Spirit in Action
Kim Denmark - Spiritual Walk Across America for the Poor & Homeless
[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpes Me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. [music] We've got a great witness with us today for Spirit in Action. Kim Denmark and her spiritual walk across America. She's been walking for years now, carrying a witness for the homeless, the poor, and for God, who appeared to her on her deathbed and told her to get up and walk. Kim Denmark is joining us from the road down in Florida. Kim, thanks so much for joining me for Spirit in Action. Truly a pleasure to be here with you today in Spirit. And you're here in Spirit because you're walking around Florida. Did you choose to walk around Florida in this season instead of Wisconsin because of the weather? Actually, I'm walking across an entire nation. I just happen to be in Florida right now. And so does that mean that you're likely to be here in Wisconsin, let's say, in January or February? Is that what you're going to write here? I somehow think you're not going to make that choice. Where did you start from? I actually started in Dayton, Ohio, over about 68 to 70 months ago. And I remember -- all I remember is the snow. I remember the snow, and I just kept going. And I've covered so far the Northeast United States, the Northeast, and now I'm doing the South. And there's no real direction other than I'm being led by the Holy Spirit to walk, and the walk is for change. I'm walking for homeless, this in America, poverty, people working paycheck to paycheck on walking with hopes of the U.S. Congress and the Senate bringing the issues of economic instability in this country to the front burner. It is a mess. It was a mess then, and here we are six years later, and now people are stopping me as I'm walking and they can relate to it. But God already knew. So how did you get started in this? It seems amazing undertaking. Did you plan on walking for years at the time that you began? I did not plan on walking for years. I had not plan on walking at all. As a matter of fact, in Ohio, I was a business owner. I owned and operated my own staffing company. It took me years to build that company. I started from my living room and grew into an office. After seven years, I just became self-sufficient and independent. I never needed any bank loans or anything from anyone. I just had very good paying customers that paid their bills, and I was paid as a result of the paying their bills. The way a temp service works is someone will come to a temporary service looking for a temporary position. Well, I had the contracts with factories, nursing homes, hospitals, law offices. Anywhere you could put a temporary, I had people working there. So I would pay them about $8 an hour, $9 an hour, and I would build a company 18 to $20, and that's the way the business works. It's a 50% markup. So as a result of that, I liked it. It was very lucrative and very sporadic, very spontaneous. You can go from hiring 20 temporary to 150 in one day, and it went like that off and on all seasons. And so the money became very, very, very good for me. It became very lucrative for me, and something happens along the way. After my seventh year, I changed, and when I say I changed, I became very arrogant. I became very self-centered. I began to look down on people because I thought I was better than them because I had money, and with money came power. I began to treat people like numbers instead of people. I looked at them as a value. I looked at them as the next head count. I never looked at them as human beings and people, and that was a result of my beginnings of worship. Money. It was my God. It was who I worshiped, and it was a denomination of $50,000 and $100,000 bills. I believe that you can be nasty and arrogant and self-centered, and I believe God has a way of getting your attention. For no reason, I became ill. To this day, we don't know what that illness was, but it took me to my bed, and I couldn't get up. And I remember lying there day after day, night after night, just getting sicker, getting worse, getting worse, and one night I couldn't take it anymore. After about a month, and I decided to take my life, and it was then that the Lord took me on a spiritual journey and my sleep, and he let me see where I was headed, and I was headed to hell, and it was a result of my behavior. So that was the beginning of my walk. After I experienced what they call this epiphany in my dream, the Lord gave me another chance, and when I woke up, my body was completely renewed, and there was a presence in my bedroom, and it was the Holy Spirit. And I was given the direct order, and that direct order was that I would repent, and then I would walk, and I would tell people that he's coming. His exact words were, "Tell the world I am coming." I said, "God, where I do, where do I go?" He said, "Walk," and then I was walking for the poor, and I was walking for those that were less fortunate, and then I would begin now, and I left in 24 hours. I left everything behind, but a coat, a pair of shoes, which later turned into boots, and a co-cap and double clothing, and began walking and crying, walking and crying, and walking and crying, and not understanding any of this. You got to walk that lonesome valley. You got to walk it by yourself. Ain't nobody here can walk it for you. You got to walk it by yourself. I learned this old gospel song from Arlo's father, and it's an awful good one