Eddie Hypolite
Episode 25

Narrator:

Welcome friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira, with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Welcome friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. It is just an absolute pleasure to be online with a new guest, and for all of our regulars, you know exactly what's going to happen, but for anybody who's brand new, this is what takes place. I have a hundred questions. He's laughing already. I'm not going to ask all of them. It does us get harder, question 100 is the hardest, of course.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, no.

Japhet De Oliveira:

The first 10 are really easy. And then our guest gets to pick between numbers 11 and 100. So what I want you to do is just imagine, and maybe even grab a cup of tea and sit down, enjoy. That's what we're going to have right now. And we're going to enjoy this moment and have a moment where we share some stories and experiences that shaped this particular person's life. So let's begin with your name, sir. What's your name and does anybody slaughter it or mispronounce it?

Eddie Hypolite:

My name is Eddie Hypolite. It's a silent Y, so most people slaughter it and they say hyperlight. Or most people try to be over familiar with me and they call me Edward, when it's actually Edmund. So I go through-

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. That's beautiful.

Eddie Hypolite:

Edmund Steven Hypolite.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. That's good. Well, Eddie's good?

Eddie Hypolite:

Eddie is perfect.  Eddie's what everybody knows me as. You've known me now for like 20 years.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Around the world, around the world.

Eddie Hypolite:

Gosh, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, Eddie, what do you do for work at the moment?

Eddie Hypolite:

I am a consultant. I run a consultancy, EYR, Empowering Your Resilience, Limited. It's a consultancy that helps people think about leadership resilience. And then I also, as of late, I've been an educational consultant within there as well, academic resilience for students and for teachers. But lately I've been doing a lot of work since the beginning of the year around race and inclusion.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic.

Eddie Hypolite:

So really, that's what I do. And then as well as working with churches and working with ministers as part of my calling, as part of my continued ministry calling.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. Resiliency is actually something, I mean, especially in light of COVID right now, everybody who's coming back into the work environment, dealing with COVID. I mean, you must have a lot of requests right now for your time.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yes, yes. Just to give them that... help them. I think what takes place when life hits you, is life robs you of the memory of who you were before, before the trauma or before the difficulty. And I think my work in resilience is just to help them remember and then build on that remembrance.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Beautiful, beautiful. How long have you been doing this now?

Eddie Hypolite:

I have been doing this now for three years. My call to ministry, I'm in my 21st year, actually, 21st, 22nd year. So I worked within pastoral ministry for 19 years, 18, 19 years, about, for the past three years, I've been working on my own.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Fantastic. That's brilliant. Well, glad to hear that, Eddie. So let's talk a few really serious questions. No, I'm kidding. These are just easy questions. In the morning, drink choice. Do you have water? One of those green smoothies? Do you have coffee, tea? What's your first drink of the day?

Eddie Hypolite:

My first drink of the day is always a half a liter of water. Literally every morning, I drink half a liter of water. I just had it downstairs. So it's my first drink of the morning.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. That's really good. That's really good. That's good. All right. And tell us where Eddie, where were you born?

Eddie Hypolite:

I was born in Fulham, Fulham, West London. I'm a '65 baby. My parents came over to London from the Caribbean in 1960. So I was born in London.

Japhet De Oliveira:

A true Londoner.

Eddie Hypolite:

London born, London bred, London fed, London wed.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. I was going to say, have you ever been back? But you actually have.

Eddie Hypolite:

Constantly. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Constantly, constantly. Oh, that's great. That's great. When you work kid, what did you imagine you were going to be, then, in London?

Eddie Hypolite:

When I was a kid, I imagined that I was going to be in the music industry. I think around my early twenties, I was together with a group, my brothers and a group of friends, and we was making a lot of music. And so I think the music industry is where I saw myself. I've always been a youth worker and worked with young people, but I never saw myself as following that as a career. So I suppose the music industry is what I imagined at the youngest age.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And you are able to lead the electric slide rather well.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yes, yes. Amongst other dances.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Amongst other dances. Yes. We've seen those skills, amongst other dances. Thousands have followed you as you've led those skills. Yes. It's been epic moments.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You and I have enjoyed, I've seen here, it's been great. Eddie, would people describe you as an introvert or extrovert and would you agree?

