#226: Trudy Cathy White: A Legacy that Lasts
Today's conversation was such a joy. I got to speak to the legendary Trudy Cathy White, the daughter of Jeanette and Truett Cathy, the founders of Chick-fil-A.
In our conversation, we talk about what it's like to grow up in that world, and about leaving a legacy that lasts. We also discuss why family values are so important.
www.spiritandtruth.life/conference
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EP. 226
Tony: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Reclamation Podcast, we're our goal is to help you reclaim good practices for following Jesus. If we haven't met yet, my name is Tony, and I'm your host with over a decade in the local church. I care deeply and passionately about helping you connect with Jesus in a practical way.
Today's conversation was such a joy. I got to speak to the legendary Trudy, Kathy White, the daughter of Jeanette and Truitt, Kathy, the founders of Chick-fil-A. In our conversation, we talk about what it's like to grow up in that world, about leaving a legacy that lasts and why family values are so important.
She's got such a great perspective to share with us. I know you're gonna love this conversation, especially if you've got. If you do love the conversation, do me a favor. Hit that subscribe button wherever you listen to podcasts. [00:01:00] Leave a rating or review on iTunes or Spotify and the highest compliment you can give us.
Share this episode with a friend, maybe a spouse or someone you know who's trying to bid, build some family values. Guys, I'm so thankful to be on this journey with you and now will. Without any further ado, here's my convers. With Trudy, Kathy White. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited today to have author, speaker, entrepreneur, Trudy, Kathy White.
Trudy, thank you so much for being here
Trudy: today. Oh, Tony, what a joy. I'm very honored to be with you. Thanks so much.
Tony: I, there are so many different ways I thought about introducing you, but not least of which is you are the daughter to the legendary founder of Chick-fil-A, which I'm sure so many of my listeners are already recognized.
The that your maiden name. Let me just kind of start from an abstract perspective. How would you describe the calling that God has placed on your life? ?
Trudy: Well, the calling for my life, I think it's to be all that God [00:02:00] created and designed me to be. It talks a lot about, in God's word, how, you know we were made in his image.
So if my calling is to be very obedient to the Lord, be all that he's created to me to be and. You know, I, I live every day trying to be very intentional. I want to have an intentional influence wherever I go. I can invest in relationships, I can inspire culture around us and, and encourage the next generation to have Godly character in their life.
So that's, that's really where God has me in this season right now. For sure. . Yeah.
Tony: I love that word, intentional. It's one of the things that we talk about often here. I I'm also curious, what's it like growing up as the daughter of this legendary founder of of what seemed like, started as, you know, just a, a chicken sandwich and kind of evolved into an entire community of people.
You know, chick-fil-A is, it's almost cultish in the way that people love it. I mean, what's, what's that experience been like for. .
Trudy: Yeah. Well I don't go back to my early [00:03:00] earlier years now. My dad went into the restaurant business in 1946 when he was 25 years old and single. So a lot of people don't know that part of the history that my dad actually ended up running a restaurant for eight.
18 and a half years before he ever invented Chick-fil-A. So he had a lot of experience with customers and with food. He had opened a little small diner grill that served everything from a full breakfast menu to hamburgers and steaks that people would eat with him. So as a little girl, once I came along, my mother recognized that my dad was working long, long hours because this restaurant was open 24 hours, six days a week.
And my mother felt like probably the only time she would get. See him very much was to take children with her and go and visit him at his restaurant. So my mother would have us go, I have two older brothers, and we would actually sing for the customers at his restaurant every once in a while when my mom would take us there.
And so that was kind of unique to be able to do that. But we thought it was fun. We didn't like to practice, but we enjoyed singing for the [00:04:00] customers. Then when dad did invent Chick-fil-A, that was in 1964. . Three years later, he was able to open his first, what we know of today as a Chick-fil-A restaurant, we opened in Greenbriar Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta, Georgia.
