BTA Purpose After Pain (Kimberly Weaks) BE Happy BE Well BE Whole

Kimberly Weaks is a passionate voice for restoration, purpose, and transformation. As the founder of Be Empowered Worldwide, a nonprofit dedicated to serving young adult women and girls who have experienced trauma, Kimberly walks boldly in her calling to be a bridge between brokenness and healing.

She is the host of The Evolution of Rahab podcast, where she tells raw and redemptive stories through the lens of faith—helping women navigate shame, rejection, and restoration with truth and transparency. Her podcast and workshops reflect her belief that your past doesn’t cancel your purpose—it prepares you for it.

Kimberly is also the author of Evolution of Rahab, a powerful devotional-style work that blends biblical insight with real-life lessons. Whether speaking from a pulpit, a podcast mic, or a women’s circle, she brings her full self—faith-filled, fire-tested, and forward-moving.

When Kimberly speaks, she doesn’t just inspire. She equips. She challenges. She brings light into dark places and reminds women that redemption is real and available. She knows what it’s like to be on the other side of pain, and she’s committed to helping others cross over too.

https://beempoweredworldwide.com/?fbclid=IwVERDUARjSy1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeYOsFyfDzWfx9D1iZ_gqufX7lIz6hlUNc1YNuID97uatDhr2wV0Y4h1WN7kA_aem_W4P-X1jkQxtXgLPWeUcPvA

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:04

Thank you for joining us today at Beyond the Adult. This podcast discusses sexual adult, domestic violence, and trauma, which may be triggering for some listeners. We are survivors sharing personal experiences and are not licensed professionals. Please take qualified support if needed and take care while listening. Thank you again for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

This is your boy from Make History Podcast, Sean B, and we have BTA today. We have a wonderful guest that uh me and my co-host Denise have. Of course, uh, her name is Kimberly Weeks. Kimberly Weeks, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I am awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

I hope you are. I'm doing very well, and uh I know something about you that uh I think is dear and and cherishing to me. I think that you do on your evolution of Ray Hab podcast, and I think you pray at least twice on there uh that I've heard, especially on connection. Uh I'm gonna let you introduce yourself and then I'm gonna ask you if you could pray for us. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

That sounds good. So, hello everyone. I am Kim Weeks. I am founder of Be Empowered Worldwide. We're an organization that works with women and girls that have experienced trauma. Um, I am also um an educator at heart as by trade, as mother and wife, friend, daughter, um, you know, wear many hats, and I am just grateful to be um with you guys today. So grateful that you thought about me for this segment.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Very, very, very, very grateful. That is true. Are you able to pray for us today before we get started?

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Absolutely. So, dear Heavenly Father, God, I come before you this evening and lift everyone in up under the sound of my voice to you, God. I ask that as they continue to listen to this episode, that they will receive whatever is necessary for them to continue healing. If there is anyone who is not um who does not know you in the free pardon of their sins, God, I ask that you'll even reach out to them and let them know how much you love them and how much you will desire to have them to be in the kingdom. And God, I ask that you will let us say everything that is necessary for the edification of your word and for you to do and have your way in our lives. And God, we ask and pray also, Lord, that um we don't cause anybody to be hindered today, that no one will see themselves as wrong, that they will not see themselves as villains, but that they will see that we are here, Lord, to lift up light and love. God, we bless you and we honor you today. It is in Jesus' name we do pray and believe. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Amen. Now, that is so, so touchy. I have I have to say this that um I really admire that that you have prayer on your podcast. Would you like to shout out your podcast and tell us about what evolution of rahab is about?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Okay, because I don't even think I said in my intro of me that I am also an author. Um so I authored a book that's entitled The Evolution of Rahab, and my my um podcast is named after it as well. Um the book is about my journey from trauma to redemption, and how God not only um held me in a place when I didn't even realize that I was going through the things that I was going through and that they were all bad or or that I was being harmed anyway. Um, but he held me and kept me um and then um showed me a way out once I realized that this was um that I was experiencing things that I shouldn't be experiencing, right? So um I talk about a lot of that in my book, and so um once my book hit, I had a few people that wanted me to give them a little more um, I want to say in-depth understanding of where I was today. And I think that's what we're about to do right now. But the Evolution of Red Hab podcast helped me to provide um those who listen to the podcast um some hope, right? Um, we have and go through um things that try to strip us from our confidence and um try to strip us uh from having hope and believing um that we can heal and thrive afterwards. And so my podcast is there to help kind of push that um forward even more.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

