August 6, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode, we will get to know our hosts, Kayla Holbrook & Ken Grether
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Episode Transcript
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Kayla (00:05):
Welcome to renovations of the heart, a renovation church
podcast dedicated to bringingyou stories and testimonies of
God's amazing grace. Our hosts,Kayla Holbrook and Ken Grether.
Ken (00:17):
Hey, everybody. This is Ken Grether. I'm the discipleship
and group coordinator, forRenovation Church, and I'm here
with Kayla.
Kayla (00:25):
Hey. I'm Kayla. I'm the R Kids and Connections pastor here
at the Simpsonville campus ofRenovation Church.
Ken (00:32):
So as you may know or may have heard, we have started a
podcast together.
Kayla (00:37):
We have.
Ken (00:38):
And our first podcast that we did, we really didn't know
each other. So we thought wewould do like this little pre
intro to the first podcast sinceour first podcast really isn't
going to be like the ones thatprecede it.
Kayla (00:54):
Yeah. Yeah. I liked when we were able to talk to some of
our guests and really just kindadig into their story and just
how God moved through theirlives. And then, with us, we
were just kind of I mean,honestly, we didn't even know
each other too well. We didn'teven hear our testimonies of
each other's.
We So just decided to sit downand interact live with it. And I
(01:15):
thought it it was really good.So we wanted this just to kind
of be a preview. It does changea little bit with episodes two
and three that are alreadyrecorded, but really, really
good stories and really coolmoments. I know that we've made
someone cry.
We have chills a couple times.
Ken (01:32):
And we have some guests lined up.
Kayla (01:34):
Mhmm.
Ken (01:34):
So, again, we're really excited about this. So it was
kind of fun, though, the firsttime we sat down. Again, like
Kayla said, we, you know, we'rethe newest on staff and we were
just getting to know each other.And we literally sat down on the
mic saying, I don't know howthis is going to go.
Kayla (01:49):
Here we go.
Ken (01:50):
So we just both blurted, literally, I think blurted out
our testimonies. Yeah. So, wethought we better give a little
bit of a preview here. But Yeah.We certainly look forward to
doing this.
I think God has put this on bothof our hearts.
Kayla (02:04):
For sure.
Ken (02:05):
I pray the Holy Spirit speaks through our guests and
speaks through us, and andhopefully we can touch some
hearts. And and I guess that'sthat's why we're doing this.
Kayla (02:15):
Yeah. Yeah. Forgive the nerves on the first episode that
you're about to hear. We havesettled in, And so I'm really
excited about it, but we didn'twanna lose the authenticity of
the first interactions that wekinda had.
Ken (02:28):
So here we go. Here we go. Episode one.
Kayla (02:34):
Welcome to Sharing God's Grace. This is Kayla, and I'm
here with Ken, my little partnerin crime. And we have started
our podcast with the RenovationChurch, and we're so excited.
Ken (02:44):
This is amazing. I can't believe we're actually sitting
here. Again, my name is KenGrether, and I could not be more
excited to start this podcast,Kayla.
Kayla (02:53):
Same. So a little bit about ourselves. My name's
Kayla, and I am the RKids pastorhere. So I work with kids six
years old all the way throughfifth grade, and I do
connections. So all the peoplethat are wanting to serve get
into serving at the church, theygo through me.
And then I also head up thelocal missions.
Ken (03:12):
Fantastic. I am the discipleship and groups
coordinator here at RenovationChurch. I handle all the
discipleship ministries, such asOur Classics, which is our 60
group. We have a singlesministry here, a management
course that goes on. Maybe ourmost important ministry is our
Rooted program, which I also getto oversee.
(03:35):
I had the privilege of doingthat. And now I guess we do
podcasts too as Yeah.
Kayla (03:41):
Kind of the brainchild of how this started was in a staff
meeting, oddly enough, And ourgoals for the year, and Ken was
like, hey, I wanna do a podcast.And then at the end of staff
meeting, come bursting in thedoor saying, hey, I'll do it
with you. I mean, I guess, it'salways kind of been one of those
things put on the back burnerfor myself. And so, yeah, that
(04:03):
is how we found each other andgot this podcast started.
Ken (04:07):
Yeah. And God definitely was at work on that day because
it had been on my heart to starta podcast with the church. Both
of us have a little bit ofexperience doing this. And I had
been thinking about it at the2024. And when our lead pastor
here, Jason Thompson, had thatthing in staff and said, what
should our goals let's name onegoal that we have for 2025.
(04:31):
It can be a personal goal. Itcan be a church goal. And I was
the first one to go, and I justblurted out, I want to do a
podcast. And sure enough, Kayla,after the staff meeting came in,
I wanna do it with you. So, thisis, this is actually very
exciting, and we're lookingforward to it.
Kayla (04:50):
Yeah. And just kind of the point of our podcast, it it
comes from scripture, Acts fourthirty three. It says, with
great power, the apostlescontinued to testify to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus.And God's grace was so
powerfully at work in them all.And what a a cool thing that we
can learn from the early churchthat storytelling was such a
powerful tool for them.
(05:11):
They didn't have everythingwritten down, especially, you
know, with the Gentiles. Theydidn't read, you know, the Torah
or anything like that. And sothey were able to just really
minister to the people withtheir storytelling and just
living life with them.
Ken (05:25):
Yep. Yep. Absolutely. You know, the podcast objective for
this is really we want to hearpeople's faith stories and their
testimonies. You know, they showGod's incredible grace and love
for us.
It shines the light of Jesus forothers to see in their own
lives. Or, you know, maybe theyknow somebody that's going
through something similar, somekind of similar circumstances.
(05:47):
You know, faith stories andtestimonies are powerful
opportunity, I think, to sharethe gospel and to show others
that they're not alone on thiswalk. But really as a church,
how and where do we find theseopportunities to do these
testimonies and faith stories?You know, just to be heard on a
regular basis, not necessarilyat maybe a retreat or a sermon
(06:08):
once in a while.
Right. And Jeremy Havlind, oursenior pastor
Kayla (06:13):
Yeah.
Ken (06:13):
Again, this was being, this podcast was being born, they
talk about confirmation fromGod, so.
Kayla (06:18):
Yeah. Kind of our moment. We were in practicing the way
study with the staff and he waslike, you know, I miss hearing
people's stories. We need tofigure out a way to share
people's stories and testimoniesbecause they are such a powerful
teaching tool and so Ken and Iwe just kind of made eye contact
across the room. We're like thisis it, this is confirmation
(06:40):
definitely from the Lord thatthis is kind of the the new
median to do it.
No more open mic nights at your,you know, your evening Sunday
services. This is gonna be kindof how we're gonna share just
our stories throughout thechurch and, our own stories as
well, just kind of for thoseteaching moments.
Ken (06:59):
Sure. Yep. That's one of those moments, you know,
sometimes God's word to us canbe very subtle and quiet. Other
times he can hit you rightbetween the eyes and the
forehead. Don't I know.
That was that was certainly oneof those moments. So here we
are. Yeah. And we we lookforward to bringing guests in
Kayla (07:16):
Yeah.
Ken (07:17):
On a regular basis, so we can hear different types of
testimonies from differentpeople, different ages and
backgrounds and all of that,which and give them the
opportunity to talk with usabout what's on their heart too
as well.
Kayla (07:31):
For sure. And Ken and I, our backgrounds are very, very
different. He is new to, youknow, being on church staff.
I've been in the ministry forover ten years, and just kind
of, our unique perspectives andour backgrounds, I think will
lead to, good stories to toshare.
