Transforming Limitations Into Possibilities: Steve Moore & Sue Corl
This content may be triggering for some listeners.
Steve Moore: God doesn’t call the qualified. He doesn’t wait until you’re ready to do something. He doesn’t wait until you’re certified and qualified. He qualifies the ones who He’s called. So when you’re called to do something, even though it seems a bit scary, He will provide what you need to do it.
Transforming Limitations Into Possibilities: Steve Moore & Sue Corl – Episode #448
Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we’ll hear from Steve Moore, a lifelong music industry professional whose career trajectory took a sharp turn after a life-changing trip to Guatemala. After a storied career managing legendary artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and George Strait—and serving as CEO of the Country Music Association—a simple journey to help build a school became the spark for a deeper passion, one that led him to establish The Shalom Foundation and open the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center, bringing life-changing medical care to children in need.
Later in the episode, we’ll hear from Sue Corl, a missionary with over forty years of ministry experience, mostly with Campus Crusade for Christ. Growing up, Sue had to face the physical and emotional challenges of a severe cleft palate through her faith and the unwavering support of her mother. As the founder of Crown of Beauty International, her mission is to aid individuals, families, and communities to experience renewal, transformation, and hope.
Let’s begin with Steve’s story.
Steve Moore: My name is Steve Moore. I’m from Texas, been in the concert business my whole career. I did a stint as a CEO of the Country Music Association for about three or four years, and that was a lot of fun. I’ve moved on to other different things in business and in philanthropy, so that’s kind of where I’m at right now.
I grew up in a small little town north of Beaumont, Texas. At some point in junior high, I got into music, and I was a trumpet player. I had dreams of being in the music world somehow, or playing in some band.
Out of high school, I went to North Texas State in Denton, Texas, and my parents didn’t have enough money for me to stay there. So I ended up moving back to Beaumont and ultimately went to Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, worked in the refineries and put myself through college, and was a trumpet major in Lamar.
And then I went to work in Houston. I made some contacts with some folks that worked for ZZ Top, and they offered me a job to come to work for that management company in Houston. A big manager there named Bill Ham, he managed ZZ Top and some other rock bands. And so I was starry-eyed and I left Beaumont and moved to Houston to work in that business. I worked with Bill Ham for about three years, but I wanted to do something on my own. So I left and started a small company called IBM—I used IBM’s name since it sounded big—but it’s Independent Booking and Management. And I started booking clubs and small acts. And two of my clients, one was Stevie Ray Vaughan and the other was George Strait, and I was booking clubs for them and promoting them in small things.
From Volunteer to Vocation
At the end of 1997, I was in church, and a gentleman got up there and started talking about the need in this particular community in Guatemala. There was a Shalom Baptist church there, and they wanted to build a school for their kids that were coming to church there and didn’t really have any place to go.
And honestly—I think back on this so many times—I never jumped up and said, “Oh yeah, that’s what I want to do.” All I know is after the service was over, I went down and signed up to go on the trip. And I think that God had motivated me to do that. I didn’t do it under my own volition. I didn’t pick Guatemala. I probably didn’t even know where it was at the time, but God picked Guatemala for me. And it was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me.
“God had motivated me to [go to Guatemala]. I didn’t do it under my own volition. I didn’t pick Guatemala. I probably didn’t even know where it was at the time, but God picked Guatemala for me. And it was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me.” – Steve Moore
When you go into a place like that, it moves you in a way you’ve never been moved before. God broke my heart in a million pieces for those kids. And looking back on it, I always asked myself, Why did He send me? Because I’m not qualified to do any of those things, you know, other than go and maybe help load a wheelbarrow or something. But I finally realized that God doesn’t call the qualified. He doesn’t wait until you’re ready to do something. He doesn’t wait until you’re certified and qualified. He qualifies the ones who He’s called. So when you’re called to do something, even though it seems a bit scary, He will provide what you need to do it.
