Page 8 - Cornerstone Connection Magazine - Volume 22 - Issue 5

Vazquez • continued from PaGe 7 a reporter, and clearly heard Him say to me, “What do you
want to do? I can use you where you are, but if you surrender
“I’m a Cuban kid from Miami, and my mom was part of the and trust Me, I’ll show you your purpose.”
“Peter Pan exodus from Cuba, ” he said. “So, she’s one tough Kat described this desolate feeling of grace lifting from her
1
cookie since she had her childhood taken away. My parents season as a news reporter, but she felt He had something more
were not Believers, yet they sent me to Christian schools to purposeful for her to do. Despite her previous plans to move
teach me morals.” up the media ladder, dreaming of eventually being a foreign
So, how did Kat’s life con-verge with Jorge’s? correspondent, she felt the Holy Spirit “groaning and stretch-
After high school, Kat became interested in politics and ing” within her. Deciding to trust God, she quit her job and
journalism. She was quickly hired for jobs working in news- moved back home, where her parents kindly took her in.
paper, radio, and TV as an on-air reporter. During these early “I had a lot of peace, but also many questions because I
years, she also worked at an NPR radio-affiliate station and didn’t know what God had in mind for me. So, I was excited
NBC TV affiliates, among and scared, at the same time,” Kat shared. “Within one year,
others. I took a sales job at a radio station where I used to work, and
Kat said, “Because my that’s where Jorge came into the picture.”
parents taught us the Bible Jorge already had a sales rep assisting him at this station,
growing up, He later began but she was sick on the day he needed her to place an urgent
showing me about my real buy for an upcoming concert on The Great Lawn in Louisville,
identity in Him, who I was estimated to have attendees in numbers like a Billy Graham
and revealing my real pur- Crusade. Jorge needed to get radio spots started immediately.
poses and Callings. At that “My boss told me to take over the sales appointment, and I
time, I began to observe must admit, I was nervous about meeting Jorge Vazquez. He
disturbing behaviors in the was kind of a local celebrity,” Kat shared. “When I laid eyes
news industry. I was disap- on Jorge, I was rendered speechless. The Lord gave me all the
pointed in the corruption
and all the ‘sweeping things 1 Operation Peter Pan (or Operación Pedro Pan) was a clandestine mass exodus
under the rug’ that I was of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors, ages 6 to 18, to the United States
seeing. I had a sort of ‘come over a two-year span from 1960 to 1962. They were sent by their parents who
Vazquez FamJam: to Jesus’ moment as a Be- were alarmed by unfounded rumors circulating amongst Cuban families that the
new government under Fidel Castro was planning to terminate parental rights
Jorge, Christian, Victor and Kat liever, who happened to be and place minors in communist indoctrination centers. (Source: Wikipedia)
8 Volume 22 • Issue 5