BARELY five foot tall, when it comes to outreach Brisbane’s Kym Keady packs an “almighty punch”.
The former member of the National Evangelisation Teams (NET) ministry, 33-year-old youth counsellor and Mum of three is hard-hitting about “speaking truth” to teenagers and young adults.
“I felt called about ten years ago to tell my story and explain the plan that God has for our lives and our love lives,” she said.
“If someone had of told me how amazing I was and that I was worth waiting for … and why it’s good to wait (to be sexually active) until you’re married – not just said what’s wrong and right – I believe it would have made a difference in my life.
“So I am passionate about telling people how amazing they are, how much God loves them and why God said what he said … asking us to wait.”
Kym visits high schools and youth groups speaking under the banner of “Real Talk: God’s Plan for Love and Life”.
Here she shares “four life principles” – “Life is a precious gift from God” … Life is sacred” … “We are made in God’s image and likeness” … and “Every human being is created by God for a purpose”.
Within Real Talk Kym reveals more of her journey within a Catholic upbringing into mixing with “the wrong crowd” and then returning to active faith.
“One of the biggest tools God uses in me – and that He has turned to good – is my testimony,” Kym said.
“When I walk in the classroom I know I have five minutes to build up trust with these students. I share my past life – which shows them I know all too well the lies that can be told.
“We talk a lot about sex and why it is wrong … I tell them my mission is for them to know from this day forward, why God says, ‘Wait until you’re married’.”
In childhood Kym’s “mission” appeared to be unraveling differently.
“Up until year seven I wanted to be a nun,” she said animatedly.
“I went to Saint Francis Xavier school in Mackay and the Sisters of Mercy there would take me into the convent and let me wear their habits and called me Sister Kym.”
The would-be-nun painted a happy, faith-filled home life amongst five siblings.
“We went to church every Sunday and prayed the Rosary most Sunday nights as a family,” she said.
“In May – Mary’s month – Mum would set up a special altar for Mary and we would pray the rosary around the altar.
“I had a statue of Mary that glowed in the dark and it made me feel safe when I was scared at night.”
“Discovering boys” in her teens and while “the wrong crowd” led to what is the content of Kym’s powerful testimony, her return to faith is where the “punch” is most felt – nowhere more immeasurably than at home with Bethany, 11, Chiara, 10, and David, 7.
“A lot of people think – and I thought as a young mum – that the first five years of parenthood is hard,” Kym said.
“(But) it is after that that another part of parenting begins – the emotional mentoring side.
“I am realising more and more that role I play in my children’s lives now, after all their physical needs are met, that more than anything they need me to listen, to interpret life and others around them, to teach them what’s good and bad, to love unconditionally and have compassion.”
From her counselling experience the petite blonde described young people as “desperate for someone to listen”.
“I believe parenthood is absent these days,” Kym said.
“Life is faster – we believe we need more ‘stuff’, parents aren’t as available, grandparents aren’t as available, or we move away from our parents so they aren’t around and so many young people are just looking for someone to talk to and validate their lives – not leave them to their own devices to try to figure it out for themselves.”
Saying motherhood is her “vocation” and aiming “to be the best wife and mother” she can be, Kym’s commitment to “speaking out about chastity and the truth” is something she was “born to do”.
Knowing all this and convicted of her mission, mid-last year Kym was physically disabled by chronic back pain following nine months of vertigo.
Support from husband of 13 years, Patrick – whom she “hasn’t met anyone nearly as awesome” – was unwavering and so began a deeper understand about “the mystery of suffering”.
“I realised that my identity is not what I do but who I am,” she said of the continuing journey to restored health.
“I realised that ultimately God calls me to love Him and whatever I do for Him should be a direct flow from that.”
Accepting a leadership role in Emmanuel Community recently and with an on-going commitment to Real Talk, Kym remains philosophical about facing the teenage years with her children and being a “beacon of truth to young people”.
“I will never impact anyone else the way I will my children,” she said.
“As they grow, this is the time the real work begins – time to mentor, to be available emotionally, to teach, to again sit on the floor and spend time ‘playing’, talking and hanging out.
“I am contributing to society by mentoring my children to become the best adults they can be … (but) thank goodness I’m not taller because I’d be too much and no one would cope with me.”
For more information about Real Talk contact Kym at patkym1@optusnet.com.au
