My Calling
My Story...
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I was born in Augusta, Ga. to Jonas and the late Delores B. Whitley. Our family were members of the South Atlantic Conference of SDA, but I attended the Georgia Cumberland - Richmond Hill elementary school. I began service in church as a junior usher around the age of eight years old. From that time I continued in church participation as a pathfinder, singing in the children's choir, later in a trio group and eventually I became a junior AYS leader and assistant Sabbath School Secretary.
Richmond Hill Elementary
In 1988 I graduated from Georgia Cumberland Academy. During my matriculation there I showed potential for writing, having been on the Cumberlite newsletter team . And although I was a shy young lady, my potential for public speaking began to show during my oration of Langston Hughe's Creation for the school's talent show in my senior year. But, while these were meaningful for me, as were chapels and clown ministry, I still had not gotten a real sense of a call to ministry at this time.
Graduation from GCA 1988
Dental Hygiene School Graduation Banquet 1992
Dental Hygiene School Graduation Banquet 1992
My first sense of a calling to ministry came nearly three years later around the time I was 20 years old. I was in dental hygiene school and doing ministry at my local church on my spare time. One day I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of the church talking with some friends when the pastor and first elder walk out of the church after a board meeting. As I watched them talking on the steps I got a deep impression and desire for ministry. But, I tried to put it out of my mind, because, as I understood it, our denomination did not allow females to be pastors. I'd only heard of two at the time, one of which was Hyveth Williams and in my mind she was the exception to the rule. So, I determined that what I was sensing was that I was meant to be a pastor's wife.
Sure enough, towards the end of my dental hygiene program I met a man who was a pastor. We fell in love, got married and I just knew that God had blessed me with both a man and a ministry. But throughout the years of ministering alongside my then husband, I knew deep in my soul that there was something more God was calling me to do. One day in the ninth year of our marriage my pastor-husband announced that he no longer wanted me or ministry, so we separated for a time. But even during that time and amidst the pain of separation I continued to feel the impression from God for ministry. The call was becoming increasingly louder and stronger than before.
Me and My Kids at Seminary
2013
Six months later my husband and I decided to try to work things out. Which we did for eight more years. And still, during that time, even though he'd resigned from ministry, I continued to hear the call to ministry. Around 2007 I finally accepted it and began an online M Div program with Regent University. I was now the mother of two young children and Andrews University didn't have and online program at that time. Two years later my marriage was in trouble again and this time it did not survive. Yet, and still, through all the pain of a divorce, God's persistent call did not go away. In 2011 I was accepted into Andrews University Theological Seminary. I packed up my kids, taking only the things we needed, and moved to Berrien Springs, MI to complete my M Div degree. I completed the program in December 2014 and was hired by the Georgia Cumberland Conference in June, 2015 and here I am today.