Member Interview: Meet Kelly

We would like to introduce you to our webmaster and media technician for the UCG-NWA website, Kelly.

Interviewer: Kelly, please tell me about your background.

Kelly: I am married and have two children. I am a horticulturalist; I raise flower bulbs and sell them on the internet. I received my AA degree in Theology in 1987; a BS in Horticulture in 1990; and an MS in Horticulture in 1999. I was raised in the Houston Metropolitan Area and graduated from Dulles Senior High with a class of 917 students.

Interviewer: What are your favorite hobbies?

Kelly: Gardening, fishing and numismatics come to mind most speedily.

Interviewer: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in life? Return to “About” Page…

Kelly: The real meaning of sacrifice is less as it pertains to an offering and more as it pertains to letting go of the cares and desires of this life that conflict with the cares and desires found in the heart of God our Father and Jesus our Brother.

Interviewer: What has been the biggest trial in your life?

Kelly: When people I trusted in positions of power let me down and betrayed that trust without reconciliation. But God has taught me that the trustworthiness of people is not what’s most important. Instead, it is God’s trustworthiness and my own responsibility to learn to reflect that.

Interviewer: Please tell me your story about how you came to be in the Church and how it has changed your life..

Kelly: I grew up in the Church of God and that experience worked changes in my life from the very beginning. One can speculate as to how much a child really “believes” when they are in their formative years, but I have seen God’s love and guidance in my life from the very beginning (and felt aware of that from the very beginning) and through all the trials. I was gung-ho from the get-go, but God’s mercy helped me hold on when the going got tough as I matured and faced attacks on my natural strengths for idealism. This was eventually replaced with the value of God’s realism, which makes it much easier to differentiate between true and false and facilitate the truth.

Interviewer: What is your favorite scripture?

Kelly: Matthew:6:33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. and the words that lead up to it always come to mind first and foremost as my favorite verses of the Bible. Just as Christ said all the Law and the Prophets hang on the two great Commandments to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself, every right decision we make in this life hangs on seeking the promises of God as culminated in his coming kingdom and seeking his righteousness to lead us. In that scripture is also the clarification of that promise, in that this means: all we had to leave behind to follow Jesus is being and will be replaced with much, much more of the same, but with the perfect blessing of God to boot.

Interviewer: What is your best church memory?

Kelly: My baptism and the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit on March 8, 1985, is my best memory, because I was acutely aware of the complete change it promised and have been able to look back on it and remember the positive changes that have occurred as a result of learning about and developing that change. But when I think about a “church” memory, I think of a memory related to the assembly of believers (and this one is hard to pin down as it has occurred an incalculable amount of times in my life.). That is the memory of sharing our love and values with one another in conversation and service together.

Interviewer: Is there anything else you’d like to express to others in this introduction?

Kelly: For the benefit of those who might read these comments about me, and since the purpose of this exercise is for people to get to know folks of our faith and to discover what makes us “tick”, I want others to know that in finding my own value for existing, I deeply desire to share what I have learned with others. I desire this because in finding my value, I believe I have already found their value, too. I want to express to them in every way I can their priceless value to God. Are you being called by God? If so, you can respond to that calling and know and experience your purpose sooner rather than later; sooner, meaning now. I look forward to meeting you and developing new “best church memories.” Return to “About” Page…