“Don’t let the title ‘Pastor’ fool you,” warned the new Patagonia Community United Methodist Church pastor, Katrina Pahulu, during an address at a weekly Spiritual Roundtable meeting, an outreach program of the local church. The 34-year-old went on to explain, “As I grew up, I strayed from church, despised it. It felt stifling. I did my own thing. I was the outgoing party girl.”
Pastor Katrina was born on the Hawaiian island of Maui and grew up in Lahaina, a two-church town. The Methodist church had a congregation that was largely Tongan, and families like hers with that South Pacific background attended church every day. Her family moved to southern California, where Katrina ended up attending seven high schools and focusing on all sports, from basketball to rugby.
The “party girl” graduated with a degree in medical anthropology from Cal State Fullerton and thought she might author a book on traditional Tongan medicine. First, however, she found herself in many jobs, ranging from hospitality and travel to caregiving and disabled services, to even working as a personal trainer in a gym.
“I tried to find different people and places where I could express what I needed to express, not church and home,” Katrina said. She ended up feeling “everything was on my shoulders—all my bad experiences I had suppressed. I didn’t know I was going down into a dark hole. Spiraling.”
Seeking fulfillment and peace, Katrina became what she now calls a “Rastafarian-loving Buddhist.” It was not enough, but a bridge.
In the meantime, she had gotten an idea for a business.
“I thought it would change my life,” Katrina said. “I wanted this to work really really badly, and had paid a lot of money to get there. I felt like success was on the tip of my tongue. I wanted just one word, ‘Yes’, from God, [to be] ready to launch.
“When I listened I found the word that came to my heart was ‘Fasting,’” marveled Katrina. “I couldn’t believe it. I asked for a word. This was the word?!”
She continued, “I told myself I would fast for 24 hours. I didn’t realize how much of my time I spent thinking of food, shopping and preparing food, eating food. I used that time instead to pray, meditate. I was basically feeding myself God’s word. It felt like being nourished. On the second day, feeling really weak, that’s when I really dug deep down inside and asked God to just give me strength.
“The third day was when my body felt renewed. The world was whirling around me with colors, I was moving at a steady pace and at ease, at peace with myself, focused on the inner. I was up there on the mountain with joy. I was in direct contact with God.
“On the seventh day of the fast I then heard a calling to ministry—serving God and others.
“My response was, ‘Not this, that’s not what I want to hear.’ I got mad. I was ready to go this [other] way and you’re turning me this way to a path I had despised growing up. I respected pastors but it was not something I could ever see turning myself into, not a righteous leader getting everyone to change.
“I had to wrestle with it for three more days; It wasn’t part of my five-year plan!”
Eventually Katrina realized it was the service part of ministry that made her feel she could do the job of being a pastor. That could be her focus. The transformative fast cleared her mind for making changes quickly, and she immediately enrolled in the California Methodist pastor licensing program.
That first fast lasted ten days, when she was 30 years old, which, interestingly enough, is the same age as Jesus when he started his ministry after 40 days of fasting and internal struggles in the desert.
“When I surrendered my need for being in control, my need for doing it my way, that’s when I started my spiritual path,” said Katrina. “Fasting wasn’t just the means to find the answer, it was the answer.”
Katrina has done fasting ever since. Each day, she takes the OMAD (one meal a day) approach, and once a month she does a fast lasting three to four days. She likes to talk about it because she wants others to experience the joy and clarity that can come from a spiritual practice.
Katrina explained, “In the Methodist tradition, fasting is understood as a spiritual discipline—a way of drawing closer to God by setting aside something that usually sustains us, so we can be sustained instead by God’s presence. It’s not about punishment or deprivation, but about creating space for grace. Fasting reminds us that our true dependence is not on food, comfort, or control, but on God’s provision. It’s a physical way of expressing an inward hunger for righteousness and deeper communion with God.”
Last month, Katrina initiated a “fasting about money” challenge as part of the 21-Day Stewardship Season at PCUMC.
“It wasn’t just about spending less — it was about shifting our mindset from ownership to stewardship,” Katrina said. “Participants were invited to refrain from unnecessary spending and to reflect daily on what it means to trust God with their finances. Just as traditional fasting brings awareness to how much we rely on food, this financial fast revealed how easily money can take hold of our hearts.
“By pausing our usual spending habits, we learned to see God’s blessings more clearly, practice gratitude, and become more intentional about generosity. It was a spiritual reset—not just for our wallets, but for our souls.”
Two days after moving to Patagonia in July to take her first post as pastor, this “small-town girl,” as Katrina smilingly calls herself, was already declaring to people how much she loved the town.
“I could see myself becoming a part of the community,” she said. “The cashier at the market knew my name before I introduced myself! And I was so excited to see that ‘Community’ is part of this church’s name!”
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Katrina is the third pastor in one and a half years at the church’s post. She’s looking long-term. Katrina’s younger sister Olivia has joined her in Patagonia, as Katrina juggles working in her half-time pastor position at PUMC and doing graduate studies for her Master of Divinity degree through Claremont University in California.
“I love doing this work,” Katrina said. “It’s a new way of thinking of how to live life—not trying to shoot for success, but something instead to pour my life into. It stretches me, makes me go out of my comfort zone. Not only receiving love from others, but building relationships with others, reaching out.
“Not like a party girl,” she laughs.
“I’m not the kind of pastor trying to pull people into church to read the Bible. I’m an action person. I like to think my experiences emanate from me, the person I’ve become today.
“I realize I always had it in me. I just needed to sharpen. Through my love I show people who I am—and who they can be.”