Kimberly Stein: Survivor/Fighter/Motivational and Inspirational

Please follow this link for a full collection of testimonies and reviews. (link hidden)

Kimberly,

I just want to thank you for your precious gift to the ladies and men and every BTL volunteer today. I thank God for crossing our paths and want to thank you for your faithfulness in offering up your gift. I know you touched many lives and softened many hearts today and I appreciate your willingness to take the time and take steps to do that once again.

I love your sweet Spirit and I praise God that we are forever United in Christ. I praise Him for His amazing promises and see so many of them in you. I love you my sister.

~

Oh I’m so thankful that you were willing to step out in faith again Kimberley! Your testimony is for these ladies and for the men! Yes Beauty for ashes is truly what I saw God has done in your life and what he has done in my life as well. He is faithful if we grab his nail pierced hands and let Him walk with us!I loved how you started your story!

I do love your Spirit and I know it;’ His eternal love . Our paths may only cross here and there but I know it’s an eternal here and there and that makes me smile. :) BTW… my husband never gives a compliment . He is a man of few words and when he likes something he never says much. I want you to know that he told me that he watched the men in that room as you shared and that he could tell they were all listening intently throughout the whole story. He talked about different things you shared and well,l I will just say he loved you ! :) I know you touched him as well as many of the men in that room. Again , thank you for trusting your Savior!

When I was around 9 years old I told my brother something had happened to me and I didn't want to live anymore, then I asked him to climb to the top of a tree with me and push me out. I know all too well the struggles many face - unfortunately childhood trauma is extremely widespread and prevalent in today's society leaving us with emotional scars, red flags and triggers we carry well into our adult lives that too often heavily influence how we think and view our own self worth and our relationships.

Many of us are not able to leave these pasts totally behind either emotionally, spiritually or physically. I, in fact, just recently in 2015 had to testify against my Father in Williamson County; he received 70 years (a reduced sentence believe it or not, the jury handed down 130). Yes, I was terrified and grief stricken. No, I didn't want to relive my past . . . .it broke my heart and a new journey of grief began, but a new journey of freedom also began as a deeper level in the plans and purposes of God have been revealed.

"Beauty for Ashes" takes a lot of struggle, forgiveness, conscious effort, hope, faith and prayer. . . . and time. Lots of time. I've ministered to women in their seventies still struggling. Sometimes we just need someone to inspire us to keep marching forward, keep believing, FAN THE FLAME until we find our own voice! I would love for that someone to be me.

***
I've been married now for thirty years, have four sons and nine grandchildren. I do NOT lack in life experiences. I've worn many hats: Author of Honey for the Wounded: Oh What a Sweet Life: Overcoming Sexual Abuse, for one. Also: EMS, Volunteer Fire Fighter, Radio DeeJay and Patriot Guard. I have grieved failure more than I have celebrated success but I am a FIGHTER.

***

I believe in being transparent, organic, and honest. Completely. It is a waste of time not to be. When I speak there will most likely be crying. There will also be laughter. It will be stimulating and thought provoking. It is the gift that God has given me. In my experience, when I speak, the presence of God is palpable. I believe in compassion and conviction and that there is a Godly, balanced way to express it. I am not judge nor jury, nor do I want to be: I am just a messenger of hope. I love people. I love God. I know that I know I possess many keys others need to hear to unlock prison cells in which they live. I am absolutely sure of it. And that is what drives me.

I volunteer within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison system with Bridges to Life ministry and have often been asked to be 'the first speaker' so as to set the tone for the entire project. Additionally, for about five years I spoke at a youth camp just out side of Marble Falls, Texas during the summers and lead biblical devotion groups with the college aged counselors. I do not know how to live my life without pouring myself into the lives of others. It’s just who I am, and the drum beat by which I march.

I promise you my very best at all times; perfection? - no, but my best! Other than that I’m just a country girl with a patch of land my animals and I share with my husband. A warm fire, a good novel, and a hot cup of coffee are the cat's meow in my book . . . . as are giving my vinyls a spin and burning my favorite scent of incense. That, in a nutshell, is who I am. Bluejeans and pearls: simple, yet so complicated - as I have been told, but in a good way.

I will be happy to share my letters of testimony with you, and references. Whatever you like. Just let me know.

Now I will leave you with the following to summarize my heart and my mission:

The Bridge Builder
by Will Allen Dromgoole ((phone number hidden)4)
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The rapids held no fears for him.
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” cried a fellow pilgrim near,
“You’re wasting your time in building here.
Your journey will end with the closing day;
You never again will pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide;
Why build you this bridge at even-tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head.
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There follows after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This stream, which has been as naught to me,
To that fair youth may a pitfall be.
He too must cross in the twilight dim —
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

None