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This is Kimberly (and family).
A couple years ago, she and her husband left the church where they had been on staff for 13 years. This jarring and painful experience was difficult to process as they had given their lives to the work of ministry and experienced all sorts of disorienting and painful emotions. A friend introduced them to BEMA, and while they typically would have disregarded a podcast recommendation, they were ready to find something that could be helpful.
The church movement they came out of, like so many others, had insisted they were the ones who had the right perspective. BEMA helped unpack this misplaced certainty and affirmed the world God is redeeming is a big and complex place. This allowed Kimberly to start a new quest: “To truly know God and know His heart.”
They had sold their home and were moving out of state; they listened to Sarah Bessey’s words about unpacking spiritual boxes (Session 5 Capstone) as they literally packed their own. A week before they were set to move out of the house, Kimberly got a call from her 9-year-old son that Daddy was driving the truck but wasn’t breathing. She managed to talk her son through getting the truck parked. Her husband had slipped into cardiac arrest while driving.
Some amazing bystanders got him out of the truck and started performing CPR. The EMTs were able to get his heart going again when they arrived. When he got to the hospital, Kimberly was told there was a 5–10% chance he would walk out of the hospital; 18 days later he did just that.
When they left their church, Kimberly thought they had been as crushed as they possibly could be. She was wrong. She’s desperately tried to hold onto hope in this trying season: leaving the church, the accident, the recovery. She knows what it is to lament as she walks with God in her deserts. She’s thankful for BEMA, which has given her language for this and been a helpful guide during the struggle. Her greatest prayer today is that in all of this, she continues to know God and know His heart.
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