I think that's see, that's what I'm talking about. See, you added an extra uh to the book, and I think everybody is like, hey, you know, there's gotta be more. There's gotta be more of this. But the Bible, uh, Rahab went through a lot of stuff. And I think, you know, dealing with the the podcast what we're doing now with Beyond the Assault is that she was known as a prostitute. She was known, you know, in the biblical days of as those things that are not uh, I guess, glamorous in our eyes today to some people that judge. Uh, do you feel that um during your journey uh when you were going through it healing and where you are in the book, um were you feeling judged or how were you feeling during that time when you were writing it?

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Oh, um, that's a good question. So uh the book came about because um first I heard my pastor from um the church that I attended when I was living in North Carolina, um, he was preaching, and one day he said, and some of you will write a book, and I it kind of hit me like you know you're supposed to be doing that. And I kind of brushed it and I went on, and then I had a coworker to say, girl, those stories that you tell, you really need to write a book. And so I, you know, I reconsidered it, and then my pastor preached again and said it again, and I thought, okay, so you know, like three times is a charm, right? Um, so I think when I moved from North Carolina to South Carolina, I wasn't working, and now all of a sudden I had all of this time to um commit to writing the book, and I started writing it, and then I put it down because I was dredging up feelings that I had buried so deep, right? And um I would return back to the book after prayer and crying, and um I returned and I just had to keep pushing through. But what I will say is this book gave me a release that I didn't even know I needed.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Wow. Any uh any questions, Denise?

SPEAKER_05 8:52

Yes, of course. I'm full of questions. So Ms. Kim, you know, you and I met through church, and I think one of the very first real interactions that I had with you was when we went to your um launch celebration for your book, The Evolution of Red Hab. Um and from that point forward to where we are now, I think one of the things that I love the most about you is that you hear what's not said in a conversation just as much as you hear what is said. Um and I really want to know from you, like I I know that your spiritual relationship with God is super important and really got you through on your healing journey. Um and I want to know, like, when you're talking to people um and you're trying to get people through. So, like when you were talking to me, you know that my faith was very small. Um, I was still trying to develop that relationship and trying to get through. How do you start those conversations with people? How do you reach out um and let them know that you just want to be there, you want to help them heal, and you want to give them what you can to push them along on their journey?

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Um, so I think I just kind of meet people where they are and not be invasive, right? Uh I feel like I I show up to let God do the work. And when you talk about me hearing what's not being said, that's the spirit leading the way. That is not Him in any way. Because sometimes people say, Well, do you remember when you said? And I'll be like, Well, no, I don't. But, you know, if you got what you needed out of it, then that makes me happy. But um I just I am there to to just be of use by God so that He can do what He needs for His people, right? And and I I approach life that way because um I have been a part of um relationships with um godly people um or church people, and that's not always the way it has come through. Sometimes it can be real condemning and real um um aggressive, and I have always prayed and asked God not to let me ever be that kind of Christian. So that's just how I shove up. I think my prayer life helps me to better represent God.

SPEAKER_05 11:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

I was gonna ask that question real quick. Uh just for a second worst question for me, is that how did you get to that place? Um, how did you get basically because you know, some people, you know, we we uh always are trying to hear from God in some kind of way and what but how did you get to that place from uh from the place that you were, were you ever uh feeling like you were judged in that sense, uh or have you always had that confidence that God was listening?