Eddie Hypolite:

They would describe me as an extrovert and I suppose I would agree. I'd have to sit and own it. But I'm an extrovert who loves his own company. So I'll go to the cinema on my own. I'll go to a cafe. I'll go to a restaurant, sit down and eat and be on my own and love my own company.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's because you are also one of those people who loves to read and to journal. I know that about you. So I can see that. I can see that. That's lovely. Tell us a little bit about habits here. Are you an early riser or late night owl?

Eddie Hypolite:

I am both, which is bad. Burning a candle at both ends, which is not a healthy thing. Especially as I'm speaking to somebody from Advent Health. You know?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes, yes.

Eddie Hypolite:

But I wasn't historically a early person, but I married a woman who is an early person. And so literally, and when we got married, her getting up early got me up early. So I have become over the past 28 years a early person.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So if you go to adventisthealth.org/well-being and download this app and participated in this experience, you can experience the whole well-being program that encourages you to learn how to live a long life and sleep.

Eddie Hypolite:

Funnily enough, it's amazing to let you say that, Jay, because just this morning-

Japhet De Oliveira:

Really?

Eddie Hypolite:

... Yvonne actually said the same thing to me. We was lying in bed and ways to spice up your marriage in bed. And she said, "It's not what you think, baby. It's sleep."

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's sleep.

Eddie Hypolite:

She just read this devotional on sleep.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, it is. It's true.

Eddie Hypolite:

Have you got a camera in my house? I'll have to check my roof.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I actually was going to ask you, what's the first thing you thought about this morning? That was literally the next question.

Eddie Hypolite:

The first thing I thought about this morning, I think the first thing I thought about this morning was Yvonne and I meeting with a group of parents this weekend who want to have discussions with us about raising teenage girls. They all have girls and they want me to speak to the wives, Yvonne to speak to the husbands, and then bring us all together. So that was literally my first thought this morning, I was like, "All right, I need to contact them and let them know that this weekend is good."

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. That's good. That's good. And you're going to sleep more. This is good. This is really good. No, I don't have a camera.

Eddie Hypolite:

I am definitely going to sleep more. Definitely, definitely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Good. All right. Here's a leadership question for you, Eddie. Are you a backseat driver?

Eddie Hypolite:

No, no, no. I think I'm kind of built to inspire from the front. I think leadership is actually a team game. And I think that there are those who just... And we can lead from the front. We can lead from the middle, from the sides. We can actually lead from the back. But I believe that I'm a front seat inspirer in leadership.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Ok. All right. Beautiful. Beautiful, good. Well, we've done the first 10 questions. See, it was so easy, right? So now the floor is open, and the way it works, you just choose a number between 11 and 100. Remember 100 is the hardest. And I'll let you know when you've got time for kind of two last questions. So the floor's open.

Eddie Hypolite:

All right, let's go to my age. Let's go to 56.

Japhet De Oliveira:

56.

Eddie Hypolite:

Let's go to 56. No, actually let's go to 28. That's how long I've been married. Let's go to 28.

Japhet De Oliveira:

28. All right. If you had to give... Oh, this is too easy for you. If you had to give an impromptu 30 minute presentation, what would that topic be?

Eddie Hypolite:

The importance of your story. I would talk about the importance of your story. There is a story in each and every one of us written on the pages of our lives in the ink of experience, that would be my opening line. And then I would talk for 30 minutes on the importance of that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. And how apropos for The Story & Experience Podcast that you'd have such a powerful opening. I mean, you should have done the opening for this podcast. I should have recorded your voice.

Eddie Hypolite:

I'll record it again and you can edit it at the front. You can stick it at the front.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, I can't.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, that's right. It's one take. It's one take.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's one take.

Eddie Hypolite:

You don't edit this. That's right. Oh, my gosh.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I'll have to snapshot that one. That's great. Oh, that's beautiful. Beautiful. All right.

Eddie Hypolite:

All right then.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So after 28, where'd you want to go, up or down?

Eddie Hypolite:

28, let's go to 56.