And I remember that day I was nine years old. My mother bought me a special dress to wear to the opening, and I stood there and handed out balloons to customers as they would come in to eat with us. And I remember the day very distinctly. It was a lot of fun, but I think I remember it, not so much that I knew.
That this was gonna be something new. This, this is gonna be something really special, a chicken sandwich. But I remember it because I didn't have to go to school that day. So that's why it kinda stuck . So so, so I think, you know, my parents would say as well, none of us. knew all that the Lord had in store for us with this business, and it's been an incredible journey.
But my parents are they, they're just normal parents. Like any other parents. They believed in the Lord have [00:05:00] walked faithfully with him as they begin to raise the three of us as children. They wanted us to Understand the value of Christian faith and passing that on to us, that we choose to follow the Lord.
I did make that decision when I was seven and a half years old to embrace the love God gave me and receive the gift of eternal life. And I can't say that I've been a perfect child the rest of the time. There are no perfect people, but having made that decision early in my life. Has kept me from making decisions that I think I might would've made had I not known the Lord.
So I'm very thankful for parents who lived a godly life before us. And you know, people talk about Chick-fil-A a lot and we so appreciate all the wonderful raving fans with us. But we would be quickly to, quick to say that we are really not in the chicken business. We're in the people business.
And to watch my mom and dad. Invest in other people has been a, a tremendous joy. So I am both honored and proud to be a part of the Cathy family and to say that my mom and dad tr Janette Cathy that they were my mom and dad. [00:06:00]
Tony: Yeah, that's that's beautiful. And I, I think it's so true for all of us, right?
All of us parents. We just want to be we just wanna try to be the best parents we know how to be. I, I I love to look at dedication pages, and I read your dedication page and I, I'd like to read it for our, our listeners because it was beautifully done. And it, it, it's very telling. About your values and it's to our grandchildren, Ashlyn, Anna, Catherine, Caleb, Daniel, Micah, Lydia, Reese, Wheeler, Murran, am mi you saying that right?
Karen Maron. Mm-hmm. . Okay. Levi, Michael, Tucker, Caitlin, Landon, Brooklyn, and any others? God chooses to gift our family. May you point others to Jesus as living examples of our family values. He is the legacy that. In loving memory of Carter, our grandson in heaven, who is carried for a moment, but will be loved for a lifetime.
Out of [00:07:00] all the people in your world that you could have dedicated this book to, why these special grandkids? .
Trudy: Well, it's very interesting to watch your children, your own children become parents. Let me just say I remember when our second child, our son was married, had a little baby, came home to visit us for the holidays, and he put the baby down for a nap and sat down with me and he said, looked across the table at me and he said, mom, You won't believe how hard this is.
Parenting are your little child. We're up all night long, we're changing diapers. And he began to tell me all about how difficult it was to be a parent. And I'm kind of just on the inside chuckling because of course I know what all he's going, going through. But it's, it's hard to imagine your own parents taking care of you when you were a baby.
And so, watching our own children become parents and raise their own children, who of course our grandchildren has been a tremendous joy and reward. And, you know, it's, it's so true. My, someone said to my dad years [00:08:00] ago and they said, Mr. Kathy says it's not how your children turn out. That tells something about you.
It's how your grandchildren turn out. Hmm. About how good you parented. So, so it, my grandchildren are revealing how good our parenting skills were with our own children. So that's kind of interesting. I get such a joy of being around and being with our grandchildren and this, this, the thought that we have, the privilege.
To be able to invest in them in such a way that we can influence and transfer value values to them. So yeah, I, I just am inspired by them. .
Tony: So I was doing a little Instagram stalking on your Instagram page, and I think I saw that your oldest grandchild just turned 18. That's right. And that's wild to think about because you certainly don't look like you're old enough to have an 18 year old granddaughter.
But what's it been like to watch your grandkid? Your granddaughter become a young woman, and now legally of [00:09:00] course, you know, obviously there's still a lot more to growing up than just age, but be legally now an adult. .
Trudy: Well, it has, it, it, it has been a lot of joy to watch them get older year after year, having her going, she's in her senior year now, getting ready to step out into the, to the real world.
