Dr. Kit: searched for purpose, found by God

            Dr. Kobkit Putrakel (called Dr. Kit by most) is known by many people as being extremely generous, encouraging, and having a great passion for following Jesus. He describes himself as an advocate and encourager of others like Barnabas from the Bible. However, he was not always selfless to others. Dr. Kit is very honest about being a prideful and selfish man before he knew God.

            “I was living for myself and wanted fame,” said Dr. Kit. “I didn’t seek God, but God actually sought me out through his people.”

            Originally from Thailand, Dr. Kit followed in his parent’s footsteps and became a doctor. During rotations in a hospital, he met a monk and decided he wanted to search for the meaning of life. A month before surgery training and after medical school, he became a monk for two weeks. After reading the Buddhist scriptures and asking questions about the purpose of life, all he found out was to be a good person. He soon decided that there was no answer to his questions and became an atheist.

            Dr. Kit continued his training as a doctor and moved to the United States in 1992. During his first few years in the U.S., he never met a Christian or heard anything about God. Until 1995 when he was living in Seattle, Washington for a training program. He met a Thai lady, who worked at the hospital. She invited him over to a Thanksgiving meal with friends. The four couples at the meal were all believers in God and shared their testimonies.

“I didn’t understand, but the friendship, relationship, that sincerity, the way they live their life differently, God used all of those to soften my heart,” said Dr. Kit. “Jack and Hellen opened their home whenever I was lonely. I could just go there and hang out. They became like my parents here in the U.S.”

The families were different than any Dr. Kit knew before. He was curious as to why. They went to church and had invited him, but he was always working. One day, he was able to go, but he couldn’t find the building so he decided God must not be true since he couldn’t find the church. As soon as he thought that, he found the church. The people were very welcoming that evening, but he was half asleep because of all of the long nights he spent working. He continued to be a part of their lives and even would go to a men’s Bible study with them.

Nothing about the Bible made sense and Dr. Kit was still a prideful man. His friends cared for him so much that they prayed for him often. They invited him to a concert one evening. Work made him late. Yet again, when he was lost and couldn’t find the concert, he said God doesn’t want me there. Then, he found the concert.

One of the songs was about David from the Bible who had made horrible mistakes, but God forgave and accepted him. Dr. Kit was impacted by the way that God loves as a friend and offers forgiveness instead of the death humans deserve because of the wrong they’ve done.

“I knew I was a sinful man that I committed many sins,” said Dr. Kit. “I was a womanizer. I was a selfish man. I was not helpful to anyone, not helpful to my family. I knew I had to pay for my sin when I die. To hear that there’s another way that I never heard before that this sin could be paid once and for all. If it’s true, no one else can do this it must be God’s way. I’m going to give this a try. I did not understand everything but I wanted to go ahead and believe.”  

After the concert, Dr. Kit told his friends, but they didn’t believe him at first. When they realized he was serious, they were excited for him and told him that God had a wonderful plan for him. Dr. Kit didn’t understand and thought he was the same and hadn’t changed, but little by little God began to change him.

When he moved to New Mexico, he was in a spiritual desert even when he was treating patients differently and witnessing to people. He was self-focused on his job and didn’t know God well. Yet, God gave him a peace like never before when he was humbled. Soon after, Dr. Kit moved back to Seattle and began to seek God more. He read the Bible thoroughly and realized everyone has a pride issue. Without much of a plan, he moved back to Thailand, trusting God and attended a Bible school.

“God gave me purpose in God,” said Dr. Kit.

God also led Dr. Kit to his wife, Avery from North Carolina. They met while they were working at a clinic in Thailand. They’ve been married for 15 years and have an 11 year-old son, Lucas. When Avery was pregnant, they were missionaries in Southeast Asia. Dr. Kit honestly admits that he became a prideful missionary and wanted to boast about translating the Bible. As well as the fact that living in Southeast Asia is difficult, they decided to move back to the U.S. to seek marital help and God gave him time to renew his license and work part time.

“Through my many mistakes God is always faithful,” said Dr. Kit.

In 2008, he was a full time physician at the hospital in Manchester, Kentucky. Currently, he serves as an advisor and is no longer the regional director. The hospital allows him to be real and pray with patients. Their idea of medicine is similar in that healing is a ministry of Christ. Spiritual needs are important to be met in time of crisis. God is always a work.

“Kit is always open and ready to share the gospel and encourage others,” said Ryan McCowan, a friend from Corinth Baptist Church in London, Kentucky, who traveled with him to Southeast Asia on a mission trip.

In many different areas of life, Dr. Kit shares his faith. Not only at work or overseas, but also at home with his family as he is modeling a life of Christ for his son. Him and his family also open up their home and welcome international students to stay with them. They have an extra room in their house specifically for that purpose. He believes that God has a plan for international students here as God did for him.

