Sunday Focus With Christine Manika

"I AM FORTIFIED" by Fortitude

I AM FORTIFIED by Fortitude creates a positive environment to reflect and to discover ourselves, especially for women spiritually. Amos and Heather Kittleson from Fortitude join the show to tell us more about Fortitude, their journey, and the upcoming I AM FORTIFIED by Fortitude event on Saturday, September 7th at the Sioux Falls Christian School Chapel ('The Gathering'). Additional information can be found at eventcreate.com/iamfortified.

Duration:: 30m
Broadcast on:: 25 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This is Sunday Focus, a weekly public affairs program that looks at the topics affecting our society and the people who are making a change in the community each and every day. The people who have vision for the next generation. Sunday Focus presents new challenges for us, keeping you informed with topics of local and regional interest. Now the host of Sunday Focus, Christine Manica. Hello and good morning and welcome back to another edition of Sunday Focus. Sometimes you just need a day to relax, reflect, and grow as a person. We're always changing and expanding our minds, but life gets in the way and it's hard to find that time for ourselves. I am fortified by Fortitude creates a positive environment to reflect and to discover ourselves, especially for women spiritually. Amos and Heather Kittleson from Fortitude, join us now to tell us more about Fortitude, their journey, and the upcoming "I Am Fortified" by Fortitude event. This fall, good morning Amos and Heather, welcome to the show. Hello. Good morning. We're very excited to learn more about "I Am Fortified" by Fortitude and before we get into more of that, why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself? Well, thank you, Christine, I'm originally from the southwestern Minnesota area and Amos, my awesome husband, is from Sioux Falls. We've been married for 10 years and we have four kids that range from 16 to 6. Oh my goodness. Yeah, we're busy. We're busy. I was going to say that's an understatement. Amos is an owner of a technology business and we recently started a podcast called Fortitude. I left my full-time career to go home and focus on our family and I don't sit down well. I should say, so we have started a few other things just in the ministry world and it's been a huge blessing to be able to give back and stay active in doing God's work. Absolutely. Now, what was the idea of creating Fortitude and this whole idea of just starting a new chapter in your life? Oh, man, that's a longer story, but I will just preface that when I was younger, I have always loved people's stories and so from the time that I could open my mouth, I have asked people who they are, where they come from, why they do what they do and fast forward. Many years, I had the opportunity in my career to ask people their stories and to sit with the people and get to know them on a deeper level and as I continued to ask them, have they ever shared their story and people would say, no, I mean, my story is not that great and I would look at them and be like, it's beautiful and by sharing your story, you can change a life or you can get people hope through your journey and what you've overcome and so sharing this with my husband about wanting to start a podcast, I have zero excuses because he is in tech and my excuse would have been, I wouldn't know how to do all the technology and so we kind of just pieced it all together and started sharing our journey. We started with a podcast on sharing our story and now we have what like 46, I think like 46 episodes, 46 people stories on our podcast and it's been a huge blessing. That's awesome. What was the need that you saw in the community to bring this podcast to life? Well, there's a wealth of knowledge out there that if you don't know, you just, you don't know and in today's culture, there's a lot of pain, a lot of heartache, a lot of divorces, things like that and about 15 years ago, I listened to a podcast called Focus on the Families, Three-Part Series, that's the only three-part series I've done and it was, the content was this a woman who had been learning about men, the differences between men and women and she was talking about me, she was talking about how I react to things and why I do what I did, why I react to things. I mean, that really wasn't speaking about him specifically. She said, "An Amos, this is for you," Amos, you're out there somewhere and I realized how much I didn't know about just human interaction in myself and men and women and it set me on this long journey to learn more about people and about relationships. When Heather started talking about this podcast and stories, we saw this need for a giving people hope but also giving people information that they're not going to learn from the likes of Netflix or Hulu, you don't get this from watch TV, do you get this from really smart wise people and we feel like we just want to be a channel for that wisdom. And not only the wisdom but for people being raw and open and honest, I'm just noticing that there's like Amos just mentioned, there's a lot of pain, there's so much pain that people are dealing with and they're not necessarily being open and honest, but they don't feel comfortable or vulnerable enough to share. And I went through it, so part of my journey, which we can get into in a little bit, but it's every single story that is on fortitude is any kind of adversity someone has walked through and how they've overcome and how they're honoring God after the fact. And so every story is tough to listen to because it's really hard to hear some of the pain and suffering that people have gone through, but it's so great because once we get in about 15, 20 minutes into the podcast, it starts turning around to saying like, man, do this, do this, here's some advice. If you need to call on someone to get out of a situation or it's just so we're educating but we're also sharing stories so people don't feel alone in what they're