We've prayed an awful lot for our grandchildren. We've invested a lot of time into our grandchildren. Some years ago, John, I decided we wanted to be real. Intentional with our time with them. So one of the first things we did early on was decide that when they turn eight years old, we wanna take them on a birthday weekend trip together, just them, and they begin to look forward to that as we begin to tell them that it was coming when they turned eight.
And then we promised to do that with them. Every three years after that. So from the time they were eight and then we took 'em again when they were 11 and then again when they were 14, and then again when they were 17. So this particular granddaughter that you're talking about, our oldest, we took her on her 17th on her birthday for weekend from the, when she was [00:10:00] 17.
And then we set her down and we said, well, we've fulfilled what we promised we would do with you. We've done four weekend trips together over the course of these years and how fun it's been. So we told her three years from now when you turn 20. , if you wanna. Invite us to go on a trip with you. We'll be happy to do that.
We're not promising a trip to you for when you're 20, but if you wanna have one, we'll certainly make that happen. So I, I think the joy of being intk with those moments with them has been brought us so much pleasure. We've done birthday weekends with our children. We realized we had so many children, we could just have our own camp together.
So he invited a lot of our grandchildren to come and spend three and a half days with us. We take care of all 15 of those grandchildren for three and a half days. Just my husband, John, and myself. We run it just like a camp. We have devotions in the morning. We mules together. We play field games out in the front, front lawn.
We have a pool at our house, so they get to swim. We've gotta pond. They can go fishing and. I think all of these memories and what we call [00:11:00] value experiences are, are gonna pay off in the long run. We are creating memories for them and opportunities of investment into their lives. .
Tony: So I was so glad you mentioned value experiences.
That's on the list of things that I wanted to bring up. When did you realize that these value experiences were such an important part of, of formation and, and was that more with the grandkids or with your kids? Or you kind of tell a little bit of a story about how you began to form some of the family values, but as far as the experiences go, when did they become part of your normal?
Trudy: Yeah. Well when, when our children were growing up, I don't, John and I really hadn't defined our values. I don't think we, yeah, well I know we didn't really sit down and try to try to think that through, but when we saw our children grow up and get married, we begin to think about, I wonder if they know what really matters most to them.
We thought that was really important, so we realized that when grandchildren came along, we were a little jealous for the time with just our children and their spouses. Mm-hmm. so. [00:12:00] Some, 16 years ago, I guess we told our children, we said, if you would be willing to leave the grandchildren behind, would you pull away for us and spend one weekend a year?
We usually do it in October. Spend one weekend with us and just to have time together as a family and talk about really significant, important things. And one of the things that surfaced out of those weekends together was, was this word values. What are, what are things that matter to us? And we begin to challenge each of our children to think about.
What is. Is important to you. That is so important. You wanna concentrate on that as you raise your own children and each of one of them as a couple individually under begin to understand what their values were. And we were so proud of them. It was over the course of several years that it, that came about, and then they actually pinned their words on the wall in their home.
So if you go in any one of their homes, you'll see their values clearly written on the wall. I think they're there. , they'll remind their children, this is important to us. Mm-hmm. also, when [00:13:00] guests come in their home, they can say, you know, these are things that are important to us under this roof and this and this family.
And then the children begin to ask us, mom and dad, what are your values? And we actually hadn't clearly defined them as much as we were challenging our children to do it, we couldn't really verbalize 'em. Because here's what I realized. Everybody has values. You just might not have identified them or even communicated them to any anyone.
So for John and. Understanding our values. We had to look back over our past and experiences that we had had that we thought you. These were things where we put our most effort into. This is where we invested our most time, and we walked away with five words that were our values. Our values are faith because our Christian faith is really the filter for our decision making process.
We we value family. If you look at my calendar, you'll see significant time blocked off to make sure that I have prioritized time with my family. Integrity is important to us. It's a value that we live by. generosity, [00:14:00] being generous with the things that God has given us. And then the, the fifth one is gratitude.
