New place to worship - New Attitude

OK, so today I ventured out by myself to a very different worship service. different in many ways. Familiar in all the ways that count.

I must admit that it was difficult to get up and get ready and head out by myself to someplace that I knew I would not know anyone. I had three churches in mind for the past two weeks that I have planned on visiting. That is until I realized that the reason I was considering those three was that I would know someone there. once again I was trying to find some measure of comfort in an experience I knew would put me way outside my comfort zone. So after spending sometime last night in prayer and reflecting on somethings a couple of wonderful mature Christians have shared with me when discussing this new path God is guiding me down, I started thinking about and looking on line for information on churches that were not your typical church. But ones that were refreshing, growing and touching the communities they are in. I chose one that is fairly close to my home. One that is touching my community. It was in every way different from the traditional Baptist church I have been attending for the past 15 years. I guess I needed that. My first impressions were mixed. A store front instead of a church building with a steeple a "coffee house" instead of a fellowship hall? chairs instead of pews... a woman leading worship? no choir or worship band? just three women on stage with mikes and a DVD playing on a projection screen? OK, Kathy close your eyes and worship... Worship the one you came to worship.... AHHHH there He is! Yes, My God and my King was by my side... wait... what is that? an alter call at the beginning of the service? that was interesting... that was amazing! To see and hear others get real with God to hear others get emotional and right with God. Isn't that what it is really all about? Hmmmm. The Message was delivered by the senior pastor, at the very beginning they passed out bibles to any who did not have one and they encouraged everyone to find the passages that were referenced (and there were many of them) to go to them and read them for themselves. The message was based on a significant principle taught by God in the very beginning and taught by Jesus himself here on earth. Praise God he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! He inhabits the praise of His people no matter where the gather. Communion... not sure since today is the first of the month if it is a monthly thing or a weekly thing... once again completely different. No little cups were passed around instead Elders actually broke a large loaf of bread and invited all believers who had prepared themselves according to scripture to come forward break a piece from the loaf and dip it into the new wine and partake as Christ commanded His disciples to do. To finish a comforting old hymn... sung in a new way.

Lots to ponder, lots to consider, lots to pray about... God is good and God is faithful... Only God alone knows where I will be next Sunday morning...

Long overdue update

I cannot believe that it is the end of May! I am so sorry it has been so long since I have given an update. The truth is that life has just been so crazy lately. so much going on and even more than that I am trying to process it all to make sense of what is going on!

lots of areas to update you on so we will start with the Tupperfit challenge... first of all they have extended it so instead of it being 12 weeks it is now 16 weeks. that means four more weeks with a personal trainer. We are at the middle of week 10. (our week starts and ends on Wednesday morning. the results for week 9 still had my team in 1st place. I am also the one on my team that has lost the most weight. 36 pounds to date... still a long way to go however, I am more than a third of the way to my goal! my goal is to loose 100 pounds! That will actually take me under my perfect weight. however, I figure that gives me a little wiggle room...

Two other big items in my life that are changing is Shawn has moved out. He is now living with his father in St. Cloud. He got a job out at that end of town and since he will be 18 in just a couple of months I decided to let him make this move. So once again an empty nest... wow... This time I am really enjoying it! The other big thing is that I attended my last Sunday worship service at Faith Baptist Church. This is huge. I have been a member of that church for 15 years! It is especially hard to leave now when things are good there... really good. I however, really believe that God was telling me it was time. and when I did not follow that right away I just felt awefull. I knew i was outside of the will of God for my life and really had no choice. I do not know where I will be attending. I do not feel that God has given me any direction yet. but like I mentioned to a friend the other day, "God has never handed me an itinerary yet so I guess this is not different, it just feels a lot more scary than other things since I had been there so long" I know that God has a purpose for this and a plan for my life and my ministry so I am excited about the next part of this amazing adventure He has me on! LIFE WITH GOD IS AMAZING!!!

The Biggest Loser?