Many can see the evidence of how Dr. Kit leads a godly life. One such person is Brett Martin who asked Dr. Kit to mentor him because he knew he was a man of prayer, had wisdom, and a lot of missions experience.

“Kit has impacted my life the most by loving me,” said Martin. “He has spoken truth into my life and also been extremely gracious modeling Jesus who came bringing both truth and grace. He has been very intentional with spending his time, resources, and energy to help me both grow in my personal relationship with Christ while also helping me fulfill God's calling in my life.” 

Dr. Kit is still pursuing God’s call on his own life. He plans to enroll into seminary next year so that he will be able to mentor pastors. He wants to help them to understand the Bible in-depth. And also to realize that serving the Lord is life-long, even after retirement.

 “I start off with trying to find purpose for my life,” said Dr. Kit. “God found me and he gave me His purpose. His answer is that His purpose for my life is Him in my life. It is a privilege to walk with Him. I just dare to serve God and He provides. I’m still learning to allow the Lord to prepare me for the future. We’ll continue to live our life serving the Lord in whatever capacity He allows us.”

Madison Andrews: strong at heart

                           Photo by Noelle Andrews
Madison Andrews.

          Though Madison “Maddy” Andrews’ actual physical heart is in rough condition after open-heart surgery of transposition of the great arteries with a pseudoaneurysm (one of her patches split and started leaking blood), she’s strong at heart with a lot of passion for serving the Lord and others. Andrews from Boulder, Colo., a 19-year-old sophomore at University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., is receiving her bachelors in missions and ministries and business administration. While at school, she’s involved with the Baptist Campus Ministries, especially with Appalachian Ministries.
             Lounging in a hoodie and athletic shorts, with her nose ring that she considers her act of being a rebel, Andrews likes to tell it how it is. She’s bold in her opinions, which is used to her advantage when she tells people their worth. “I love getting to hold kids, talk to them and make them feel important,” said Andrews. “A huge part of my heart is wanting to make people feel like they have value and are important.”

                                        Photo provided by Madison Andrews
Anna Andrews and Maddy as a baby
after her first open-heart surgery.

           Andrews understands the importance of showing children their worth because she’s had troubles too. She was born with a congenital heart defect called transposition of the great arteries. When she was three days old, she had open-heart surgery. After this, she lived a fairly healthy childhood running track, playing soccer and basketball.
           During conditioning for basketball in Andrews’ junior year of high school, she collapsed on the court. This led to about seven months of testing. The doctors didn’t understand why she was in pain all of the time. 
           “At first, she really questioned herself because they didn’t know what was wrong,” said Anna Andrews, Maddy’s mom. “A year later, she was very confident. ‘I want to feel better. I feel bad. My issues are real.’ She really grew in understanding her body and what was real and having a voice.”
           They realized that Andrew’s pulmonary valve was not as long or as wide as it needed to be and then they realized that a sternum wire, which was placed in her chest to keep it closed when she was a baby, had broken and was causing the pain. When the doctors were testing to see if it was the sternum wire, they realized other things were wrong. In February 2012, Andrews went through her second open-heart surgery. The doctors were going to elongate the pulmonary valve, but they realized that the valve itself wasn’t in good condition, so they had to replace it during surgery as well as reorganize some of the pulmonary branches.
            Andrews was doing well and healing fast. She got out of the hospital after a week and started running a mile a day. Two and a half months later, she had a pseudoaneurysm. Now, she has a mass in the center of her chest that causes her a lot of pain. She’s visiting doctors and pain management specialists to get that fixed.
          “We want her to live her life to the fullest as much as she can,” said Mrs. Andrews. “I don’t want this to hold her back.”
           Andrews doesn’t let her pain stand in the way of living life. She loves the Lord and wanted to serve him by going on a mission trip to Uganda even though she had just had open-heart surgery. 
           “I traveled two and a half months after I had open heart surgery because I’m an idiot,” said Andrews. “I don’t like to limit myself. I like to pretend that I’m normal and go as hard as possible.”  

                                                              Photo by Paul Andrews
Maddy posing for a picture with children she met during her mission trip to Uganda.

