Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200487A
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00:26 Welcome to the Liberty insider.
00:28 This is your program designed to bring you up-to-date news, 00:32 views, information, and analysis 00:35 on religious liberty events in the US 00:37 and around the world. 00:39 My name is Lincoln Steed, Editor of Liberty Magazine, 00:42 and my guest on the program is Pati Lawrence. 00:47 And the best way to characterize you 00:49 as an activist for religious liberty. 00:51 Exactly. 00:53 Mover and a shaker. 00:54 Thank you. 00:55 On another program, you and I discussed 00:57 your long personal journey 00:59 to not just becoming religious liberty activist, 01:02 but entering the Adventist Church. 01:04 You've been a member now for quite a while though. 01:06 Yes, since 1989. Yeah, that's a while. 01:10 In fact, for some people, that's a lifetime. 01:11 Yes. 01:13 But you're just a young woman. 01:15 Oh, thank you. I was just gonna say, okay. 01:17 But you've had some exciting experiences 01:20 that you and I have discussed some of them 01:22 and I've heard from other people, 01:23 things that have happened lately 01:25 as you've taken up the challenge 01:27 of reaching out to the community 01:29 and to community leaders 01:31 and some of our national leaders even. 01:34 I don't know where you want to start, but, 01:35 you know, tell me a little bit of what's happened 01:38 and how exciting it's been and the very real contexts 01:42 that have made a difference for our church standing 01:44 with some of these political leaders? 01:47 I'm always excited to share because 01:50 and I always say this, 01:51 you know, to God be the glory, 01:53 because He's opening the doors. 01:54 It's always when I least expect it 01:56 or when I'm... 01:57 But you have to knock. 01:58 Yes, yes. He knows I am willing... 02:00 If you don't move forward in faith, 02:02 God won't open that door. 02:03 Exactly. He knows that I'm ready. 02:05 Okay, God, lead me. 02:07 The first time I met an elected official, 02:10 I'll tell you briefly. 02:11 I don't know if I've ever told you this story, 02:13 but I'm a chocolate chip lover, cookie lover. 02:16 Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. 02:17 Well, you probably are cutting your list 02:19 to be on the health... 02:21 I know, I know, sorry about that. 02:23 But I'm driving home one evening. 02:25 Carob, let's call it carob. Okay, carob. 02:27 I'm driving home one evening, and I'm thinking to myself 02:29 before I get home to eat dinner, 02:30 I want to eat my favorite chocolate chip cookie. 02:32 And it's a huge cookie at a favorite pastry shop. 02:35 So I stop in and I see over to the side of the table, 02:39 and it says, complimentary chocolate chip cookies. 02:41 And I'm thinking that's my cookie, 02:43 but I see a table set up next to it. 02:47 There was a tablecloth with an emblem, 02:48 I'm not paying attention. 02:50 Remember, I'm new on all of this. 02:51 Maybe a week or two before 02:53 I'd had my conversation with Dennis Seaton. 02:55 He had told me about never know, 02:57 I don't know strangers... 02:58 He is the associate public relations or PARL, 03:03 religious liberty, PARL director 03:04 for the Pacific Union on the West Coast of the US. 03:08 I've got to be a little careful. 03:10 Not everyone watching is an Adventist, 03:11 not everyone knows the terminology. 03:13 And he had told me just mingle in the community, 03:16 show up places, don't know... 03:18 You know, just Introduce yourself. 03:20 So that's fresh on my mind. 03:21 I had also just recently signed up 03:23 for North American Religious Liberty Association. 03:26 That was very fresh on my mind. 03:28 So I walk in 03:29 and there's a tablecloth with an emblem. 03:32 There's a gentleman behind the table, 03:35 a few brochures and things, 03:36 two other people standing off to the side. 03:39 They look like they were closing up something. 03:40 So I thought before I take a cookie, let me pick up, 03:43 let me be courteous and pick up a few of the brochures. 03:45 So I went over to the table, I'm picking up some brochures, 03:48 picture of a gentleman on there. 03:50 So I say hello and I just introduced myself, 03:53 I'm Pati and I'm taking the brochures. 03:55 I still have this cookie on my mind. 03:57 I back up and I literally step on the foot of someone. 04:00 I turned around to say excuse me. 04:03 I look at his face, I look at... 04:05 It's the face on the brochure. 04:06 It's an Assemblyman, Chair of Education 04:09 for the state of California at that. 04:11 I step on his foot and I didn't know what to say. 04:14 That he would remember you for a while. 04:15 He did. 04:17 And we are best friends ever since, 04:18 three years later. 04:20 And I said, "Oh, excuse me." 04:21 First thing I say 04:23 because I didn't know what to say. 04:24 I said, "Hi, I'm Pati Lawrence. 