walking through. I like that. I really do. Thank you. Can you recall any difficult moments when you first started fortitude and maybe some positive moments too? Oh, I've got one. Okay, go. That was quick. Yeah. I was thinking about this. He's like my wife. Good answer. No, that's the easiest part was your other, but you put this together, it's been beautiful. Though, I think one of the hardest things that we had to go through was when we were talking to a mom and daughter couple and there was a narcissist in their past and through the grapevine, someone had heard that we're going to air this podcast about the difficult situations they went through. We were going to point any fingers and we received some threats. That was really hard and we had to have some tough conversations about who are we and where is our foundation and oh, do we back off or we just just plunge ahead boldly because this is the truth and yeah, that was really hard. That was a big distraction from where really where our formation was and we know very well that once you step into something, you feel like God's called you to do the devil attacks. That is no joke and so I mean, I got frustrated and I was like, well, what are we doing? I just want to share people's stories like this is super innocent, but yet it is people's lives and there are two sides and there are these different things and so we really, really prayed about it and we're like, no, this is what we feel like God has called us to do and that is to shine his light and shed just these stories that do bring hope to others and we kept plunging through and here we are. So you mentioned Heather, the career change and you started Fortitude, what or who inspired you? You mentioned your story. Now's the time to kind of share that if you feel ready for it. Yeah, this has become my thing now. When God told me to share it to the masses and reluctantly and kick it in screaming. I've tried but he keeps putting me on stages in front of microphones so here we go. I grew up, like I said in southwestern Minnesota, beautiful, amazing family, very loving kind. I am the only girl of three older brothers and so kind of tough, grew up tough and playing a lot of sports and if you look at the way that small towns and any town for that matter just we get really, we're stuck in kind of this mold of religion and sports and I didn't have a learned spirit. I really didn't, I didn't enjoy getting uncomfortable. I don't think a lot of people like to get uncomfortable. So we continue down this path of doing what we are comfortable with and not exceeding certain limits unless we have people around us and we surround ourselves with good people who push us into I guess reading books like my husband here has helped me with but it's been a beautiful transformation. So in 2000 after Amos and I had gotten married because I'm going to just fast forward into what had happened, I was raised around a lot of alcohol, extended family, college. It is just what we did. This was a part of my life since I was 16 year old, 16 and still playing sports but getting away with it, right? We do what we can and if everyone else around you is doing that you just tend to fall into that mold and I ended up moving here to Sioux Falls in 2009 and fell in love with this community and met Amos in 2012, thank you Jesus because he has been someone that I admire and love and who has pushed me to grow and grow. After our third little girl was born, our last one, so number four, I developed post-partum depression and I realized very quickly that I was, this was a very uncomfortable, not familiar position that I was in because I had always been an even keel girl. Like I just went through life. I was happy, go lucky, always very positive, class have full, spreading joy and which you continued to feel like feel a pressure to do even though you're going through this. And I lacked boundaries, I was very much a people pleaser and so despite my own, I guess taking care of myself or joy or the things that I needed to feel I would make sure I poured it out, but I didn't know how to really get that back or set good boundaries. And so when the depression hit, I had a newborn, I had a toddler, we had a 11 year old and also a preschooler and I was helping with Amos's business and I was also working for a non-profit and development here in Sioux Falls and I was maxed out, burnt out, trying to manage all the hormones after a baby, post-partum depression hits and the next thing that I find myself doing is drinking straight vodka from the bottle. I went back to what I was familiar with and I hid my pain, I hid my shame, I hid everything. We are really good at masking the pain. We are good at putting it under the rug, pretending everything is fine until it literally almost killed me, so on December 5th of 2019, I was planning to take my life that day. And as I got all the kids off with Amos, the two youngest and the other two off to school, I wrote my letter and I was heading out the door and I wasn't coming back. And by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit that spoke through Amos, he turned his car around to come and work from home that day, he had a very strong pull once he got halfway to work to turn around and the rest is history. I checked into treatment 12 days later voluntarily and since then I have been on fire for God and what he has done in our life and in our family. I won't say it's been easy, it never is, once you decide to let your all in for Christ, things can even get harder, but that is where I realized very quickly that I needed to start hence the name, fortifying my foundation for him so that the attacks were less threatening. And we have had so much happened in the last five years, it's just been a beautiful roller coaster. We have grown in our marriage, we have grown with our kids, I quit my full time job to come home to take care of the kids, to prioritize Christ, our marriage and our kids. That's been a journey because being a mom is not a piece of cake, is that the