to get some harmony on. [applause] We need a little high harmony, all country style, a little low harmony. Try that chorus again. You got to walk, you got to walk that lonesome valley. You got to walk, you got to walk it by yourself. Ain't nobody here, ain't nobody here can walk it for you. You got to walk it by yourself. Now Daniel was a Bible hero. Yeah, Bible hero. He was a prophet, was a prophet. Raven true, Raven true, in a den. In a den. A hungry lion. A hungry lion. He showed what faith can do for you. Yeah, so you got to walk, you got to walk that lonesome valley. Ain't nobody here, ain't nobody here can walk it for you. Ain't nobody here, ain't nobody here can walk it for you. You got to walk it by yourself. Some folks say, some folks say, John was a Baptist. John was a Baptist. Some folks say, some folks say, he was a Jew. He was a Jew, but the holy Bible tells us. That he was a preacher to you. Yeah, so you got to walk, you got to walk that lonesome valley. You got to walk, you got to walk it by yourself. Ain't nobody here, ain't nobody here can walk it for you. You got to walk, you got to walk it by yourself. Though the road, the rough and rocky, the rough and rocky, and the hill. And the hill, the steep and high, the steep and high. We can sing, we can sing, as we go marching. And we'll win that one beat union by and by. Yeah, so you got to walk, you got to walk that lonesome valley. Ain't nobody here, you got to walk it by yourself. Ain't nobody here, ain't nobody here can walk it for you. Ain't nobody here can walk it by yourself. You recognize those musicians I suspect, folk music legend, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie, singing, lonesome valley. We all have our own valleys to walk, and my guest, Kim Denmark, got her calling years ago and has been walking across the USA ever since. I'm Mark Helpsmeet, and this is Spirit in Action. Please consider visiting my site, northernspiritradio.org. And post a comment for Kim, or for me, or check out the other shows and info on the site, including a link to kimdenmark.org, where you can keep up on Kim's witness for the poor, the homeless, and for God. We've got her on the phone right now in the hotel where she's passing the night down in Florida at the moment, and I have some more questions about the dream where God gave her marching orders. Did something lead you to have that dream? Is there something that sets you up prepared you? I mean, were you a church goer? Were you reflecting on the ill ways that you'd been living? Or how did you get there? The way I had the dream was, remember I said I was planning and contemplating suicide. I had lived in this bed so long of sickness, I decided in my mind, I'm not going to go out like this. I'm not going to go to my death in this bed. All these material things that I have in my life, and I'm going to die and lay here and deteriorate because my body had begun to deteriorate, laying in that bed. I wasn't getting better, and I had planned my own demise, and in the process of planning it, I fell asleep. And in my sleep, the Lord took me on a deep dream, a deep, deep, deep sleep, and in this sleep, He showed me what hell looked like. I was in it, and I was not getting out of it, and He showed me details about the people I had abused. He showed me how I would go to church, but I would sit in the back and play, and I wasn't interested, and I had thought to my mind when I had my money that I was not going to put nothing in offering for I didn't believe in giving to anything or any one. And as a child, I did go to church, but I don't remember getting saved. But it all came back in this vision and in this dream, and it seemed like I was in that dream for two hours, and when I woke up, I had a whole new life, a whole new beginning. I wasn't in a coma. I just simply went to sleep. That's an amazing story. I guess I say it's amazing, but it's not that amazing to me. I had one transformational face-to-face while in a dream, or actually just haven't come out of a dream. I had a face-to-face with God. So I'm aware of the power, the way it can change your life. Were you not a church goer at the time when you had this dream, or while you were building your business? I'm glad you asked that question. I did go to church, but I went to church in the shell. I went to quote-unquote church building. I went to show off my clothes. I went to show off my Mercedes Benz. I went to show off the latest hair style. I went to show off my alligator matching shoes and purse. I went to church for the wrong reason, and I had the audacity to carry a Bible to church with me, highlighted with the color markers and all that, and when I got home, I never opened that Bible. I was praying God. I was pretending that I had even God in my life, so all these things came to me in that vision and in that dream. I just repented to God and said, "Lord, if you give me another chance, God, if you forgive me, I'm sorry God." He would not let me shut down the dream. He kept showing me the people I had abused that had come to me for help. I just turned my back on them. I moved out of the quote-unquote "the hood" because I was better than them, I thought. None of this was true. It was all me and none spiritual. Nothing about my life was godly. I think a lot of people would say that you're building that business and being a success. I mean, you were living the American dream. You were achieving what you were supposed to achieve. Why isn't that American dream