04:26 I'm a member of North American Religious Liberty Association." 04:29 Well, he wasn't too happy to hear that at first. 04:31 He put up his hand. Oh, wall of separation. 04:35 Well, again, I'm new to all this. 04:37 I don't... I'm not versed in what to say. 04:38 I say whatever. 04:40 I have no filter sometimes, it just comes out. 04:42 So I said, "Oh, yes. 04:43 You know, Thomas Jefferson coined that phrase." 04:46 And then he started to kind of laugh, he relaxed. 04:50 And his district director walked over, 04:52 he says, "Oh, this is my district director." 04:54 She handed me her card. 04:56 He handed me his card and said, 04:57 "Well, stop by our office sometime, 04:58 we'd like to talk." 05:00 Three years later, great relationship with him. 05:04 So you did stop by? 05:06 I did stop. I've continued to stop by. 05:08 Well, actually what I did was 05:09 I went to a meet and greet that he had. 05:10 And let me tell you about this meet and greet. 05:12 I showed up, but every time I showed up, 05:14 I handed him something. 05:16 I had... Liberty Magazine is the first thing 05:18 I hand to everyone. 05:19 We put you on our merit list. 05:21 Because on the NARLA card, 05:23 North American Religious Liberty Association card, 05:25 it says, promote Liberty Magazine, 05:26 and I thought, okay, that's my way in. 05:29 I'm gonna hand a Liberty Magazine, 05:30 have them with me always. 05:32 And I had that long, I should have brought one, 05:34 that long introductory card about what a member does. 05:37 That became my calling card. 05:38 I'd write my name, my phone number and email. 05:41 So when I showed up at a meet and greet, 05:44 it was just after school shooting 05:45 and he had been a school teacher, 05:47 now Chair of Education for the state of California. 05:51 He might as well have had a Target T-shirt on... 05:54 I mean, a target not the store, but he was like a target there. 05:58 There were opposers there. 06:00 They were hammering him. 06:01 What are you gonna do about this? 06:02 What are you gonna do about our schools? 06:04 There were teachers, there were parents, 06:05 they're saying, 06:07 we gave you money for this or you have money for this, 06:08 you have money for that. 06:10 He was literally being emotionally beat up 06:11 that whole meeting. 06:12 Now knowing because of the first meeting that 06:15 when I first met him, 06:16 he says after these meetings, obviously... 06:18 And so you hung by. 06:19 I hung around. I've done that ever since. 06:21 So I hung up. 06:22 Okay, I'm just gonna wait, I'm just gonna wait. 06:25 The reason I knew about that meet and greet, 06:26 because prior to that, after I met him, 06:28 I went on to his website 06:30 and I started studying a little bit about him. 06:32 I read his bio, I wanted to know about him. 06:34 If I met him again, 06:35 what am I going to talk about this time, 06:37 not Thomas Jefferson, you know? 06:40 And I signed up for his newsletter. 06:42 I read his legislation, what he's been successful in. 06:44 I noticed one that caught my eye. 06:47 So I'm waiting. 06:49 And sure enough, 06:50 he's there alone with his staffer. 06:51 So I walk up to him. And he remembered me miserably. 06:55 And then he says to me, interesting. 06:57 He says, "Oh, I was just talking 06:58 about you last week in our office," 07:00 Maybe he is saying the girl who wanted the cookie 07:01 and stepped on my foot. 07:03 I don't know. 07:04 So I handed him my NARLA card, 07:05 I handed him a Liberty Magazine. 07:07 Now remember, he comes off this meeting 07:08 of being emotionally abused the whole time by opposers. 07:12 So I said to him, I said, "You know, 07:14 I just want to thank you for your successful legislation 07:18 that you passed on closing down puppy mills, 07:20 those horrible puppy mills." 07:22 And he's, "Go puppies." 07:24 He was happy, he was smiling. 07:25 And then I left... 07:27 And I said hello to the staffers and I left. 07:29 Ever since then I show up at his meet and greets, 07:32 his town halls, I show up with something 07:35 and I hand it to him. 07:36 It's gotten to the point where he sees me, 07:38 and before I walk up to him, "What do you have for me?" 07:41 He's already holding out his hand. 07:43 I think I said to Dennis, 07:44 "One day, if I ever run out of literature, 07:45 I'm gonna have to take him pastries." 07:47 But you cannot run out of Liberty, 07:48 they come at you every couple of months. 07:50 Well, literature. Yeah, but... 07:52 So I'm always handing that out. 07:55 So how this also grew, 07:56 I went to another meet and greet where it was him 07:59 and the local LA city councilmen. 08:02 In the town hall 08:03 there were probably about 80 people. 