Ken (07:51):
Yep. And, I really don't have any theology degrees
hanging on the wall anywhere. Iwas baptized and found my faith
again about ten years ago, andhave been trying to listen to
the Lord, and doing differentministries within the church,
and then suddenly our leadpastor Jason Thompson came to me
(08:15):
and said, you should really beon staff, I need somebody to do
the discipleship and smallgroups, which is a gift that I
have, think. So, we're trying tolisten, and when God asks us to
do something, I'm trying to dothe best I can to take a step
forward.
Kayla (08:32):
Exactly.
Ken (08:33):
Yeah.
Kayla (08:33):
Well, that's why storytelling is so powerful
because we can look back at ourown lives or other people's
lives and just see how God wasat work even through our ups and
downs or even like me, I alwayssay I have like a boring
testimony, right? It's verystereotypical. So I guess I'll
lead into mine. So I was savedat a Christian summer camp when
(08:53):
I was 10. My good friendCourtney from down the street,
she invited me and we were inWichita, Kansas at the time,
well that's where the camp was.
And I just remember, I knew theBible stories, I grew up in the
Christian household, so I knewall the answers, right? And so,
but there was just somethingspecial at that camp that I, you
(09:14):
know, clearly, clearly rememberjust weeping. And I was an
emotional child anyway, butthere was something different
about this that I really feltthe Holy Spirit come over me.
And I can't tell you what thecamp pastor said or even my
counselor said. I just remembershe brought me back to the cabin
(09:34):
and I just wept in her arms.
That was it. I was like, youknow, this is this is God. This
is that experience. And I meannot everyone has that dramatic
of an experience, but for me I Ifeel like I'm such a black and
white person that I kind ofneeded to kind of be smacked
upside the head, right? Right.
Even as a 10 year old child. Andso that was, kind of my start
(10:00):
and I grew up in an army baseand so my church life was going
to be a little bit different. Sowe had chaplains and so each
each week we had a differentchaplain that kind of talked to
us and so denominations were allover the place because it was
just kind of who the chaplain onon call was for that that week.
(10:23):
So from there, we moved toPennsylvania when I was in high
school and that is when I foundYouth Group. I fell in love with
it.
My small group leaders, Beccaand Sally, I still am in contact
with them today and they wereable to really mold my young
Christian life.
Ken (10:42):
Sure.
Kayla (10:43):
Because from then, you know, I got saved so young and
so there wasn't like any crazy,you know, sins I had to
overcome. Was just, you know,normal child stuff, but with
growing up with my dad in themilitary, there was such, you
know, kind of uneasiness andtransition throughout my whole
life that once we finally movedto Pennsylvania, dad, you know,
(11:06):
he was going to retire. This iswhere my parents are going to
set down roots. Really kind ofhelped me kind of reflect
inwardly and kind of take a holdof my faith. Never really had
the opportunity before that, butBecca and Sally, they really
poured into us girls and to dothat.
So from there, this is wherekind of I entered into the
(11:29):
ministry. So I was when I was,really little, we were Lutheran,
and so I was baptized bySprinkle
Ken (11:37):
Sure.
Kayla (11:37):
When I was a baby, and that is just what happened.
Then, like I said, with themilitary, it just whoever is on
call that week was kind of thetheology that we were given. And
so I really struggled withbaptism and what that meant.
Sure. Because the church I wentto, it was immersion.
And I was like, Hey. I mean, Ialways said I was baptized. You
(12:01):
know, I have this faithexperience of when I accepted,
the Lord into my heart. But, youknow, I never had that chance to
then tell everyone else, Hey,I'm a Christian. I'm a child of
God.
This is what this means. And sowhen I was 17, I finally got
dunked by my late uncle and hehad this tiny little Baptist
(12:24):
church up in Ohio, ended upgetting married in that same
church. It's no longer there andhe has since passed. But it was
a really special moment to kindof, you know, shout to the
world, Hey, I am a Christian andthis is where my life is going.
So from there, I ended up at oddturn of events at Liberty
(12:45):
University.
I did not want to go to aChristian college. I thought,
oh, those are a bunch ofhypocrites, yada yada yada. And
then here I am at Liberty as asuper, super young freshman. I
was only 17 when I graduated.
Ken (13:00):
Wow.
Kayla (13:00):
Yeah. I was super, super young. And I was like, I'm gonna
be in IT. This is what I'vealways done and all that. And
then after freshman year, Godwas like, No, you're gonna go
into the ministry.
And so that was a hard pill toswallow, think, probably for my
family financially, wildlydifferent fields, right? Yeah.
(13:23):
Wildly. From IT to the ministry.And so, you know, from there, I
struggled a lot with depressionand anxiety, especially that my
freshman year, Just being away,I was so, so young.
I was four hours from home. Andthat was when I was first
diagnosed with clinicaldepression. And so, from there,
(13:44):
I mean, is where my testimonyshines is, you know, I struggled
I still struggle with anxietyand depression for years now.
And just God's able to deliverme time and time again. So I met
my husband at a Christian summercamp.
That was kind of my intro intoministry and just walking
alongside these, you know, thesepreteens and these kids and you
(14:08):
know, what their faith is, howthey can own their faith from a
very young age. Know, I waiteduntil I was almost into
adulthood to really takeownership of that. But that's
what brought me into thisministry. I have been a
children's pastor for over tenyears. It's just kind of, you
know, my bread and butter.
This is what I do and I love it.But that doesn't mean that I
(14:30):
don't still struggle, you know?When I had my first, I
definitely had some postpartumanxiety and some depression.
Sure. So that is something thatI've learned to accept, that
it's okay to ask for help.
And one of my favorite quotesis, Broken crayons still color.
Ken (14:48):
I love that.
Kayla (14:48):
And so even though I am such a broken person, right,
with the anxiety and thedepression and just kind of the
mental health, God still used meand He's been using me for such
a long time. So now being atrenovation, really trying to
see, you know, what ministry is,how it can be different, how it
(15:09):
can be more effective to thesekids. Because I don't want these
kids to have church hurt, youknow? I want them to love coming
to church, and that is theirsafe place. And so that's kind
of what called me.
Ken (15:22):
Right.
Kayla (15:23):
And so a little bit, you know, kind of quote unquote
boring. But, yeah, so that'skind of my story.
Ken (15:30):
Wow. I will say this, and maybe a future podcast we can
talk about this Rooted program Ireferred to. But one of the
things that the people who gothrough that do is they do their
testimonies. Yeah. And one ofthe things I have facilitated
many of those and heard so manydifferent testimonies is your
(15:52):
testimony.
Mhmm. And they're all different.But it's amazing to see in all
the different types oftestimonies how God works
differently in thosetestimonies. Yeah. But God is
working in all of those
Kayla (16:07):
different 100%. Testimonies. You know?
Ken (16:09):
I should also mention too, this is the first time Kayla and
I have actually heard eachother's testimony. Yeah. So we
are live. I'm literally livereceiving this. Yeah.
Which is, from a selfishstandpoint, kinda kinda fun. So
Yeah. Yeah. I have a little bitof church hurt in my testimony.
Kayla (16:28):
100%. Yeah.
Ken (16:29):
And we only have so much time, so I'm gonna try to give
the Reader's Digest version I ofthink earlier I had mentioned
that I had gotten baptized tenyears ago. I'll be 65 in July,
so I came back to my faith at anolder age. I grew up in the
(16:51):
Chicagoland area. My father grewup Catholic, was an altar boy.
Yeah.
I grew up Catholic. What I knowwell, let me first say this. And
about three years ago, Godliterally spoke to me when I
went by a billboard that hadCatholic charities up there that
(17:13):
He literally told me, becareful. Do not make fun of
Catholics. And so I'm going totread lightly here.
This is my story. I think itwill relate to a lot of people.
But what I knew of the Catholicchurch was my uncles and my dad
telling all the stories aboutthey went to Catholic school,
(17:36):
about the nuns hitting them withtheir rulers, and what they
would do as altar boys, and howthey would mark up the the stuff
with like the stick this isgoing to date me here where you
could make the stick peoplemovies with the hymnals and
stuff like that. And it wasalways something funny that was
going on. And my Bible knowledgewas nothing.