SPEAKER_02 12:14

So as a oh I think that's kind of a a two-fold kind of questionnaire. As a little girl, I've always known and had a re a a relationship with God. Like I've always been able to talk with him, and I've always been able to hear him. I and I know when I'm in trouble if I can't hear him, right? Um if I have if I am not doing some of the things that um I need to do to make sure that I'm in that place where I can hear. Um so I have experienced um a lot of church hurt over the years, and I think that's what keeps me grounded because I don't want people to feel that kind of pain for me. So I I work to not do that. Now let me say, I haven't I have it's been a progress, right? I um judgment is something I I actually mentioned this in the book too, like uh judgment comes easy for me. I can pass judgment with without um even thinking about it. Um and so I have to work not to. Um because I realize that that is a part of who I am. And so I've had to work not pass judgment in an unrighteous way because it does come easy. So I it's it's just I guess a work in progress for me. But because I have been hurt by those who um are a part of the church, um I don't want to be those people. So I work I work really hard not to be those people. Am I making sense? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 14:13

So I have another question for you. What was what was something that friends, family members, um, people close to you, your inner circle trying to be helpful, but what's something that they did during your healing journey that sometimes made that healing journey more difficult?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

So during my healing journey, I think I was in a really good place, um, surrounded by some really strong women that um sheltered me from some of what I had felt before I got there. Um so um, so let me say my healing journey did not begin until um, I guess, my new marriage. Okay, because I've been married before. Um this is um this is my second marriage. Um I changed churches in that um transition as well. And I met a lot of um women like in intercessory prayer who taught me the real um how to really pray and the the how to be silent enough to listen. Um and who I know were praying for me too. And so um I didn't get a during my healing portion, I didn't have a lot of negativity coming at me during my before my healing, before I started healing because I haven't been doing this long, right? Like I've waddled and I have been in the same place and I was there for most of my adult life. And um, but once I moved into this sector of my life and these people started to train me not only on how to hear hear God better, how to release things to him, how to rest in his power, how to understand that I don't have to carry the weight, right? Um as I they taught me these things, this is when I started to heal. It wasn't until those showed up. So um during my healing process, I didn't have a whole lot of negativity coming at me. Well, that's really because I was I was in a great place. I really was. Now, there were some things um that happened during that time because even in the process of healing, there's some new stuff that can come up, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:57

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Um I experienced some other things that might have caused some pain or some trauma, but um in the process of me healing from um my past, um those things that I wrote about in my book, um the the sexual um misuse is what I call it. Um the the you know the me being objectified as a a woman, um, as a young girl, um me having to experience those things, those things weren't a part of my life anymore by the time I started healing.

SPEAKER_05 17:39

Good. So I just listening to you talk, um, and I know you and I have talked about it in the past, but one of the hardest things for me was that once I made that decision that I didn't want to be in the place where I was anymore, and I wanted to start that healing journey, I wanted to let go of the things that had hurt me and move forward, one of the things that I had to deal with the most was like it seemed like I would take one step forward and then 20 steps back. And I, you know, it took me a long time to realize that there was any progress being made because it felt like the more I pushed, the harder everything pushed back against me. Um and for me, I found that spending more time in my Word, spending more time, you know, at the church itself, um I often would go to the church and just say, you know, just during the day on lunch breaks, whatever, because it was my place of feast during that time. There were no voices around me. Um, there was no one in my ear telling me that I wasn't enough. And and let me clarify that because it's not that people were telling me you're not good enough, but whatever they said, that's what I heard every time. You're not good enough, you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna get through. Um but I really spent a lot of time in my word, in prayer, listening to worship music, trying to get through. And I'm just curious if there during your journey of healing, were there any scriptures that you turned to during that time that would help you in those moments of difficulty?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Um my favorite scripture um is God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. I also love the scripture that says that God has placed everything in you to do of his will and of his good pleasure. Um now I can't tell you where to find them. You know, I can always tell you how to go get those scriptures, but those are the scriptures that um reminded me over and over again pretty much that I'm enough. And um regardless of what I might be feeling um emotionally, um, especially that God is not giving me the spirit of fear, I have to t I tell myself this on the regular because fear um can take over your whole entire life. Fear of what people might say, fear of what people might think, fear of you know how you might sound, fear, fear, fear, fear. And so um I remind myself that that is not real. Right? Fear is just a trick of the enemy. It is not real. Um because God didn't God ain't make that. Right. So um those are my those are two of my favorite scriptures. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