Japhet De Oliveira:

56, All right then. Here we go. Share an activity that makes you lose track of time.

Eddie Hypolite:

Share an activity that makes me lose track of time. I am going to be totally transparent and hopelessly male at the moment and say, binge watching The Handmaids Tale. It's really bad. It's really... Sorry. I should have picked something else. I should have picked something else. Your listeners are going to have no respect for me right now. But binge watching the... makes me lose track of time.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Handmaid's Tale. Ok. All right. You lose track of time.

Eddie Hypolite:

Maybe I should... No, I've already said it. We can't go back.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You said it. You can't go back.

Eddie Hypolite:

We can't go back.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's all out. It's out, it's good.

Eddie Hypolite:

We can't go back. We can't go back. I should have said something more noble, something more natural.

Japhet De Oliveira:

More noble.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All good. What number next?

Eddie Hypolite:

You know what? Let's really jump in. Let's go to 95. That's the age of my late mother.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah, I know. I was going to start at 95, but I thought, "No, I don't want that level of pressure."

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, how apropos here. Here we go. Ready? Tell us about how you see faith and life intersecting.

Eddie Hypolite:

I honestly do believe that we study the Bible to be informed about who God is, but it's only in the living of life that we truly understand who he is. And so Christianity's a lived experience. It's a lived experience based on a living person, who is Jesus Christ. And so I see faith and life as consistently growing in that space of renewed lived experiences. I don't see how you can be a person of faith if you are not fully engaged and immersed in life. I don't understand how you can have life if your faith in God isn't growing in the space of life. They are one and the same. They are literally one and the same. And that's how I see the intersection. That's how I see that intersection consistently turning, interconnecting, interweaving. You need a heavy dose of faith in order to live, and you need a heavy dose of life in order to have faith. You cannot have one without the other.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I like the way that you're applying the, what I would describe as the theory into practice. Right?

Eddie Hypolite:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Japhet De Oliveira:

And you're saying that it actually needs to be lived out. Right? So we actually have to move through this to be able to understand it. I think that's really true. Sometimes we spend too much time just talking about it and not living it.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah. I think we had that last year, when COVID took away the apparatus of the church and asked us to breathe on our own. So many people went into crisis, but then so many people found God.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. I think that's true of work and life and family, for everyone. It's good. All right. So after 95, where next?

Eddie Hypolite:

Let's go to number 12.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Number 12. All right. Beautiful. Here we go. What is your favorite movie or book of all time and why?

Eddie Hypolite:

My favorite movie of all time, I think it's got to be Jerry McGuire. It's weird. And there are so many other... But I just love with Jerry Maguire, I love the vulnerability of the two male characters. I think that they put their life out there in such a way, Jerry Maguire and, oh, I forgot the name of... Cuba Gooding Jr., I forgot the name of his character in the film. But I love the level of love, the level of vulnerability, the level of growth, the level of surrender to the inevitable that the both of them went through.

Eddie Hypolite:

My favorite book of all time, I think my favorite book of all time would probably be the first book that I carried around with me consistently and wouldn't put it down. And funny enough, I think it probably would be The Color Purple. I remember the first time I read it, I read it in my late teens, my early twenties, and I just carried it everywhere with me. I just carried it everywhere on the bus, on the train. I just couldn't stop reading it. And just the powerful journey of love, the powerful journey of growth of Celie and the way she just painted, the way in which she created a doorway into the lives of everyone in 1920s, 1930s, the 1930s black experience of men and women during that period. It was fascinating for me. I think those two.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That was beautiful.

Eddie Hypolite:

Those two, that film, that book.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. All right. Thank you. After 12, where'd you want to go?

Eddie Hypolite:

Let's go 25. That was a pivotal year for me.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. Share the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, the most beautiful thing that I've ever seen. The most beautiful thing that I've ever. That's why I don't like talking with you. I was like, "This guy is not going to get me and I'm going to hold it together." That's why I don't like talking with you, Japhet. You know what I mean? You always get me in my feels, man. The most beautiful thing that I've ever seen was holding Rea as a newborn. They put her into my hands first. I cut the umbilical cord. They wrapped her. They put her into my hands first.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Eddie Hypolite:

Her eyes were closed. And I said, "Rea," and she opened her eyes and looked directly at me. Oh, my Lord. That was the most beautiful thing that I'd ever seen. The fact that she opened her eyes and looked directly at me. And I said to her, "I'm your father and I love you." And I kissed her, and that was it. That was the most beautiful thing that I'd ever seen.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That was beautiful. Wow. That's beautiful. Good, good. That's a celebration moment, again and again.