right expression? Being a mom is very hard, it's very hard. But it's been a journey, I've learned a lot and there is nothing that I want more than to give other people hope and know that they can get through some of the toughest things. Because if I can do it and Amos can do it, our kids can do it, I would say probably none of that can happen though without God. That's wonderful, thank you for sharing your story, really appreciate that. If you are just listening right now, we are being joined by Amos and Heather Kittleson from Fortitude, talking about I am Fortified, their podcast. So let's talk about the upcoming event. I am Fortified by Fortitude in September. What is being fortified mean or look like to you? You already kind of described your story and how you feel about it. What does it look like? Again going back to the story, I would say a lot that I just didn't know. I didn't understand, I didn't know, I didn't know the signs of what alcoholism looked like. Like I just thought I was the life of the party and someone who could drink straight Jack Daniels and stay up all night and get back and rally again. I just didn't realize that that was maybe a problem, that maybe is not something that should be looked at as a positive. I also as a young girl, I didn't really have anyone teaching me what it was or what's your period, like what is reproductive, just what are these things and so I was going through the motions my whole entire life is how I felt. I didn't know there was a better way. I didn't know that being a parent, there's really beautiful ways to love your kids on purpose. There's a beauty in your marriage that I didn't even know was possible. I didn't realize that I could love my husband really well from all different aspects but if you are used to doing it the way that you just witnessed and watched your whole life when you were younger, you repeat the cycle and not that it's right, wrong or bad, it's just I wanted more for my life and I didn't realize that until I had to go through almost dying and Amos has just really, I mean he, I don't want to make him blush but he really is, he's my husband but he's like a hero to me because he took me, he took me from just a place of complacency to saying there's so much more to life than just being complacent and comfortable and so these past five years I would say probably the last three I have really pushed myself to learn, to grow, I'm reading, I'm listening to podcasts every day, I'm reading which that I used to get to like page 14 and fall asleep in every book but he's taught me that we have to know better to do better and not just for us but for our families and for our future generations and so the I am fortified event is for that. It is 10 year old to 15 year old young girls, it's actually women of all ages and I'm encouraging the moms, the aunts, the grandmas, whoever comes to bring the young girls and the speakers are speaking on social media dangers, they're speaking on the relationship with the daughters, they're speaking on reproductive development, finances, our purpose and our worth in Christ where actual full identity lies which is in him. It's going to be so much fun because it's all day from eight to three and we're going to have food, we're going to have fellowship, we're having worship, the speakers are going to just be phenomenal because they're subject matter experts, it's a DO doctor, a private investigator for child protection, internet safety, a financial guru and then I will also be speaking on some mental health, touching on mental health and some suicide stuff and then we have praise and worship at the end of the day where we're going to just get a little crazy, so crazy with God, crazy. You've never used the hero word before so that's the first ladies and gentlemen you're hearing out here first, along with me, I really appreciate that, thank you honey. But we've got to give you credit too for all the hard work that you've put in to this life, I mean you've woken up and you've just gotten hungry for the truth and I mean really that's no small thing and that's what we want for our audience too, when you get hungry and you start to get just a little understanding and you start to want more and you want more and you become a changed person and God can help you change you from the inside out just effortlessly as well. So between you doing the hard work and God change you from the inside out, it's incredible what it can do to one's life especially if you're down in the depths of life and you just don't know where to go, changing a few things about your life and just getting some understanding can have a massive impact on your trajectory. And I mean like when we say more like you want more and more, the beautiful part about that it is not worldly more, it's not wanting more of what the world, it's wanting more of the knowledge and the truth in which God gives us and when you start to get that you start to like I want to, it's like a light, like you have a dim light and the more knowledge and things that you're like oh my goodness, if I do this with my kids we actually have peace in the house, I don't have to yell at them, I don't have to, I always kind of joke I'm like I feel like sometimes like like this bear and I'm like why are you like this and then I realize it's because they're learning alongside me and we're growing together and so to just give ourselves grace but like Amos said just get hungry for doing things a more peaceful and joyful way. Yeah. I think that's awesome. I am fortified by fortitude is on Saturday, September 7th, a lot of fellowship, learning, reflecting, is that pretty much the goal for the day of the event or what are some other goals you have in mind that you want people to get out of this? Yeah. Thank you for asking that because one thing I failed to mention was community. So there is no way that I could have or be where I am today or our family be where they are today if it wasn't for the people we surround ourselves in finding community and so I love