I got a question for I got a question for you. So you said this is on your second marriage, correct? Correct? So now I know you deal with a lot of uh young women, but you know, in teaching, um, if you wanted to give a message to the young people or to young people, to the uh people that are trying to look for that second go-round with trust, what would you advise them?

SPEAKER_01 21:09

About trust.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Um so first off I say um trust yourself. Right? Um, because if they've had other relationships that have not worked out, the time we tend to um want to blame ourselves or or want to feel like we're the problem. So um get to know you, learn to trust you, um, and stop looking. Stop looking because sometimes we think that we're not complete unless we have a mate or or a significant other, you know, and um if I and I and I say this and I I I hope that people hear my heart, if I my husband and I I will have been married for 25 years next year, right? So we're 24 years this year. Um, and I I absolutely love this man. Like, but if 25 years ago I knew some of the things that I know now, I would have waited. Not that I wouldn't marry him because he's a good man. But I would have waited because I wasn't ready. So that my thing is tr you can trust no one else if you don't trust yourself.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Interesting, interesting, interesting. I love that. I love that that you get uh bring hope. So there is some trust, work on yourself, get healed, and then trust the process, correct? Trust the process. I feel that because you know, because sometimes we do jump in and we don't think about it, and you know, we just uh kind of just go with the flow. I heard also, you know, with your your uh your pod, uh you say you need a community. You're very strong about community. Um can you tell us what you meant by that and what type of community are we looking for?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Okay, so um what I mean by community is people that um you can spend time with, that understand when you don't want to spend time, people that accept you for who you are, um even you know, in your roughest state, um people that can bring that hope and love and light to you in every situation. So I have a a community of um church people, right? I have a community of family, and not all of them, but those who I trust and spend time with. I have a community of um female friends that I can go and hang out with without my husband. I have a a group of married couples that my husband and I both can hang out with. Um I have my children and their friends or connections as well, whether it's um, because my husband and I are blended family. So um they have siblings and other parents, right? So all of that is community to me. Um my co-workers, um, so all of that is community. Community is everything that's around you, and what we tend to do when we're hurt is try to close everybody out, the good and the bad, right? And it's hard to exist like that because you we're we weren't created to be alone. Um Adam wasn't even allowed to say by himself, right? So we're not created to be alone. Um, but you just have to be um cautious of how you allow people to affect you. But you can't be closed down.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Right. Yeah, that's what you want to do is isolate yourself. Um yeah, definitely I definitely felt that because like um when you speak about community, I always talk uh about the community of people that we like you say, you can love people from afar. Uh and I I truly believe that. Um not everybody's gonna be healthy for you. And in times, you know, when it comes down to trying to find the right people on your team, you know, people that are rooting for you or seeing your success or seeing your involvement in in uh if you've been abused or or if you've been in this, you know, a domestic situation, how many people are really on your team? You know like you you really are trying to figure those things out because some people are uh stray away from that because they don't want to touch it. But then the people that are there, like listening to you, that really wanna be there and uh struggle with you and they walk into you with your journey, that's the community of folks that I heard like coming from you, like this this is the this is the army, this is the team that we need. Um so I think that's pretty strong, you know, coming from the fact that you can come in any way with that. You can come uh in in many like when it comes to like you just saying from the Bible or from the from people who are just reading or just learning, um we all have that human factor about us. Uh because I think human in in a way, uh humans need humans, you know, and and we need to be able to interact with one another and share with one another in general.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

And I believe that um trauma uh has a way of causing you to want to be isolated because you know you're you're feeling broken and you're feeling um the fear that I talked about, and you're feeling um that hopeless life, right? Um and uh none of that is godly. None of that is God's desire for us. So um I I will always preface everything pretty much. Um, and that prayer and asking God to show you who's for you is the best way. He's gonna always let you see. Um if you ask him and you believe that he will protect you and show you, um, you'll see who is for you and who is not.