That we just have a, a spirit, an attitude of gratitude for the things that God has done for us. So identifying those values is kind of the first step for us. And then you begin to understand what your priorities are, and you go that direction and you realize that every day when I get up, I need to be intentional to make sure these values are lived.
In my life. I, I like to mention in our book about three questions that are important to help you identify your values. One is what matters to me. The second is what values govern how I live my life. And then the third, which is really important is, Do others see these values in my life as I live them out?
Because maybe they don't recognize, maybe you say family's important, but they don't see that, they don't ever see you with, with family. So it's really important that those values that are important to you align with what other people see and how you live those out. , [00:15:00]
Tony: I, I was thinking about your story and you and John have been married for over 40 years if I, yeah.
40 half years. Mm-hmm. . Well, that's incredible. I'm curious that y. , that young couple that got married versus now. Mm-hmm. , how, how many times do you think in your marriage, your values would've shifted? Or, you know, if you were gonna do this at w w when you first got married in your early twenties, w would you have come up with the same five words?
What's your thoughts on, on seasons of values? Yeah.
Trudy: Well, we do this exercise with our teenage grandchildren when they turn 13. We spend Labor Day weekend with them and we run them through an exercise of values that I put in the, in the book. And we often tell them, said, now you have a set of values now at the age of 13 or 14, but four years from now, those are probably shift a little bit.
And when you find yourself in your twenties, those are probably gonna shift. So I would have to be honest to say that I. Our values have shifted from the time that early when we first got married. And as we've [00:16:00] matured in our, our walk with the Lord in our faith, and we begin to have shift those, but at some point those kind of solidify themselves mm-hmm.
and they become the things that we have to focus the, the most on. And so they, they do change from season to season, but I wouldn't say that they. Tremendously over a course of time, particularly once you get into your adulthood. Now, I, I would say that there, I believe there'll be people that'll pick up this book and read it and they think, oh my goodness, I've never really thought much about values that I never thought about the fact that I am.
What I'm doing is I'm passing this on to another generation. And so there may be a tremendous shift in values because you. Oh, I need to start living a little differently. Yeah. I need to really focus on the important things. I, I've just been floundering. I've not really been given much thought to how I'm living my life.
So in that case, even as an adult, I believe you might see a tremendous shift in, in values when you really sit down and process it and think it [00:17:00] through.
Tony: It's, it's interesting. I have done quite a bit of work in values myself mm-hmm. and I've got, . So my family, Val, well, my personal values, faith, family, generous, humble, kingdom builder.
Those are, are kind of the, the values that I've launched onto. We've never done the exercises of family. Do you and John have separate individual? Val, this is me getting into the weeds by the way, , do you and John have separate individual values and then family values? Are you kind of just in the season of your life, put 'em all together?
Would you recommend having individual values? What, what's your thoughts on.
Trudy: Well, I, I would say first of all, we share the, these values with us, and I think that helps unify us in our marriage that we're focusing on, on, on the same thing. Now we have different interests and we, our personalities are, are different.
No doubts, but I think it is. It's helpful to strengthen your marriage, to have a, a, a real singular focus of this is what's important to us. And then I think that it also [00:18:00] reinforces that into your children's lives. So they look at you and they say, oh, mom and dad value the same things. These are important to, to both of them, particularly when your values are related to faith or mm-hmm.
To family, how you make decisions. You know it's, it's really important that there. I think a sense of consistency there. Yeah. So, so it, it, it feels right that our values are in sync with one another.
Tony: Hey guys, just pausing this conversation with Trudy to remind you to register for the Spirit and Truth Conference.
The Spirit and Truth Conference is March 9th through 11th in Dayton, Ohio, and it's gonna be a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit for each and every one of you. You can register by going to Spirit and truth.life/conference and use the code podcast when you check out to make sure that you get the. Price available.
