MUSIC Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. As we transition from election season to holiday season, we thought now would be a good time for us all to reflect on the incredible blessings in our lives. And so, we have a treat for you today. We ask the staff here at NC Family to share what they are especially grateful for this year, and give us a clip of what they are especially grateful for this year. And give us a glimpse into some of their most treasured personal and family memories and traditions. We hope you enjoy and that our stories help you reflect on the countless blessings and special memories in your own lives. We'll start with our new Vice President, Mitch Prosser, sharing his favorite Thanksgiving dish.
Yeah, for Thanksgiving, turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, depending on whether you call it stuffing or dressing. What are you most grateful for this year? I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve here at North Carolina Family. Our family has moved into the Raleigh area, and we are just so excited and blessed to be working with an amazing team of wonderful people. And we're just so blessed that we've had the opportunity to come here to the great state of North Carolina. As a very new member of the NC Family staff, what has made you grateful to be here? I'm proud of a lot of different things here at North Carolina Family. Our team is filled with people of courage, conviction, and faith. The passion with which our team operates. I think if there's one thing that I could choose, our team united and coalesced around our 2024 voter guide. We printed hundreds of thousands of those and our team just coalesced around getting those out, making sure that North Carolina voters understood what the issues were and where the candidates stood on those issues. So grateful for our team and coalescing around several different things, including the voter guide. Finally, do you have a favorite book for the holiday season?
I love Max Lucado's book. It breaks down the holiday season, Christmas and all that it encompasses, and really just points the focus back at Jesus. And I think we lose a lot in the hustle and bustle of all that is the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I think just focusing in on who Jesus is and why Christmas specifically is all about Him and celebrating His birth and Him coming to be our Savior.
Now we turn to NC Family Council and Director of Community Impact, Jerry Royal. My favorite holiday tradition growing up was going to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. And we had, or she would have for us, turkey dressing. Some cooked inside the turkey and some outside.
I loved it both ways. And that's still one of my favorite holiday foods. Jerry, when you reflect on this year, what comes to mind as a reason to be grateful? God has given me a deeper understanding this year of what He means when He says, Rejoice in the Lord always, that any and every circumstance we can and need to rejoice in Him and who He is, what He has done and what He is doing. We have seen that in a wonderful way this year, as we've heard people from Western North Carolina, where many have lost loved ones, their homes, businesses, jobs, yet in the midst of tragedy and devastation are rejoicing in how God is ministering in and through many people's lives. One of the legislators from Western North Carolina, during the discussion about appropriating money for that part of the state, began his remarks by saying, First and foremost, I want to give thanks and praise to God for what He is doing through so many people's lives. Similarly, another member from Western North Carolina said, There is only one explanation for how so many people have come together to do so much. Only God could have brought all those people together to do all the things that they are doing.
Jerry, you've been here a very long time. As you reflect on this year as a member of NC Family, what are you proud of or most grateful for? I am grateful for the way that we seek to keep our focus on glorifying God and all that we do, all our communications, all our interactions as we work on important and sometimes very emotional issues like the sanctity of human life.
We continually remind ourselves that God calls us to speak the truth and love, seeking what is best for others and letting Christ live through us so that people see Him and He draws people to Himself. Do you have a favorite song to listen to or sing this time of the year? One of my favorite hymns is Joy to the World. I loved this song growing up, but did not know what it meant until I put my faith in Jesus as my Savior. I now enjoy singing that song and truly praising God and praying that He will open people's hearts to know Him as their Savior and Lord and life.
All right. Well, next up, we're joined by NC Family administrator Lucy Sargent to share her favorite Thanksgiving dish in a special Christmas tradition. Well, for Thanksgiving, I would have to say that's definitely stuffing or sweet potato casserole. And then my favorite Christmas tradition is going to midnight mass with my family. And we always set up this manger for Jesus, where throughout the month of December, all of my nieces and nephews can fill up the manger with hay by doing good things. And by Christmas time, the manger hopefully is filled with hay and we place baby Jesus there.
And I love that tradition because it's such a great reminder that this holiday is about Jesus's birth. Lucy, as you look back on 2024, what are you most grateful for in your life? I am most grateful for my recent marriage to my husband, Sean, and the exciting journey that we have both started together this year. What are you grateful for specifically here at NC Family this year? I am super grateful this year for the growth that we've seen at NC Family. We have expanded our staff a lot and it has created this really exciting environment where everybody feels like family. And yeah, I'm super grateful for the way that NC Family is growing.
Now we turn to NC Family's director of research and education, Adamo Manfra. Well, one tradition in our family, my wife, Mary, and I have really taken to sort of de-emphasizing Santa Claus on Christmas. And we spent a little bit of time with St. Nicholas on his feast day earlier in December with small gifts like fruit to sort of focus on him there. And then making a point of going to mass before gifts for the kids on Christmas Day just to kind of make sure they see it as Jesus's birthday.
That's a big thing. And then we kind of double back on very small presents on the Feast of the Epiphany to kind of talk about the three kings. Looking back on 2024, what are you most grateful for, Adamo? In 2024, as every year thing I'm absolutely most grateful for is my faith in God, his son Jesus, his gift of him, and of course his gift at Christmas and then his death and resurrection. But on a more natural level, my kids without a doubt.
So I mentioned we have three of them right now, four, two, and one. And just seeing them love on each other, be awesome brother and sisters. And then the opportunity that it gives my wife and I to get to love on them and learn more about unselfish love and selfless love and giving and understanding and patience has been such a tremendous gift this year.