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Yeah. I'm sorry, go ahead, John.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Oh no, you got it, you got it.

SPEAKER_05 28:19

Oh, I was just I was just responding to what Ms. Kim just said um about how people that go through trauma tend to hide. Um, and that is so true. Um, I know most days I would come home exhausted at the end of the day, even if I did nothing but sit in a room of people, because when I was out with people, I felt like I had to have a mask on constantly. This mask of perfection, we've got it all together, everything's okay. Um, but in reality, on the inside, I was terrified. What if they see the library hand? What if they see what I've really been through? What if they know the real me? They're all gonna walk away. And that was the thoughts that constantly ran through my head, and that is the monster finds that we got that you have that that big thing. Because if it's not scripturally based off, then it's not the voice of God talking to you, and you don't need to listen to what you hear about. And that was the biggest step that I had to take in my healing journey before I could finally make that forward progression and stop making all those steps back. Not to say that I don't still have step backs because I still do I have bad days just like everybody else does. But it's the point of I know I have a good God that's gonna see me through those hard days and it's gonna help me continue pushing forward when I'm weak. I can lean on him and he's gonna help push me forward.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Oh, Nancy. That's so good. I love that. Um, I got one for you. So without sharing anything that's too uncomfortable, I just want to give people uh an eyesight of what uh the abuse that's in your book uh is of like this some clips of what the book is about um on that heavy end. Uh with I guess without being too uncomfortable um to you. You know, do because this is a part that we're trying to share information so people get the blueprint and then we're gonna get went on to share the the healing journey of as well. So are you able to share that?

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Um, so yeah. Um I was molested um in my early years um by neighborhoods, you know, friends of the family, um some relatives even, and um as I grew up, I was a very promiscuous you know, teenager.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Um mostly because this was part of my life, right? Um I then kind of um what's the best way to put it? Because I was so promiscuous and sexually active at this point that became um turned into me being a stripper. Um and a lot of my uh lifestyle or the things that I was I did, the drugs that I used or the drinking that I did as a young girl, um all of this came from me being molested as a young girl. Um I don't really get into it in the book about the who's and the what's and the where's because I've made it a point not to point fingers because I had forgiven. And my story was about me just telling my story um so that people could understand that there was something after this. So I don't really talk a whole lot about that. The majority of my trauma really didn't even um, I I would say didn't even come from me being uh molested as a kid, but oh, and then my mama had no idea. I never shared it. Um, I just thought this was what I was supposed to do. Um as a mass pack, I don't think my mama even found out until she read the book, right? Um, so this was me again um coming off from behind the shadows so that I can walk in through light. And so um, again, I I don't really even give a whole lot of detail about that except to say that I was molested. As a teenager, though, I got caught up in this relationship with this man who was a father of one of my friends, or at least I thought she was a friend. Um, now that I know a little more about how things work, she may have been baked, right? Um, but uh I put myself in a situation where I was leaving my hometown, leaving with this man and his daughter. Um, and I was still in high school. Um, my mom came and got me and brought me home, and I even at that point still didn't understand what I had done or the things that I was doing or the things that people were doing to me. It's just I was living this life as if this is the way it was supposed to be, because this is the life I was in, right? I didn't know it was wrong because we didn't have all of this internet and all of this news and all of these um these um people talking about this is wrong, because we just accepted this is the way things were back then. And um so that's kind of what I talk about. I just talk about how I grew up believing that I was supposed to be used this way, and um, although I had this relationship with God and um was praying and was going to church and doing all of these things as a little girl, um, and I can only imagine what the what the ladies in the church were were thinking about me, you know, because I'm sure they've heard some things about how I behaved in out in public and and I can see these same little girls that um cross my path now. I can see the same stuff on them, right? Or um or that they're experiencing some of the same things that I did just by looking at them. Um and um so that's what was in the book. I ended up getting married, uh I think at a as a young age. Um I was 21 years old when I got married. Um, and I married a um a guy who had a drug habit. Um, and a lot more of my trauma comes from that. Um I was in the military and uh experienced the same kind of uh objectification um from people in the military. I mean, just no, it seemed like everywhere I went, this was the way I was seen and viewed. But was it and I've had to kind of, you know, I and when I went decided I was going to be a part of the church when I had my first daughter, my first child, and I said, I do not want um to be a bad mother. I've got to make some changes in my life. I started going to church, I became very religious. Um, and some of that helped me to kind of shed some of that stuff, like the way I carried myself, the clothes that I wore, all of those things changed. Um, because that's not what you do in church. You don't walk around with your your hips hanging out and your boobs falling out of your shirt, you just don't do that. So it helps me to kind of redefine myself to a certain extent. Um, and then um as I moved on through my life and got to really understand Christ and my relationship with him, um I will say that my my life and religion balance. Okay. Um I no longer felt like I had to be a covered from head to toe, but I realized that um his covering is all I really needed. And um so I learned that um religion couldn't save me. And I huh say that again religion couldn't save me, but relationship with God could, with Christ could. And and so now I'm imbalanced. So I um and that's what this book I think really showed. Um, it showed why I truly needed God and how his love saved me. And this is where I am today. So yeah, I experienced some things. Uh even um in my adult life, you know, I thought I was a predator or two, even as, you know, after I was divorced my first husband before I married Marcus, um, trying to date, you know, still having to fight off um people who thought that they deserved to um have me sexually simply because they fed me. You know, those kinds of things. And I had to hold my ground and and decide that this is not who I am anymore. I don't have to give you that simply because we went to have a fish plate.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

