Melody Miller Mann at Podapalooza: 40 Countries, $1,200, and the Day Jesus Called Her by Name

Episode summary

Recorded live during the Podapalooza #16 virtual marathon, this episode welcomes author, retired nurse, and journalist Melody Miller Mann, RN, BSN, BJ. In 1973, fresh out of the University of Texas at Austin and leaving a dream job that turned sour, Melody walked into the post office instead of the unemployment office, applied for her passport, and set off with $1,200 and an overstuffed pink suitcase she nicknamed her “pink dinosaur.” Over 12 months she traveled solo through 40 countries.

But the greatest moment of the journey wasn't a landmark. Alone in the back of an ambulance in her 40th country, Melody realized she had pursued independence all the way to isolation. Days later, a stranger on a Dublin sidewalk invited her to pizza with his friends, and in the middle of their simple prayer of thanks, she encountered Jesus, who called her by a name almost no one ever used: Melody. Truth had found her.

Georgette and Melody talk about divine appointments, discovering your God-given purpose, the “miracle hire” that launched her medical-writing career, her personal journey with natural health, the knee injury she calls an “obedience injury,” and why it's never too late to learn, grow, and begin again. Melody's new memoir, Truth Found Me, is endorsed by Jack Canfield as “a real page-turner.”

In this episode

Why Melody traded a dream job that turned sour for a passport and a one-way adventure

Hitchhiking across Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary — and the pink suitcase that burst open mid-airport

The ambulance ride that revealed the end of the road for independence: isolation

A Dublin sidewalk, a pizzeria, and the moment Jesus called her “Melody”

Why the title is Truth Found Me — not “I Found Truth”

A joyful restroom attendant at the Strawberry Festival and the question: Do you have a dream?

The man who hired her before he even knew her name