Linda wrote her story for the upcoming Scars to Stars Vol 3. She is a retired RN, and a widow and also wears many other hats! Listen in to learn more about her journey of finding God at 17 and how that has impacted her life on every level!

Mentioned Resources:

Register for our virtual book launch on 9.22.23 at https://realizefoundation.org/events

About the Guest: 

"Servant of God, Lovely Linda"

"God desires a surrendered heart."

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. —Hebrews 11:6

Reverend Linda Housden, R.N. is often called "Lovely Linda" or "Mother Theresa" of this generation. Her measure of compassion impacts lives forevermore. She learned many of life's best lessons while working as a First Responder on the Los Angeles Mayor's Crisis Response Team, providing immediate Crisis intervention, emotional support and referrals to families affected by traumatic events.  These events were call outs to homicides, suicides, traffic fatalities, SIDS deaths, domestic violence, officer involved shootings, natural deaths, and in addition, mass casualty events.

Linda's career as a flight nurse, Pediatric/NICU nurse, and American Red Cross Disaster Health Services Supervisor opened up many doors to utilize her practical and professional skills to become a foster parent to 22. Special needs infants, do prison ministry, and travel extensively to many countries on short term missionary teams for a period of 10 years. 

Today, Linda is a certified Life Coach, entrepreneur, and public relations director for the company of Ijascode, a global incentivized digital marketing company. She was a co-author in the books, "Living God's Best Life," and "From Broken Pieces to Masterpieces", with Dr. Angella Palmer Banks, Xcellence Inc. She is also the Chief Community Liason for Xcellence Inc., counting it all joy to serve in this capacity as a connector to others, both nationally and globally. Another co-author book project done was with Life on Fire Mentors Nick & Megan Unsworth, and keynote international speaker, James Malinchak, called, "Live Abundantly". Top thought-leaders shared their secrets for living an extraordinary life, which is possible to have, as we surrender our hearts to God's heart.

About Deana:

Deana Brown Mitchell is a driven, optimistic, and compassionate leader in all areas of her life.

As a bestselling author, speaker and award-winning entrepreneur, Deana vulnerably shares her experiences for the benefit of others. As a consultant/coach, she has a unique perspective on customizing a path forward for any situation. 

Currently President of Genius & Sanity, and known as “The Shower Genius”, she teaches her proprietary framework created from her own experiences of burnout and always putting herself last...  for entrepreneurs and leaders who want to continue or expand their business while taking better care of themselves and achieving the life of their dreams.

In 2022 Deana released the book, The Shower Genius, How Self-Care, Creativity & Sanity will Change Your Life Personally & Professionally.

Also, Deana is the Founder & Executive Director of The Realize Foundation. She is a suicide survivor herself, and vulnerably uses her own mental health journey to let others know there is hope. The Realize Foundation produces events and publishes books that let people know there are not alone.

“But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds” Jeremiah 30:17

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https://twitter.com/ScarstoStarsTM

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Deana Brown Mitchell: Hi there, it's Deana at The Realized Foundation. And today I'm here with Linda, who is the author in our upcoming scars to stars book three. So welcome, Linda, I would love for you to introduce yourself and tell us your chapter title and what you wrote about.

Thank you, Deana. Thank you for inviting me to be on our podcast today. My name is Linda Housden, Reverend Linda Housden I became a chaplain in 2008. And I'm a retired registered nurse, also a recent widow, my husband passed away in 2022. And I as an author, in previous books, I've written three books with collaboration books with other other books that I've done. One was called living God's best life. One was called from Broken Pieces to Masterpieces, which I completed after breaking my back and fractured my back in three places. And I wrote another book called live abundantly. And I wrote that with James Malinchak, and a lot of leaders across the United States, so I'm honored to be a person who's writing in this book as well. So from scars and stars, we all have scars in our life, and we need to be transparent and share them for the purpose of helping other people. And that's why I'm here today.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Awesome. Do you want to elaborate on your chapter at all about the title and what it's about?

