The Zone Gathering

Last week, you met Zone Leader Brian Hill. This week, we cast the spotlight on his wife, Kim. Just between you and me, I find it kinda funny that these two met in debate class. Very appropriate! Like Brian, Kim is passionate about discipleship. She has invested her life in many young women at NCC, and they have benefited greatly from the way she honestly and transparently does life along with them. Being in a conversation with Kim can be an adventure in itself. She can move quite quickly and comfortably between topics as diverse as her kids, the best steak in DC, the oddest show on Broadway, the newest ride at Disneyworld, the need for discipleship in the church, and foreign policy.

Today, we meet up with Kim to talk about life, ministry, and Mustangs.

How long have you attended NCC? What brought you to NCC?
Brian and I have been at NCC for about oh 8 or 9 years. How we got here is a rather long (albeit cool) story. The short version is we felt a call to couples ministry in our neighborhood in DC and we needed a bigger apartment. NCC gave us the opportunity to minister and then to rent the top floor of 205 F Street.

Tell us a little about the small groups that you lead and how that experience has impacted you.
We are currently replicating ourselves out of leading the NOVA families group that meets on Sunday night at Brian and Carol Bussey’s house. We’ll turn it over to them completely (which we really already have) in the summer and take over the NW couples group, which is losing its leadership to the great state of Nebraska as of June 1. I enjoy small groups. We stepped back from leadership for a while once and felt very disconnected. Being in leadership forces me to be accountable for my own personal growth in order to be discipling others.

Where can you be found on Sunday mornings?
9:30 Union Station. 2 blocks from home with kids church, what more could you ask for?

When did you start following Christ and what have been some of the spiritual turning points in your life?
I started following Christ as a young kid (sometime in early elementary, maybe earlier), but when I was 13, I made a conscious choice to cut Christ out of my life completely. I had no respect for the church or religion. I was fairly unimaginative in my sources of rebellion: alcohol, sex, that kind of thing. Then, finally, when I was about 19 years old, God (who has an infinite source of humor to go with His wisdom) arranged for me to attend a local Christian college on scholarship and at the same time gave Brian a hard core Christian roommate at his university in the same town. The roommate challenged Brian to go to Chi Alpha, and, being the girlfriend, I went along. I turned back to Christ through a long, rather unpleasant, spiritual journey, but I was discipled through Chi Alpha and a rather salty-dog of a professor at the college I was attending. (My professor passed away a few years ago from cancer. The roommate was best-man in our wedding and is still a good friend.) I was baptized in the James River in Missouri in September of 1992, and that is the date I use as my date of conversion. Since then, I’ve had a lot of times of stretching and growth: moving out here, Brian’s law school years, joblessness, grad school, marriage in general, parenting, staying at home with the kids, choosing to go back to school. We have been given wide latitude on the learning curve of life. We can choose to beat our head on the ground and more or less throw a spiritual fit every time we hit trouble, or we can learn a little (or a lot) from our circumstance and move on. Each circumstance has taught me a little more about what Christ has done and who He is, about God, about who I am and who God has made me to be (two VASTLY different things). I have not been on some well-marked path toward spiritual maturity. It’s been more like being in a once-beautiful garden that’s been allowed to be over grown with both the good and the bad. For the last 15 years, the Holy Spirit has been taking His pruning shears (or maybe His machete) and pruning like mad. It’s amazing how much beauty is there. It’s amazing how much still needs to be pruned.

Tell us a little about your background.
I was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. Met Brian in high school debate class. We started dating his senior (my junior) year of high school (at the very end). We stayed in Springfield for college; I went to Evangel College (I understand it’s now Evangel University), and graduated in 3 years. We moved out here to go to grad school. Brian went to law school at Georgetown and I received my MA from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in 2000. I’m starting a PhD in comparative governments in the fall at Georgetown. My family lives in Missouri (my parents lived in Colorado for a while). I have a brother, sister, (their respective spouses), and 4 nieces and a nephew. I’m the mom of Christian (5) and Mackenzie (4) and the owner of a crazy Basenji named Jack (9). Brian and I have been married for almost 13.5 years and have been together for over 17.

What is your favorite Scripture passage?
Tough one. There are so many… I’d have to go with: 2 Tim 2:2: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (Kind of THE discipleship passage, if you will.) John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” And pretty much the whole book of Romans. And the Psalms. The Psalms are always a good kick in the head. I think David had one of the best understandings of grace of anyone in scripture, except for Christ Himself. And Ecclesiastes, which is a good perspective book.

What are your favorite books?
I don’t really have favorite books; I have favorite authors. I rarely read fiction. I would have to say some of my favorite authors are C.S. Lewis (fiction and non); G.K. Chesterton; Dorothy Sayers (fiction and non); Tolkien. I try to stay current on most political science/economics/international affairs books. Currently I’m reading …One Thing by Kierkegaard and Pensees by Pascale, along with various works of Hannah Arendt. (Kinda on a philosophy kick.) I’m kind of all over the place when it comes to books.

What are your favorite movies?
Nothing that current. “Princess Bride” “Sense and Sensibility” “Saving Private Ryan” “Good Will Hunting” (The last one is not an endorsement or recommendation….)

What is your favorite fast food?
Springfield Cashew chicken all white meat extra onions extra cashews OR steak n shake.

What is something that most people at NCC would not know about you?
When I was in 3rd grade, my Great Pumpkin wish was to go “on the road” with my brother and sister as a trio and sing. Come to think of it, I don’t think my brother and sister knows this one either. Also I’m a total closet car chick and really want to do a frame-off restoration of a ‘64 1/2 Mustang. I LOVE Mustangs. But alas, no garage, no rebuilds.

Tell us a little about your day job. What is your dream job?
Well I’m a mom and a wife and a barista. You can find me at Ebenezers throughout the week on the morning shifts making up drinks of many fashions. I LOVE that job. I used to kick around the idea of owning coffeehouse, but really, working in one is enough. I thoroughly enjoy meeting people and chatting it up a bit. Making their day a little brighter, that kind of thing. As far as the dream job goes, that would pretty much be anything that allowed Brian and I to work together. (And was located somewhere in the Caribbean or Mediterranean or on a boat that was seaworthy.)

Who is your hero? (besides Jesus or any other member of the Trinity)
Brian. You should see what he puts up with (then again, maybe not)! No, really, he’s extremely patient, smart, wise, excellent at what he does. He’s an awesome dad and husband. He looks at the long view of things and is steady when I fly off the handle. He’s stuck with me through worse, poorer, and in sickness. (As well as, better, richer, and in health.)

What do you do in your free time?
Read, go on a date with Brian, go to the park with the kids, take Jack (our quirky little dog) for a walk, watch a little netflix, think, journal…whatever strikes my fancy at the time.

In NCC:THE MOVIE who would play you? Who would play Pastor Mark?
Pastor Mark is easy: Ben Affleck (did I spell that right?). Me??? Well, most of my favorite actresses are too old or dead. How about Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager…she’s pretty much like her character even in real life I’m told: funny, capable, with a soupcon of sarcasm.)

What is your favorite Pastor Markism?
Let’s zoom out to 30,000 feet…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 9:13 am and is filed under Spotlights, Zone Leaders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.