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"Today we continue with Catherine Wilberton as she shares her journey as both a faith-filled beekeeper and business owner."
Catherine Wilberton shares her journey as both a beekeeper and a business owner, revealing how her faith informs every aspect of her life from harvesting honey to managing her water treatment company.
• Became interested in beekeeping after a childhood incident where her family was attacked by wasps while she remained unharmed • Harvests honey once a year as a family celebration, though admits it's more expensive than buying honey • Runs Patterson's Water & Plumbing with a team that allows her to focus on business development • Started a complementary well testing business that meets New Jersey state requirements • Came to faith through a strong youth group led by mentors who remain influential in her life • Contemplating the future of her business, possibly transitioning to employee ownership • Believes God places difficult people in our lives so we'll pray for those who may have no one interceding for them
Reflect on who God has placed in your heart to pray for today – perhaps someone who annoys you is actually someone who needs your spiritual support.
Lord, you know you will now listen to Plays on Word Radio.
Speaker 2:
It's the best. Yeah, isn't that amazing when you think about that? Like there's people out there that don't even know who Jesus is and it's just like no one has ever. I always think about that, like when you meet some random person and you wonder, you hear a little bit a snippet about their life and you're like huh, who's praying for this person? Like we all have people praying for us, we know that, but there's so many people out there that have nobody praying for them.
Speaker 3:
You're the only name. You're the only name. You're the only name.
Speaker 4:
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 3:
Okay, so tell me about this bee thing, Because the last time we were in Jackson, I remember you made a statement that has just stuck with me. You're like I get stung all the time and I'm not down with that idea. It doesn't hurt that bad, I mean it doesn't.
Speaker 2:
You gave us some honey, it was great.
Speaker 3:
But I tell you yeah, that local honey was. There's something about that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, it was in fact I I didn't even have bad allergies when that that year I was good to go. So when I was a kid that that house on harmony road that's where I grew up and my mom sent my brothers and my dad and I into the woods. There were blueberries there. It was in the morning, like a saturday morning, and we were picking blueberries and putting them in little you know tupperware things and I was probably I don know 20 feet from them. They were all together and one of them stepped on a beehive or something.
Speaker 2:
It wasn't honeybees, but I didn't know that at the time. I was probably like eight years old and they started like running out of the woods, arms flaring all over the place, and I didn't know what was going on. So I ran after them and they got hundreds of stings all over them in their mouth, oh, and I didn't get, and I didn't get one. So I thought I was special. I thought I was like oh, the bees like me, they didn't sting me, or the opposite, maybe they, yeah, and I didn't realize it wasn't bees, it was probably wasps that were attacking them, but I was always since a little girl I was fascinated with bees, just because of that one incident.
Speaker 2:
And then, you know, fast forward, I don't know, 15, 20 years late, you know ago. I'm at a customer's house in Jackson and he's a beekeeper and he brings me into his bee yard and opens up a hive. We're not wearing any of the garb. He just says go. I told him the story. I always wanted to be a beekeeper. He told me how easy it is. He goes oh, here's some magazines, you can order bees, you can order your equipment. He brought me there and opened up the hive. The bees are flying all over. It was just fascinating, the smell of the hive and the bees are flying all over really. And I was just fascinating the smell of the, of the wax and and the honey and the pollen and they're all over yeah and it didn't.
Speaker 3:
I didn't get stung once and I was like I could do this so you're just scared.
Speaker 2:
No, I no, not at all, not at all. Yeah and and yeah, I've gottenung, but really they're not attacking you there. They're not going to sting everything that they land on. They're going to sting you if you're aggravating them. So I just make sure, like my hair is tied up, I'm not wearing jewelry, like I'm not wearing anything that they can get caught in or under, and and yeah, I mean it just does it hurt, yeah, but it's just like it hurts for a second and yeah.
Speaker 2:
I mean it just does it hurt. Yeah, but it's just like it hurts for a second.
Speaker 3:
You know it's not. It's not terrible. Yeah, I found that if you don't appear to be a threat, a lot of times they just leave you alone. They go around you. I wasn't a threat in the woods.
Speaker 2:
That's why they left me alone, because I didn't have, I wasn't panicking, so yeah.
Speaker 3:
So I used to climb telephone poles back in the day and I remember going up this telephone pole and the wasps would build their nest in the telephone box up on the pole. And I'm telling you I went up this a bunch of times. I would go up there and the wasp would actually come out of the hive and sit there and look at me. And it wasp would actually come out of the hive and sit there and look at me and it was unnerving. So I had to slow down to complete slow motion just to let him know I'm moving this way, I'm not a threat, I'm not a threat and I'm sitting there talking to this wasp. But I would rather do that than use the spray that they gave me that wipes them out, if I can at all avoid that. So are there any benefits in in uh, in making your own honey, besides the price? Good grief, did you see the price? I looked at the jar the other day. It was like 12 bucks for like a small jar yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Well, I don't make the honey, they make it and I steal it.