(17:58):
We got the, what I would call atthis point, the kindergarten
stories, Bible stories in ourcatechism. I did make First
Communion, which meant I had togo through the harrowing
experience of giving my firstconfessional, which was
literally a bunch of us in line,the three confessional boxes. We
(18:18):
knew which box the mean priestwas in. So we're all terrified
Just trying chase. Everybodywas, like, counting numbers and,
like, oh, Johnny's in this one.
Hurry up because if he goes,then I go. And it was terrible
just so we could go in there andconfess our sins, which was
pretty much, you know, saying abad word or talking back to mom
or took a piece of candy fromthe seven Eleven or something
(18:40):
along But those it wasterrifying nonetheless kind of
thing. So anyways, I was raisedCatholic. About the time I was
in high school, my parents, wemoved, and we moved away from
that church. And for whateverreason, my parents stopped
going.
I had no real reason to go atthat point. So I sort of lost
(19:01):
contact with the church. When Iwent away to college, I was
dating my high schoolsweetheart, who was very, very
Catholic. And we had talkedabout that four years while I
was in college that we wereplanning on getting married,
which we did. I never made myconfirmation within the Catholic
(19:22):
church, which was a requirementback then in order to get
married.
And so I didn't care. I didn'tknow much about it. I'm just
being honest here. Didn't knowmuch about the Catholic church.
I knew all the rules, when tostand, when to sit, when to do
the cross and the arch, what theorder of the Catholic mass was.
(19:43):
And the bigger the hat, thehigher ranking the person was in
the Catholic church sort ofthing. And that's really all I
knew about it. But I wanted tomarry my wife, who was very,
very Catholic. And if she wasMethodist, I would have been
Methodist. If she was Lutheran,Baptist, it didn't matter.
I just wanted to marry her. Andso I told the priest that, oh, I
(20:06):
was definitely Catholic, and Iwas definitely going to make my
confirmation when I was anadult, which I did eighteen
years later when our marriagewas in trouble. Sure. But so
that was it. And I and I was notthere was I started seeing you
had mentioned the hypocrisy, andI started to see that a little
bit in the church too as well.
(20:27):
I golf with a couple of people.I know what they're talking
about on the golf course. Butthe important thing was you saw
them in Sunday Mass, and thatdidn't sit Exactly. And I was
bored. I didn't know anythingabout it.
This is the worst thing, andit's probably the hardest thing.
I'll try not to get emotionalduring this part. I was not a
really I had a hard time thekids. I was just you know, I
(20:51):
have a son, and I have adaughter. Mhmm.
They are 37 and 36 now. I justwas not a very good example. I
was not very good when I was inchurch. A lot of times I didn't
want to go to church. I wouldsubstitute a tea time if I
could.
And so I did that. And to thisday, and we'll talk a little bit
about that here in the future,that was my Catholic experience.
(21:13):
I Yeah. From talking to a lot ofpost Catholic people, that's a
lot of people's Catholic. Ibelieve there's a lot of
Christians within the Catholic,you know, church and that sort
of Sure, yeah.
It was just we had norelationship with God. I had no
Bible knowledge, and I don'teven know if there was Bible
(21:33):
classes being taught, that sortof thing. So that was that, and
I'll do this real quick. My wifehad a lot of health problems,
and because of those healthproblems we don't have enough
time to talk about this butbecause of multiple surgeries
and things like that, she becameaddicted to prescription drugs
Kayla (21:50):
Oh, wow.
Ken (21:51):
Which led to marriage issues and stuff with the kids
and that sort of thing. Sounfortunately, we did divorce in
the year February. And that wasreally hard, hard on the kids.
The kids were in their They wereearly in their early Yeah, they
were in their early teens at thetime. And so we had to get
(22:12):
through that.
Then because, again, theCatholic Church, once you're
married in the Catholic Church,you will always be married in
the face of God, right? And thatreally bothered my ex wife. And
so she applied for an annulment.I knew that that was really
important to her. And so I spenttwo hours in St.
(22:34):
Paul, Minnesota, diocese talkinginto a recorder and answering
questions. And the bottom linewas I really when we got
married, you know, thebackground was I really wasn't a
Catholic, and I had no intentionof being a Catholic, and I
didn't care about being aCatholic.
Kayla (22:53):
Yeah, it was just
Ken (22:54):
like a checkbox. Was. And I said that out loud. There really
wasn't infidelity in themarriage. There were probably
improper relationships, butnothing like that.
So I fell on the sword because Iknew it was and my marriage was
annulled, which really hit hard.I got a letter Wow. Saying from
the Catholic Church saying, Yourmarriage is annulled. That was
the first paragraph. The secondparagraph said, Although all the
(23:16):
responsibility of whatever childsupport and all that, this does
not affect that in any way.
Kayla (23:21):
Oh, interesting.
Ken (23:21):
You know, which I thought was interesting. I was like, Oh,
darn. Just kidding there. Sothat's when things really went
off the rails. That's when I waslike, this is just ridiculous.
I believe in God. I don'tbelieve in religion. Religion
failed me. I'm just going to godown. Proverbs has lots of
things about going And down theright if you get off the right
(23:44):
path, where that right pathleads or that wrong path leads,
it doesn't lead to a good place.
Kayla (23:50):
Sure doesn't.
Ken (23:51):
I got off the path. Let's just say that. I met a woman two
years later. We lived togetherfor fourteen years. I was living
in Minnesota.
Kayla (23:59):
If
Ken (24:01):
you are from the Upper Midwest, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
North Dakota, South Dakota,those areas, drinking is
cultural thing. And I'm nottalking from an alcoholic
standpoint, not the disease. I'mtalking about a cultural thing
where no matter what you do upthere, some form of drinking is
involved. Okay. I took that upfull heartedly along with the
(24:23):
woman that I was with.
We raised two kids together. Shewas a single mom. That lasted
for about fourteen years beforeI found out she was cheating on
me. Oh, wow. And so that wasexactly when you get off that
path and There you was no faithin our household whatsoever,
just trying to be the good guyand do the right thing and raise
(24:45):
a second set of kids and all ofthat sort of thing.
It's funny because both that exand I are both saved now. She
is, too, as well.
Kayla (24:54):
Oh, nice. Yeah.
Ken (24:55):
Which is a total side story.
Kayla (24:57):
Right.
Ken (24:57):
Which is a lot of fun years later. But so this would have
been December 2014. I had gaineda bunch of weight. I was living
in a one bedroom condo inChaska, Minnesota. Again, all
this happened November,December.
And I remember the January, itwas literally minus 10. Gosh. I
(25:18):
remember like this wasyesterday. So this would have
been ten years ago.
Kayla (25:21):
Right.
Ken (25:23):
It's freezing cold. I left work, stopped at my local pub to
get dinner, had a couple ofbeers, went back, ordered a
pepperoni pizza.
Kayla (25:33):
Okay.
Ken (25:34):
And I had a bottle of Crown Royal. I drank ate the whole
pizza, half a bottle of theCrown Royal, lying on the couch,
well over 300
Kayla (25:44):
Yeah.
Ken (25:44):
Saying, what am I doing with my life? And at that very
moment, that very moment, Isaid, God, I believe in You.
Yeah. I don't know how tocommunicate to You. I don't know
anything about You.
But if you're there, I need yourhelp now.
Kayla (26:00):
Mhmm.
Ken (26:01):
Two weeks later, in a crazy story, I literally meet who is
now my wife.
Kayla (26:07):
Okay.