Eddie Hypolite:

It truly is. It truly is. Let's go to 60.

Japhet De Oliveira:

60. All right, here we go. Eddie, when in life have you felt most alone?

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, 2014/2015, 2014/2015. That was a real hard year for me. And it was really hard because I was going through a really deep learning experience. I felt like God was putting me through a real grinder, and he was putting me through a grinder that I had to hear from him and him only. So everybody that was closest to me, he pulled them all away from me or pulled me all away from them. And he sat me in this space and he says, "All right, you're going to go through a lot of difficulty right now, but there's lessons that I want to teach you that I need you to hear and hear from me only." And so for me, that was the time that I felt the most alone. It wasn't anything that I could explain.

Eddie Hypolite:

I couldn't explain it to Yvonne. I couldn't explain it to anyone. It was a real deep time of just having to hear from God, having to learn, not taking wisdom from people that I'd normally take wisdom from, with no real explanation as to why I was even sitting there. It was just like, "Why am I here?" So for me, for that period, 2014/2015, that was a very, very alone time for me. But I learned the lessons in the end and God... And they're actually lessons that have kept me. They're lessons that I ended up writing a book on, a book of resilience on. And so I understand now, but it wasn't nice then. It wasn't nice then.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Hey, but you pulled through and you found strength, and you found clarity. It's good.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I found what I call soul clarity.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, and that's a good message for anybody who's actually going through a difficult time of loneliness.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah, yeah. Stay in there. There's lessons to learn in there. They're not nice lessons. They're not easy lessons, but if you can embrace them, if you can embrace them, you're going to come out at the other end. And you're going to come out blessed at the other end, and have something to hand to somebody else when they're going through the same space.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's that's a good word, Ed. That's a good word. Beautiful. All right. After 60, where do you want to go next?

Eddie Hypolite:

All right, then, let's stay up in the big numbers now. Let's go to 85. Let's stay in the trouble zone.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. You're too funny. Describe a role model you aspire to be like.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, I aspire to be like Dr. E.L. Henry, who was my senior pastor when I first started in ministry. And he had actually retired. He had actually retired, and they brought him back to be pastor of the church that I joined him at. And the reason why I aspire to be like him is because in his retirement he saw in me and in the way I thought about the church, the way I thought about the culture, everything that he needed for a new church plan that he was forming. And so he pulled together my leadership team. And then he said to me, and these were his exact words, "I do not want this church to look, sound or feel anything like the mother church. Do something completely new." And I want to be that type of role model because there were times when we would be doing stuff at the church, and he would look, and he would say, "Man, if it was me, I wouldn't be doing it that way, but it's working, so keep on doing what you're doing."

Eddie Hypolite:

And so for him, it was understanding it's not for you to understand everything. It's just for you to witness that there's another way of doing it and for you to empower. And that's what he did. And I want to be that type of role model. I want to be that type of role model that when I am at that stage, where I realize that my role isn't always to be on the front line anymore, my role is to be in that place of influence, where I can actually open doors for those who are on the front line, but they may be doing it in a way that like, "Oh, I can't see how that's going to work," but I want to be the type of leader to see, "But boy, it works," and just empower it. I want to be that type of role model.

Eddie Hypolite:

So he, for me, has always been my role model. Not just for, I suppose, ministry, but for life, empower. Empower the young because you ain't going to be here forever. Neither should you choose to be here forever. So empower them to do it, empower them to do it, and pour the best of yourself into them. Pour the best of yourself into them, and then watch them shine.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, that's good. That's good. I like it. I like it. And I mean, it's beautiful to see somebody who their career is so well developed and came back to be able to invest. It's beautiful. That's good.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, it's such a beautiful way. Such a beautiful way.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. Where'd you want to go next?