Speaker 3:
So I'm just a honey thief. That's the christian thing exactly no it's it, it's wonderful.
Speaker 2:
So we have. You know we use. I don't use the pollen yet, but I use the beeswax and the propolis I use so you can use a lot of stuff from the hive and it's honestly it's more expensive keeping bees than buying honey.
Speaker 3:
Really.
Speaker 2:
You know I think, oh my gosh, I could be buying organic honey from down the street a lot cheaper than doing all this. But I love it, it's calming and it's a great hobby and I love it. And then once a year we have we harvest the honey and it's a big. You know, it's a big deal in my family. All the kids come over. We make a big deal out of it. We have a meal together. It's just, it's it's really nice wait a second, so it's once.
Speaker 3:
a year is when you get the honey from it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I only do it. When I lived on Harmony Road I only did it once a year, just because you know, I never. You know, the most hives I ever had was like six. So I gather all the honey and then it's a process because I have this huge extractor. It would be in my kitchen, it's a messy ordeal I want it.
Speaker 2:
I want it done in a day. I get it now. Where I live, I have a barn with a. I call it my bee room. There's like a little section of it all my bee stuff, so I'll harvest throughout the season now space?
Speaker 3:
yeah, do you let them? Um, do you have like farmers that want to rent them out from you, like, can I get some bees? Can I get your bees? Can you help my corn crop?
Speaker 2:
That's funny. Larry thinks I should start this whole side gig doing that.
Speaker 3:
I've seen people do that. I've seen people do it down here. I didn't know that was a thing, it's a thing, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:
It's a thing. Yeah, I'm not there yet. I'm too busy. I down the road.
Speaker 3:
I saw people down here pull up like a flatbed and they had the boxes, like you had. You had the hives. They placed them down right at the edge of this field. The farmers pay them. The farmers pay them. Yes, I'm like hmm.
Speaker 2:
It's win-win. You get paid by the farmer and then you can sell that honey. You know like, we live in Hamilton, which is the blueberry capital of the world, so I can say it's blueberry flavored honey.
Speaker 3:
Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:
So it's neat.
Speaker 3:
One day. I'll not now too many moving parts in life right now. So if someone from Plays Onward radio audience wants to order some honey from you, can they just email you directly and what's the charge? Yeah, so I don't even sell it.
Speaker 2:
Yet we always said oh, when we hit 100 pounds you know harvesting 100 pounds a year we'll sell it, and we have surpassed that. And we don't sell it yet.
Speaker 3:
It was fantastic. It was so good that and we don't sell it yet. It was fantastic, it was so good, it was way better than like the golden, golden blossom stuff we we got now. Katie does a dirty trick to me because I'm a snob when it comes to honey. I only like to enjoy honey that is shipped, purchased in a glass bottle glass, jar glass jar right exactly yeah and so katie.
Speaker 3:
Uh, I don't think it's grounds for divorce, but it's definitely not not a good thing. Yeah, she, she went to shop right or somewhere and got the plastic bear honey in a in a plastic bottle and dumped it out of that and put it in a glass jar dumped it out of that and put it in a glass jar.
Speaker 2:
Did you know the difference? Did you know it?
Speaker 3:
Instinctively I knew deep down I said something ain't right here, Because my palate is kind of refined. First, of all. I cannot believe that's deception. The Lord is not happy with that.
Speaker 1:
I cannot believe you put me out there like that. Just call me Speedbump, that's my new nickname. I cannot believe you put me out there.
Speaker 3:
I had to.
Speaker 1:
I'm still upset about this.
Speaker 3:
This is how upset I am about this, Catherine. That's how upset I am.
Speaker 1:
It was Costco for the big bottle, because it was about the budget.
Speaker 3:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
I agree with Katie.
Speaker 3:
Budget comes first I'm still kind of traumatized from that because I'm like I knew something. It's almost like taking a shower without a shower filter on and thinking you have a shower filter.
Speaker 1:
I'm not even telling myself, because you didn't find that out. I told you I was doing that I instinctively knew something wasn't right. I just felt I had to come clean. Yeah, I was so satisfied that it had to happen for so many years that I'd let you in on it yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
So to happen for so many years that I'd let you in on it. Yeah, yeah, so that's funny. So you know what I did to my husband when we moved? He had this ugly, ugly, ugly Ikea hat rack not the hat rack that goes on the wall, but the standup one. He wears fedoras, so he had this and it was ugly, so he wasn't here when.
Speaker 2:
when he wasn't here when, um, we moved. He travels a lot, so he wasn't here when we moved. He travels a lot. So when the movers and I can say this on air because I already fessed up to him.