Ken (26:08):
Two and and, again, we don't have enough time. It's
another it's a great story.Nice. How I met my wife, and it
is a 100% God thing. And someother things at that time were
happening as well, but that wasthe main thing.
And my wife, Barbara, yes, I ammarried to a Barbara, Ken and
Barbie, if you hadn't made
Kayla (26:26):
that It's my favorite.
Ken (26:28):
Yes, it's Ken and Barbie. It took fifty five years to find
my Barbie.
Kayla (26:33):
You found your Barbie.
Ken (26:34):
I found my Barbie, yes. And we look like 50, well, now 60
year old Barbies too as well.So, But my Barbie absolutely
saved my life in so many ways. Iknew I had to get healthy, so I
had a friend that helped me dothat. And I'm physically in much
(26:54):
better shape today.
But most importantly, my wifeand I got serious really quick.
And because both of us werecoming out of bad relationships
and bad marriages, we had thisgiant checklist that we went I
mean, everything. Big stuff toKen leaves the kitchen cupboards
open all the time. Mean, wespent weeks talking about all
these things. But we got closereally fast.
(27:16):
And my wife drew a line in thesand and said, listen, I know
you believe in God, but that'snot enough to be saved.
Kayla (27:23):
Wow.
Ken (27:24):
And I need to know that you are going to pursue this. You're
going to let God pursue youMhmm. Because I can't be
involved with somebody thatisn't going to be an eternity
with me. And if you can't tellme that you're going to do that,
we need to end this today. Wow.
Right? Right. And so we went toa nondenominational church where
(27:49):
I had never been to in theMinneapolis area, sat down. And
when the music started and theworship music started, I'm
affected by music, never reallypaid any attention to worship
music, I had tears running downmy eyes halfway It was just I
was amazed how much of an effectthat it had. And then a pastor
(28:11):
sort of adopted me and helped mealong the way, and I was dunked,
finally.
And so really, I say that I wastruly saved sometime between age
55 and 56. Yeah. And went tobaptism at that time, and that
pastor baptized me. And it wasan absolutely amazing moment.
Kayla (28:32):
That was cool.
Ken (28:33):
And then I'm trying to learn as much as I possibly can.
Moved to South Carolina in 2019,my wife, Barbara, and I. This
was the first church we went to,renovation church. Knew it was
our place immediately.
Kayla (28:44):
That's awesome.
Ken (28:45):
I needed to get involved. And back to the original story,
here I am. Yeah. If literally,if you go back and you look, if
you would have said at age 53where I was in my life
Kayla (28:57):
Yeah.
Ken (28:57):
And somebody could see the future and said, by the way,
Ken, you're going to bike tour,which is a hobby that I have.
You're going to ride your biketour all over the country,
hundreds of miles. Oh, and bythe way, you're going to be on a
church staff or anondenominational church in I
South would have went, Wait,what? Yeah. See, God works.
Kayla (29:16):
He sure does. And it's so cool to, you know, listen to
your story and just kind of howit all comes back to this was
all in God's plan. You know?Even with the bad that happened
in it, God still is such a goodGod, and he is the deliverer
Right.
Ken (29:32):
And that
Kayla (29:33):
he was able to deliver you from that. And then you
found your Barbie Right. Whichis, you know, super cute.
Ken (29:38):
Right.
Kayla (29:39):
But like you said, she saved your life.
Ken (29:41):
Right. Can I say two things about forgiveness?
Kayla (29:44):
Yeah.
Ken (29:45):
My ex wife, my first wife, my Catholic wife, and my
children's mother, she was very,very sick and had lots of
different things. And theprescription drugs gave her a
lot of problems. And we lost herI guess it's been six years now.
Because of Barbara and becauseof my faith, I was able to
(30:07):
forgive her
Kayla (30:08):
for her
Ken (30:08):
part in all of that, which was really powerful. And then
also, my second ex, who I livedwith, we were also able to
forgive each other and actuallyhave sort of a quasi friendship
because I still keep in touchwith her children.
Kayla (30:24):
Right.
Ken (30:25):
But both of us, and like I said, she was saved too as well.
Yeah. And that sits so muchbetter on my heart as well.
Kayla (30:33):
Yeah, and it's kind of cool how forgiveness is part of
probably everyone's story andhow it's so easy to hold on so
tight to either our way ofthinking, you know, before we
come and own our faith, or I washurt, you know, a lot of times
we play the victim and I how canI forgive that person? They
wronged me so much. But God Imean, is so cheesy. Again, I
(30:57):
teach children all the time.But, you know, God forgave us
first, and so that is why hecommands us to forgive.
And even the disciples, I thinkthey were a little sassy
sometimes, and they're like,Well, how many times do you need
to forgive? And He justcompletely shot them down.
Right. And He was like, 70 timesseven. Right.
And so that's kind of a funthing. Yeah. I mean, I've had
(31:20):
church hurt from, you know,different churches. I'm not
gonna air the dirty laundry, butforgiveness is a process. And
sometimes it takes a while, andI think that's okay.
I think kind of God gives us thegrace to be able to work through
it, to almost deconstruct theevents that happened, how God
used them. Because like I saidearlier, He is the deliverer.
Ken (31:44):
Right.
Kayla (31:44):
And so He can deliver us through that. And I think He
uses maybe some of our struggleswith, you know, forgiveness in
particular to really teach us animportant lesson.
Ken (31:55):
Right. Right. And I think it's important you have your
testimony and the parts that ifpeople are listening that can
relate to. And and that's God'sway of helping them, I'm
assuming. Also, my testimony,you know?
Yeah. And and that's that's thepower, I believe, of testimonies
(32:16):
too Yeah. As well, and andpeople's faith stories. I will
say this one thing. Hardest partabout my story, but also the
hope.
The hardest part is neither ofmy kids are saved, and I take a
lot of responsibility for that.Yeah. And so that's really,
really hard. The hope part of itis, I mean, we've spent fifteen
(32:40):
minutes apiece telling ourtestimonies, but both of us
during those long times had somany different things that we
could have talked about whereGod was working at that time
that we can look back on and seenow. So the hope for me is that
I know that God is working.
And I was saved at 56 years old.My kids are still in their 30s.
(33:00):
There's still time. There'sstill time, and I pray. And
hopefully, people can shinelight in order for them to take
those steps.
But, you know, that's reallyhard
Kayla (33:13):
It is.
Ken (33:13):
For me.
Kayla (33:14):
And I mean, I think that's for everyone. And I think
in the next maybe few episodes,we'll kind of dig in deeper
about that. You know, we talkedabout some of our prayer
struggle or things that weneeded prayer for this past
weekend staff meeting, there wasa lot of us with close, close
family members that aren'tsaved.
Ken (33:32):
Right.
Kayla (33:32):
And that is on a church staff. And that kind of blew me
away a little bit because Ialways think, Oh, I'm the
anomaly.
Ken (33:38):
Right. Right. Exactly.
Kayla (33:40):
And so that It's kind of interesting to kind of dig deep
in that and that it's Yep. Youknow, kind of obviously all in
God's plan and His timing, butjust kind of what our role is in
that, you know? Right.
Ken (33:54):
Well, I think we did it. Yeah. We just did a podcast
together, didn't This
Kayla (33:56):
is great.
Ken (33:57):
Yep. Like I said, again, our goal is to have guests in
that can share these differentstories and faith journeys and
and testimonies. We appreciatepeople out there listening, and
and hopefully that that this washelpful for somebody out there.
Kayla (34:13):
Yeah. We appreciate you all, and we will see you next
time.
Ken (34:17):
Alright. Sounds great. Thank you. Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the conversation,be sure to subscribe so you
never miss an update, and sharethis podcast with someone who
might be encouraged by it.
Wanna know more about RenovationChurch and the ministry that God
is doing within our churches?Visit the renovation.church to
learn more. Until next time,stay encouraged, and let's keep
(34:40):
pursuing Jesus in every part ofour lives.