Don't wait. I can't wait to see you guys there. It's gonna be such a great event. Now let's finish up this conversation with Trudy. So one of the things that we say around here a lot is that if you aren't [00:19:00] dedicated to your disciplines, you'll be destroyed by your distractions. Hmm. And so I always love to ask people who I feel like have an intimacy with the Lord.
What are some of the disciplines that keep you connected to Jesus and keep you following him in a, in a way that you're happy with?
Trudy: Yeah. Well, first of all, Tom, Tom, with the Lord is so important and such a priority. And I saw this lived out in my, my mother's life, my mother. had a very difficult childhood.
Her earthly father walked out on her when she was a baby in August. Mm-hmm. . So she never actually met her earthly father, but when she was five years old, she was introduced to her heavenly father and she would say, today, don't feel sorry for me, because my heavenly father became my perfect earthly father.
Wow. She had quite a walk with the Lord. She was a real prayer warrior for our family. She was really a spiritual compass for my dad all these years while he was in business and such a cheerleader for us. But I remember my mom, always stay taking time to be still and with [00:20:00] the Lord with our Bible open and understanding his word and memorizing his word.
And so she's had a tremendous example for me in that regard. So one of the discipline is just time with the Lord, how important that is. I would say prayer is something I've learned also from my parents that Prayer is powerful. And oftentimes we can't, when our children get older, for people who realize, you know, they grow up in a hurry and from the time they, they shift from having mom and dad to be their really good friends and all of a sudden they're finding friends at school and friends they wanna hang out with, and sleepovers that they have when they're out from under the nest.
They're not a whole lot you can do, but prayer is one of those things that you've can for your children and at a highly. Recommend. I think that's an important discipline in our, in our life. Not only talking to the Lord, but listening listening to God, and then getting discernment on decisions that that you make.
Just the discipline of, of looking to God for direction. I know that in a family business we have done that. We have had our share of ups and downs and challenges[00:21:00] in, in the culture and growing, and a fast growing business with a lot of opinions from a lot of people. Whenever we are faced with some, some challenges that is the first thing that we do is, is go to the Lord and ask him for guidance and protection that we will be honoring to him.
Our corporate purpose at Chick-fil-A is not to. Be the, the, the biggest company there is is not to have the best profits and the highest profits, but our goal is to glorify God by being a fateful steward of all that's entrusted us and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.
So if you're gonna steward what God's given you and have a great influence to glorify God, you're gonna need wisdom from him. So those disciplines are really important to me in my walk with the. ,
Tony: one of the things I just get the sense, the more that I talk with you is that you, you don't really move without the Lord being involved in it.
And I, I deeply appreciate that. How, how did you know that God wanted you to put [00:22:00] this book together? Because this, this is fairly intimate stuff that you're putting out into the world. It's, it's a look kind of behind the curtain and it's also. You know, anytime you do something like that, it's both vulnerable, nerve-wracking, and it's a labor of love.
How did you know God was calling you to this?
Trudy: when I, I think it came to a culmination when my parents passed away. My dad was 93 years old. He passed away in 2014, and just 10 months later, my mom passed away at the age of 92. Mm-hmm. . So we lost both our parents pretty quickly back to back. They'd lived a wonderful wonderful life.
But I'm the only daughter in the family. and lived very close to my mom and dad's home. And so when they passed away, I had the responsibility of going through their their home that they had lived in for 57 years. It's really the only home we ever knew. I moved into it when I was two years old.
So lots and lots of memories and that place. So I went through all the drawers, all the closets, and you know, if you've lived anywhere for 57 years, you've got a lot of stuff , you know, [00:23:00] and I like to remind people, my mom and dad didn't take anything with them, you know, they. At all. So a lot to clean through, a lot to go through.
Sometimes I would look through things and I would just laugh, think, why in the world do mom and dad still have this? You know? And other times I would, it would just be overwhelming and tears would stream down my face and I would just have to, to walk out and leave because it was just overwhelming to try to to do that task.
