Kimi's Story

I am Kimi Minor and I live in TRACY, CA. It’s taken me some time to commit to this course. I had a benign tumor removed in November of 2018. I wanted to start the course in May, but was overwhelmed. Around Father’s Day, I got a call from my 95-year-old cousin, Babe. She was in the St Joseph hospital in Murphysboro, IL for heart failure. She has been an important person in my life, even though I wasn’t up for the trip that involved bringing her here to recover. It was God that moved me through the next five months of her resting here in CA, and me returning her to IL and getting her into a supportive living facility.

I experienced many struggles and blessings. Babe wanted desperately to return to her home and I kept in close communication with our Lord, Yeshua, to make sure I was fulfilling his quest for her. I also was blessed with a sister in Yeshua that I prayed for 60 years ago. I have 5 brothers. I’m 66. God answered my prayer 60 years later by blessing me with my new sister. We instantly bonded. She is my closest friend and mentor on my renewed journey with the Lord.

I was born into the Lutheran church and baptized at 3 with my two older brothers. It was not immersion, but water sprinkled on my head. I grew up in the Swedish Covenant church. My father was a minister’s son of this denomination. We always dreaded after church. My father was jealous of the retired world and 2 military men who never left the US but had a higher rank than him. He was an officer and pilot shot down in the Pacific. So, the dialogue was always hateful.

I wanted to be a Catholic at grade school age because I would be able to rid myself of all the sins this church proclaimed we had. I even imagined myself becoming a nun. My mother was raised Catholic and converted to the Protestantism. I felt invisible growing up within the family structure, yet I also experienced inappropriate behavior at the hands of my father. I left home at 18 and lived with my older brother in Oahu. He had also left home at 18 due to a different type of mistreatment by my father. (He was my half-brother but whole in my eyes) I grew to love my brother more as a father figure I could trust. Neither one of us stayed close to God.

Years later, my brother became a born again following the teachings of his Jesus. I never stopped believing in God, but I didn’t seek him and followed Shlomo’s ungodly lifestyle. I was on and off the path. I married a man who worshiped the Hawaiian gods. I was intrigued for a while until my husband told me to throw away my Bible. I lost interest in his belief system and refused to get rid of my Bible. I had two children by him and after 5 years of verbal and physical abuse, we divorced.

My children 3 and 5 grew up with me in CA. I brought them to several churches and made the Presbyterian church our home church until they were in high school. I planted the seed and then let them choose. They chose no church. I was a lousy ambassador of the Lord. I felt pressure from myself and in church with the mark of divorcée. I didn’t seek counsel and now imagine it was my own guilt that failed my children. In my 30s and 40s, I wanted to believe and couldn’t understand how my brothers had such strong faith. I just felt unworthy.

In my late 50s, I went to Temple with my ex-sister-in-law. I loved hearing the rabbi tell us how we were special and God loved us. I wanted to convert. Strangely I felt this nagging betrayal to Jesus. I wanted to join Gods chosen people, but I couldn’t give up Jesus.

Present day, I became hungry to learn the word from the original text. I don’t feel born again. I feel born. I have the complete Jewish Study Bible and feel that I have only touched the surface. I have an app to learn Hebrew. When I pronounce my words correctly, I instantly feel joy. Again, to be transparent I have not been a disciplined student and just opened up the beginning of your web page. In my 30s, I didn’t understand why people in my CHRISTIAN associations didn’t acknowledge that Jesus was a Jew. In my 60s I was inspired to be introduced to messianic Jews through YouTube and found Izzy at Holy Language Institute.

My husband and I renewed our vows before God on 9/22/19. Our original vows took place in a courthouse. My husband needs a kidney and is on home dialysis and still goes to work. My brain surgery and his blood disease that destroyed his kidneys brought us back to church. I was a bit disappointed because he fell in love with a nondenominational church and I wanted to go to pursue a messianic church. So here I am, hungry and still quite worn out by my adventure with God and still healing from brain surgery. I ask Yeshua to please help me stay on course to really get to know him.

I read that you don’t use the Trinity. My new sis is a Chaplin at St Joseph hospital. She explained that God the Father sent His only son to live in the flesh to understand our struggle as humans. When He died to remove our sins and promise salvation and rose again; He left his Holy Spirit here to help us until His return. That was the best explanation I had ever heard. That His spirit dwells in each of us who believe. I struggle every day with old behavior that fills my brain with thoughts of God is a fairy tale. I fight back with the help and faith in my Yeshua, Hallelujah! My God-given, sis, that lives in IL, constantly reinforces my faith. That is my nutshell of my journey to your instruction. I hope it made sense.

With love in Yeshua,
Kimi

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