            Before Andrews decided to come to University of the Cumberlands, she was confident that she was going to get a full ride to a different college. About a week out of the hospital, she found out that she didn’t get it and was very frustrated. Andrews has always done very well in school and struggles with trying not to find her value in school and getting the highest test scores.
            “The Lord definitely closed that door,” said Andrews. “I remember being like, “Lord, I went through all of this for you. Is this not enough for you? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t give this to me.’ I am so, so glad that I ended up coming to Cumberlands. It was a big question of the Lord being like, ‘Are you going to trust me? Even when this doesn’t make sense and this isn’t your plan, but this is my plan.’”
            Andrews is sometimes frustrated with the difficulty she has because she’s very independent. She loves being outdoors hiking, backpacking, kayaking and doing other activities. She can’t hike as far as she would like and can’t carry the weight of a backpack. She also misses running. She has to watch what she puts into her body so she won’t have high blood pressure or plaque build up in her arteries.
            However, there are days when she understands why the Lord would cause this to happen to her and is okay with it. She firmly believes that the Lord could take it away from her if he wants to, but that there must be more glory in her having this difficulty than if she didn’t. 


                                  Photo by Annmarie Lake
Maddy and Sarah Beth Hunt after a hike to Dog Slaughter Falls.

            “As her roommate, I see her in a lot of pain and she doesn’t like to ask for help,” said Sarah Beth Hunt, Maddy’s roommate and friend from University of the Cumberlands. “That’s really hard, but she has a very strong faith. I see her trying to think of other things or read her Bible to overcome that. She understands that everything is going to be okay and everything happens for a reason.”
            Andrews wants to help others in any way she can, because she understands how short life can be. She realizes that she could have died and wants to use the rest of her life to help others reach their potential. 
            “A big part of my life is feeling very helpless and out of control,” said Andrews. “This [feeling] empowered me to really want to help people when they feel out of control. My desire is to empower them and let them know that they are important. I want people to know that they are loved and that their value comes from an incredible God. I understand that there is no guarantee and people have no idea that they are so loved. Why would I not share that?”
             Andrews hopes to accomplish this by working for a non-profit organization using her photography skills or doing micro financing. She would like to help widows who’ve never had the chance to be self-sufficient become so by helping them with their loans and starting their own business. She wants to help people out of poverty and not just give them things, but help them become self-sustaining. She would like to do this overseas, but isn’t sure whether a company would hire her with her medical issues.

            Since Andrews is so independent, she doesn’t like to be a burden to others. This summer she began to learn that people want to help her in a loving way and not because they pity her. She’s learning that letting other people help her doesn’t make her dependent, but lets them serve her.
            “Maddy’s not a very empathetic person,” said Ms. Andrews. “It doesn’t come natural. Within our family, she understands that her youngest sister has taken it really hard and really worries. [Maddy] goes out of her way to spend a little bit more time with her little sister to help explain things so that she feels in the loop. Her youngest sister has a real fear to lose Maddy. [Maddy] makes an effort to get some one on one time to talk her through things and help her know what she’s feeling.” 
             One of Andrews’ friends showed her the Bible verses, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 which says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
             “I firmly believe that the Lord caused that sternum wire to rip because it showed so much more that was wrong that they had no idea was wrong,” said Andrews. “If they had not known, then I probably would’ve been dead because I would’ve had a heart attack from my valve giving out. Now, there are days that are really, really hard and that don’t make sense. I rest in that the Lord is good and he is sovereign and that he has gotten me this far.”

Brittney Gadd steps up her game on the soccer and mission field

               Photo by Liesel Totch
Gadd posing with kids from
an inner city Philadelphia soccer camp.

Brittney Gadd, known to most as BGadd, has a spirit of risk and adventure. She’s passionate about the Lord, loving others, missions and soccer. She makes this known from the moment people meet her. Gadd said some people might criticize her from flying by the seat of her pants. She has big plans of serving the Lord because as she would say, she serves a “big God” who works in her life radically. However, she was not always this passionate. Gadd’s life took a while to get where it is today.

“God worked through my brokenness,” said Gadd. “To know that things that happened weren’t done on my own abilities because I was so broken myself, it was all God. I was being used by the Lord.”

            Gadd was raised since toddler age by her grandparents in Mercer, Pa. When she came to them, she hadn’t been fed or taken care of properly. Before her mom lost her rights as a parent, Gadd had to visit her. One time when she visited her mom, she was seven years old and remembers being aware that she wasn’t safe. She ran away in the snow from everyone. She began running from an early age because of fights with her brother, to get home safe from school, sports practices and everything.
            “High school was rough,” said Gadd. “I was made fun of a lot because I was the only girl that wrestled. I always thought I had to be tough. As a little girl too, I was such a tomboy. It hardened my heart. I was a stubborn, determined little girl.”
            Gadd and her brother were always outside. They were locked out of the house sometimes so they caused havoc in the neighborhood.  Her grandparents provided for them, but the environment they grew up in was manipulative and controlling, and there was also fighting. Her brother had chemical imbalances as a result from fetal alcohol syndrome because their mom drank alcohol during pregnancy. The imbalances in his brain had triggered anger issues. She had to protect her grandparents from him sometimes by hitting him and running away.  
            “I had to get away from all the stuff that was happening at home,” said Gadd. “I just felt like I was suffocating. That if I stayed I would fall into the patterns of my family and just be manipulated.”
            Sports gave Gadd a sense of hope. She received affirmation from her teammates, coaches and aunts and uncles. They cared, but her grandparents didn’t and weren’t very involved. She had to ride with friends to the games.