“God doesn’t call the qualified. He doesn’t wait until you’re ready to do something. He doesn’t wait until you’re certified and qualified. He qualifies the ones who He’s called. So when you’re called to do something, even though it seems a bit scary, He will provide what you need to do it.” – Steve Moore
What I didn’t realize then that I see now, is the first trip I made wasn’t about building the school. This one particular trip, this lady brought this young child. I think Ana was three and a half or four years old, and she showed me the scar. And she was crying. And finally through an interpreter, we understood that she had suffered a gunshot wound. The doctors in Guatemala had tried to remove it, but couldn’t do it.
We brought her to the States, and Dr. Mack Baxter, a surgeon in Nashville, operated on her and removed the bullet. That whole thing was such an emotional roller coaster, good and heartwarming and sad and all those things. It was just one of those things that you will never forget as long as you live, that whole scenario of getting her that surgery and getting her healthy again.
But then God put in my heart, What about the rest of them? What about the children that are running the streets and don’t meet Steve Moore or they don’t meet people that can help them?
It creates a sense of hopelessness, and no one should live with a sense of hopelessness.
The Shalom Foundation and The Moore Center
I don’t think God was through with me with Guatemala. So I said, “Well, I’m going to start my own foundation so I can continue to serve these children in Guatemala.” So that’s where The Shalom Foundation came from.
I said, “Well, if I can find you a place to go, and offer some surgeries and stuff for some of these kids…” In my mind, surgeons are like artists. We promote shows and we go to a building in a town and we set up a stage and put in sound and lights and artists show up and they play and the people come and they listen. And I thought, Well, what’s the difference? I can go to Guatemala, I put on a show, and the doctors come and stitch and cut and heal.
I thought it was going to be easy to just find a hospital and start working on getting kids, but it was yet another series of trials and tribulations. I found a building fairly quickly, but it took us about another two years to get legal possession of it because of the bureaucracy in Guatemala. And then once we finally got possession of it, it took us another four and a half years to remodel it and actually get it to be a hospital.
So we opened in March of 2011, thirteen years later, we hit 10,000 surgeries. It was very humbling, that number. But when you think about the patients, the children, their faces, their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, it affected many, many people in that whole process. We can take pride and celebrate this milestone, but we just need to make sure that God gets the glory for this. We’re just honored to be a part of it.
I just think that for anyone who has never thought about it, God has a plan for you. It’s the best kept secret in most people’s lives. I would just encourage you to try it. It doesn’t have to be Guatemala, it could be across the street, down the road. God has a purpose for your life. And sometimes He’s not going to give you the whole cinematic version of it. You’re going to have to just trust in Him, trust and obey what He’s trying to show you. I can’t say that I had that all figured out at the time, but as you reflect back on it, like they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty, and it is.
“God has a plan for you. It’s the best kept secret in most people’s lives.” – Steve Moore
Narrator: To learn more about Steve Moore, visit www.theshalomfoundation.org.
Stay tuned to Sue Corl’s story after a brief message.
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Our next guest is Sue Corl, the founder of the nonprofit organization Crown of Beauty International. Sue was born with a severe cleft palate, and faced horrific bullying and assault because of her appearance. Sue’s brother was a source of encouragement to help Sue really see beyond her limitations, which inspired Sue to turn her attention to others in the world who would benefit from the help and hope she could offer.
Sue Corl: Hi, I’m Sue Corl, and I am a wife and a mother of two adult children who I raised overseas in Asia as a missionary. I worked for Campus Crusade for Christ for forty-two years, and more recently started my own nonprofit called Crown of Beauty International.
I was born with a very severe cleft palate. It was so severe, in fact, [that I had] no nose, no upper lip, no upper palate. After three weeks, they were unable to get food for me in any way. And so they sent me home to die. They just really didn’t see how I could live.