what we're supposed to do? That's a very good question. I feel the American dream should, it's supposed to, according to our Constitution, but the American dream premise should be based on the Bible. It should be based on what the beginning said and what the beginning does. It simply brings into existence the beginning that was God. We have totally removed it and part of the American dream, they've even added some little cartoon jingles to it by saying apple pie and baseball. Well, they've taken God out of it. I mean, the American dream is in America, according to society, go to school, get an education, grow up, become successful, become an entrepreneur, serve in a political position, or even serve in some clergy. That's the American dream to have children and to be fruitful. But in essence, the American dream never discusses part of the American dream and the base of an American dream should be God first. You know, when you had your business, I guess you were providing employment and, you know, you're walking for homeless people, you're walking for poor people right now. I imagine that there are people who would say, "Hey, you were doing your bit to prevent poverty by running this job before." Is that a thought that resonates with you? Does that make sense to you, or is that not what you were doing? It did make sense at the time. However, it was misconstrued with my own personal self, my own selfishness, my own greed, and my own self-centeredness. On the surface, I could say, "Wow, I'm preventing unemployment in our area. I'm providing jobs. I'm helping people. I'm providing them with a check every week so they can take care of their family." But the goal in my mind was numbers, numbers, numbers, so I could get rich. And although they were benefiting, I was born to serve. To me, it should never have been the exchange that it was. I substituted rich values of really earnest money by making it into, "You want some more hours? Forty hours? Okay, I'll give you 70 hours." But it was about me. It was not about helping them get ahead to buy that car they wanted. When you took off, like you said, you left within 24 hours. I mean, I assume you owned a house and a car. Did you just leave these things, abandon them, walk off? Or did you hand the keys over to someone and say, "I'm out of here. What do you do, really?" That's a very good question. It'll be in my book. It'll be in my movie, too. I think I'm going to do a little small documentary one day. But what's ironic is, one year prior to me being sick, my sickness, my brother moved from out of town and bought a house in my community next door. I'm telling you less than 50 feet. My brother bought a house in him and his fiance. And the sickness came, and as a result of the sickness, of course, I was in my bed and everything. When I left and I became well, not only did my brother and his wife fiance take care of my children, but they also secured the house as long as they could until finally I told them I was never coming back. I never went back to that house. Some four years later, between three and four years, all my belongings were auctioned off for tax purposes. Bill collectors came after me, creditors came after me, all the contracts I did not fulfill. Everybody came after me financially, and I let the house go. It was sold. And so today I own nothing. I have nothing today. But I am happier today that I've been my entire life because when I got into the mountains of Pennsylvania, I got saved, sanctified, and I received the Holy Spirit. So I am now a Christian walking across the nation, bringing awareness to the Lord and also helping people begin the housing and all the professional things that I've done in the past, but I just don't want a different level. You know, I imagine most Americans would be scared out of their pants at the thought of what you've done, and they would imagine their life would be impoverished. In the Bible, it says, you know, that we're not supposed to be worrying about where we're going to get our next meal. We'll trust in that. God will care for us. How do you get your meals? How do you get a place to sleep? Well, I mean, if you're up in Ohio or up in Wisconsin, walking in February, it's got to be pretty scary to not have a place to sleep inside. I like that question because it's my favorite. It speaks the volume of what the Bible and how it keeps its word. When I left Ohio on that very day, I remember walking until it was dark. And I remember two television news networks came out and they were reporting about this woman that was walking away from everything to walk for change for poor people and to bring attention about the Lord. Well, I walked until dark. And at dark, it dawned on me that I forgot my purse. And in my purse was my money and everything I needed. And I just stood in the snow. And a woman showed up in a Camaro. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and said she saw it on the 6 o'clock news. And she says, "I have something special for you." She said, "I believe in what you're doing. God bless you and I have something for you." I went another mile in the snow and the woman had taken her credit card and bought me a hotel to sleep in. That was the beginning of the God that I now serve. And from that day to now where I'm staying at right now in this hotel, people have donated. They'll go to the front desk and want somewhere for me to sleep. Or the hotel will say, "Please come and stay here. We will be honored for you to stay at our hotel." No charge. So you've been doing this for all of these months. And do you get up in the morning and just pray and then say, "Where am I going today?" Or, "Is there a plan? Do you at least have a map with you so you know where you're going?" Yes, I do have a map. When I started in Ohio, I went by an office card, AAA, and asked them for a map. Now what's really interesting about that is when before I walked in, the Holy Spirit said to me, "Do not tell them you are walking." I walked in and I said to the lady, "Yes, I need a map because I'm walking across the nation." They laughed in my face. So I went back outside, walked a few more miles, found a travel agent, walked in there, and asked the way the Lord told me to ask. And what I was supposed to ask for was a bicycle route map. And they gave me one, three of charge. I followed that bicycle route map all the way out of Ohio into Pennsylvania and to Maryland. And so it is the Holy Spirit's compass. And the way it works is this, the map that I have. I walked 10 to 15 miles a day on a line, a straight line, which is secondary roads. And at the end of my day, I tie an orange ribbon. It's like a construction tape. And I write a Bible scripture on it. And I write the date on it. And I write Kim's spiritual walk across America. And then I write God bless Hairsburg, God bless New York, God bless whatever city I'm in. And I leave it. In the morning, whoever brings me back, which is usually a volunteer, whoever brings me back, I start my prayer right there before I walk out, my 10 to 15 miles, and I head out. And at the end of the day, a police officer, a deacon from a church or a radio station, someone will, wherever that 10 mile or 15 mile marker ends, they'll take me to a hotel. Or sometime a private home, it depends. You must have friends then helping coordinate, or is it just that everywhere you walk, the broadcast becomes, here comes Kim. I mean, how do people know you're coming? Are there people helping you get the word out so that when you arrive, people know that they've got something to listen for? No, sir. Actually, I do not pick up the phone and call the news or the newspaper or the press. What happens is just my presence being out there. Someone will get on their cell phone and say, "Oh, my God, I heard about this lady in the city before she's in our town." So they never know until I get there that I'm coming. Some cities have been fortunate enough to know she's coming to our town Friday and they prepare the way for me. But in essence, I don't make any alarm. I don't have the manpower. I don't have the staff. I simply walk and I do things in the community before and it rolls over and they hear about it. For example, I mean, I've taken someone from behind Walmart and connected them with the right agencies and got them through the door and got them housing. Well, that spreads. How is this walk that you're doing? How is it helping the poor people, the homeless people? I can imagine ways in which it's doing it, but from your point of view, how is this helping? I believe in the old adage, if you help one person, then you help someone. It's just a little video on me, you know, and I believe that might be an example to someone and showing my light to someone that may have the ability to house five people, five families, someone that may have the ability to help someone find a job. I can show them how I do it with nothing and so my light would reflect and have them thinking, "Well, I've got a little money saved up and maybe I can buy them a pair of shoes so they can go to their interview." I just, my life and my light that others see, I hope that it becomes contagious and that they take the resources that they physically have and do it that it will help more than one person. If you're not telephoning ahead, if you're not giving advance notice, does that mean that the President and the Governor and the Mayor don't know to come out and greet you? They don't know. They never know. They never get advanced stories. Sometimes a news reporter will get the news out, hit the clock news, or the newspaper and because the media is connected with the government officials, somebody will make one phone call and the official will come out. We had it happen in Venice, Florida, just recently where the Mayor, a reporter contacted the Mayor and he personally came out with some of his staff or one of his staff members to greet me right on the sidewalk and I was so honored because no one does that. No one ever does. It's happened maybe two or three times my whole 16th stage because they're way too busy. And what was different in this situation in Venice? I don't know. All I know is I was approached. This gentleman, very distinguished gentleman was coming up the sidewalk with silver hair, but his hair had a light around it. It was different and he extended his hand. He said, "Hi, my name is Ed. I'm the Mayor." I said, "The Mayor." He said, "Yes, welcome to our house. I just want you to know what you are doing is to be commended and I support you and my time supports you and thank God for you." I found out later that he was of the Quaker affiliation and that his special love for all mankind exceeds that government position. I'm assuming as you walk along that a number of the people who value your witness who come out to greet you are religious people themselves. Is that true? Yes, you find people that know the Lord. You find people who study the Bible. You find people who live the