Eddie Hypolite:

Let's stay in the trouble zone. Let's go to 90. Let's go to 90.

Japhet De Oliveira:

90, all right. Oh man. This is... Ok. Tell us about a time you overcame a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, a time that I overcame a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Oh man. There are still so many obstacles that I'm I'm trying to overcome. I think one would be, let me... I feel like a DJ at the moment who's looking through his record collection and figuring out which track he can play. I think a real insurmountable one that I finally overcame was a few years ago, having some real deep feelings, harm been done to my family, harm had been done to my wife, harm had been done to my daughter. And I was struggling with forgiving and moving on. Ordained minister aside, I'm still a man. Ordained minister aside, I am still a father. I'm still the protector of my family.

Eddie Hypolite:

And I remember God sat me down in the depth of it. And he said, "Look, I'm going to give you two choices. You can go and wreak vengeance and you can go and have your revenge and do whatever you want to do." And I said, "All right, then. Can I just go with that one? I don't want to know what choice two is because I feel I know where you're going to go with it." And he said, "And the second one is that you can forgive them. Leave them to me, and move on." Because I'd become so sick with it. I'd become so sick with it that a rash broke out all across my body. It was that level of stress. And I just realized that I had to really forgive. I had to let it go. Because it was eating me up. It was eating me up.

Eddie Hypolite:

And I remember the time that I consciously said, "All right, then Lord, I'll forgive. And I'll move on and I'll let you handle it." And literally within an hour, 90% of the rash had just left my body. And in his wisdom of God being God, he took care of everything. Took care of everything to the point where the people that I felt that bad feelings against, God revealed that no, that they had been deceived even more than I had been deceived. And while they were acting with me in good faith, they didn't realize the people who they connected to were acting with them in bad faith, because it had destroyed a really beautiful relationship that we had had, but that has been restored. That has been restored in the process of time. But at the time, it just seemed insurmountable. It seemed like I could never get through it. It seemed like I could never get over it because of the way in which I felt that friendship and my family had been violated.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's a powerful word, Eddie, when you think about the fact that we're hurting in what people have done to us, how if we can't let go of that, it actually starts to hurt our us even more. Yeah, that's true.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah. It was a difficult one to come to, but I'm glad that God won through. I'm glad that he won through.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. That's good. Well, we have time for two more questions. So what two numbers would you like?

Eddie Hypolite:

All right. 99 and a hundred. Let's go. Let's just go, boom. Let's go in deep.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right.

Eddie Hypolite:

Go into the belly.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Here we go then, 99. Eddie, what is the most difficult truth you've ever told?

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, the most difficult truth that I've ever told is that I fear obscurity. I fear being of no use. I fear being in a space where there is nothing that I can add of value to somebody's life. I think that that is the most. And I said that to a group of leaders. I said that to a group of leaders. We were working through... It was actually last year. I was working with a group of pastors who were struggling with being taken from their responsibility and feeling that they have no purpose now. And then reminding them of and sharing with them how I'd been through that same space and reminding them that the calling was to the kingdom.

Eddie Hypolite:

The calling has always been to the kingdom. It's the kingdom that gives us our sense of that. The church is your employer. The church doesn't call you, it employs you. The church makes space for you to answer your calling. But it's the kingdom that calls you. So whether you have employment or whether you don't have employment, you still have your calling, because it was the kingdom that called you in the first place. And the kingdom is always going to make space for you to answer because the call was always to give your life to the kingdom of God, and then allow for the spirit to choose what he does with your life. That was the call. That's what we are all called to as women and men.

Eddie Hypolite:

So admitting to them... Because somebody was like, "Well, that's all right for you to say because blah, blah, blah." And so I'm like, "All right, gosh, I'm going to have to show my dirty drawers now." So I admitted to them, and it was a real moment of breakthrough for so many of them. And it was a moment of breakthrough for me, having to admit that I fear that, and then reminding myself again, "But the call's to the kingdom. Now, what are you talking about?" It's the kingdom that remembers. No one's forgotten. It's the kingdom that calls. What are you talking about?

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true.

