Putting Divine Source First

Featured Article About Elizabeth Kendrick, Long-Standing Mile Hi Church Member

“My ability to give is directly proportional to my emotional and spiritual health,” says Elizabeth Kendrick, Head of Global Human Resources and Talent Acquisition at InteLogix, a global Business Process Management company.

“The healthier I got, emotionally and spiritually, the more I could give.” This understated, yet powerful and generous Nautilus Society member credits Mile Hi Church with helping her to heal from a traumatic childhood, to become a role model to her 22-year-old daughter, and to find immense joy in applying universal principles of giving back to Source.

“I give to many organizations, but my focus centers on Mile Hi Church,” Elizabeth says. “I have benefited tremendously, as has my daughter Keri, first in healing, then in thriving. “I want Mile Hi Church to continue long after I’m gone, so I joined the Nautilus Society. Doing so signaled a real commitment for me; I was firmly telling myself, and the world, how strongly I believe in these eternal principles. I am very grateful that the Foundation ensures the long-term viability of the church through bequests.” Elizabeth adds.

As adjusted and mentally strong as Elizabeth is now, life proved excruciatingly difficult growing up. She shares matter-of-factly that she was abandoned at six months and twice later in her teen years. “Though very kind and loving, my mother suffered from debilitating mental illness.” As a result, “it was either feast or famine. If there was any money, it just evaporated in a day or two.” At age 14, now a ward of the state, she was reunited by state authorities with her father. Now provided food and shelter, sadly, the household was not a happy one. In all that, her mother was institutionalized and then disappeared one day, presumed among the homeless mentally ill for 23 years, making Elizabeth a de facto emotional orphan at a very young age.

Her coping mechanism throughout childhood rested on reading. “I survived with academics,” she said, adding that she performed as an A+ student. Eventually, a loving family on the East Coast informally adopted her at age 15, after which Elizabeth was awarded a full scholarship to attend a prestigious private high school and later college in upstate New York.

Elizabeth continued to establish a remarkable international career, including working nearly 10 years in New York City before moving to Denver. She simultaneously set upon a deep healing path, embracing her mother who re-entered her life 23 years after being separated. During this time, she also reached out to her father to begin to reconcile their relationship. “I now have a healthy relationship with my father, and I received the gift of spending the last 17 years of my mother’s life with her in Colorado.”

It was this openness to healing that first brought Elizabeth to Mile Hi’s Easter Sunday service in 2000. “I remember hearing Dr. Roger say that people are like eggs. We like to feel safe and cocooned, but nothing good happens until we break open.” The message resonated. She resolved to put her financial “house” in the right order. “I learned from Mile Hi that tithing is about following your heart. Mile Hi started the journey for me that God is our source, not any job.” She continued, “Putting this Divine Source first rearranged my priorities for the better.”

Elizabeth derives great joy in her budget spreadsheet that first includes “God’s Money,” saying, “There is so much work to be done.” She adds it’s “fun to give,” saying, “Whatever we receive from the Great Divine, we are only asked to give back 10%. And the Divine knows exactly what to do with it.”

Further, years after that Easter Service, when Elizabeth and her husband divorced, she chose not to have acrimony. “I learned acceptance and forgiveness from Mile Hi. Through this teaching, I chose peace.”

Today, Elizabeth is an international HR leader and world citizen, making a dual income as a single mother. With many long hours and hard work, she has reached the top ranks in her human resources career and maintains a loving relationship with her daughter Keri, who is graduating from CU Boulder this spring. “My daughter and I are co-pilots,” Elizabeth says, adding proudly, “At 22, Keri is as responsible and accomplished as many adults.”

Regarding making a long-term gift within her estate to the Mile Hi Church Foundation, Elizabeth says, “I can help ensure the message for generations that we are not fundamentally flawed, but rather, always polishing the silver and gold of the wonderful people we really are!”