Welcome to renovations of the heart, a renovation church
podcast dedicated to bringingyou stories and testimonies of
God's amazing grace. Our hosts,Kayla Holbrook and Ken Grether.
Ken (00:17):
Hey, everybody. This is Ken Grether. I'm the discipleship
and group coordinator, forRenovation Church, and I'm here
with Kayla.
Kayla (00:25):
Hey. I'm Kayla. I'm the R Kids and Connections pastor here
at the Simpsonville campus ofRenovation Church.
Ken (00:32):
So as you may know or may have heard, we have started a
podcast together.
Kayla (00:37):
We have.
Ken (00:38):
And our first podcast that we did, we really didn't know
each other. So we thought wewould do like this little pre
intro to the first podcast sinceour first podcast really isn't
going to be like the ones thatprecede it.
Kayla (00:54):
Yeah. Yeah. I liked when we were able to talk to some of
our guests and really just kindadig into their story and just
how God moved through theirlives. And then, with us, we
were just kind of I mean,honestly, we didn't even know
each other too well. We didn'teven hear our testimonies of
each other's.
We So just decided to sit downand interact live with it. And I
(01:15):
thought it it was really good.So we wanted this just to kind
of be a preview. It does changea little bit with episodes two
and three that are alreadyrecorded, but really, really
good stories and really coolmoments. I know that we've made
someone cry.
We have chills a couple times.
Ken (01:32):
And we have some guests lined up.
Kayla (01:34):
Mhmm.
Ken (01:34):
So, again, we're really excited about this. So it was
kind of fun, though, the firsttime we sat down. Again, like
Kayla said, we, you know, we'rethe newest on staff and we were
just getting to know each other.And we literally sat down on the
mic saying, I don't know howthis is going to go.
Kayla (01:49):
Here we go.
Ken (01:50):
So we just both blurted, literally, I think blurted out
our testimonies. Yeah. So, wethought we better give a little
bit of a preview here. But Yeah.We certainly look forward to
doing this.
I think God has put this on bothof our hearts.
Kayla (02:04):
For sure.
Ken (02:05):
I pray the Holy Spirit speaks through our guests and
speaks through us, and andhopefully we can touch some
hearts. And and I guess that'sthat's why we're doing this.
Kayla (02:15):
Yeah. Yeah. Forgive the nerves on the first episode that
you're about to hear. We havesettled in, And so I'm really
excited about it, but we didn'twanna lose the authenticity of
the first interactions that wekinda had.
Ken (02:28):
So here we go. Here we go. Episode one.
Kayla (02:34):
Welcome to Sharing God's Grace. This is Kayla, and I'm
here with Ken, my little partnerin crime. And we have started
our podcast with the RenovationChurch, and we're so excited.
Ken (02:44):
This is amazing. I can't believe we're actually sitting
here. Again, my name is KenGrether, and I could not be more
excited to start this podcast,Kayla.
Kayla (02:53):
Same. So a little bit about ourselves. My name's
Kayla, and I am the RKids pastorhere. So I work with kids six
years old all the way throughfifth grade, and I do
connections. So all the peoplethat are wanting to serve get
into serving at the church, theygo through me.
And then I also head up thelocal missions.
Ken (03:12):
Fantastic. I am the discipleship and groups
coordinator here at RenovationChurch. I handle all the
discipleship ministries, such asOur Classics, which is our 60
group. We have a singlesministry here, a management
course that goes on. Maybe ourmost important ministry is our
Rooted program, which I also getto oversee.
(03:35):
I had the privilege of doingthat. And now I guess we do
podcasts too as Yeah.
Kayla (03:41):
Kind of the brainchild of how this started was in a staff
meeting, oddly enough, And ourgoals for the year, and Ken was
like, hey, I wanna do a podcast.And then at the end of staff
meeting, come bursting in thedoor saying, hey, I'll do it
with you. I mean, I guess, it'salways kind of been one of those
things put on the back burnerfor myself. And so, yeah, that
(04:03):
is how we found each other andgot this podcast started.
Ken (04:07):
Yeah. And God definitely was at work on that day because
it had been on my heart to starta podcast with the church. Both
of us have a little bit ofexperience doing this. And I had
been thinking about it at the2024. And when our lead pastor
here, Jason Thompson, had thatthing in staff and said, what
should our goals let's name onegoal that we have for 2025.
(04:31):
It can be a personal goal. Itcan be a church goal. And I was
the first one to go, and I justblurted out, I want to do a
podcast. And sure enough, Kayla,after the staff meeting came in,
I wanna do it with you. So, thisis, this is actually very
exciting, and we're lookingforward to it.
Kayla (04:50):
Yeah. And just kind of the point of our podcast, it it
comes from scripture, Acts fourthirty three. It says, with
great power, the apostlescontinued to testify to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus.And God's grace was so
powerfully at work in them all.And what a a cool thing that we
can learn from the early churchthat storytelling was such a
powerful tool for them.
(05:11):
They didn't have everythingwritten down, especially, you
know, with the Gentiles. Theydidn't read, you know, the Torah
or anything like that. And sothey were able to just really
minister to the people withtheir storytelling and just
living life with them.
Ken (05:25):
Yep. Yep. Absolutely. You know, the podcast objective for
this is really we want to hearpeople's faith stories and their
testimonies. You know, they showGod's incredible grace and love
for us.
It shines the light of Jesus forothers to see in their own
lives. Or, you know, maybe theyknow somebody that's going
through something similar, somekind of similar circumstances.
(05:47):
You know, faith stories andtestimonies are powerful
opportunity, I think, to sharethe gospel and to show others
that they're not alone on thiswalk. But really as a church,
how and where do we find theseopportunities to do these
testimonies and faith stories?You know, just to be heard on a
regular basis, not necessarilyat maybe a retreat or a sermon
(06:08):
once in a while.
Right. And Jeremy Havlind, oursenior pastor
Kayla (06:13):
Yeah.
Ken (06:13):
Again, this was being, this podcast was being born, they
talk about confirmation fromGod, so.
Kayla (06:18):
Yeah. Kind of our moment. We were in practicing the way
study with the staff and he waslike, you know, I miss hearing
people's stories. We need tofigure out a way to share
people's stories and testimoniesbecause they are such a powerful
teaching tool and so Ken and Iwe just kind of made eye contact
across the room. We're like thisis it, this is confirmation
(06:40):
definitely from the Lord thatthis is kind of the the new
median to do it.
No more open mic nights at your,you know, your evening Sunday
services. This is gonna be kindof how we're gonna share just
our stories throughout thechurch and, our own stories as
well, just kind of for thoseteaching moments.
Ken (06:59):
Sure. Yep. That's one of those moments, you know,
sometimes God's word to us canbe very subtle and quiet. Other
times he can hit you rightbetween the eyes and the
forehead. Don't I know.
That was that was certainly oneof those moments. So here we
are. Yeah. And we we lookforward to bringing guests in
Kayla (07:16):
Yeah.
Ken (07:17):
On a regular basis, so we can hear different types of
testimonies from differentpeople, different ages and
backgrounds and all of that,which and give them the
opportunity to talk with usabout what's on their heart too
as well.
Kayla (07:31):
For sure. And Ken and I, our backgrounds are very, very
different. He is new to, youknow, being on church staff.
I've been in the ministry forover ten years, and just kind
of, our unique perspectives andour backgrounds, I think will
lead to, good stories to toshare.
Ken (07:51):
Yep. And, I really don't have any theology degrees
hanging on the wall anywhere. Iwas baptized and found my faith
again about ten years ago, andhave been trying to listen to
the Lord, and doing differentministries within the church,
and then suddenly our leadpastor Jason Thompson came to me
(08:15):
and said, you should really beon staff, I need somebody to do
the discipleship and smallgroups, which is a gift that I
have, think. So, we're trying tolisten, and when God asks us to
do something, I'm trying to dothe best I can to take a step
forward.