And I expect it will be again next. Adamo, what was something here at NC Family that you were grateful for in 2024? So at NC Family, we've done a lot of great things this year as we did last year.
This year's personally in the work that I've had the opportunity to work with, a couple of things that stand out. One was a three part article series that got to focus on Christian political engagement. And why that really stood out to me is that I've written many things, but these really were a great opportunity to sort of just step back and think about what does it mean to bring our faith to the political square rather than focusing on this issue or that issue. But what it really means to just be a Christian and how to advance God's teaching, God's word, God's truth, and God's guidance in the public square for the good of our own families and for our neighbors.
So that was a great highlight. And then secondly, our Salt and Light seminars, we've expanded those a little bit this year. And we had our first opportunity for me to go to a community and teach them about the shape of the federal government, state government, how ideas become policy, become law, and different ways to engage. Adamo, do you have a favorite prayer or song for this season of the year? So a lot of great things with the holiday season, a great prayer. So St. Andrew and Oveena that starts on November 30th and goes through Christmas, but it's a great reflection on really the night of Christmas and the power and the humility of Christ coming as an infant child. Music, I discovered in Afghanistan of all places that when I randomly whistle just subconscious happiness, I whistle joy to the world.
It does not matter what time of year it was. I figured this out in like June or July just whistling. I didn't even realize I was whistling a song and I realized I was whistling joy to the world.
So apparently I really liked that song and didn't know it. Next up is Sharon Sullivan, who is a member of our government relations team. Sharon, what are some of your favorite holiday traditions? Every year we do go around the dinner table at Thanksgiving dinner and talk about what we're most thankful for. And it's really actually been kind of fun. My kids are all grown now, but it's been fun to see how what they appreciate has grown over the years just from like a childhood desire being fulfilled to that of finding their life partners and how God has moved in their life.
So that would be one thing. And I guess for Christmas, we don't do this as much anymore. But when my kids were small, I have a nativity set and all of them are wrapped up, all the pieces of it. And so we would go around and each kid gets to pick one and wrap it. And of course, they all get excited when they're the ones that open baby Jesus.
But it's always been kind of fun part of our decorating our house. Sharon, can you share something that you are especially grateful for in 2024? I'm most grateful in 2024 for a really great family and friends and co-workers here at NC Family.
Summer 2024 has been kind of challenging. And so everyone praying for me and all the people I have in my life that God has given me to help sustain me in this time has been really great. Although there were some difficult times this year, I also had a wonderful year.
I had two children got married. They found their best friend and they married their best friend. And it's just been really great to see God moving in their life and just watching them mature and go out on their own. Being in the political sphere here at NC Family was after the devastation out west. Going down to the General Assembly and talking to the legislators and seeing them all come together with bipartisan effort to support our brothers and sisters out in the mountain areas. Really, it was really moving and just really is a reminder of how we all really need each other and that God created us to be a community. And that working together is the best way to advance God's purposes. And so in that, I would also say I am thankful to all of you. Thank you for partnering with us and praying with us and supporting us.
So I would say that one of the things I'm most grateful for in 2024 is your support. Finally, we're joined by NC Family's President John Rustin to reflect on this past year and share some of his family's special holiday traditions. I have to say my favorite holiday tradition is spending time with family. Lynette and I are fortunate that most of our immediate families are in this area. So we feel very fortunate that we have the opportunity to get together and spend precious time with our families. John, as you reflect on the past year, what are you grateful for personally?
Gosh, there's so much to be grateful for in 2024. I guess professionally, just the incredible staff that we have at NC Family and just how we've been blessed so much this year by the generosity of our supporters. Personally, my son got married in June to a wonderful young lady. And so we're excited to have an addition to the family.
And the same week that my son and his new wife got married, my daughter and her husband celebrated their three year anniversary. So we just feel very fortunate to have an expanded and continuing to expand family. John, what comes to mind as reasons to be grateful to be a part of NC Family for yet another year? Well, I'm extremely grateful for just the incredible staff that we have been blessed with at NC Family. We've got a great group of individuals who are highly skilled and very passionate about what we do. And every day our team works to really honor the Lord, not only in the work that they do, but also the manner in which they do it.
And I think that really helps to set us apart and enables us to be true ambassadors for Christ, seeking to bring biblical truth into North Carolina's public policy and political arena. John, what is one of your favorite aspects of this holiday season? Well, I would have to say I have some favorite objects at Christmas time, and those objects are actually Christmas ornaments. In fact, we have three Christmas ornaments that we hang on our mantle every year. And those ornaments symbolize three children that we lost due to miscarriage between the birth of my daughter and the birth of my son.
We hang these ornaments every year in honor of those three children and also as a remembrance that one day, in the same way that we will have the privilege of meeting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we'll have the opportunity to meet those precious babies. Thank you for joining us for this special holiday episode of Family Policy Matters. We hope you've enjoyed getting to know some of our amazing staff a little better and hearing more about what motivates us to do what we do, and that you'll consider joining us in the year to come as we endeavor to fulfill our mission to equip North Carolina families to be voices of persuasion for family values in their communities. From all of us here at North Carolina Family Policy Council, we pray you and your families enjoy a blessed Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for listening to Family Policy Matters.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. To learn more about NC Family and the work we do to promote and preserve faith and family in North Carolina, visit our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. And check us out on social media at NC Family Policy. Thanks, and may God bless you and your family.
