Someone You Should Know: Lydia Kinne

In our Someone You Should Know series, we interview Faith members to help us get to know them, see how God is working in their lives, and make new connections within our community. In this episode we get to know Lydia Kinne.

• Automated Transcription

• Seth Weber 0:00
  Today on faith matters Lydia Kinne joins us as part of our ongoing, someone you should know series.
  
  Seth Weber 0:12
  I'm Seth Weber, and you're listening to faith matters, a podcast designed to help you think biblically in matters of the Christian faith, and keep you updated on matters of faith Bible Church.
  
  Seth Weber 0:40
  Well, it's a pleasure to have you here, Lydia.
  
  Lydia Kinne 0:41
  Thank you for having me.
  
  Seth Weber 0:51
  So, Lydia, we are here to get to know you today. You are someone that we should know. Can you tell us about where you grew up where you were born and sort of your childhood? Sure.
  
  Lydia Kinne 1:00
  So I was born in banning California, which is a little town south of Los Angeles. And then when I was almost four years old, we moved to Derry, Idaho, little town of 500 people, okay. And my dad, he pastored, a small church there in theory, Idaho. And my dad was the pastor of small churches in small towns, part of village missions. Okay. And so he got this job in theory, and we moved there in the early 90s. And so he pastored that church for about five years. And then when I was almost nine, we moved into Moscow, Idaho, and I lived there for about four years, then we moved to Bakersfield, California for a year.
  
  Seth Weber 1:44
  Oh, so you guys, were moving out a bit all over the place? Yep.
  
  Lydia Kinne 1:47
  And then we moved to Spokane when I was a sophomore in high school. So back in 2002, did you guys come to faith immediately after that? We did not. So when we first came to Spokane, we were looking around at different churches. And we did visit faith. But because my dad had pastored small churches, we were more comfortable with smaller churches, so many thought, V. This seems kind of large. So we went to a different church, we went to Trinity Baptist Church for six years. And then after six years, my parents decided to come here to faith. And at first I was still kind of invested in Trinity. But then some things changed. And people moved. And so I realized I needed a different church for my spiritual growth. I was around college age at the time. So I decided to come to faith. And it took me a little bit of time to get involved. That was on me. You should have gotten involved sooner, but I just was, you know, kind of sitting back for a bit. But then I got involved in college ministry and different things like choir and doing stuff up front on stage and stuff. So
  
  Seth Weber 2:55
  and you sort of been involved in college ministry ever since? Yeah. Tell us about your involvement called ministry? Sure.
  
  Lydia Kinne 3:01
  So I was when I was a student in college, it took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. So I was in and out of college, I didn't do the traditional four years, and then you graduate. So I would go to college, to the community college, take some time off and then decide to go back. And eventually I finished at the falls and transferred Eastern but in that time, I was coming to to doxa and coming to college retreats, and whatnot. But it wasn't till about my last year of college that I got more involved. And then because of that, when I got to the end of it, Jared Kilcher asked if I wanted to join stuff, and I thought these are my people, and I love it. And college was a really formative time for me, and figuring out who God made me to be and just trying to figure out big life decisions. And so I wanted to be able to pass that along to college ladies and mentor them. And so yeah, except for one year when I took a year off from college, because I thought I couldn't handle it, but then I missed them too much. And it came back. And and yeah, I've been there since since then. So I've loved it. Alright,
  
  Seth Weber 4:10
  well, let's jump back a little bit back to your childhood. Yeah. Think back a little bit. Do you have any fond memories of childhood? You had a lot of siblings? I'm sure there was some some fun stuff that happened? Yeah, it was a story shares.
  
  Lydia Kinne 4:22
  So yeah, I have five older sisters and a younger brother. And but because of the age differences, a lot of the times I played by myself. I was homeschooled and that homeschool child of the 90s. And I had a very, very large imagination. My American Girl dolls and Adventures In Odyssey and all the you know, classic 90s things. So yeah, so I had a huge imagination and I also just kind of took charge of my friend groups. When we first came to this church and In my in Moscow yard, Moscow, I made some friends and they already kind of had their little friend group established. But I came in and I was just going to kind of take over. So they had this little detective agency, and they were like, I'm boss one, and this girl's boss too. And I came in, I was like, I'll be a boss, why now? And they just let me look back. I'm like, why don't you just let me like, take over? And my friend is like, well, because we like your ideas. Okay,
  
  Seth Weber 5:32
  so you're still friends with these guys.
  