But by the time I cleaned through everyth, , I realized that the most valuable thing that my parents left us was their legacy. Mm-hmm. . And the legacy that we live, that we leave is the life we live. And so it was their life that they left us. That was a tremendous legacy and that was what was so valuable and I realized.
how can I help other families understand that? You can leave a powerful legacy if you're intentional with the life you're living right now. And that was really my primary motivator for this [00:24:00] book, was to be able to encourage and. Inspire others to be very intentional how you're going about your life to recognize the things that are important in life to concentrate on those and create experiences that will be memories for for years down the road for d for for the next generation.
For sure. ,
Tony: one of the things that I appreciate about the book is it's what I call sneaky Jesus, right? So it's not it's not you, you didn't write it as a Christian book, but you just let your Christianity kind of stream through the writing. Mm-hmm. and and you included some scripture because it was appropriate in places and it just made a lot of sense.
How, how do you live in the tension of being. Christian and also out in the world, and, and let that kind of kind of a sneaky evangelism, sneaky Jesus kind of emanate through your person and through the work that you do at Chick-fil-A and through, you know, all, all of, I mean, all the [00:25:00] things that you do just seem to be associated with the Lord, but not, not overtly stated, associated with the Lord.
Trudy: Yeah. I, I, I really feel like it's being authentic really. When. in, in, in my walk with the Lord. He, he's, he's my everything. I mean, I don't know how to make decisions without without going to his word. And, and the Bible tells us in, in proverb, it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Okay, so completely trust in Him.
Mm-hmm. . And do not lean on your own understanding. And we recognize we are so frail. We are so weak. We, we have to look to a greater being to be able to understand what we're to do. So trust in the Lord, don't lean on your own understanding. And then it. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And so I have seen my parents do that beautifully in their life.
I have seen my parents do that through a business to acknowledge God. In fact, I don't know that your listeners know this, but it, every time we open a Chick-fil-A restaurant, [00:26:00] we have a dedication dinner. So we bring our team members and their families together and we have a night together where we.
Dedicate our business to the Lord. We just acknowledge that this business is really not ours. It belongs to God. And therefore, we want to be really good stewards of the, of the business. We want our team members to serve customers with excellence. We want them to be friendly. We want them to treat others with respect and, and, and with dignity and, and go the second mile in the service.
That's a biblical thing to do, but go the second mile in how you take care. Other people. So finish out that proverb. Trust in the Lord with your all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him. Make him known. Acknowledge that he's the one that's in charge and he will direct your paths.
And I don't know about everybody that's listening, but I, I do know for. , I love to have clear direction. Oh, what's ahead? Yeah. I remember even in school, I, I [00:27:00] love those teachers that would give us a problem to solve and then they would give us an example how to solve it. I, I love an example to help me navigate things.
And when the Bible says that he will direct your paths, I feel like, okay, God says, just follow me. Just, just be faithful and, and I'll, I'll guide you where you need to go. In a world of gps, I think we all use them all the time to, to, to get places. And if you ever that GPS ever fails, you know, it's, it's tough if you don't know where you're going.
So it, it just seems natural that God is just a part of overflow of, of who we are in our life when we're followers of Christ.
Tony: So one of the things that, that you talk about in the book is this idea of legacy. And I, I know that I have some friends who are listening right now who have a legacy that they're not proud of, that they're they struggle with mm-hmm.
And, you know, and of course in the church we, we might call that even generational sin. How, how do we, [00:28:00] how do we change the direction of our family's legacy from what was to what could be.
Trudy: Well, what I know about our God is that he is a loving God and he is a very forgiving God since it's a first step to, to, to, to take is to, to ask for forgiveness for.
Decisions in the past that have not been maybe the, the, the, the right ones. And God offers us a fresh new start all the time. You know, we get new seasons we get new Years. We, we get new days. So the Bible says this is the day the Lord has made. So when we get a fresh, fresh start is what God's all about.
So I would say, To those who are saying, you know, I don't know about my legacy. I'm not sure that I have I'm at this point leaving a very good one. I would say it's never too late to change course even for John and myself to be able to identify what really is important to us. We didn't do that until 30 years into our marriage.