Kayla (08:32):
Exactly.
Ken (08:33):
Yeah.
Kayla (08:33):
Well, that's why storytelling is so powerful
because we can look back at ourown lives or other people's
lives and just see how God wasat work even through our ups and
downs or even like me, I alwayssay I have like a boring
testimony, right? It's verystereotypical. So I guess I'll
lead into mine. So I was savedat a Christian summer camp when
(08:53):
I was 10. My good friendCourtney from down the street,
she invited me and we were inWichita, Kansas at the time,
well that's where the camp was.
And I just remember, I knew theBible stories, I grew up in the
Christian household, so I knewall the answers, right? And so,
but there was just somethingspecial at that camp that I, you
(09:14):
know, clearly, clearly rememberjust weeping. And I was an
emotional child anyway, butthere was something different
about this that I really feltthe Holy Spirit come over me.
And I can't tell you what thecamp pastor said or even my
counselor said. I just remembershe brought me back to the cabin
(09:34):
and I just wept in her arms.
That was it. I was like, youknow, this is this is God. This
is that experience. And I meannot everyone has that dramatic
of an experience, but for me I Ifeel like I'm such a black and
white person that I kind ofneeded to kind of be smacked
upside the head, right? Right.
Even as a 10 year old child. Andso that was, kind of my start
(10:00):
and I grew up in an army baseand so my church life was going
to be a little bit different. Sowe had chaplains and so each
each week we had a differentchaplain that kind of talked to
us and so denominations were allover the place because it was
just kind of who the chaplain onon call was for that that week.
(10:23):
So from there, we moved toPennsylvania when I was in high
school and that is when I foundYouth Group. I fell in love with
it.
My small group leaders, Beccaand Sally, I still am in contact
with them today and they wereable to really mold my young
Christian life.
Ken (10:42):
Sure.
Kayla (10:43):
Because from then, you know, I got saved so young and
so there wasn't like any crazy,you know, sins I had to
overcome. Was just, you know,normal child stuff, but with
growing up with my dad in themilitary, there was such, you
know, kind of uneasiness andtransition throughout my whole
life that once we finally movedto Pennsylvania, dad, you know,
(11:06):
he was going to retire. This iswhere my parents are going to
set down roots. Really kind ofhelped me kind of reflect
inwardly and kind of take a holdof my faith. Never really had
the opportunity before that, butBecca and Sally, they really
poured into us girls and to dothat.
So from there, this is wherekind of I entered into the
(11:29):
ministry. So I was when I was,really little, we were Lutheran,
and so I was baptized bySprinkle
Ken (11:37):
Sure.
Kayla (11:37):
When I was a baby, and that is just what happened.
Then, like I said, with themilitary, it just whoever is on
call that week was kind of thetheology that we were given. And
so I really struggled withbaptism and what that meant.
Sure. Because the church I wentto, it was immersion.
And I was like, Hey. I mean, Ialways said I was baptized. You
(12:01):
know, I have this faithexperience of when I accepted,
the Lord into my heart. But, youknow, I never had that chance to
then tell everyone else, Hey,I'm a Christian. I'm a child of
God.
This is what this means. And sowhen I was 17, I finally got
dunked by my late uncle and hehad this tiny little Baptist
(12:24):
church up in Ohio, ended upgetting married in that same
church. It's no longer there andhe has since passed. But it was
a really special moment to kindof, you know, shout to the
world, Hey, I am a Christian andthis is where my life is going.
So from there, I ended up at oddturn of events at Liberty
(12:45):
University.
I did not want to go to aChristian college. I thought,
oh, those are a bunch ofhypocrites, yada yada yada. And
then here I am at Liberty as asuper, super young freshman. I
was only 17 when I graduated.
Ken (13:00):
Wow.
Kayla (13:00):
Yeah. I was super, super young. And I was like, I'm gonna
be in IT. This is what I'vealways done and all that. And
then after freshman year, Godwas like, No, you're gonna go
into the ministry.
And so that was a hard pill toswallow, think, probably for my
family financially, wildlydifferent fields, right? Yeah.
(13:23):
Wildly. From IT to the ministry.And so, you know, from there, I
struggled a lot with depressionand anxiety, especially that my
freshman year, Just being away,I was so, so young.
I was four hours from home. Andthat was when I was first
diagnosed with clinicaldepression. And so, from there,
(13:44):
I mean, is where my testimonyshines is, you know, I struggled
I still struggle with anxietyand depression for years now.
And just God's able to deliverme time and time again. So I met
my husband at a Christian summercamp.
That was kind of my intro intoministry and just walking
alongside these, you know, thesepreteens and these kids and you
(14:08):
know, what their faith is, howthey can own their faith from a
very young age. Know, I waiteduntil I was almost into
adulthood to really takeownership of that. But that's
what brought me into thisministry. I have been a
children's pastor for over tenyears. It's just kind of, you
know, my bread and butter.
This is what I do and I love it.But that doesn't mean that I
(14:30):
don't still struggle, you know?When I had my first, I
definitely had some postpartumanxiety and some depression.
Sure. So that is something thatI've learned to accept, that
it's okay to ask for help.
And one of my favorite quotesis, Broken crayons still color.
Ken (14:48):
I love that.
Kayla (14:48):
And so even though I am such a broken person, right,
with the anxiety and thedepression and just kind of the
mental health, God still used meand He's been using me for such
a long time. So now being atrenovation, really trying to
see, you know, what ministry is,how it can be different, how it
(15:09):
can be more effective to thesekids. Because I don't want these
kids to have church hurt, youknow? I want them to love coming
to church, and that is theirsafe place. And so that's kind
of what called me.
Ken (15:22):
Right.
Kayla (15:23):
And so a little bit, you know, kind of quote unquote
boring. But, yeah, so that'skind of my story.
Ken (15:30):
Wow. I will say this, and maybe a future podcast we can
talk about this Rooted program Ireferred to. But one of the
things that the people who gothrough that do is they do their
testimonies. Yeah. And one ofthe things I have facilitated
many of those and heard so manydifferent testimonies is your
(15:52):
testimony.
Mhmm. And they're all different.But it's amazing to see in all
the different types oftestimonies how God works
differently in thosetestimonies. Yeah. But God is
working in all of those
Kayla (16:07):
different 100%. Testimonies. You know?
Ken (16:09):
I should also mention too, this is the first time Kayla and
I have actually heard eachother's testimony. Yeah. So we
are live. I'm literally livereceiving this. Yeah.
Which is, from a selfishstandpoint, kinda kinda fun. So
Yeah. Yeah. I have a little bitof church hurt in my testimony.
Kayla (16:28):
100%. Yeah.
Ken (16:29):
And we only have so much time, so I'm gonna try to give
the Reader's Digest version I ofthink earlier I had mentioned
that I had gotten baptized tenyears ago. I'll be 65 in July,
so I came back to my faith at anolder age. I grew up in the
(16:51):
Chicagoland area. My father grewup Catholic, was an altar boy.
Yeah.
I grew up Catholic. What I knowwell, let me first say this. And
about three years ago, Godliterally spoke to me when I
went by a billboard that hadCatholic charities up there that
(17:13):
He literally told me, becareful. Do not make fun of
Catholics. And so I'm going totread lightly here.
This is my story. I think itwill relate to a lot of people.
But what I knew of the Catholicchurch was my uncles and my dad
telling all the stories aboutthey went to Catholic school,
(17:36):
about the nuns hitting them withtheir rulers, and what they
would do as altar boys, and howthey would mark up the the stuff
with like the stick this isgoing to date me here where you
could make the stick peoplemovies with the hymnals and
stuff like that. And it wasalways something funny that was
going on. And my Bible knowledgewas nothing.