                  Photo provided by University of the Cumberlands
Gadd defending the goal during a game against
Lincoln Memorial University in 2009.

            When Gadd was twelve, she went to a Christian sports camp and was surrounded by Christian love for the first time. At the camp, she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. She still struggled with a lot and didn’t start living for Him until later in life. When she became independent in college, she saw her family for who they were. Gadd said she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. She tried to find herself through partying and drinking. It made her feel sad, alone and angry.

              “B-Gadd was so loud, in your face and intimidating,” said Emily Maddux, senior at University of the Cumberlands, friend and former teammate of Gadd’s. “She got in the goal and you just sat back and watched in awe. She had that confidence, almost borderline arrogance. She knew how good she was and wasn’t afraid to prove it to you.”
             Gadd came to University of the Cumberlands to wrestle and then was also offered a soccer scholarship. She was good in both, but soccer was her passion. According to Gadd, she found her identity through sports instead of Christ. The void she had in her life was filled with athletics. She was an All-American twice in wrestling and received All-Conference in soccer.
             “God gave me those abilities,” said Gadd. “I didn’t have the perspective of the field being my sanctuary and it can be an act of worship in anything I do on the field.”
             Gadd discovered she needed to have balance of God and her God given abilities when she played on the Christian sports ministry soccer team, the Buxmount Torch, the summer after graduation in 2013. That summer began her transformation to who she is today.
              “B-Gadd and I met to talk about her life and struggles,” said Magan Atwood, Director of Appalachian Ministries and Associate Campus Minister at University of the Cumberlands. “I listened to her as she poured out her past pains, current struggles and future dreams. I prayed with her, shared scripture with her, and journeyed with her through it. She was strong enough to lean into the hard stuff, to face her pain and struggle, and to let God heal her.”
               When Gadd started out, she wanted to use her degree in Exercise and Sports Science and Public Health to get a job that would provide for her. When she started to follow God whole heartedly, she wanted to use her skills to serve others.

                    Photo provided by University of the Cumberlands
Gadd with UC's women's soccer team 2014-2015.

                Gadd was the first to graduate in her family. While she’s getting her masters in special education, she’s the Graduate Assistant coach for University of the Cumberlands’ women’s soccer team. The team she was now coaching were some of the people she used to party with and who saw her before she was changed. She also started a weekly team bonding last year and incorporated scripture and faith. People were really confused and conflicted. She was confused herself about why God wanted to use her as a witness in the soccer team. The transformation in her own life and in the soccer team’s girls’ lives showed her that it was all for God’s glory.
                “She really focused on like she says, 'doing life' with us,” said Maddux. “Trying to pull us together to make us become more of a family. Kind of changed our team into more of a positive, loving environment. It’s one thing to be teammates and another thing to be a family.”

                                                         Photo by Liesel Totch
Gadd playing with children at an inner city Philadelphia soccer camp
 July 2014.

                Gadd wants to build relationships with people, love them where they’re at and experience life with them. She still struggles with staying in the Word and being led by the Spirit. When she was coming back from her summer mission trip to the Dominican Republic where she felt like she was being led to a life of full time ministry and missions, she was on the bus and a woman asked her if she was a missionary. Gadd just said no and the women replied, “Well, you should be. You just radiate Jesus.” Afterwards, Gadd wished she had said yes because as a follower of Jesus she’s a missionary. 
                 Though she loves the Lord and soccer, last year she didn’t want to come back. As Gadd put it, she was under spiritual attack. After talking with Atwood, she realized she had to finish God’s work. This year, she’s planning a trip to take the women’s soccer team to Haiti on a mission trip.
                 “It’s not about me, it’s about others. Being a light is exhausting, but I can’t quit. That looks like abandonment. That’s what happened to me and I don’t want to do that to them. I want to be there for those girls.”
                  Gadd is looking forward to next year when she’s hoping to graduate with her masters and then accept a job in Vienna, Austria. Surge International Soccer, soccer ministry, has given her an opportunity to do outreach while playing soccer. She would be a referee at soccer camps every week, teach English, play on a professional team and encourage other Christians on her team and in the city.
                   “She is a beautiful example of what it looks like to surrender to God and trust Him with everything,” said Atwood.