[00:29:00] I think you just have to realize that the every day that God gives you is an important opportunity. Paul writes in ees. Make the most of every opportunity you've been given. Mm-hmm. so. Put the past behind. God can forgive and I think it was Rick Warren that has a won wonderful statement. He's a pastor out of Saddleback that says We are products of our past, but we're not prisoners of them and we have to choose.
To let go of those past and have a fresh new start. And I, this book is all about that, how you can journey through. I've given all kinds of practical tips and, and helps to say it's never too late. Today is a new day. Let's start over again and let's think about what really is important and let's be intentional on how we live those out.
Tony: Yeah, the, the practical tips in the book are some of my favorite parts. I love the value word bank that you put in there, and some of the other very practical, the very practical things. And I also, you, you list your values and [00:30:00] go into depth, but you're also very clear in the writing that, hey, you've gotta find your own values and your values are not gonna be ours per se.
And I, I am curious. , you know, when, when engaging with your grandkids specifically, and this is me just completely trying to do it for my own good, right? Is someday I hope to be a grandparent if the Lord sees that. How, how do you engage knowing all the technology, all of the distractions, like the values, experiences?
Do you, is that a tech free zone during those moments? Or how, how are you managing. The wor the world that's stealing the attention of your grandkid. Yeah,
Trudy: well, we, we try to be honoring to what their parents are wanting them to do. Now we have some grandchildren that come with us, and they don't even, well, most of 'em don't get cell phones until they're older anyway, which I really respect that their parents are able, able to navigate that, that really well.
I didn't have that problem when my children were growing up. We didn't have cell [00:31:00] phones, so that was an issue. So that's a big deal to have to figure out all the, the technology stuff. But we really do encourage them to put all that aside so that we can just really connect. So when we do birthday weekends with them, when they come and spend camp Mepa, the time that we offer camp experience for them they actually just willingly put them away.
And we work with a lot of young people. We. A nonprofit ministry called Impact 360. It's an opportunity, it's a gap year study program for young people between the ages of 18 and 20. And when we launch the program, they're in the classroom. They're learning the truths about God's word, just to know God intimately.
They're learning how to be transformed by God's nature, and that they. Live out their, their purpose for life. And so when they come into the classroom, you know, they used to come in with their cell phones and, and, and computers. And then we begin to realize every time you give 'em a break, they jump on their phone or they're on their computer and they don't engage and talk with each other.
So we have finally gotten where we actually now are [00:32:00] running the whole program. They don't even bring computer. Into the classroom. Wow. Cell phones and computers are, are out. So we're kind of gone, gone, almost old school with how they're taking notes and everything, but it makes a big difference in how they're connecting with one another and forming really genuine community with one another.
So we kind of feel like it's the same with, with our grandchildren. We don't have any car. John and I. Cars that have video capability in them. And so what, our cars are full with lots of books. So when our grandchildren jump in the car, you know, they're gonna see what kind of new books we have in the car.
That's almost a new thing for them to be able to sit down and look at a book while they're in the car versus getting on technology. And we'll play all kinds of games and we do road trips together to get them to look out the window and be engaged in conversations. You have to be creative. I believe in, in the culture that we're.
I also mentioned, I think in the book about just writing my grandchildren notes from time to Tom. I, I love that I can do that and they can get [00:33:00] mail and a lot of times we'll forget that we actually can send letters to another, to, to, to give a shout out to technology. I do love that we can FaceTime with them.
When, when they're away and doing something fun that we're not able to, to, to be a part of. I love that for our older grandchildren. I can drop them a text when I know that they're in the middle of exams or they have something going on that's been challenging for them and I can just drop 'em a verse of encouragement.
So there are ways to leverage, I think, some of this some of these things in a positive way for sure.
Tony: Yeah, I love that. And our listeners. be familiar with Impact 360. We had John Bai on the podcast and we talked about the ministry and what God was doing there in disciple making. So I'll make sure to link to that in the show notes if anybody wants to go back and learn more about Impact 360 and one incredible thing that that God is doing through that.