You know? I just look if if I think I say I say this. I am so admired by uh your face. I'm admired by how your tone is when it comes down to like modern dating. Twenty five years is a lot nowadays. You can't even get to that number seven is the number nowadays. You know what I mean? It's just you just cannot. And uh I mean people struggle with a relationship of trying to find a good relationship modern wise, but I'm glad that you're opening up about both ends of the spectrum because if they don't see the darker half of what you've been through, they don't understand the lighter. Um and I felt that as soon as I heard about what you're about. And um absolutely wonderful that we have you on today. Um I know you have some social media stuff that you would like to shout out. I'm pretty sure you got some links.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Um, you can find be empowered at uh be empowered um on Facebook or be empowered on Instagram. You can find um the evolution of Rahab on Instagram, um, and then you can follow Kim Weeks as well on Instagram and um Facebook. My podcast is currently um just on Spotify. So if you want to go back, go and listen to the evolution of Rahab um on Spotify, um, please do. Uh and um look for me to show up again in the fall.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Absolutely. Did you?

SPEAKER_05 41:01

Yeah, um, I really enjoyed having you on with us today. Um, as always, I love the conversations that we have. I love the pure raw honesty that you bring to everything. Um, and I'm very inspired by you. So I hope that others will feel that same way and that someone will find the start or continuation of their healing journey through this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Absolutely. Me too. Um sometimes I when I have these conversations, I walk away saying, I I clearly hope I will, I was hope I hope I was clear about what it is I'm trying to say. Um I want people to not just hear me, but to understand um what it is I'm trying to get across. So um I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to uh have this conversation with you. I'm always willing um to talk about where I was and where I am and give God the glory because if it weren't for him, I could still be where I was.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Amen. On that note, we're gonna catch you guys next time. We out.

SPEAKER_05 42:08

All right. If y'all would like to reach out to Beyond the Assault, um, you can reach us through our YouTube page at Beyond the Assault Podcast, or you can reach us on our email address at beyond the assault at gmails.com.