Well, my mother was a pediatric nurse at that hospital. And interestingly, that hospital had a doctor that was the number one surgeon for cleft palates. So for the past two years, they had people flying their children from all over the country for this doctor. And my mother specialized with these cleft palate babies before I was born. And so when I was born, my mother really believed and she prayed, “Lord, save my baby.” And as she prayed, she really sensed God saying, “No, she will not die, I have a purpose for her.”
“When I was born, my mother really believed and she prayed, ‘Lord, save my baby.’ And as she prayed, she really sensed God saying, ‘No, she will not die, I have a purpose for her.’” – Sue Corl
My mother figured out—she’s a very creative person—a creative way to take things from home, including a mask that was like a toy for my older two brothers, and placed it over my face and attached a bottle. And so I was able to get into this contraption and I started to get food. So after three months, she took me back to the hospital and insisted that the doctor operate. Well, he was afraid that because of my weak heart that I would die on the table. But I didn’t. And from there I had twenty-six major operations during the first fifteen years of my life.
Sue Faces Bullying, Loneliness, and Assault
I really know that my mom kept me alive, not only physically, but emotionally, because what really became hard was when I started school. You know, before that, the kids in the neighborhood got used to me. I had older brothers who would actually protect me if anybody teased me, he’d let them have it, you know? So I got to school and I didn’t have that protection. And the kids really bullied me. I had a terrible speech impediment. I was missing a lot of teeth, and needed, over the years, dental work. And even a teacher in my first grade told me I couldn’t sit with the kids during the reading time because I talked funny. So it was a rough time.
I started to believe their lies of saying that I was ugly. I was rejectable. I was a freak. They called me dog face. And it got to the point where I really put a protective wall around myself that honestly stayed with me throughout my childhood and into my adulthood.
“I started to believe their lies of saying that I was ugly. I was rejectable. I was a freak. And it got to the point where I really put a protective wall around myself that honestly stayed with me throughout my childhood and into my adulthood. It led to me walking away from God because I felt so much shame.” – Sue Corl
In middle school, I discovered that I had a lot of athletic ability. In fact, I became the best athlete in the school and that gave me a lot of confidence around boys. And so I was able to have guy friends, but I always felt like they accepted me not as a woman really, or a beautiful girl, but just for my athletics. So I went to college and I still was carrying this and I was very successful. I made the U.S. lacrosse team even in college. But I was just convinced that no guy could really love me and accept me for my femininity.
I started going to parties just for friendship. And unfortunately, right in the beginning at a party, a guy started being really nice to me. And I was nervous, but to get that kind of attention from a man, I longed for that because I felt so much rejection. He offered to walk me home, and on the way home, he raped me. Well, that just devastated me and I really put up the walls. But it led to me walking away from God because I felt so much shame.
Realizing We Are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
But my third year of college, my brother was now growing strongly in his faith through Campus Crusade for Christ at Penn State. And so he helped me get back on track. And it was the first time I ever learned about how the Holy Spirit dwells within us, that we can depend on Him to give us strength and power. God was filling me with the same love in John 15 that the Father has for Jesus, Jesus has for us.
When Jesus Calling first came out, and I started reading through these prayers… Sarah Young obviously has a very intimate walk with God. I’d go through the prayers of Sarah along with my own prayers. And it really helped me to get to a more intimate place with God.
God took me deeper because I was reading the Word one day, and I came to Psalm 139. I have read this verse so many times, actually, the whole Psalm. Verses one through twelve, I’m meditating, meaning I’m really pondering each verse, took a really long time, and I’m enjoying that wherever I go, God is with me. And it’s just giving me such courage and hope and faith in whatever I was going through. And then I came to thirteen or fourteen where it said that, “He knit me together in my mother’s womb, and that I praise you, God, for I’m fearfully and wonderfully made. [Psalm 139: 13-14]” This was King David saying this, and it hit me for the first time that I’ve read this so many times. And yet I realized when I got to that verse, I just was thinking deep down subconsciously, Oh, but that doesn’t apply to me. I was just saying to God, “This isn’t true. Your words are not true.” And by then I was like, “I can’t say that. All of God’s Word is true. That means this is true.” And so I was being transformed in my mind through that meditation, that daily practice of meditating and thinking about what it means from Genesis 1:26 and Psalm 139:14 to be created in the image of God and therefore being fearfully and wonderfully made.
