PUC President Talks Career and Family on Hope Channel

By Julie Z. Lee on July 5, 2010

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During the 2010 General Conference World Session in Atlanta Georgia, the Hope Channel featured 海角视频 President Heather Knight and PUC Outreach Chaplain Norman Knight on a special edition of 鈥淲orld of Hope.鈥 The episode, taped on July 2 in front of a live studio audience in the World Session exhibit hall, focused on Knight鈥檚 appointment as PUC鈥檚 first female and black president and the couple鈥檚 ability to balance a high profile careers and family. 

Show host Kandus Thorp started the interview by asking how Heather manages such a hectic life as an administrator, pastor鈥檚 wife, and a mother of a large blended family. 

鈥淲ell, one thing I do believe is that when God calls on you to do something, he also empowers you and equips you to get the work done,鈥 said Heather, who has worked in education for more than twenty years. Heather also stated that most important is to 鈥渟tart each day with prayer and you really have to ask God for wisdom.鈥

The couple, who married in 2003, also shared how they raised eight children鈥攁ll of whom are college graduates or completing their college degrees鈥攂y building a corporation of sorts with their family.

鈥淲e put together the spiritual expectations of the family, household chores鈥攚hat everyone is expected to do, the different skill sets that we wanted everyone to know, academic expectations, we put together a mission statement,鈥 said Norman. 鈥淎nd we pounded that out for three, four months, then presented it to the children. And we got their input鈥 and once we put it in motion, it flowed very normally for us.鈥 

Thorp asked about women in leadership and the reluctance of some cultures to accept females in such roles. The couple discussed how in their marriage they have had to share leadership roles depending on the context. At Andrews University, where Knight was provost for three years before her appointment at PUC and Norman a professor, Norman was the provost鈥檚 husband. On Sabbath, Norman assumed his role as senior pastor of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Bend, Indiana, and Heather was the pastor鈥檚 wife. They worked together to be sensitive to situations and to support each other in their work. 

鈥淢y manhood and my self-esteem is not diminished by the gifts that God has given my wife to use for the glory of God,鈥 said Norman. 鈥淲e want everyone to develop their gifts, to use their gifts for the glory of god. And woe be unto me if I suppress one of God鈥檚 creatures using their gifts for the glory of God. And I think all of us should be able to do that.鈥