  Lydia Kinne 5:35
  They've still stay friends with me. Oddly enough, but thankfully, God has, has worked that out. So it's productive leadership and nice Aussie leadership.
  
  Seth Weber 5:47
  All right. So tell us after you finished up at SFCC transferred to Eastern, what did you study at Eastern? And then what did you do after that? Yeah,
  
  Lydia Kinne 5:57
  so I studied education. So what took me a while to figure out was if I wanted to be a teacher, or if I wanted to go into film acting, because I've always loved theater acting, and I, I took some time, actually, it was part of a talent agency and did some acting coaching and small gigs on the side. And then when I really thought about what that would entail, I was like, you know, I don't think that's the direction that I want to go with my life. It requires a lot of sacrifice, and just hard decisions that I just don't think I want to make. So I decided to go into teaching. And I still really wanted to have theater in my life. So I minored in theater at Eastern. And Elementary Ed was my major with reading as an emphasis. And then, after I graduated, I started teaching at Madison Elementary School here in Spokane. And while I loved it, because I did get to teach only English Language Arts at that school, I realized that the day might come that I would want to teach older kids. And so I also never wanted to go back to teaching math. So I decided to go back to Eastern and get my secondary English endorsements. Okay, so I got that. And that, along with the theater minor has been super helpful to where I'm at now in my life. So I taught at Madison for six years, and I did theater clubs there. I've also directed shows for cit. And that's been really sweet. But now I teach at Northwest Christian, and I teach Junior High English to seventh and eighth graders. Nice. Yeah. And I think I've really found my sweet spots. I think people will think I'm crazy for loving teaching junior high, but they're great kids AI and I love getting to teach the subjects that I enjoy most. And I also get to be the theater program director at Northwest Christian. Sounds great. So all of those things that I wasn't sure at the time, like, should I minor in theater? Is this really going to be helpful? God has really used them in my life to do things that I enjoy. Nice.
  
  Seth Weber 8:00
  That's really cool. Yes, he got got to being faithful to you in that way over the years. Absolutely. So tell us how you came to know Jesus.
  
  Lydia Kinne 8:08
  So I, of course, grew up in a Christian home, my dad was a pastor, and I don't ever remember a time not going to church and reading Bible stories. My mom shared the gospel with me when I was five. And I know that seems kind of young to accept the Lord. But I remember that moment very clearly of her explaining the gospel to me and me accepting and praying the prayer. And obviously, when you're five, you don't really understand the full gospel. But as I grew older, God revealed more aspects of the gospel to me, I remember at 10 Feeling a little scared that maybe that prayer I prayed wasn't real. And so I was like, I need to rededicate my life to the Lord. And I got baptized when I was 10. So I believe that God genuinely had saved me at a young age. And because I had a desire to follow the Lord and read the Bible and grow. And a lot of that had to be kind of worked out over the years, because I'm definitely a people pleaser. And so even though I knew the verses that say, you are not saved by works, but by grace, I still felt this need to always be pleasing other people be pleasing the Lord. And so he really helped me over the years understand what true grace was, and that there's really nothing that I can do to in addition to what he's done to save me. And I think that became clear to me around 18 When we had just some family difficulties. And I realized that I am just as much a sinner as everyone else. And my pride and self righteousness was just as offensive to God as anybody else's sin. And so that was, I think, a pivotal moment in my life where the grace of the gospel became real to me. But I don't doubt that the Lord has been sanctify me all the way through and it's been sweet to see how he's used different people in my life. Since childhood mentors in high school, and in college, and even now to help help me become a woman who follows the Lord.
  