Lord. You find people who live the Bible. Either way, I can help them. If they know God and they're working in his spirit right now, then I can still help them by saying, "Hey, guess what? We're sisters and we're on the same page." But if they're going to church like I was and they were planned, I can help them there too by saying, "It's never too rough or too tough to get closer to God. He loves you." And that's all I promote is that he loves you and continue to read and to get closer to him by doing good deeds, but not for a light to be on you, but for your life to be a light on to others. Before we go on, Kim, we should remind people that there is a website where they can check up, follow up with you, connect with you, and a phone number. You want to give that to our listeners? Sure. My website is Kim Denmark, just like the country. Kimdenmark.org. And my phone number is 954-825-7514. That's 954-825-7514. And both of those are 24 hours. And I like to hear comments and I like people to respond and talk to me. It's very lonely out there. I cry every week because you're constantly going through something. You have the negative out there, people that throw things at you. You have people who curse you while you're there. I had more group of boys spit at me. And no matter what people do, you still walk, you still connect with the people, and you be a light. You be an example of who God was or is. I believe, Kim, I've not met you, but I saw your website and I think you've got a better suntan than I do. I am African-American. And I envy you, the rich skin that protects you from the sun. I lived in Africa for two years. I was in the Peace Corps and I got sunburned a lot. And my question is, the reaction, is there still racism that you're encountering as you're walking across? Is this a racist issue of homelessness or poverty? Is this racial thing that we need to address? And partly I'm asking that because I think it is. I think there's a lot of that that influences what happens in our country and how poverty gets dealt out amongst our people. Poverty, some of it is true. Some of it is a racial issue, but some of it is also a mindset. Now, how do you put that into words? You can't really put it into words, but you can by action. What I mean by that is I see a lot of people that are hardworking, that go to work nine to five, and yet they're still in poverty. So in essence, what I'm saying is even though you do work and you're still in poverty, you can be black or white. What I have to discover on this journey is this poverty thing has no face, it has no color, and at times it has no gender. It's not kind of lightening up. It's getting worse. So this is why I encourage the wealth of the Lord where you'll never be poor. Nomically, you'll never be. You will maybe suffer some setback financially, but if you just trust God, he will feed you like he feeds the birds. He will take care of you like he does, take care of me. I have no job. I have no income. You get I am sustained because I continue his ministry, spreading the words, spreading the news. This job is not for everyone, but there is a walk you can do in your community, in your town, in your job, at your home. There's always a mystery for you to help your fellow man. As far as racism directly at me, I've experienced it. But the twist to that is this, I've experienced racism from both blacks and whites and Hispanics and Jewish and every nation. It's just no black or white thing. If a person doesn't like something or it's foreign to them, I'm walking a look from everything. I've been caught dumb, stupid, black, dummy, you know, I've been caught everything. But guess what? Through it all, I'm still a child of God. And that's the most valuable possession. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] That was Joe South, a great song. Walk a mile on my shoes. Very much on the topic for today's Spirit in Action. I'm Mark Helps me to Northern Spirit Radio, and we're visiting today with Kim Denmark. And she's walking not one, not just two, but thousands of miles for the poor and the homeless, and as a witness for and at the direction of God. The direction she got in the dream on her deathbed. She started from Dayton, Ohio, and she's with us from a hotel room in Florida. She continues down the road with basically just the clothes on her back. I was thinking that there is at least one physical possession you apparently have. You apparently own a cell phone, and somehow you must charge that, or do you charge it by, you know, just the power of your legs as you're walking along, charge it up with the generator. It's a friction from my feet. No, actually, someone donated my cell phone, and at the end of each month, I save all my coins, and I save my dollar bills, and I can pay that cell phone once a month. And if I can't pay it, I don't care. It goes off until I can get to $52. But no, I don't have any income out here, but every now and then someone will give you a dollar or $2, and if you're smart, you'll save it. Or if you have a need like a phone, a communication type thing, or a stamp, or I'm like, I have eyeglasses, and I have to have to pay her because I lose my stuff so often. You were saying, Kim, that sometimes, you know, you just cry during the day. It gets very lonely. Does no one ever walk with you? I can feel myself that if you're walking past Eau Claire, I might be called to drop what I'm doing and just walk along with you. Let's your heart. Yes, people do walk with me if