We have a fear of God, like, “Oh, He’s awesome.” That kind of fear, that same kind of awesomeness of God, He’s saying, “This is what’s true about me, about everyone listening right now, about all of God’s creation, that we’re created in the image of God.” And that’s why I could know that I am beautiful and that I have talents and that I reflect His image.
“We’re created in the image of God. And that’s why I could know that I am beautiful and that I have talents.” – Sue Corl
The Ripple Effect of Our Transformation
So in the summer of my junior year, I went on a mission trip to the Philippines because by then, my brother was a missionary, and he invited me. That was life-changing. That was where I really felt God was calling me into full time Christian work.
So when I graduated, that was when I then joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and did youth ministry in Hawaii for ten years. And from there I moved to Asia for the next twenty-five years. I have a team now. I train women around the world. So, for example, I have a team in Lebanon and I have a team in Bangladesh. I have a team in Fiji. I’m about to go to Nepal.
I was going to various cities and campuses, churches, things like that, and meeting with leaders. And what I found is that people were really struggling. So many came as teachers and organizations, they were wanting to go home. They were depressed. They were having team issues, marriage issues, parenting issues, all kinds of things going wrong. And as I would listen to them, what I learned was that God was really showing me the process of transformation that He took me through, and I was sharing that with them.
I had the opportunity a few years back to go to Thailand. They brought in women from several other villages. I was sharing my story as a child and what it was like for my mom, and the whole time there was this old, old woman, very tiny, standing in the back. And so when I got back there, my translator was with me and he said, “She wants to talk to you.” She said, “I did not want to come to this. I actually was planning to commit suicide tonight, but my son made me come. But I was going to come listen and then go kill myself because life is just too hard.” And she said, “When I heard all that your mother went through, all that you went through, that you trusted God through all that, that He pulled you through that, now I realize that I’m just listening to the enemy and that God has a purpose for my life and I need to trust Him.” So it’s just a beautiful thing.
Let me close by reading a prayer from Jesus Listens on January 7th:
Holy Lord,
I love to worship You in the beauty of holiness. The beauty of Your creation reflects some of who You are, and it delights me! You are working Your ways in me: the divine Artist creating loveliness in my inner being. You’ve been clearing out the debris and clutter within me, making room for Your Spirit to take full possession. Help me to collaborate with You in this effort— being willing to let go of anything You choose to take away. You know exactly what I need, and You have promised to provide all of that—abundantly!
I don’t want my sense of security to rest in my possessions or in things going my way. You are training me to depend on You alone, finding fulfillment in Your loving Presence. This involves being satisfied with much or with little of the world’s goods, accepting either as Your will for me. Instead of grasping and controlling, I’m learning to release and receive. To cultivate this receptive stance, I need to trust You more—in any and every situation.
In Your beautiful Name, Jesus,
Amen
Narrator: To learn more about Sue and her work, please visit www.crownofbeautyinternational.com.
If you’d like to hear more stories about serving others, check out our interview with Luke Sherman.
Next week: Melanie Shankle
Next week, we visit with author and speaker Melanie Shankle as she explores her complex family dynamics, discovering what it takes for any of us to survive, and ultimately thrive, in spite of wounds that remain.
Melanie Shankle: I think there are certain patterns that are so ingrained in family that when you try to go against it, everybody’s like, “But this is the way it’s always been.” But you have to recognize that just because the way it’s always been doesn’t mean that’s the way it always should be. And it doesn’t mean that God isn’t wanting to do a new thing.