As unbelievable as it is to me. as of our last weigh-in after a month... I am currently in 1st place as the biggest loser! currently I have lost 9% of my weight! or a total of 23 pounds. God is so awesome! The workouts have not gotten any easier as the trainer is continually changing things on us. however they are working and that is the important thing. i do need to get better with my diet. I am doing well but know i could be doing better. evenings are still a problem for me. I want to snack my way thought them. yes i am eating healthy stuff but still need to cut the snacking out all together. I know it would make an even bigger difference if I did. God is so amazing to have me in this program and all kinds of great things are happening to me right now. I am on vacation this next week and spending two days with my life coach putting together my life plan! I am excited yet at the same time a bit scared to see what God reveals through this process.

Survived the first week

First week of serious diet and exercise... Wednesday was the first session with a personal trainer... oh my! there are two major things I learned during this workout....
1. I am so much stronger than I ever would have imagined.
2. I can exercise and not hurt myself!

Don't get me wrong I hurt I have muscles screaming at me that I did not even know I had. and those I knew about are angry angry angry! however there is a very big difference between sore and hurt! or better way to say it is between hurt and Injured. I hurt but am not injured. I did not know if that was possible. What I learned is that lots more was possible then I ever would have believed possible. for example... I did 50 push ups! yes that is not a typo I did 50 (fifty) push ups! I did 60 crunches, 50 squats with while lifting a 10 pound weight over my head! and more! I was totally amazed! Then as we are finishing our first session she tells us that she wants us in the gym 3 times a week outside of our two sessions a week and when we are there she wants us to do interval training on the treadmill. 50 minutes worth of interval training. 2 minutes at 3 then 1 minute at 1 then 2 minutes at 3 and then 1 minute at 1 and so on until we have done that for 50 minutes! I thought Ya, right! four weeks ago I could barely make it around the block at a moderate pace! but guess what I did tonight!!!!! you got it 50 minutes on the treadmill doing interval training! Now don't get me wrong... I know I can do nothing but by the power of God. I know that It is in my weakness that His stregnth is made perfect! I get that I know it is Him... All Him! but man oh man how amazing is this! that He is using my body to do this. Me! that is so very very amazing!!! What an adventure this journey is!

Blessings everyone I am off to find the ibuprophen!

March Update

Wow!!! what a month this has been... since my last post. the Extreme Makeover Conference took place in Redington Beach. It was a wonderful success. When we decided to do this conference we said that if only we came and we were able to just meet and practice and talk though things we would all be happy. Well then we decided that it would be wonderful if we had 10 people there. we would feel very blessed and have a wonderful time meeting each other and practicing our speaking and presentation skills. Well there were over 40 ladies in attendance and the evaluations that they filled out confirmed for all of us that this is something we need to pursue further. I do not know exactly where it will all lead to, however the journey is amazing! here are a few of the highlights.

The Tupperfit challange has begun and yes of course I made one of the teams. I don't even know why I thought there was a chance i would not. It is just amazing to me how God has me on this path. The really cool part about this is that i found out the night before the conference where i was giving my testimony about this extreme makeover God is doing in my life! Isn't God just amazing! So on Wednesday March 25th. I will start working out with a personal trainer and hopefully will find a new me hidden inside all of this extra weight i have been carrying around my entire life!

A Question

Today I made a decision to step out in faith and do something I believe that God has put in place to be a blessing to me. Although I know this would be a huge blessing of extreme proportions It was also something that had me scared for many reasons. The biggest because it will mean big big change in my life. Change for the better, but huge change anyway. the second is that it is something that I have struggled with for years. Most of my life in fact and if this worked like I am sure it would well... lets just say it also would bring me one step closer to total transformation...

In response to this fear I e-mailed someone whom I respect for his professional role in my life as a physician, as well as knowing he is an ordained minister I thought he might lead to some insight into this decision as well as my emotional and spiritual struggle here. my question to him was...

"How come stepping out in faith believing you are doing what God wants you to do strikes fear in our hearts? well at least for me it does... queasy tummy, shaky feeling all over, and almost finding it hard to breathe..." His reply rocked my world once I "got it" I will admit it took me some time to "get it" see if you do... His answer...

"BECAUSE ALL GROWTH TAKES PLACE OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE!! We are never stretched inside our zone, that is why it is called faith... You're going somewhere or believing for something you don't have or have never been."