(17:58):
We got the, what I would call atthis point, the kindergarten
stories, Bible stories in ourcatechism. I did make First
Communion, which meant I had togo through the harrowing
experience of giving my firstconfessional, which was
literally a bunch of us in line,the three confessional boxes. We
(18:18):
knew which box the mean priestwas in. So we're all terrified
Just trying chase. Everybodywas, like, counting numbers and,
like, oh, Johnny's in this one.
Hurry up because if he goes,then I go. And it was terrible
just so we could go in there andconfess our sins, which was
pretty much, you know, saying abad word or talking back to mom
or took a piece of candy fromthe seven Eleven or something
(18:40):
along But those it wasterrifying nonetheless kind of
thing. So anyways, I was raisedCatholic. About the time I was
in high school, my parents, wemoved, and we moved away from
that church. And for whateverreason, my parents stopped
going.
I had no real reason to go atthat point. So I sort of lost
(19:01):
contact with the church. When Iwent away to college, I was
dating my high schoolsweetheart, who was very, very
Catholic. And we had talkedabout that four years while I
was in college that we wereplanning on getting married,
which we did. I never made myconfirmation within the Catholic
(19:22):
church, which was a requirementback then in order to get
married.
And so I didn't care. I didn'tknow much about it. I'm just
being honest here. Didn't knowmuch about the Catholic church.
I knew all the rules, when tostand, when to sit, when to do
the cross and the arch, what theorder of the Catholic mass was.
(19:43):
And the bigger the hat, thehigher ranking the person was in
the Catholic church sort ofthing. And that's really all I
knew about it. But I wanted tomarry my wife, who was very,
very Catholic. And if she wasMethodist, I would have been
Methodist. If she was Lutheran,Baptist, it didn't matter.
I just wanted to marry her. Andso I told the priest that, oh, I
(20:06):
was definitely Catholic, and Iwas definitely going to make my
confirmation when I was anadult, which I did eighteen
years later when our marriagewas in trouble. Sure. But so
that was it. And I and I was notthere was I started seeing you
had mentioned the hypocrisy, andI started to see that a little
bit in the church too as well.
(20:27):
I golf with a couple of people.I know what they're talking
about on the golf course. Butthe important thing was you saw
them in Sunday Mass, and thatdidn't sit Exactly. And I was
bored. I didn't know anythingabout it.
This is the worst thing, andit's probably the hardest thing.
I'll try not to get emotionalduring this part. I was not a
really I had a hard time thekids. I was just you know, I
(20:51):
have a son, and I have adaughter. Mhmm.
They are 37 and 36 now. I justwas not a very good example. I
was not very good when I was inchurch. A lot of times I didn't
want to go to church. I wouldsubstitute a tea time if I
could.
And so I did that. And to thisday, and we'll talk a little bit
about that here in the future,that was my Catholic experience.
(21:13):
I Yeah. From talking to a lot ofpost Catholic people, that's a
lot of people's Catholic. Ibelieve there's a lot of
Christians within the Catholic,you know, church and that sort
of Sure, yeah.
It was just we had norelationship with God. I had no
Bible knowledge, and I don'teven know if there was Bible
(21:33):
classes being taught, that sortof thing. So that was that, and
I'll do this real quick. My wifehad a lot of health problems,
and because of those healthproblems we don't have enough
time to talk about this butbecause of multiple surgeries
and things like that, she becameaddicted to prescription drugs
Kayla (21:50):
Oh, wow.
Ken (21:51):
Which led to marriage issues and stuff with the kids
and that sort of thing. Sounfortunately, we did divorce in
the year February. And that wasreally hard, hard on the kids.
The kids were in their They wereearly in their early Yeah, they
were in their early teens at thetime. And so we had to get
(22:12):
through that.
Then because, again, theCatholic Church, once you're
married in the Catholic Church,you will always be married in
the face of God, right? And thatreally bothered my ex wife. And
so she applied for an annulment.I knew that that was really
important to her. And so I spenttwo hours in St.
(22:34):
Paul, Minnesota, diocese talkinginto a recorder and answering
questions. And the bottom linewas I really when we got
married, you know, thebackground was I really wasn't a
Catholic, and I had no intentionof being a Catholic, and I
didn't care about being aCatholic.
Kayla (22:53):
Yeah, it was just
Ken (22:54):
like a checkbox. Was. And I said that out loud. There really
wasn't infidelity in themarriage. There were probably
improper relationships, butnothing like that.
So I fell on the sword because Iknew it was and my marriage was
annulled, which really hit hard.I got a letter Wow. Saying from
the Catholic Church saying, Yourmarriage is annulled. That was
the first paragraph. The secondparagraph said, Although all the
(23:16):
responsibility of whatever childsupport and all that, this does
not affect that in any way.
Kayla (23:21):
Oh, interesting.
Ken (23:21):
You know, which I thought was interesting. I was like, Oh,
darn. Just kidding there. Sothat's when things really went
off the rails. That's when I waslike, this is just ridiculous.
I believe in God. I don'tbelieve in religion. Religion
failed me. I'm just going to godown. Proverbs has lots of
things about going And down theright if you get off the right
(23:44):
path, where that right pathleads or that wrong path leads,
it doesn't lead to a good place.
Kayla (23:50):
Sure doesn't.
Ken (23:51):
I got off the path. Let's just say that. I met a woman two
years later. We lived togetherfor fourteen years. I was living
in Minnesota.
Kayla (23:59):
If
Ken (24:01):
you are from the Upper Midwest, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
North Dakota, South Dakota,those areas, drinking is
cultural thing. And I'm nottalking from an alcoholic
standpoint, not the disease. I'mtalking about a cultural thing
where no matter what you do upthere, some form of drinking is
involved. Okay. I took that upfull heartedly along with the
(24:23):
woman that I was with.
We raised two kids together. Shewas a single mom. That lasted
for about fourteen years beforeI found out she was cheating on
me. Oh, wow. And so that wasexactly when you get off that
path and There you was no faithin our household whatsoever,
just trying to be the good guyand do the right thing and raise
(24:45):
a second set of kids and all ofthat sort of thing.
It's funny because both that exand I are both saved now. She
is, too, as well.
Kayla (24:54):
Oh, nice. Yeah.
Ken (24:55):
Which is a total side story.
Kayla (24:57):
Right.
Ken (24:57):
Which is a lot of fun years later. But so this would have
been December 2014. I had gaineda bunch of weight. I was living
in a one bedroom condo inChaska, Minnesota. Again, all
this happened November,December.
And I remember the January, itwas literally minus 10. Gosh. I
(25:18):
remember like this wasyesterday. So this would have
been ten years ago.
Kayla (25:21):
Right.
Ken (25:23):
It's freezing cold. I left work, stopped at my local pub to
get dinner, had a couple ofbeers, went back, ordered a
pepperoni pizza.
Kayla (25:33):
Okay.
Ken (25:34):
And I had a bottle of Crown Royal. I drank ate the whole
pizza, half a bottle of theCrown Royal, lying on the couch,
well over 300
Kayla (25:44):
Yeah.
Ken (25:44):
Saying, what am I doing with my life? And at that very
moment, that very moment, Isaid, God, I believe in You.
Yeah. I don't know how tocommunicate to You. I don't know
anything about You.
But if you're there, I need yourhelp now.
Kayla (26:00):
Mhmm.
Ken (26:01):
Two weeks later, in a crazy story, I literally meet who is
now my wife.
Kayla (26:07):
Okay.
Ken (26:08):
Two and and, again, we don't have enough time. It's
another it's a great story.Nice. How I met my wife, and it
is a 100% God thing. And someother things at that time were
happening as well, but that wasthe main thing.