Speaker 3:
But when?
Speaker 2:
the movers came, they held this up and they said where does this go? And I said, hmm, does it have to go anywhere? So good, and for about four months Larry's walking around. Where is my hat?
Speaker 3:
rack.
Speaker 2:
He's looking all over in the barn in the basement and I'm like I don't know.
Speaker 4:
I don't know, maybe we left it on Harmony Road.
Speaker 2:
So, finally, it's around Christmas time and we're shopping downtown in this antique store and he asked them for a hat rack, if they have a coat hanger or a hat rack, and I'm thinking, oh, maybe they'll have a nice wooden one and no guess what.
Speaker 3:
The same one.
Speaker 2:
They walk up to him with the same one, but in rat ear like it's missing half the screws and he paid double the amount for it.
Speaker 3:
I'm like oh my gosh, that's what you get. There you go, there you go.
Speaker 2:
The Lord repaid right there, so I did fess up to him and I'll say I did win in the end because he threw it out. Oh wow, we were doing a renovation on the in-law suite and he threw it out. And I was like oh sweet oh see.
Speaker 3:
So that brings me to probably the last question I got for you is, and I probably should ask this first how did you come to meet Jesus man? How did this happen?
Speaker 2:
When did you?
Speaker 3:
come to know Jesus.
Speaker 2:
So I grew up in a Christian family and we always went to church and I went to a really strong youth group, kind of like the one that you guys ran. It was called CAs Christian Ambassadors and, yeah, Richie and Peggy De La Cruz were the youth group leaders at Freehold First Assembly of God. They're still involved in my life.
Speaker 2:
And yeah, it was there, that influence on my life. That just it was. And I love this couple because they're still going strong. They're still just a strong influence on my life, just like you're a strong influence. Amen, amen On the lives of the young people that you guys were leading.
Speaker 3:
It's so important to let people know about the Lord early and light. I believe when kids are exposed to the truth of God's word early on, even if they buck the trend or walk away from that truth, there's a better probability of them that those seeds you know coming to fruit fruition.
Speaker 2:
It doesn't depart from them.
Speaker 3:
Right. It doesn't depart from them. I believe that 100%, and I think it's easier to talk to a younger person about the Lord than a salty, seasoned older person. That is hardened in their heart. It's so difficult and it's unfortunate because there's so many people like that that are not going to spend eternity with the Lord, in part because of the hardness of their heart. Going to spend eternity with the Lord in part because of the hardness of their heart, you know, so it's. I'm always blessed to hear stories about people that, from from their youth, have walked with the Lord and, you know, known him.
Speaker 1:
I was just going to say that's in Proverbs right Train a child in the way he should go. When he is old he will not depart from it.
Speaker 2:
And doesn't that give us a lot of encouragement when our kids do walk away, like you know, know, knowing that the seeds were planted and they walked away. That's their choice, but it's still there and the holy spirit's still with them. And, um, yeah, it's. It just gives so much hope and encouragement. No, it's true?
Speaker 1:
well, I I want to say I do have one more follow-up question first. First, I want to say thank you so much again for being one of our what we call playmakers.
Speaker 3:
Yes, she's the OG, she's the original playmaker. The original playmaker, that's right.
Speaker 1:
But I just want to know. So what's next for Patterson's Water and Plumbing? What can we pray for? What's happening? Good question.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So that's a good question. I keep wondering myself what's next. I've got a great team that is running the business for me, kind of I really they're making decisions. I'm not bothered by things on a daily like, oh, what do I do? How do I do this? I've got my daughter-in-law running the office and my daughter operations and God has just blessed me tremendously and I keep wondering what's next. So I'm trying to work more on building the business, looking forward what is next? How long do I want to do this gig?
Speaker 2:
I also opened up a second complementary business well testing. Like, yes, we do water testing with the company, but in New Jersey if you have a well and you're selling or renting your house, you have to get a state well test. It's a whole other animal. So I can do that now. So I'm spending more time focusing on that. And, yeah, what's next? I guess the next generation. I've always dabbled with the idea of having an employee owned company. I'm trying to work on succession planning and just always have I guess a good prayer is just always having the right people on the right seat on the bus, and I've always prayed for a hundred percent Christian company you know, so we're influencing the people in our team that aren't believers, and just having that boldness all the time.
Speaker 2:
You know, this is how we operate and, like I said, it's not my business. I'm just the manager of God's business.
Speaker 3:
Amen, amen. Well, if you come visit us, you got to bring a couple water testing kits.
Speaker 2:
I will. I always have it with me.
Speaker 1:
And some honey and some honey. But you know, I want to say that also too, this is in the years that we've known you. This is an answered prayer. I remember when you were at that point in your life in business where you wanted to be where you are now, where you wanted to be the think tank and have the time to do that and have a team that you could trust so you could do that, which is what you should be doing as the business owner. So it's been a blessing to you've been such a blessing to others. It's been a blessing to see you be blessed and to see your company and you grow to the point where you want it to be. And again, because you know you're all, you're laying that all at the, at the foot of Jesus.
