Kate Nash , Founder of He Makes Me New

Stephanie Kelley: Please give us a brief introduction.
Kate Nash: Hello! My name is Kate and I’m from California but living in sunny Florida with two of the most amazing humans, my 15-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. I’ve spent the last 20 years creating development programs and I’m working on the side to share my passion about how God’s love can transform women who feel stuck and want to grow and become more. What I want most from life is to become my true self and to help other women become their true selves. As a Christian, I believe this is a result you achieve, not by searching within, but by becoming closer with our Creator. I believe God placed a radiant treasure within each woman. And that every woman is beautiful because of who she is and not because of what she looks like or because of what she does.

SK: Share your testimony.
KN: I’ve been a Christian for nearly my whole life–since I was seven years old. I attended Christian school and then graduated from Bible college. I’ve always had a deep interest in the Bible, theology, and its practical application to my life. But my relationship with God was always very personal and not something I shared openly. Now, I’m sharing my convictions more openly. The trigger for this change was the unexpected death of my best friend four years ago. She died 10 years after cutting me off from all contact. This happened after I begged her to leave an abusive relationship that caused her great misery. She chose to stay with her abuser and died before we could mend our relationship. Our broken relationship is one of the deepest pains in my life. And I know there are many women like her who feel powerless to break free from toxic situations or who feel stuck settling for less than what God created them for. I couldn’t help my friend, but I’m determined to help those I can.

SK: Please share about your ministry — He Makes Me New.
KN: I made monumental changes in my own life after this event. Up to that point, I had been focused on moving up in my career, but that’s just not a fit for me anymore. While I love designing instructional courses to help people do their jobs more effectively, that’s not my biggest focus anymore. I want to create a place where women can share and grow and where they can connect with God and have their lives forever transformed by his love. God has created every woman with an incredible radiant gift within them. But so often we hide it away for fear of being different and we let people see our false, carefully curated selves instead of our true selves. It’s going to take God’s love to give us the confidence to be vulnerable and reveal our true self and radiant gift. This ministry isn’t about me and what I can do. Jesus plays the center. My role is to aid others to look to him.

SK: What prompted you to start the Love Your Neighbor Challenge?
KN: I remember being so happy for 2020. This was going to be a great year and a great decade. And then all this happened. If someone wrote a fictional story about this year it would seem unbelievable and yet it’s happening. And there’s so much fear and pain and anger in the posts that I read. It feels like no one is listening. It’s like the pro-Trump, pro-Biden, pro-blacklivesmatter, pro-alllivesmatter groups are duking it out in plain view. What’s needed in times like this is love–tough love. Love that listens and heals and accepts others because they matter to God. The Love Your Neighbor Challenge is a reminder that God’s love can unite Christians even when we believe differently. Jesus said, “Love each other just as much as I have loved you. For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another, everyone will know that you’re my true followers.” (John 13:34-35 TPT) But we just weren’t seeing much of this type of love in action when it’s needed most. We hope to change that with this challenge.

SK: Tell us more about the Love Your Neighbor Challenge?
KN: The LYNC won’t have specific types of challenges. For example, I won’t say, go speak to a homeless person. I feel that it’s absolutely necessary for each individual Christian to find what they can do with the gifts, talents, and limitations they have. Some of the people in the challenge are restricted to their homes right now, others are on vacation or having surgery, and others have lost their jobs. I don’t want anyone to feel like they can’t complete a challenge because of their limitations. So, the impetus is on each person to find some way to share love, whether it’s sending an encouraging text message to someone who needs it or leaving an anonymous gift.

SK: Please offer some practical tips on how someone could show love to a neighbor.
KN: I have a document in the group that lists 22 different ways we can serve others, but here are five favorites. Look at your photos and forward photos to people who shared that moment with you to remind them of how much you treasured that memory and still treasure them. Video chat with a bored kid that’s home for summer and teach them a skill, like how to play chess, bake a cake, or use watercolors.Arrange to have a meal delivered to someone who’s just home with a new baby or from surgery.Without sharing your own views, have a loving conversation with someone who has a different political or religious view from yours. Listen and learn. Make amends with someone you have avoided.

SK: Tell us about a time when you were the recipient of a random act of kindness and how that made you feel.
KN: I was having a terrible week a few months ago. I had to put my cat down and my daughter and I were very upset about that. On the same day, I had a friend abruptly end a friendship with me because I chose to euthanize the cat, and I also lost hours of work because of a computer glitch. My sister sent a few gifts to me to encourage me. With that act, she made it clear that she saw my pain and grief and cared about me.

SK: Do you think that the month long Love Your Neighbor Challenge has the potential to change the world?
KN: I believe it will take more than a month, but my hope is that it sparks a movement that unifies God’s people to show what we are for rather than what we are against. Church people do a great job of showing what we’re against, but I think there’s a lot of room for improvement to stand for the love God demonstrates. I don’t think people will change because we say their lifestyle or choices are ungodly. Such harsh judgement serves to drive people away. It’s like some church people expect broken and lost people to get their act together before they come to God. But that’s where the transformation occurs–at the feet of Jesus. People who are most in need of transformation should be escorted into our churches and showered with love. That’s the vision I’d hope to see–God’s love reaching into the darkest corners to meet people at their lowest and most desperate situations to know that they are accepted just as they are and that God sees them and their needs. Transformation happens after introduction to God, not before.

SK: What are your plans (personal and professional) for the near future and beyond?
KN: My next steps are to start a group program that’s just for women who are ready to transition and take the next step. This is the natural outcome of creating courses for so many years and of my love and interest in women and Bible study. I don’t believe that God’s Word is for memorization alone but for integration. That can have a powerful ripple effect on all of creation. My best friend had amazing gifts to share with the world and now the world will never know. I wonder how many other women are just like that–like the servant in the parable who buried his talent instead of investing it. I want to invest my talent in other women.

SK: Please give us a word of encouragement, favorite scripture or favorite quote.
KN: To the woman who is reading this, I want to share that you are loved by God just as you are. He isn’t disappointed in you or waiting to punish you for not being good enough, strong enough, or independent enough. His thoughts when he sees you are overflowing in love and encouragement. You aren’t broken and unusable. You are beautiful and powerful. What God wants to do is to remove the old beliefs and habits that keep you small and invisible. He wants to remove the weights and chains that keep you silent or ineffective. These look like beliefs that say, I’m not enough, or I can never do anything right, or No one is interested in me. These lies keep you from seeing how treasured you truly are. God rejoices over you with joyful songs! (Zephaniah 3:17) God is willing to ransom land and countries for you and has given you his own name! (Isaiah 43:1-4) So, please let go of the old, familiar, limiting beliefs and begin to see yourself how God sees you.

If anyone is interested in encouraging my ministry or receiving encouragement from my ministry, you can find me at my website hemakesmenew.com.

My email address is kate@hemakesmenew.com.

You can also like my Facebook page, He Makes Me New.

In the month of July, join the Facebook group for the LYNC! We’d love to include you!