Ok, I get that. I even believe that and well to be honest I knew that. I think I was whining a bit... However he did not stop there... Oh No, of course he did not! He goes on to write...

"Let me say this, "you can not leave a place you have never been." this means until we each accept where we are right now, reality that is, (no illusions or misperceptions - just being honest with ourselves) we can't move forward because we can't leave a place we have never been (reality of our present place)!!! "

Now I read that and reread that and read it some more. Printed it out and read it, reread it, prayed about it, prayed over it, asked God to help me get it... took it with me at lunch time to read it some more... returned from lunch and read it again, reread it again... O MY... I think I get it... read it again... Oh No! I get it!!! I cry... My God continues to overwhelm me! talk about having problems with breathing... it took me some time to compose myself and reply back to him...

Do you get it? read it until you do... Pray about it until God reveals it to you! WOW our God is AWESOME!!! I have much to commit to prayer about tonight!

Blessings,

Extreme Makeover

On March 14th a group of Life Coaches will be presenting a Women's Conference called:
"Extreme Makeover" from the Inside Out"
This is a first and will probably be a very small group of attendees. The theme is Transforming our lives from the inside to the outside and will include both teachings on inward change and outside change.
The group will include:
Carolyn Reynolds (my life coach) www.pathway-partners.com : Her teaching is called "Soften My Heart" and is about your heart being open to God and fellowship with him. She will be speaking on putting down pride in our lives and living a life of humility.
Charlyn Thomasson www.thetrueyou.net: Charlyn is an image consultant and will be teaching about, How to dress on a budget and other outside makeover subjects.
Kathy Cunningham www.aseedofhope.org - Kathy will be teaching on "Growing a Seed of Hope - How to Grow hope and faith in your life especially during challenging times.
Kathy Green (Me) - www.readysetbloom.com : Kathy is a single mom who has overcome many obstacles both inside and out and will be sharing how God did an "Extreme makeover" on her.
Cathy Fox: Cathy is in transition in life and is going to teach on "Taking a Step" - How to have courage when God's gives you new direction in life,
Natalie Kane: Natalie works at A Woman's Place Ministries and is a consultant for Heartbeat International: Natalie will be offering "Reflections" throughout the conference.
Please pray for us and for God to send those who need to hear these messages.
To see each of the Coaches profiles go to http://www.lifepurposecoachingcenters.com/lpcc/CoachesTable.asp
and click on the state of Florida.

A New Year and a New Way

Januaries are always a bit strange for me. Everyone is making all kinds of New years resolutions and trying to do things differently for the new year. then about the third week of the month 90% of the people have reverted back to their old way of doing things. For me the New Year begins with reflection, and then about the third week I get serious and start making changes after my birthday at the end of the month, just about the time everyone else is throwing in the towel.

Change is something that just does not come naturally for most people. However for the past year I have been looking at change in a whole new way. in December of 2007 I decided that 2008 was going to be the year I make significant changes in my life and finally got healthy. Like most of you when you hear healthy you immediately think of diet and exercise. Right? well I did as well. However, Our God, well he had other plans for me to get healthy in 2008. His vision for healthy for 2008 did not include those two items. It did however include quitting smoking... 30+ years of smoking done! June 16Th 2008 I smoked my last cigarette! God truly did this. I didn't even want to quit, and I told God that all the time. I did however want to be obedient to my Lord and His plans for my life. He honored that and took it away from me. I praise my God for how amazing He is! I also had major dental work done, this made a huge difference in my health. I cannot begin to tell you how much... And our Gracious God knowing How afraid of dentist I was and how much I could not afford it, brought me a gentle friend whom I already knew and trusted to bless me with a new healthy smile! Then finally in the final months of 2008 God introduced me to another gentle man who would bless me with healing through Chiropractic care. My central nervous system is now allowing my body to heal itself the way God intended for our bodies to heal. I feel so much healthier this year than I did at the beginning of last year. God did not however stop with the physical healing work He was doing in my life. God worked on spiritual and emotional healing in my life as well last year.

