Jill Miller
Staff Writer
Kathy Southall’s name is one most students probably wouldn’t recognize, and her job title also is virtually unknown by students. However, as the director of intercessory prayer and encouragement for Union, Southall plays an important role in the lives of faculty and staff.
“So many people on the campus exist for the students,” Southall said. “I try to pour into the faculty and staff, and they pour into you.”
Southall also does work with students but does so alongside faculty and staff who request meetings.
Her office, tucked in a corner of the second floor of Hammons Hall, contain the items that echo the many tasks she handles each day: a prayer board includes reminders and pictures of the subjects of prayer, and a filing cabinet contains various kinds of cards, some of which already are intended for a certain recipient
For some, she is waiting to send the cards until she feels the time is right, she said, including a card for a family waiting for an adoption. She has been saving the card, because she feels it conveys the perfect message.
Southall’s job includes supporting others through trials, such as death and sickness, but also celebrations, such as births or adoptions. In a sense, she is Union’s representative in the lives of faculty and staff.
For years, Dr. David Dockery, university president, said he asked for prayer from those at Union and those in the Union constituency. For many years, Dockery said, the effort was led by people in Paris, Tenn.
“In recent years, I thought it was important for the effort to be led from the campus, thus creating the position,” Dockery said. “Because of the respect that others have for her and because of her faithful prayer life and because she has a genuine gift of encouragement in relationship to others, Kathy Southall seemed like the right person to move into this important position.”
For about an hour each morning, Southall prays for Union as a whole and for the specific requests sent to her by faculty and staff.
The rest of the day, she makes phone calls and visits people, whether it’s in the hospital or over lunch, and sends cards to those who have requested prayer.
She also spends time building relationships with those who seek her help and continues those relationships long after a trial is over, even making notes to follow up with people on dates they would deem significant.
For example, she gets in touch with people whose mothers have died on the first Mother’s Day following the deaths.
“She knows when there’s a need, and she does it,” said Dr. Joanne Stephenson, professor of psychology. “Hers was the first call I got.”
Southall has journeyed with Stephenson this semester as she has battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Stephenson said when she got the news of her diagnosis, she told key people at the university, who emailed Southall about the situation.
Every few days, Southall leaves her a message, and Stephenson said her voice is so full of hope and love that the messages encourage her.
Stephenson also appreciates her hugs and visits and said she can talk to Southall about anything.
Recently, Southall had dinner with Dr. Pam Sutton, professor of English. Southall worked closely with Sutton when her granddaughter and mother were sick and their conditions deteriorated.
Over the course of her mother’s sickness, Sutton said she told Southall about her favorite comfort food, blueberry muffins. On the last day of her mother’s life, Sutton woke to find blueberry muffins in her mother’s hospice care room.
“It just clicked,” Sutton said. “I thought, ‘Kathy’s been here.’”
Southall said that listening well allows her to love well and encourage well.
Southall also played a role in encouraging Dr. Web Drake after his brother’s death.
Drake, communication arts department chairman and professor of communications, did not expect to see anyone from Union at the funeral, held in Huntsville, Ala.
Southall and Ramona Mercer, one of Drake’s distant relatives, drove to the funeral together.
Drake said it meant a lot to his parents that Mercer was able to come and that Southall brought her.
Southall, he said, sent cards and made the occasional phone calls “to remind us people are thinking about us and praying for us.”
Southall’s position as intercessor is housed within the Department of Church Relations and develops programs to meet needs she sees in the Union community as well.
One of Southall’s projects is creating a prayer walk that will include six significant places on campus. She also is developing a prayer calendar to be placed on the university’s website so that people who pray for Union can access a specific prayer guide.
Events on the calendar can be date-driven or general prayers that aren’t specific to a particular day, Southall said.
She also hosts gatherings of faculty and staff who have retired from Union. She wants to ensure they still feel a part of Union’s community and that they are informed about occurrences for the school.
With these relationships, Southall believes the Union community can be described with 1 Thess. 2:8 in mind: “So we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”