Eddie Hypolite:

And I was like, "Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right." Holding my head.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. It kind of lends itself into question 100. So let's go there, and let's see what you want to do. Question 100 is, tell us, Eddie, about one question that you just don't want to answer.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh, one question that I don't want to answer. I don't want to answer questions about how I... I've already answered questions about how I feel about losing my mum last year. Because it's funny, I went into pastoral mode as soon as I got home. I got there hours before she passed. She waited for me. And I was able to speak with her, pray over her, anoint her. And then I was going back the next morning to see her. And I said, "Ok, mama, see you in the morning." And she couldn't speak at the time, but I know, even though I couldn't hear it, she said, "In the morning? Oh gosh boy. I waiting for you to come? I've gone. See you in the morning." You know what I mean? And she passed, she passed.

Eddie Hypolite:

And so I went immediately into pastoral mode. The family was like, "Right, you're the pastor. You're here. Plan everything." And so I went into pastoral mode, because going into pastoral mode was my coping mechanism.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Sure.

Eddie Hypolite:

I could be the grieving son, but I also had to be the pastor for my family and guide my family through it. I don't think there's a part of my mind that's come out pastoral mode. I think I've been using it now as a protection method, protection, you know?

Japhet De Oliveira:

I understand.

Eddie Hypolite:

So that I don't sit fully...

Japhet De Oliveira:

In that space.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's ok. That's ok, Ed. Lots of people listening to this would understand that.

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah. So I don't like people to ask me questions on it. I just like to talk about it from what I can control.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes.

Eddie Hypolite:

Just talk about it from what I can control, in terms of the conversation.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, that's ok. That's ok, Ed.

Eddie Hypolite:

But I know that I'm going to have to just sit and then just open up the floodgates.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It'll be good one day.

Eddie Hypolite:

And drown in my own tears.

Japhet De Oliveira:

In your own time.

Eddie Hypolite:

But there'll be a life buoy.

Japhet De Oliveira:

In your own time. And I think that's actually what people need, is the honor of time.

Eddie Hypolite:

Oh yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that, the honor of time. And they do. And they do, because COVID, even in the funeral, COVID robbed of so many of the normal things we would do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes.

Eddie Hypolite:

You know what I mean?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes, it did.

Eddie Hypolite:

It robbed us. We was there and we couldn't... The West Indian tradition is we put the coffin in the grave. We fill the grave. We dress... We couldn't do none of that. They had to do all that. They even had to prepare the mound. All we could do was put the flowers. So it just robbed you of all the things you actually need in order as part of that cathartic, as part of that process. So, yeah. I love that. You need the honor of time. I'm going to use that. I might not you give you credit for it, but I'm. . .

Japhet De Oliveira:

I love you, man.

Eddie Hypolite:

I love you too, man.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Ah, man. I understand a lot of what you're talking about. And for our listeners, what you need to know about Eddie, if you've never met him, which first of all, it would be a surprise if you haven't met him, because he is an international speaker and teacher. But what you need to know about him is that who he is upfront, who he is in the teaching and in the preaching and in the lecturing, is who he is in private as well. He's a man of character, a beautiful man of character. So a real privilege, and thank you, Eddie, for taking the time. He is really humble about that. He's been doing this for three years. I know that even while he was working as a pastor, he has a skillset has been used by many people all over the world, because he's been a blessing to transform people's stories and experiences. This has been actually something that he has mastered because of his own story and experiences. And so Eddie, it's been great to have you on this podcast.

Eddie Hypolite:

Always, always good to sit in your presence, Jay. Always good to see you, J.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's fantastic. And it's great for the listeners and great for all of our community. And so I want to encourage you for everybody listening, do the same. Get a cup of tea, sit down, talk to people. Share your story and experiences, right?

Eddie Hypolite:

Yeah, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Because you will grow. They will grow. It'll be amazing. God will bless you. God will bless you. So Eddie, thanks again. Blessings to you, blessing to everybody else.

Eddie Hypolite:

Thank you for having me here. Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Eddie Hypolite:

I truly appreciate.

Narrator:

Thank you for joining us for The Story & Experience Podcast. We invite you to read, watch and submit your story and experience at adventisthealth.org/story. The Story & Experience Podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health, through the Office of Culture.