Dear Friend,

If you find yourself sharing your gift in places and with people, that do not seem to want it, don't continue to beat your head up against the wall. Release them. Let them have their own journey. Life is too short to convince people to be aware of who you are and the value that you bring. Love yourself enough to remove yourself from any situation where you are constantly making someone a priority who has made you an option. The lips of the wise are sealed to those who refuse to hear and are comfortable being ignorant. Begin to carve out a place for yourself in life to do the work that you are called to do, for those who are ready to receive it. Your gifts and time are precious. Take care to nurture and develop them. Only in this way can you live a life that is purposeful, meaningful and free of frustration. You are a gift to the world. You deserve to be recognized for who you are. You have Greatness within you! - Les Brown

Hello

        We hope this email finds you enjoying your day! On August 19th we began a journey to open a retreat center. Many wild and unimaginable things have happened. To date we have booked 6 retreats for spring 2017, are in discussion for a wedding and are in conversations with how to provide affordable counseling services through art and animal therapy and this is just a few of the highlights. Champions from near and far have asked how to help to make this dream become a reality. What the Lord keeps revealing to us is 'many hands make light work' and ideas from a capital campaign, hosting bi-weekly tours, street corner campaigns and more have been discussed and considered. We have offers to assist us in rehabbing the buildings, furnishings that will enable us to get up and running quickly and more animals than we can count have been donated. The excitement has been infectious, the dreaming has been fabulous and the connections with others is priceless.                

      For us others is the key word and it is for them we are doing this. We are not in a position to accomplish this alone. We have spoken with lenders and do qualify for a portion of the asking price, but we have to sell our home and move onto the property and that is not what we feel we are supposed to do. We do know of who could help us manage it and make it successful, so there are no worries where that is concerned. We have met investors who have offered the money to us, but again the requirements are greater than we feel is wise to take on. For a couple of weeks we took the time to revisit this dream and seek out counsel and consider the 'cost' for everything. In fact, recently were thinking this wasn't the property for us, but definitely the vision and asked the Lord for a sign. Guess what, he produced. Those retreats we mentioned about earlier, two of them were booked just this last weekend. A random donation came in, several requests for tour dates were emailed and a gentle horse was donated for the children who will be coming for therapy and retreats. Our hearts are alive with dreams of, "what needs to happen to fund this", "how can we make this work" and so much more. We are asking that you would please consider joining us in this adventure to sooth the wounded hearts who come knocking for healing and relief of what has broken their spirit and heart.                 For those of you who know us personally or through the ministry you know parts of our story, please allow us to give a deeper history to you and also those who do not know us as well. We both were born to families and had experiences that turn most hearts angry and bitter towards people and God. When we said "I do" to each other, almost 15 years ago, we were struggling in our identities due to both of us having a previous failed marriage and fears that haunted us from our childhoods. It was facing our issues, fears and doubts that built the foundation for our ministry and it has turned into a deep passion for serving those in need for many years.                

       We have learned that loving others during the hardest seasons of their life is what we are called to do. Whether this be through sharing in discipleship, being there in a time of pain and suffering, or just being those friends that allow people to be themselves. We like to be the family to those without one, and the friend for those who need one. This is what God has called us to do.                        Again, our ministry didn't exactly start in the most glamorous of ways. Two people hurting in ways words could not describe, brokenness all around us and identities wrapped up in grief and shame. But through the grace and guidance of God, we learned to love and be loved. We first started out as discipleship, then mentoring and coaching, then counseling teens, adults, and marriages, and now our ministry has grown into retreats for both men and women to get away and heal, because in order to move on, healing and forgiveness is always needed.               

     Though we were abandoned as children and society stated that through either nature or nurture, we would do the same to our own children and to others around us, we didn't end up the same. God used people in mighty ways to turn two very broken and lost people into two very gracious and loving people. Though muddy and messy and deep in the wounds and trouble that surround them, we have striven to accept people in the season they are in. We do not assume to have all the answers but we know the one who does. That's the exciting part of walking through another person's Journey to being healed and whole through Christ Jesus.                

Be brave. Fight for what you believe in, and make your dreams a reality. You are the only one who can. We are who we are, based on the choices that we make.

What is the difference between leaving something that doesn't serve you and running away? I think it is several things. The realization that there is nothing that you can do to change the situation. You can only change yourself, and if the situation doesn't change when you do, then it is time to ask yourself "why am I still here?"

