 3: Absolutely I agree with.
Speaker 4: You, because what an amazing story.
Speaker 1: And like you said, lives are transformed when a kid
Speaker 1: chooses to stay in school and chooses football over drugs,
Speaker 1: when a kid chooses to become are they do they
Speaker 1: have a cheerleading squad?
Speaker 2: Oh yes, they do.
Speaker 1: So when those girls choose to you know, stay aff
Speaker 1: for school every day to practice and to learn to
Speaker 1: do the splits instead of dropping out of school or
Speaker 1: choosing a destructive path, that changes lives.
Speaker 2: It it does. It exactly does.
Speaker 3: So there's just a whole lot of things that have
Speaker 3: come from just an act of kindness and from putting
Speaker 3: down our prejudice and putting down our fears and just
Speaker 3: embracing one another.
Speaker 1: Amen. Well, thank you, thank you for writing Northern Lights.
Speaker 1: Thank you for not listening to your own fears or
Speaker 1: to those who would say, Mom, what are you thinking?
Speaker 1: Blessed are the feet of those who bring good news
Speaker 1: and who bring artificial turf.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you, Kathy.
Speaker 1: And let's stay in touch because I want to see
Speaker 1: how how God is going to continue to grow this highway,
Speaker 1: this super highway of love and relationships.
Speaker 3: And you know there's a movie. There's a movie that
Speaker 3: is based off the book that is going to be
Speaker 3: start filming next year.
Speaker 4: Oh how exciting is that? I know, do you get
Speaker 4: to play you? Or are they finding out like an
Speaker 4: actress to play you?
Speaker 3: Yes, they're going after some A listers, quite a large
Speaker 3: budget film. It's going to be directed by Andy Tennant,
Speaker 3: who was the director for Sweet Home Alabama and hitch
Speaker 3: Ann and the King. So we've got a wonderful director
Speaker 3: and it is going to be quite quite a wonderful movie.
Speaker 3: So I'm looking forward to seeing who they choose. I
Speaker 3: don't know who they're going to choose, but I'm sure
Speaker 3: I'll be happy with it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you will, and I'm sure I'll be happy
Speaker 1: to talk about it when that happens.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Delilah, Thank you, God, Bless you.
Speaker 2: God, bless you.
Speaker 4: Isn't it amazing?
Speaker 1: What can happen when someone follows the whisper in their heart.
Speaker 1: A wife, a mom, a bank employee somehow managed to
Speaker 1: raise five hundred thousand dollars and get an artificial turf
Speaker 1: athletic field transported and installed in the far reaches.
Speaker 4: Of the Alaskan Tundra. How about you?
Speaker 1: Where could you create some space in your life and
Speaker 1: your routine in order to brighten up someone else's day?
Speaker 1: Have you ever volunteered to pick up a few groceries
Speaker 1: for a friend or a neighbor that's been under the weather.
Speaker 1: We all do these things, and they all matter. But
Speaker 1: if you yearn to do more, to be more, I
Speaker 1: am here to encourage you to listen. Listen carefully to
Speaker 1: that whisper in your heart. The next time you're engaged
Speaker 1: in an activity that serves others, think for a moment
Speaker 1: on how you're feeling right then and there. If the
Speaker 1: answer surprises you in a good way, like Wow, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. I'm feeling happy, I'm feeling useful, I'm feeling energized,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling inspired because I'm not focusing on my own troubles,
Speaker 1: my own pain. Then you, my friend, have hit upon
Speaker 1: that passion. Then think out loud with as many people
Speaker 1: as possible on how delivering groceries to your friend in
Speaker 1: need might be expanded. Maybe you make a Facebook post
Speaker 1: and say, hey, neighbors on Helpful Street, I shop on
Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon and I'm happy to pick up a few
Speaker 1: staples for folks on my weekly run. If you've had
Speaker 1: a hectic week, if you can't make it out, maybe
Speaker 1: another neighbor chimes in and says, yeah, tuesdays after work
Speaker 1: or my shopping days, and I could help too.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Maybe it takes off.
Speaker 1: Maybe you find yourself delivering a carton of milk or
Speaker 1: eggs to a neighbor and you find out she's battling
Speaker 1: breast cancer, or you that his son just had his
Speaker 1: tonsils taken out and they don't.
Speaker 4: Have any help.
Speaker 1: Maybe you decide to organize a bit and figure out
Speaker 1: a better system. Maybe you recruit other neighbors and before
Speaker 1: you know it, you're building community and you're helping people.
Speaker 1: Kathy that we just listened to was able to get
Speaker 1: a lot done and in her service, she was able
Speaker 1: to lift the spirits of dozens of people and encourage
Speaker 1: young men to heights they had never imagined. Who knows
Speaker 1: what can happen if you take the time to listen.
Speaker 1: Join me on my next podcast where I'll try to
Speaker 1: inspire you further with another great story. Until then, my
Speaker 1: friend will take the time to slow down and love
Speaker 1: someone