Answering the Call

What this episode covers

Rev. Dr. Loida Martell talks to Stephen R. DiTrolio Coakley about what led her to leave her established veterinarian practice to answer the call. She could have said no to God, she says, but there was a sense of "being invited to jump into deeper waters.” While working on her doctorate, Rev. Dr. Martell served as a pastor alongside her father. “They tell me that, for a time, we were probably the only father-daughter pastorate in American Baptist churches in all of the United States and Puerto Rico,” she says. Her calling led her to theological education and a job as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean at Lexington Theological Seminary. To Rev. Dr. Martell, even her work as a veterinarian felt like a vocation: “We do a disservice when we talk about a calling as one thing…Callings are varied. It’s a journey. ”

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