I'm sure, the title was my essence matters on my pilgrimage, to meet Jesus. And I became a Christian when I was 17 years old. And I was asked to teach in a Sunday school class with my girlfriend, which I did. I kept a secret to my family, they didn't know not that they weren't Christians, because actually, they made me and my sister go to church, when we were little with our neighbor's children, because my dad worked on Sundays. But as in looking back, now, I'm 71. So when we flip flop that age, to be 17. And now I'm 71. There's so much growth that we go through with our life experiences. And I just love being transparent, because I want to be closer to God, because that's where we're headed. We always have to think about that, in our older years, that everything that we do, has a meaning and a purpose. And we go through life on our life's journey. And it's about one day, it's only going to be what did you do for me? And Jesus is going to ask that one question. And I just want to serve as an ambassador, to do my best and my road and my pilgrimage to move on one day.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Thank you for sharing that. It's really, you know, I feel the same way it feels like God has a plan. I didn't always grew up in the church. But I didn't always stay close to him for a while. And then when I found him again, it changed my life in many ways. And I always say God has a plan bigger than we can imagine. And that we just have to be, you know, patient and trust that he knows best. And sometimes we don't always feel that way. But he does. So thanks for sharing that. Will you talk a little bit about your experience being part of this project and the people that you've met maybe and and what impact that's had on you?

Well, I can say in writing this book, I had a lot of tears that I didn't shed so much in writing the other books, but I was connected to a lady. And about six years ago, Dr. Angela banks that changed my life. And sometimes we read books, and they do change our life. They do impact our lives. And I hope this book will impact all of your lives. For those that read it because there's a story in it for you, whether it's my story, or another story, but the book that I read that Dr. Angela banks wrote was the pursuit to excellence and it's her 10 year journey of self love and brokenness and depression and sacrifice, to fulfill a dream. My dream has always been to do what God wanted me to do to get closer to God, how to do it. I didn't know he's no, I knew God loved me. I remember singing that song. Jesus loves me because I know for the Bible tells me so. But as I think, writing this book, I really was able to sit with God talk to him about my inner brokenness in my hurts more than I was in the other three pieces of literature and writings that I did. And it was it was always my desire to have a good marriage and we were married my husband I 45 years with a lot of trials, tribulations that I talked about in my story. And then my husband the last six years of his life was on dialysis. He we went through a sexual harassment incident Were I will go to my grave knowing that my husband was not warranted a full hearing about what really happened. And I talk about that in my story, which I didn't know if I was ready for but I am ready. And when my husband passed away, it was during this time of COVID, and everything and it's tight talk about that in my book too, because when my husband developed COVID, and it was pneumonia, he had, he didn't die of that he died of sepsis. And I didn't know he had substance, I didn't know he was that sick, I always thought he was going to be home. And it was kind of a shock to find out that he was so sick, and he was unconscious, when they call me. And I was at the hospital, they weren't going to let me in, or God grant me favor. And I did go in to see my husband, and I was there when he passed away. But the the miracle that I want to share with everyone today is after my husband passed away, it's almost like my husband had a message to to give me and so that I say the words correctly, um, I'm going to read it. The picture that was outside my husband's room, when he passed away, was a beautiful mural of stars, and hands with colored hands. And I had my body brace on because I had fractured three ribs, and I was still wearing that for about a year. But the mural, it said, you have within you the strength of patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. So God knew the desires of my heart, that I wanted to change the world. And by that I mean change it to share Jesus with whoever I come in contact with. Because it's so important to stay on your be in alignment and stay on your assignment what God has given you. And when I married my husband, he always do I love God and into our marriage, I was a missionary for 10 years, my husband let me go on missions trips, to share the Lord. And as a nurse, I got to be a nurse on the team and be a participant in the crusades, and do all that. But all of what I've done in my journey is definitely to get to where I am today, at 71 years old, I realized that, you know, we go through losses, we go through pain, we go through heartaches, but God never wastes the hurt, never, never waste to hurt. And we can smile, we can be transparent. And we can be the person that God created us all to be because we're unique. There's no other you know, other me no other Deena we're all unique, and what God has gifted us with our talents. Sometimes I think, you know, I'd like to be more wealthy to do more good for the kingdom to be able to do because I am a giver, my husband and I gave 10% of missions our entire marriage, and gave another 10% to missions and 10% We tied. But giving 20% We had the money in our early marriage, I made good money, and so did my husband. And you know, it didn't we give and give and give. But one thing I've learned is God gave His life and nothing that we can give out gift God. So I hope that you remember that all of you that are listening today. Because our life matters, our excellence matters. And God was excellent in everything he did. He did everything with an imprint into our hearts because it is possible to live in a life of agape love. And that's kind of what what I want to share to all of you that it is possible to love the way God loves us. If we just so choose to do that.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Thank you, Linda, that is so true. I want to ask you one more question about if you were talking to someone that you know, that had a story. And they said, you know, they were asking you about this book? What would you say to them about being part of it and feature?

