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When a song you've heard many times before suddenly speaks life into you for the first time again.
#30daysofgreenhope Day 4 #imstillhere #nicolenordeman #soundofsurviving
Listen to SOUND OF SURVIVING, by Nichole Nordeman
Listen to the DAY 3 Video to hear how God used some SOMEONEs to show HOPE to me today. Then read below about a SOMEONE I’d like to introduce you to at an event August 28th.
I’d love to hear your comments below about how HOPE shows up for you today
When Ren and I got married, SOMEONE gave me a book called Creative Counterpart : Becoming the Woman, Wife, and Mother You Have Longed To Be. (Hmmm? I should probably go back and read that book again)
Anyway, the author was SOMEONE by the name of Linda Dillow and her writing connected deeply with me. So as her other books came out, I was quick to pick them up and share them with others.
Over the years, I had opportunities to meet Linda, then sit and chat with her after a speaking event, then correspond via email in a mentoring relationship. Our family even got to housesit for Linda and her husband, Jody while they were traveling for a season. Even though we only had a brief time with them directly, living in their home taught me much about this SOMEONE that I knew God had brought into my life for a reason.
Kathy and Linda at Kiev conference 2002
In the fall of 2002, I was invited to lead a worship team from our Ohio church for a women’s conference in Kiev, Ukraine. Little did I know, the speaker for the event was SOMEONE named Linda Dillow. She was in the middle of writing her book “Satisfy My Thirsty Soul”. Our time together in preparations for the retreat turned out to be life-changing for me as a woman and a worshiper. I was and am eternally grateful for the role she has played in my life.
Linda and Kathy at Surprised by the Healer Conference 2015.
She’s holding the manuscript of my book.
It was no surprise when I was looking for SOMEONE to write the foreward for my book Lovely Traces of Hope, that Linda would be my first choice. (You can read what she wrote here.) As you read the pages of my book, there are many times when Linda’s words to me are being channeled to you- either from her books, her emails, our conversations. There are times when I give her credit. There are times when I didn’t even realize that Linda was the one that first introduced me to the thoughts or the scriptures. So here’s me saying ‘thank you’ publically once again for the amazing ways God has used this woman in my life.
The exciting thing for me is …that same SOMEONE, Linda Dillow is making another appearance. And we are inviting you to join us.
Linda and her daughter, Jessa Dillow Crisp will be speaking at the Community Bibile Church in Omaha, Nebraska
The topic is HOPE!
Since not all of us can travel to Nebraska, the women of our church in Ottawa, Ohio and the GREEN HOPE COACHING community are co-sponsoring a live-streamed event locally for women in the area.
If you live nearby you can come too. If you live in Omaha- you can go there. OR you can even arrange to live stream the event to your own personal device.
You can find out more about all of that - and save your spot to join us -
by clicking here. <—
If you are reading this, you have to be amazed how God used SOMEONE
to buy me a book as a young bride
to write books that change lives
to plan the conferences
to invite the friends
to mentor women
to be a ‘bringer of HOPE’
Could you be that SOMEONE for SOMEONE?
Day 1 of 30 DAYS OF GREEN HOPE series
Because sometimes you need to not do it alone. Join me for 30 Days of Green HOPE!
On August 16th, it will be 15 years since our daughter Leisha ran off to heaven. I have been ‘celedreading’ this year for 15 years. The anniversary that marks that she had lived as long as she has been gone.
From past experience, I know that anniversaries and birthdays can throw a grieving momma for a loop. I can go into the depths of the grief tunnel all over again if I’m not careful. Now I know that I will always be a greiving momma! I can’t NOT be a grieving momma just because she was my baby and I will always feel the loss of her different than anyone else in my life. It doesn’t make my loss more or ‘righter’ -
it is just my own.
This year, I really want…
This new year I am unexpectedly spending time with my parents, My 85 year old father spent the weekend in the hospital and we are struggling alongside him as he tries to gain some ground on the issues that are threatening his quality of life.
One year ago during the Christmas holiday,. Rennie was in the James Center recovering from a stroke. I’m thrilled to say he has made a full recovery. I reread a post I wrote one night sitting by my husband’s hospital bed. The events of last Christmas are speaking boldly into the emotions I have as I watch my father labor to do the ‘right stuff’ to cooperate with us and the health professionals.
My own words have challenged me to rethink this moment, just as I was challenged one year ago. I thought you might benefit from reading them again too.
We are living in an unprecedented time in our world today. This is a season we will not soon forget - nor should we. However, often we get so caught up surviving the ‘moments’, we do forget to pay attention to what we are noticing in the middle of it all.
So what if we use this time to pay attention- not just to this moment, but to the moments in our lives that are even now speaking into what and how we are experiencing this uncertain time.
What are the moments when God showed up and touched the very heart of you?
Think about the significant moments in your past; moments you remember
I really love a feel good story and Hallmark Christmas movies have always been something I enjoy. ( I don't even feel bad if you are judging me because of it.) We all want the good guy to win, the hero to save the day or the magic of 'that kiss'. But we also know life doesn't always show up that way.
I'm writing this to you while I'm sitting in the OSU James Med Center and my husband lies in a hospital bed beside me. He was life-flighted here on Friday for
I first met Nancy five years ago at the very first TRIBEWRITER conference, which my community knows that has been a big part of my writing journey. However, at that first conference, Nancy and I probably didn't say more than five words to one another even though from the first time we made eye contact, I felt like we had made a connection. We went the whole weekend without really getting acquainted.
t just happened that as the conference was ending, we passed each other and I took a chance to speak to her.
On Friday, August 16th, I spent the day in the DEEP WOODS. It is a spiritual retreat center located in the woods behind my church. In the fall of 2012, our friends and family helped us to build the 3rd cabin that is available for personal, spiritual retreats.
The cabin is called HOPE.
The reason I was there on August 16th was the 13th anniversary of my daughter, Leisha’s home-going.
Something changed March 31st.
I didn’t think much of it at first until it was April 5 and I was still ‘down’ (exhausted, weak, unable to think clearly or make a decision) I’ve had those symptoms happen before. I struggle with them periodically, but I felt like I was doing better.
And then I wasn’t.
And I haven’t been all month.
I’ve done the things I have to do. I take an extra dose of the meds I need to manage ‘stress’ (that’s what you do when you have Addison’s disease, because my body doesn’t do that anymore.) I muster up enough energy to speak or teach or coach or write-
and then I sleep. A lot.
Being the question-asker that I am, I have tried to determine why I am ‘down’ and why for so long. I attributed it to some new meds I’m taking, or the weather change or … I have a rather long list of things I could mention here.
But then my husband says,