And my wife, Barbara, yes, I ammarried to a Barbara, Ken and
Barbie, if you hadn't made
Kayla (26:26):
that It's my favorite.
Ken (26:28):
Yes, it's Ken and Barbie. It took fifty five years to find
my Barbie.
Kayla (26:33):
You found your Barbie.
Ken (26:34):
I found my Barbie, yes. And we look like 50, well, now 60
year old Barbies too as well.So, But my Barbie absolutely
saved my life in so many ways. Iknew I had to get healthy, so I
had a friend that helped me dothat. And I'm physically in much
(26:54):
better shape today.
But most importantly, my wifeand I got serious really quick.
And because both of us werecoming out of bad relationships
and bad marriages, we had thisgiant checklist that we went I
mean, everything. Big stuff toKen leaves the kitchen cupboards
open all the time. Mean, wespent weeks talking about all
these things. But we got closereally fast.
(27:16):
And my wife drew a line in thesand and said, listen, I know
you believe in God, but that'snot enough to be saved.
Kayla (27:23):
Wow.
Ken (27:24):
And I need to know that you are going to pursue this. You're
going to let God pursue youMhmm. Because I can't be
involved with somebody thatisn't going to be an eternity
with me. And if you can't tellme that you're going to do that,
we need to end this today. Wow.
Right? Right. And so we went toa nondenominational church where
(27:49):
I had never been to in theMinneapolis area, sat down. And
when the music started and theworship music started, I'm
affected by music, never reallypaid any attention to worship
music, I had tears running downmy eyes halfway It was just I
was amazed how much of an effectthat it had. And then a pastor
(28:11):
sort of adopted me and helped mealong the way, and I was dunked,
finally.
And so really, I say that I wastruly saved sometime between age
55 and 56. Yeah. And went tobaptism at that time, and that
pastor baptized me. And it wasan absolutely amazing moment.
Kayla (28:32):
That was cool.
Ken (28:33):
And then I'm trying to learn as much as I possibly can.
Moved to South Carolina in 2019,my wife, Barbara, and I. This
was the first church we went to,renovation church. Knew it was
our place immediately.
Kayla (28:44):
That's awesome.
Ken (28:45):
I needed to get involved. And back to the original story,
here I am. Yeah. If literally,if you go back and you look, if
you would have said at age 53where I was in my life
Kayla (28:57):
Yeah.
Ken (28:57):
And somebody could see the future and said, by the way,
Ken, you're going to bike tour,which is a hobby that I have.
You're going to ride your biketour all over the country,
hundreds of miles. Oh, and bythe way, you're going to be on a
church staff or anondenominational church in I
South would have went, Wait,what? Yeah. See, God works.
Kayla (29:16):
He sure does. And it's so cool to, you know, listen to
your story and just kind of howit all comes back to this was
all in God's plan. You know?Even with the bad that happened
in it, God still is such a goodGod, and he is the deliverer
Right.
Ken (29:32):
And that
Kayla (29:33):
he was able to deliver you from that. And then you
found your Barbie Right. Whichis, you know, super cute.
Ken (29:38):
Right.
Kayla (29:39):
But like you said, she saved your life.
Ken (29:41):
Right. Can I say two things about forgiveness?
Kayla (29:44):
Yeah.
Ken (29:45):
My ex wife, my first wife, my Catholic wife, and my
children's mother, she was very,very sick and had lots of
different things. And theprescription drugs gave her a
lot of problems. And we lost herI guess it's been six years now.
Because of Barbara and becauseof my faith, I was able to
(30:07):
forgive her
Kayla (30:08):
for her
Ken (30:08):
part in all of that, which was really powerful. And then
also, my second ex, who I livedwith, we were also able to
forgive each other and actuallyhave sort of a quasi friendship
because I still keep in touchwith her children.
Kayla (30:24):
Right.
Ken (30:25):
But both of us, and like I said, she was saved too as well.
Yeah. And that sits so muchbetter on my heart as well.
Kayla (30:33):
Yeah, and it's kind of cool how forgiveness is part of
probably everyone's story andhow it's so easy to hold on so
tight to either our way ofthinking, you know, before we
come and own our faith, or I washurt, you know, a lot of times
we play the victim and I how canI forgive that person? They
wronged me so much. But God Imean, is so cheesy. Again, I
(30:57):
teach children all the time.But, you know, God forgave us
first, and so that is why hecommands us to forgive.
And even the disciples, I thinkthey were a little sassy
sometimes, and they're like,Well, how many times do you need
to forgive? And He justcompletely shot them down.
Right. And He was like, 70 timesseven. Right.
And so that's kind of a funthing. Yeah. I mean, I've had
(31:20):
church hurt from, you know,different churches. I'm not
gonna air the dirty laundry, butforgiveness is a process. And
sometimes it takes a while, andI think that's okay.
I think kind of God gives us thegrace to be able to work through
it, to almost deconstruct theevents that happened, how God
used them. Because like I saidearlier, He is the deliverer.
Ken (31:44):
Right.
Kayla (31:44):
And so He can deliver us through that. And I think He
uses maybe some of our struggleswith, you know, forgiveness in
particular to really teach us animportant lesson.
Ken (31:55):
Right. Right. And I think it's important you have your
testimony and the parts that ifpeople are listening that can
relate to. And and that's God'sway of helping them, I'm
assuming. Also, my testimony,you know?
Yeah. And and that's that's thepower, I believe, of testimonies
(32:16):
too Yeah. As well, and andpeople's faith stories. I will
say this one thing. Hardest partabout my story, but also the
hope.
The hardest part is neither ofmy kids are saved, and I take a
lot of responsibility for that.Yeah. And so that's really,
really hard. The hope part of itis, I mean, we've spent fifteen
(32:40):
minutes apiece telling ourtestimonies, but both of us
during those long times had somany different things that we
could have talked about whereGod was working at that time
that we can look back on and seenow. So the hope for me is that
I know that God is working.
And I was saved at 56 years old.My kids are still in their 30s.
(33:00):
There's still time. There'sstill time, and I pray. And
hopefully, people can shinelight in order for them to take
those steps.
But, you know, that's reallyhard
Kayla (33:13):
It is.
Ken (33:13):
For me.
Kayla (33:14):
And I mean, I think that's for everyone. And I think
in the next maybe few episodes,we'll kind of dig in deeper
about that. You know, we talkedabout some of our prayer
struggle or things that weneeded prayer for this past
weekend staff meeting, there wasa lot of us with close, close
family members that aren'tsaved.
Ken (33:32):
Right.
Kayla (33:32):
And that is on a church staff. And that kind of blew me
away a little bit because Ialways think, Oh, I'm the
anomaly.
Ken (33:38):
Right. Right. Exactly.
Kayla (33:40):
And so that It's kind of interesting to kind of dig deep
in that and that it's Yep. Youknow, kind of obviously all in
God's plan and His timing, butjust kind of what our role is in
that, you know? Right.
Ken (33:54):
Well, I think we did it. Yeah. We just did a podcast
together, didn't This
Kayla (33:56):
is great.
Ken (33:57):
Yep. Like I said, again, our goal is to have guests in
that can share these differentstories and faith journeys and
and testimonies. We appreciatepeople out there listening, and
and hopefully that that this washelpful for somebody out there.
Kayla (34:13):
Yeah. We appreciate you all, and we will see you next
time.
Ken (34:17):
Alright. Sounds great. Thank you. Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the conversation,be sure to subscribe so you
never miss an update, and sharethis podcast with someone who
might be encouraged by it.
Wanna know more about RenovationChurch and the ministry that God
is doing within our churches?Visit the renovation.church to
learn more. Until next time,stay encouraged, and let's keep
(34:40):
pursuing Jesus in every part ofour lives.
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