08:06 And it was in my favorite pastry shop. 08:07 Again, he always held it in that shop. 08:09 So we bought it there also. 08:12 But there were staffers from Mayor Garcetti's office, 08:16 staffers from the local LA county supervisor, 08:19 being a port town, San Pedro, California, 08:22 port officials, other city council officials, 08:26 and I'm thinking I'm sitting there, 08:27 I'm thinking, "Okay, I probably 08:29 won't have a chance to, you know, to meet any, 08:32 maybe even go up to him 08:33 with all these important people around." 08:35 And he says, "All right, we're going to open up for Q&A, 08:37 we only have time for maybe three or four questions." 08:41 So I'm still sitting there 08:42 thinking with all with Garcetti's office, 08:44 with LA county supervisor there, 08:46 port officials, 08:47 what chances do I have for them to call on me. 08:50 But they would think that 08:52 you're not gonna be an attacker. 08:53 So you... 08:54 But he knows I would be friendly fire, if anything. 08:58 So he says, "Okay, first question." 09:00 So I raised my hand, 09:02 I don't get called on I'm like, okay. 09:04 Second time, don't get called on, 09:06 I'm thinking, "Hmm, this might be 09:07 the last question." 09:08 But I raised my hand, he points right to me. 09:10 I almost wanted to turn around like, "Oh, me?" 09:13 He points right to me. 09:14 So all I said again, I introduce myself 09:16 as a member of North American Religious Liberty Association, 09:19 and I just wanted to just thank him 09:22 for his work for bringing this together 09:24 for the information we heard today. 09:26 And to remember, 09:27 I'm here to help you in any way I can, just call me. 09:31 Then I turned to the councilman, 09:32 for some I ever met the councilman. 09:33 I'm telling him the same thing. 09:35 Thank you for your dedication, your commitment. 09:37 As I'm talking to the councilman, 09:39 he's pointing to someone across the room 09:41 who later I found out was his Deputy Chief of Staff. 09:44 He's telling him to come to me. 09:46 He's pointing to him and then pointing to me. 09:48 So the meeting ended. 09:50 Deputy Chief of Staff comes up to me, 09:52 gives me his card says, 09:53 "You ever need to meet with us, call us." 09:57 But after that, something else amazingly happened. 10:00 Representative from the county supervisors office 10:03 came up to me and gave me a flyer and says, 10:05 "We're sponsoring a human trafficking event. 10:07 Would you be interested in attending?" 10:09 Someone from the local city college comes in. 10:11 She was director of foster care for the college and says, 10:14 "Does your organization help with foster care?" 10:17 There were several other community leaders 10:20 that came up to me giving me their cards and saying, 10:22 "Can you help us? 10:24 Can we work together?" 10:25 So they immediately saw you and, of course, 10:28 the membership and the organization 10:30 you represent as a resource? 10:31 As a resource. It became a resource. 10:34 That's success. It was amazing. 10:36 I went to the human trafficking event. 10:39 I've been... 10:40 That's been a standalone ministry for me 10:42 now for three years. 10:43 We've put on other events. 10:45 I've built relationships 10:46 with LA county supervisor's office 10:48 with some of these other nonprofits. 10:50 And in doing this I have gained, probably, 10:54 I'll say on my books, or in my book of my resources 10:57 that I can take out and offer, 10:59 I probably have about 40 to 45 different nonprofit. 11:04 Not county resources, these are individual people 11:07 who are on the ground run nonprofits 11:10 that are out there helping the community 11:12 that I help support, I show up for their events, 11:15 sometimes they need volunteers, 11:17 I call them if I need something. 11:18 This is pretty much a full-time job now. 11:20 It has become a full-time. I live and breathe this work. 11:22 Yeah, wonderful. 11:25 Community services also, 11:26 social services with the county, 11:28 county services. 11:30 We've become almost best friends, 11:32 and not to mention my growing relationships 11:34 with elected officials. 11:35 Well, it's almost a textbook example 11:37 of how to make yourself available 11:40 on behalf of what you believe. 11:42 But it's really a personality thing. 11:44 Being used by the Lord and just being open 11:47 and ready and not negative, 11:50 but reaching out to those in responsibility. 11:52 Well, it is God. Wonderful story. 11:54 I was never really a social person. 11:56 I was pretty much a loner always, but not now. 11:59 Not now, God can at least open the doors. 12:02 God will change all of us. And I could say the same thing. 12:05 My wife knows I'm very introspective. 12:08 And, you know, I'm not social naturally, 12:10 but you're forced into... 12:11 Not forced, you're encouraged into this 12:14 by the Lord's charted to us all. 12:16 We need to take a break now. 12:18 We'll be back shortly, 12:19 but stay with us for more of this exciting story of God 12:22 giving opportunities to a woman who's shown herself 12:26 willing to serve and to reach out. |
Revised 2021-01-08