So as this book. Begins to find its way into the wilderness. My friends love to pray. How [00:34:00] can we pray or, or what should we pray alongside you as this book gets into the, the world?
Trudy: Well, it, it's a, it's a book that has such practical application and I think my prayer would be that as people will get it in their hands, that they will.
Not just read it and find it interesting, but they'll actually apply it to their lives. Mm-hmm. And that they'll have the courage to ask the hard questions that allow you to be able to un understand really what's important to to life, and to be able to concentrate on those and put their best foot forward with God's help.
To be able to make a difference and create an environment where, People are catching on to what, how they're living their life. So I, I really want it to be inspirational to others that's that and, and influence them to make different decisions, different choices maybe, than what they're making. But right now we all know that this next generation needs lots of prayer.
Needs lots of [00:35:00] support. There are a lot of great things happening with this next generation, but there are also some really scary things that are going on. And so I, I want people who read this book to step up to the plate and be the influencers that they need to be for this next generation. .
Tony: I love that.
I, I have one more question for you, but before I ask it, I know that my my audience is gonna know where to connect with you on all the social medias. Where's the, the best thing to learn all about what God is doing in and through your ministry and, and where can they connect? Yeah,
Trudy: thanks for asking that.
Would love for them to connect with me anytime. The best places to go is to my website, trudy kathy white.com. You can find everything there about me and how we can connect and how I might even be able to engage in your community, the things that are, that are going on as well.
Tony: And just outta curiosity, do we, do we have another book coming?
I know normally these things come in pairs. .
Trudy: Well, that's a great question. I, I have said this might be my last but I said that [00:36:00] before with a previous book, .
Tony: I know this is your third, right? This is my fourth, actually. So fourth. Okay, I missed one. All right.
Trudy: I believe my dad wrote seven. I've never had a goal to be able to, to meet that or surpass it.
In fact I'll be really honest with you, when I was probably. 30 or 40. I'm, I'm 67 now. When I was 30 or 40, I, I set, wrote down as one life goal was to write one book. I just thought I was so inspired by my dad doing this, and I thought I would love to just like write one book in my lifetime. And so here's number four coming out.
So, Who knows, I'll take it one day at a time. Praise God. .
Tony: I love that. Okay, the last question I always love to ask people. It's an advice question. And I ask you to go back and give yourself one piece of advice, except I get to name the season and I'd like to take you back to the birth of your very first child.
And if you could pull a chair up in front of that younger, probably less [00:37:00] rested. Version of yourself, if you could sit knee to knee with her, hold her hands and look her in the eyes, what's the one thing that you're gonna tell her?
Trudy: I think I'm gonna take her to a verse that has been extremely value, valuable to me since I was a junior in high school.
And that is a ver verse from Luke 1 37 that says, with God all things were possible. Mm-hmm. , I would want her to know that she can go through life that God will be by our side and nothing's impossible. As long as we trust in the Lord with God, all things are possible. Yeah. Dependency on the Lord.
Tony: Amen.
Amen. Trudy, thank you so much for being so generous with your time today, for the way that you lead with your heart, for the Lord, and for your willingness to be so vulnerable and authentic to my.
Trudy: now thank you to Tony. It's a really honor to be here with you and thank you also for your ministry and your impact on other people's lives.
I pray that [00:38:00] God would shine his favor on you as well.
Tony: Amen, man, what a great conversation with Trudy. I love her heart. One of the things that stuck out to me about her is the way that she communes with the Lord. What an incredible presence that she has. She just like drips with the word of God. And honestly, that is absolute goals for me when I get older.
Do me a favor. Go follow her on social media. Pick up a copy of her book and let her know that you heard her here on the Reclamation Podcast. And don't forget the highest comment you can give us. Share this episode with a friend, thankful for each and every one of you. Pray that you have a wonderful rest of your week.
And remember, if you wanna follow Jesus, you must be willing to move.