Speaker 3:
So and Catherine was also. She was. She's also been the poster person for faithfulness, just being faithful.
Speaker 1:
That's helped us in our personal.
Speaker 3:
Yes, it just, you know, even when things were were difficult don't even need to go into detail, just things were difficult but, Catherine, she just remained faithful to support the ministry, what we were doing, and went above and beyond and just made it so that we were able to go forward and bring the gospel of Christ and the message of the word, bring it, bring it to people that have not actually haven't even heard about Jesus, which is amazing, you would think.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Isn't that amazing when you think about that, like there's people out there that don't even know who Jesus is and it's just like no one has ever. I always think about that, Like when you, when you meet some random person and you wonder, you hear a little bit a snippet about their life and you're like huh, who's praying for this person? We all have people praying for us, we know that, but there's so many people out there that have nobody praying for them. Like that's heavy. Who's praying for you know? Joe Schmo around the corner, who's, you know, has a whole family, who's not walking with the Lord and I don't know. It's a heavy responsibility, I think, when God brings people in our lives.
Speaker 3:
You know it's interesting. You say that I've found that and the Lord's been working with me on this that people that annoy me or slightly aggravate me, or people that just come into my mind out of nowhere, I'm like, whoa, why am I thinking about that person Most of the time, the Lord is counting on me to respond in prayer for them. How that works, I don't know. When we get to glory we'll understand and we're going to go. Oh wow, had I known, I would have prayed more.
Speaker 3:
I do think that there are so many people that rub us the wrong way and that aggravate us, and the Lord is actually calling us to not complain about them but to pray for their salvation. First and foremost, pray for them to know him. Hey, once you know the Lord, a lot of problems start to get solved. Your main problem gets solved, but problems with other people start to get solved. So, yeah, who's praying for that guy? Who is praying for Joe Schmo? Well, I think the Lord's asking you to pray for that person and you know, not you, catherine or Katie, but the person listening right now. You know the Lord's talking to you right now, telling you yes, that person I put on your heart, I want you to pray for them. Oh, but Lord, I can't. You know what they did. He doesn't care what they did. You shouldn't care what they did. He's asking you to pray for them.
Speaker 1:
Well, you know what they say. Your ministry is the toughest person you deal with. Think about that for a minute. So I'm your ministry. You did look at me a couple of times when you said people that annoy you. I'm like what are you looking at me?
Speaker 3:
That's going to be another episode of Plays on Word.
Speaker 2:
Wilberton, now Wilberton.
Speaker 3:
Not a hyphen or anything. No slash, no hyphen, no.
Speaker 2:
No.
Speaker 3:
The next phase Catherine Wilberton.
Speaker 1:
We are, as you said. We're going to put the link down the bottom, Definitely encourage you guys to go on the website and go under the About Us and check out some of the other ministries that you guys support.
Speaker 2:
We don't even have them all listed.
Speaker 1:
I keep meaning to do that, you know how technical savvy I am.
Speaker 2:
Katie. What's that? You know how tech savvy I am. Things on my website.
Speaker 1:
You's a barely turn my computer on number of them on there now and it's just good to see you know all the other good that's that's being done out there and the people that you are supporting, so I know if you're supporting them.
Speaker 3:
They are legit right and if if you're in new jersey monmouth ocean county area and you're taking a shower without a shower filter or a whole house filter, you need to just email or reach out to Catherine and get the lowdown on this. Don't trust the guy at Home Depot or Lowe's or the Ace Hardware store. You need to call Catherine because she's an expert on this. She's been in it for a long time and she will tell you about how messed up your water is.
Speaker 2:
Now see, now maybe you're going to sell in shower filters.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, there you go, amen you want to pray us out of here.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I'll pray you guys out. Yep, heavenly Father, thank you so much for Katie and Teddy. Thank you for what they've poured into my family's life decades ago. Thank you for what they're pouring into the lives of so many other people people they'll never know their name, they'll never know who they are, but they'll meet them in heaven and they're going to meet so many people in heaven, lord, that you led to their plays and eventually led to yourself. Lord, thank you so much. I pray that you equip this ministry for what is next. Equip them for what's right around the corner. Support them, lord, bring donors in that, give the support in prayer and monetary support for everything that this ministry needs, lord, and I pray that doors swing wide open everywhere they go, just for your word, lord, to be known amongst people who don't know who you are, who your son is, and I pray this, lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 3:
Amen, amen. Okay, we love you, girl. Yes, but all of you people out there and this includes you too, catherine, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Hallelujah, amen.
Speaker 4:
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