So 2008 was the beginning of major Transformation in my life. Looking at life in a whole new way. So 2009? what does it hold in store for me? as I approach my birthday this year what are the things I would like to do differently? Well like so many other Diet and exercise still ranks up there as important to me. God I believe is on board with that this year. I have started a program called First Place 4 Health. If all goes well, I will be starting a group at church to assist myself and others in this process. Not just a diet and exercise program it is learning to find balance in your life and to do that you need to learn to put God in First Place, this is the cornerstone to life. The foundation on which we can achieve proper and lifelong health.

I am excited about 2009. I know that it will be another year of transformation. But isn't that the one true goal of all Christians? to allow God to transform us into the likeness of His Son?

Blessings,

A Huge Step Forward

Well it is official, I have wrestled with God over this step big time! However I have to be obediant even when it makes no sense to me... I am now a Missionary. Those five little words... I cannot begin to tell you the effect they have on me. I can assure you that I never imagined that I would ever in my life make such a statement. However it is true. I am a missionary. I have been accepted by an organization called Yeilded Evangelical Servants also know as Y.E.S.

If you are interested you can go to their website and view my Missionary page. It can be found at www.yeservants.org/missionaries/Green.htm just click on this link or cut and paste into the address bar on your browser.

I do appreciate all that you do to keep me upheld in prayer, as well as the outpouring of your love and support.

May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas! may you see and feel Gods presence with you as you celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior! May God shower you with blessings in the New Year and guide and direct you path throughout 2009.

Blessings my friends,

My testimony

Recently I was asked to provide my testimony. After praying about it and asking God to help me share but not write a novel because to share all that God has done in my life truly would be a novel. I felt lead to post this here for others to see just how amazing our God is! if you have questions please contact me, I would love to share a conversation with you about how you can also have this kind of an amazing change in your life. To experience a relationship that will be the most amazing relationship of your life.

At the age of 16 at a Fall Youth Retreat, with my local church, the Evangelical Covenant Church in Royal Palm Beach Florida and through the ministry of a College group called Heart Song, from North Park College, and a drama production they did at that retreat, I came to realize in a very real way that it was my sins that helped nail Jesus to the cross.
I also understood that He allowed it and did this willingly because of His love for me and because He desired a relationship with me that was impossible due to the sin that separated me from a perfect and holy God. I was undone by this knowledge that I (because of my sins) was just as guilty of His death as the Roman Centurions who nailed his hands and feet to the cross and stabbed him in the side to hasten his death. I understood King David’s cry to God that it was against Him and Him only that he had sinned. (although it would me many years before I would ever read that verse, i fully understood the concept) I spent time that evening with one of the youth workers. Through prayer, I confessed my sins to God and repented by making a decision to change my behavior and lifestyle to make God the LORD of my life. I wanted to become a follower of His. For many years after, I did not have the discipleship necessary to become the women God had created me to be. I also struggled with who was going to be in control of my life, me or God. God in His relentless pursuit of me finally helped me to understand just how much He Loved me, that He was trustworthy, and truly wanted only the best for me. I learned that He desired that I take my relationship with Him to a much deeper level and now through that process, and the lessons I am still learning from Him, He has placed in my heart a passion to share with women the lessons He has taught me. Like Titus 2: 3-5 says to teach the younger women. So I feel God’s call to teach, mentor and encourage those who may profit from all that Christ has taught me about His Love and provision for his daughters. There is no doubt in my mind that God has called me to do this. I know I would never choose the difficult task of encouraging those who truly find themselves and their children in desperate situations and without hope. However, when I am actively engaged with one of these young moms, or even with a teenage young women trying to figure out what now? I come away from those encounters energized and full of Praise for My God who delights in his daughters and has made extravagant promises to them to protect and provide. He has even mapped out a future full of Hope and purpose for them and their children. When I see one of them, though a series of activities and answered prayer, where the Holy Spirit brings them to an understanding of what that purpose is and then they start taking steps to become all that God created them to be. Then I find myself standing in amazement of my God, and find it is a privilege to walk along side these women and watch God draw them close to Himself and do amazing things in their lives!