  Seth Weber 10:07
  Wonderful. So what has God been teaching you lately? Yeah. So
  
  Lydia Kinne 10:11
  I think that God is so faithful to teach me things all the time. And I think that the season that I'm in right now, I am, I love my job as a teacher, but I also love writing. That's a passion of mine for a really long time. And so I'm in a master's program right now to get my degree in creative writing. Wow. Okay, yeah, Master's in creative writing for educators. And then I also took a course recently with an editor from Multnomah and Waterbrook publishers about getting a book published. Nice, yeah. And so I do feel strongly that I want to pursue that avenue of getting books published, and using my writing to honor the Lord. And so I think that right now, what God is Most teaching me is to trust and obey. And it seems, you know, simple, like, the old hymn says, but it's really like, day by day, I get up and I say, Okay, Lord, I trust you for what I can't see. I don't know what you have in store for me. But I'm going to be obedient today in what you've called me to do. So I'm going to be obedient in my job that you've given me for now. And then also take steps to better my writing and to be faithful in writing. Even if it doesn't seem like there's a huge platform, I want to be faithful to use this gift to encourage other people and, and then allow him to do whatever he wants with it. So I think that that has been it's been sweet to, to grow in my trust of what he can do and not trust in myself in my own abilities. And and just to get encouragement from other people that Yep, this is the the right path to go. And I have no idea what the future holds. But God does. And I can trust Him because He's sovereign, and he's faithful and and he'll lead me there.
  
  Seth Weber 12:01
  That's really good. That's a good reminder for all of us. So how can we as a church be praying for you right now, Lydia?
  
  Lydia Kinne 12:07
  Thank you. Yeah. I would love prayer just for continued faithfulness in my writing, no matter what that looks like, and, and faithfulness in my role as a teacher. And again, I do I really love what I do. Sometimes it can get lonely as a single woman. So I want to be transparent about that with my church family, and just have them in encouraged me in prayer in that journey. And I'm really thankful for the body of faith Bible Church, because I truly do feel like I'm part of a family even though I'm not married. And the people here have just folded me in, like one of their family and I really appreciate that. So just continued prayers for that, that I would continue to be faithful.
  
  Seth Weber 12:52
  All right. Well, it's a joy to have you as part of the family.
  
  Lydia Kinne 12:55
  Thank you.
  
  Seth Weber 12:55
  Now, we've come to the time where we will speed through the speed round. Okay, I'm ready. Okay.
  
  Seth Weber 13:10
  Cats or Dogs, dogs.
  
  Seth Weber 13:12
  pineapple on pizza. Yes. Do you have any pets?
  
  Lydia Kinne 13:15
  I do. I have a dog named Daisy. She's real cute, favorite book besides the Bible and of Green Gables favorite band?
  
  Lydia Kinne 13:21
  I think I would say for worship music. I like City light and shine and sheen. And then for other types of music like need to breathe bands like that. Nice favorite movie or TV show favorite TV shows the Office Of course. Nice. Favorite movie. I would say Pride and Prejudice. The Cure nightly version. Okay.
  
  Seth Weber 13:39
  Okay, controversial.
  
  Lydia Kinne 13:40
  heartache. Best surprise gift you've ever gotten. One of my favorites was tickets to Hamilton.
  
  Seth Weber 13:47
  If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with all the extra time it would write? I would write so much. I would write a novel I would write so many books. All right, last question. favorite place to eat out in Spokane.
  
  Lydia Kinne 14:00
  I like twigs. But also my brother is a cook at the wild sage so he can just cook that kind of food for
  
  Seth Weber 14:06
  us at home. Nice. So you have to eat out to eat out. Hey, no, it's wonderful. Nice. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Lydia.
  
  Lydia Kinne 14:14
  Thank you so much for having me.
  
  Seth Weber 14:22
  Before we end today's episode, I wanted to mention that today is the last episode for this season. We're gonna take a little break for the summer and we'll be back in the fall with More Great Interviews, stories and content for you

Lydia Kinne

Lydia is a teacher, poet, and blogger, who serves various ministries here at Faith. You can read more of her writing and subscribe to her blog at lydiakinne.com.

View Resources by Lydia Kinne

Seth Weber

Seth is the Communications Director at Faith Bible Church and loves anything to do with design, video, audio and tech. He and his wife Kaitlyn have four children.

View Resources by Seth Weber