we plan it, or if they just decide to get out their car and take their lunch break and walk with me and just talk with me. I've had groups walk with me. I've had ministers, churches. I've had whole congregations. I've had people walk with me, and they just want to hear stories as I walk. And so it's a very interesting story to them, but it's just normal to me. And it gets lonely, and the reason I cry sometimes is because it's so simple to me now that the scales have been removed from my eyes just to do the right thing. So sometimes I'll sit in a tree and I'll watch the traffic, and you'll see, especially in Florida, you'll see a convertible go by, and he's cussing out the guy in the next lane because he hasn't gone through the green light yet, or he went through a yellow or whatever. He's cussing the guy out, and I just cry because I say that. It just was so unnecessary. It's just everything that's happening where people are robbing people, where people are just abusing children, and people are hurting other people when that's now what God put us here for. And I cry because I wish that people could see through my eyes how beautiful this world is and the nature and how if they just tried a little harder, we wouldn't have as much pride. Aren't you ever worried about your personal safety? I mean, I think women in the United States are trained to be aware that they may be attacked by some man along the way. That doesn't bother you at all. The thought came to my mind, but it wasn't in the form of another person. The fear came into my life one day when a photographer came from Boston. He heard the story on Internet, and he flew all the way to where I was at. I believe I was going through Richmond, Virginia, and he was filming if I was walking, and a pack of dogs. He was in a jeep. A pack of dogs were eating on a carcass, and I didn't even know dogs ate other animals, but they were eating on a carcass, and they saw me. And when they saw me, their noses and their ears went straight up in the air, and they looked at me. And I just got real scared, and I got really scared, and I just shut my eyes. And I started walking real slow, and I just said, "Jade, though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I sure feel no evil without her with me. God, you put me out here. You said for me to be wise, God. But God, you told me to walk, and I have to walk, and they're on my side." I crossed over and walked, and those dogs just became real humble, and they just stayed where they were, they never bothered me. And once I got past them, the photographers jumped out of their jeep and said, "Man, that was totally awesome. Man, we were filming the whole time. Man, we fucked those dogs. We're going to come after you." Yeah. And all I could think was, all I could think was, you certainly would have gotten that shot with me. You know, I think I have a clue for you. I think the main issue was they were worried you were going to take away their carcass. They thought you might be hungry as you were going by. That was the only time for your time. But no, I don't think about people snatching me or killing me. Really, people are trying to label this thing on me. Who do you want for president? And they try to be to connect the dog thing, and I won't allow them. Because I simply tell them, "Listen, I know only one guy that's in control of America. I don't never comment on that kind of stuff." So this isn't about politics. This isn't because you want change and Barack Obama wants change. It's not anything related to that. I never heard of Barack Obama 68 months ago. He never heard of Ken Denmark yet. But the Lord orchestrated everything. And even after whoever comes in office, I will continue my march across the United States for change as it relates to poor people and people that are seeking God. I will try to be a tool and to be an instrument to help and fulfill such a good, powerful goal. I think at ground level, you must meet a lot of very interesting people. For instance, I'm sure you meet people who are worse off and some people who are very well off. Have you had people with diamonds on their fingers walking along with you? Have you had people who barely had clothes on with you? I have met people laying in the gutter in Cleveland and laying in the street of New York and laying even in Florida under the bar in Miami, laying on the ground with only the bags that they own, and they are laying there because they are exhausted because they're not able to sleep and eat properly. And then I have met millionaires going through Boca Raton, Florida, going through Manhattan, New York. I have met millionaires, so you meet both, but you stay focused and you offer what God would offer, and that is peace, love, and unity. You talk about meeting people of various religious faiths and religious intensities, and the connection that you have because of those focused on God. And when you were talking about that, I heard in your voice, and in the words that you chose, that some people were outward professors with their words, and there are other people, in Quakerism, we would say they let their lives speak, that they don't necessarily say God, God, God, but they do God's will. Have you met people who claim to be atheists who have been doing God's work with you? I have, and they didn't realize they were doing it, and you know what? That's the brilliance of God. They may be labeled as atheists. Oh, I don't believe in God. I believe in karma and all these others. I