I would say don't look at the cost of writing the book. Because we all tend to do that when we start like can I afford it. But I will tell you God can afford it. If God puts a price on somebody, it's because that's the price he puts on it. And I know there's friends of mine that did not participate in this book because they didn't understand the value of what it would do writing this book for themselves, or what it would do in writing the book to help and bless many other people who won't go on to read this. Volume One, volume two. I didn't even know Do you know when Volume One and Volume Two came out, but I'm so grateful to God that He allowed me to be a part of this because we know that the scars the SARS is going to go on to do bigger and better things. And I'm looking forward to Being a member in the realized Foundation, because I realized that we all have a story. And our story matters to God or excellence matters to God. And I think, you know, the joy of the Lord is our strength. This book writing, it has strengthened me to be who I know God created me to be. And I think when you write it, it's different. When you're part of something this big, you realize how big of God we serve. And he's so much bigger than sometimes we, we go about our daily lives, we think, God, where are you? Where are you, God, talk to me God. But it's, there's a scripture that says, Be still and know that I'm God. And so many times when I would be writing this book, I'd say, okay, and I get stuck. But God would finish the sentence, and it just kept flowing. It just kept coming. And, you know, I ended up with more words than I thought and had to be reduced. But it's okay for when I write my own book one day.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Yeah. So yeah, absolutely. Well, Linda, thank you so much for for being here and having this conversation with me, because I think it's, it's important. And I think that there are a lot of people who I talked to about writing their story, and they're like, Oh, I've never written anything in my life. And I don't, I don't know how to do that. And I think that, you know, I tried to explain to them, we hold your hand, and we take you through it, and, and it's gonna be okay. And there's lots of people who have been in in our first two books, that are now best selling authors who had never written anything. And so I want people to know that it's, it's not, it's just you have to be willing to tell your story, and work with us to get it on paper. But you don't have to come with writing experience or with other published books already, and stuff like that. But I think Ruth and we do have weekly calls, and we get to meet each other and spend time together and have conversations that are really meaningful. And so when we get done with this, that our book lunches, get to see everybody and see how much camaraderie there is with the people who've been part of this. Do I talk about that a little?

Yeah, I'd love to. Yeah, we've all developed friendships that are stronger, we've encouraged one another's on these calls. And, you know, being transparent, I mean, some of us are involved in helping people already. I mean, as a nurse, I always, you know, do that anyway, but I work with the American Red Cross different organizations. And I also have been a member on the mayor's la mayor's crisis response team for 20 years, where I actually go out to homicide, suicides, accidents, and traumatic incidences, whether they're officer involved shootings, or whatever. And I feel so blessed, so chosen of God to be able to work with these families who don't know what to do, and sometimes most often, the worst moment in their lives. And when we can be there and make a presence in that, in that environment. It encapsulates everything, my whole being is poured into those people in that particular call out. And you know, every call out I learned is my first I don't compare any call out to a previous one. Because that family is unique. That situation is unique, that sometimes we don't have to say anything, just be there and just show that we really care because God cares about everything. He knows everything he's all knowing. And if I can leave that family with the idea that, well, I'm here for you. And that's what I'm there for. I've done my job. And, you know, it's so important to know that even on the people I've met through here, they they're active in in a lot of different arenas as well. They are suicide prevention counselors on telephone calls. And I don't know that I could do that. But I know I can do this what I do at the mayor's office, because I've done it and, and I love mentoring students and they're new. And I remember when I was new on my first call out, and we have to start somewhere. So start somewhere in writing your book, and knowing that you have a welcome space and scars, the stars because there's love there is a safe space, and it will happen if it's something you want to do. I encourage you to do it because we all have taken that first step and be blessed.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Thank you and I'm just excited that I got to meet you and that you introduced me to some other wonderful people and how we can all get to be off forever be the scars to stars volume three crew, right and it's almost like a family. So if anyone is listening or watching and you want to join our book launch event. It's on Friday, September 22 of 2023. And it's going to be at noon Mountain Time or to Eastern Time, and it'll be about 90 minutes and you'll get to meet all the authors and hear some more about our foundation and what we do in the world. So I always end with you matter, you are enough and you are worthy.