Many of us stay in bad relationships - with our employment, our family, our spouse, our friends. We tell ourselves that we have no choice but to stay. But we always have choices. Our happiness starts with us, and how we not only treat ourselves, but how we give permission to others to treat us. 

A job, the relationships with friends and family, this is not what makes us happy or unhappy. It is how we treat ourselves with our inner voice inside our heads. The way we talk to and about ourselves, is how we give unconscious permission for others to treat us. Words like, "you are so sensitive, can't you take a joke?", or "how stupid can I be?" or, "how naive and gullible you are", or "You are making things worse, this is all your fault". "I am always that last choice, never good enough." You have to believe that when you leave the wrong people or situations in your life, that the right things will start happening. The only way to get that kind of trust, is to just leap in faith that it will work out. It is like the chicken or the egg scenario, they both happen at the same time.

Paulo Coelho said, "If you're brave to say "good bye", life will reward you with a new "hello". He also said, "You are what you believe yourself to be." If that is true, why not believe yourself to be brave? Be the person that you are afraid to be, the one that doesn't fit in, the misfit, the strange one. The words to the song, "Renegades" "long live the pioneers, rebels and mutineers, go forth and have no fears."

The only way to discover what you are truly capable of, is to take leaps of faith across the chasms and up into the heights of trees. It is what is necessary to push out the boundaries of your comfort zone, or to decrease the size of your tolerance zone, as the case may be.Refuse to be confined in accepting a mere existence for a life. Existence isn't real security, but is instead an cage. May your heart be brave, your mind be fierce, and your spirit be free.                                                                                - Adapted in part from Lemonade Makers 

Kristi Estrada

It hurts, doesn't it? The disappointment. The death of dreams. The end of something beautiful. The misunderstandings. The hurtful truths and unspoken words. The loss. The change that comes in like a storm when you weren't ready for it. It's so tempting to run from the realness of it all. "Its part of your journey. Trust it," they say. It's so much easier said than done, isn't it? It really is here to teach you something, but damn it to hell, I know it doesn't feel good. Stand. Be strong, wild one. Stand and let that storm rage around you. You are being stretched, refined and strengthened for a purpose. You are loved and you are NOT alone.

We would like to invite you to check out our website and learn about our passion for others!!

The mission of Kingdom Discipleship is to be a Christ centered organization providing weekly meetings, retreats and reduced or free counseling and coaching services for men, women, teenagers, couples and families struggling through painful life situations and crisis. Our programs Kingdom Men, Kingdom Women, Oneness, Unleashed Intensive Retreats (men) and Restoration Intensive Retreats (women) are centered around one goal: to know Jesus Christ deeper and to make Him known to others! Imagine a group of people sharing real fellowship, exciting growth, genuine sharing, prayer and heartfelt love with one another. Imagine a place where no one stands alone, struggles alone, serves alone, develops alone, seeks alone, or grows up alone. Imagine yourself in such a caring, committed community – Welcome to Kingdom Discipleship! Our Story   Eight years ago Kingdom Discipleship began, when a group of men and women gathered to create what is now a community of diverse people from different Christian denominations. Each person seeking one common goal to “know Him more and to bring our hearts into alignment with His.” Scripturally based and transparent in nature, the programs of Kingdom Men and Kingdom Women mission is: “to call His sons and daughters back to His heart,” by pointing them to Jesus. The core values of Kingdom Men are to equip and challenge a man, through discipleship and sanctify himself….as a Man of God. We equip and challenge him to be a faithful husband, a dedicated father and a reliable brother in Christ-all to glorify God. With these core values, we send men out to fulfill the “Great Commission” by teaching others to do the same. Likewise, the core values of Kingdom Women are to create a place or atmosphere where no woman stands alone, struggles alone, serves alone, develops alone, seeks alone, or grows up alone. Kingdom Women designs their mission around Proverbs 14:1 which says: “A wise woman builds up her home, but a foolish one tears it down”. We strive in teaching women their identities in Christ and their foundation as daughters of the King.     During this journey each person has the opportunity to examine what is in their heart and mind. With the insight of the Holy Spirit through their mentor’s, leaders, and their own heart; they can see their gifts and learn the truths spoken about them in God’s Word.     Hope arises as they see that the healing of their brokenness is not only possible, but starting to take place as her heart goes from deception to truth, shame to hope, and death to life. Jesus reaches out to them, and as they grasp His hand they are gently pulled up and out of their faulty thinking and wounds so deep, that they hadn’t acknowledged they existed. Jesus reshapes their identity and vision to right thinking, healing, and a freedom that they have never known.

Smiling and serving in Christ,