don't believe that he did this. I can't see him, but in essence, they'd stop what they're doing to sit down with me, to have a conversation with me, and will take me to a restaurant and feed me and ask me, what can I do to help say my neighbor, who I know is a single mom with three kids, and just the other day. I know the electric company turned off her life. There it is right there. What you need to do, if you have the funding, as you find out, the bill, what the amount of the bill is, you negotiate a deal, and don't say a word. You go and have those lights turned on for that mom and her children. That person does not realize that they just were, they just executed an act of God on a fellow man, and doesn't even know it. So labels, titles, so what? That friend speaks my mind. That's how we say it in Quakers, and that friend speaks my mind. Tell me about your upbringing a little bit more. Middle-class, lower-class, upper-class, were you living in the hood? I mean, where were you, and what was it like? I was born in Detroit, raised in Ohio. I was born in Detroit, one of 11. I'm the middle. One of 11 children, my dad, military, my mom, my house, mother, and we were poor, in my opinion, but I didn't know it back then. We were poor. We did a lot of leftover cooked meals. We did a lot of what we call that, then hand-be-down clothes, and I start to recognize and realize that I was wearing hand-be-downs because I got older, like in the ninth grade. And it was then that, at one minute, I'm going to be a business owner, and I'm never going to wear hand-be-down clothes. My father was very militant. He was very strict. He was all about education, and my mother was totally the Bible, the church, everything's the Bible, everything's the Bible. So I got a combination of both. I got the academic achievement from my father, and I received the spiritual growth from my mother, and if you put those together, you have the product you see today. And did you get some kind of a degree from college or elsewhere, Kim? No, I went to college for a couple of years, took a few courses, but I never finished. I wasn't interested in what I saw. I wanted to be something, but I wanted to be it faster than what they were teaching me. And I just stepped out and worked for the government for a while, and then I ended up starting my own little business. I walked into a staffing company, liked how it operated, got a job on the inside. So I learned the insides of it, and then I took off on my own. We should repeat again your website, kimdenmark.org is the website, and of course people can find a link to it from my site, which is northernspiritradio.org. There's also a place where you can put comments on my site about this program and other programs, and Kim, they can leave comments for you and follow your journey on your website too, can't they? Right, and also I have a space there for bookings. I just added that, and what it is, is during Black History Month, the month of February, I dedicate that month to Black History. And what I'm going to also do after I've been interviewed and have had this contact with the Quakers, what I'm going to do is I'm going to include the real history on not just slavery, but who are some of the people that were involved? And rescuing us, and they were the Quakers. Now, I can do that because I can back it up. I can back up the fact that while we were on slave ships, that the Quakers were the abolitionist and said it was wrong, it wasn't fair to sell a man or to man make a person to work for labor, and then the abuse. And I feel that is just as much a part of history as Martin Luther King. You know, I think it's just important how did we get out of that? We didn't just do it. Someone stood up for us, and it was God-fearing people, and that they did the right thing by helping us. We should mention here, as far as I know, you've only met one Quaker that you know of, right? Well, I've met them in the past, but I didn't know what they were. But they always have the same attitudes and the same mannerism. For example, I would see them in Pennsylvania. I just knew there was a light. But at the same time, I saw these people, and it wasn't until I was approached in Florida that I received a welcoming, a formal welcoming, and then I went and did research. The research told me that we were not invited to put in their friends meeting. What kind of denomination were you raised? You said your mother was very involved in encountering with the Bible, and did you have denomination names? What kind of church experience did you actually have growing up? I was Baptist, and we were considered Christians, and that's all I knew. I just didn't live it. I did not live it. I think I might have performed it like an actress, but I didn't live it until I really got it and moved it in God. It's a beautiful story that you have. I'm amazed. Some people would think of your story as a riches-to-rags story, but of course, they're not valuing the pearl of great price. They're valuing only this outward thing that we can see, and certainly you're shining with a lot of light, Kim, as you walk along. You've walked around the United States, and you haven't covered everything yet. Have you felt any leading, any calling to head beyond the United States? Yes, by the way, I have 33 more states to go. Just recently, I was invited on a trip to Haiti, and also I've been invited to come to London because there's a lot of poverty, especially in London, but I have not been led to do anything spiritually outside the United States. I've been told and prophesied that I would leave the country. I don't know what that means, but I don't answer to men. Not really. I wait for God to lay it in my lap. If he makes the vision, he'll make the provisions for me to make it happen, for it to happen. The pictures that I saw of you, I think orange features prominently. Is that your color? Is that something that you wear as an outward sign of who you are so people can recognize you? Well, when I left it with snow, and so I just grabbed the orange coat. I had 24 hours, and I remember I was well, and it wasn't snowing that night before, so I had them take me up to Walmart, and I bought an orange jacket because I thought I would be walking at night, and I wanted the headlights to see me. Well, no, God, I have another plan. The orange coat that I started off with, I have it to this day. Everywhere I go, I just picked up the color orange. The color orange. Everybody likes it. I like it. It represents so much. It represents light. It represents the poverty of the prison population. So I'm wearing an orange t-shirt right now, an orange scarf. I got an orange teddy bear on my bed here in the hotel. Are you saying you're carrying a teddy bear with you? Oh, yeah. I have a lot of stuff. See, you have to stay kind of sound out here, so you find various things that keep you sound. A teddy bear keeps me sound because it reminds me of home. My luggage, I actually have a luggage bag, and I have a security truck that a guy drives for me with all my oxygen in it, shoes, clothes, poison equipment, what they call a stretcher bed. It unfolds into a stretcher, and if I ever have to stay on the beach or anything, I can do it that way. I'm not sure. A security truck. There's a person following you around the United States driving? Well, it's never the same person. He sits in the driver's seat with a video camera, and what he does is he protects me because people, I don't know if you heard about it in February, I got hit by a truck. Some guy, a hate guy, just hit me. You see the video. A guy just hit me. So I have this security truck. It's more like a truck kind of an thing. And it's highly illuminated. It says walk across America. I'll either have a male or a female, and they stay in the wilderness and they watch me. They bring me water at the end of the day. The church brings me to the hotel or the security vehicle, brings me to the hotel. Security vehicle is not always there. Sometimes he leaves and go out of town. And so there's different drivers who are accompanying you. There are people who are led in the same way you are. Well, no, what'll happen? Like, for example, I could be going through a town where it's highly populated in crime, and so the sheriff's department will get behind me with his lights on, and as I walk through the city, they'll just kind of hang out behind me at about one mile an hour as I'm walking. And it serves the same purpose as a security officer. It's gotten that bad out here. I'm not afraid, but what has happened is people throw stuff, especially since this Obama thing's going on, they throw stuff. They think I'm connected or that I'm affiliated and that I'm promoting, and I don't even know the guy. I know nothing about it. So I'm real careful, but at the same time, people are watching me. You didn't have this set up when you left way back then. Oh, no. Oh, no. When I walked out, I walked out, but if I accumulated attention and the story got out more than people decided, well, they wanted to interact, and I have to be careful what that interaction means. So, Kim, where are you headed from here? Do you have a direction? Do you know where you're headed for the next, I don't know, day, week, month? Sure. I'll be heading to Alabama after I leave Florida, and then I'll be heading to Mississippi and then New Orleans. I'll be in New Orleans for two months. I understand that there's still trailers down there that should either be salvaged or reconstructed for people to live in, of course, via the Environmental Protection Agency and a couple of other government agencies get those things cleaned up. And from there, Texas, and I may go, I may go north into the going all the way to the West Coast, but I am going to California all the way to the West Coast, but I may go up a little bit and then just kind of zigzag across the country all the way through Alaska and come on back and finish my state. And I should be done in 2012. I want to thank you for this interview, and I would hope the words get out that I am out there and just understand that it's all for the Lord. It's a mission for him. And I just can't wait to see where it's going because I want to know myself. Well, thank you so much, Kim, and just be sure that when you arrive in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, we'll have a house waiting for you. We have a wood fire. We'll keep you warm and happy here. Please do come visit, and I'll look forward to meeting you then. I look forward to it. Thank you, my friend. That was Kim Denmark. Today's Spirit and Action guest on the road for years to bring change to poverty, homelessness, and in faithfulness to God. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit and Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world alone. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world alone. And our lives will feel the echo of our healing. 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