connecting people. I love bringing people together for a common beautiful outcome and I know that these young girls are going to just be in awe and aspire to grow and to make good decisions by being around people that are influential for Christ. I just know it's going to light a fire in them and I also love when women come together also for the common good of their children but for them and as wives and as friends and so I want the event to be collectively just a place where people can come and share numbers and connect with people and meet other new friends. It's going to be a room full of women from all over the region. We have people coming from Slaton all the way from Wilmer. We have people that are coming from Watertown so there's people coming from about an hour and a half away and so I just feel like a network is going to grow of just really hungry, beautiful women and girls. Yeah. This is actually one of the few retreats I'm realizing for women in the Sioux Empire and trust me, I'm all for it. I want to own girl private high school so I'm all for it. I did. So we're like female power all the way. Why just focus on women though? You kind of already highlighted that a little bit but why specifically focused on women, girls, young adults. There is a spark in my heart to also provide an event for young boys and dads or just I would say the next generation of boys and of girls is there is something beautiful happening in the kingdom and it is like this next generation and if we can teach them and get in and plant seeds in their heart early on, I feel like I'm not ashamed of anything in any past mistakes that I have made because it has made me for who I am today but we could eliminate a lot of hurt and a lot of pain by getting to these kids when they're younger and so there is a place in my heart for the boys obviously because I have one, he's 16 and I know that he could use an event like this and there's some really incredible men in this community that I have pegged that I would love to have come speak into these, into the lives. So that is in the making. I will say that for now I just, I get women so this is a good start but fortitude is just really wants to impact future generations in a really beautiful way. Awesome. If you are just tuning in, we are being joined in the studio with Amos and Heather Kittleson. They are the founders of fortitude and they're talking about their podcast, the I am Fortified event coming up Saturday, September 7th, any, you already shared a little bit of future plans, expansions, where do you go from there? What do you see fortitude being in the future, five years down the road let's say. I have my ideas, but I'd love to see what Amos is. Yes, Amos, what are you doing? Well, I mean, we got to see how this first one goes out. This is the trial of course and then tweak some things. Sioux Falls isn't unique in its pains and the things that our young adults need. And so this is a national need. And so, you know, we'll see where it goes from here but we love to impact people's lives. The sooner you start impacting a young life, the bigger the magnitude of change later on in their life. So, you know, it's something we're passionate about. Ooh. Would you hear that? We're going. I did. National. I heard. You heard of Hear Falls first, folks. No, we have. I've had friends of mine who have reached out and they have said I have seen some of your stuff on social media. Is this something that you would bring to Iowa City? Is this something that you would bring to Minneapolis? And there are a lot of conferences and women like some of my dear friends like Melanie Brown and Lisa Brower and there's some really just solid women in this community also doing women event type stuff. I think the difference that sets us apart is just that we have, we see the need in the kids and I don't think people have really tackled that quite yet. And so that's what kind of sets us apart and I think that is our future. Yeah. And you hit the nail on the head with one of the topics to being social media, internet safety, social media, it's always around us. I admit that part of my job is social media, but I didn't get a Facebook until like six years ago. So I'm still learning. Yeah. I use Facebook and whatnot, but it is important for kids, for young girls to be mindful of what's on the internet, what you're looking up, who you're talking to, all that kind of stuff. That's the thing we're doing as a self-defense demo. Oh, there you go. Because when you talk about your social media and your phone and the predators, they're being caught every single day, like multiples. And so when you look at young girls and young boys who are walking with their head down in their phones, they are not aware of their surroundings. And so, or how to protect themselves or how to fight back if something were to happen. And so that was something I really wanted at the event was just someone to really put into their heart how to be self-aware, how to be looking up and how to defend them when, when I guess any type of evil strikes, hence the fortified, the word fortified. Awesome. Anything else that you'd like to share about fortitude and the upcoming I am fortified event, is September. We are about, I will say, we're over half sold out. And so if you do want to get in, we're maxing it out at about 250 for space. 300 is my max. But there is still opportunity, so just go out there and get registered to be all that I would ask. And fortitudethepodcast.com for our podcast. You can also find us on Apple and Spotify and all the usual places. And if you have a story, reach out, that's the other piece, is like we have a whole line up of really incredible stories. And it's every walk of life, every type of adversity someone's ever walked through. But yeah, if you know of a story and you would like to share it, we would love to hear from you. Awesome. And where is the event going to be in Sioux Falls? Yes. We've mentioned the day, but we haven't met you. Yes. It is at the Sioux Falls Christian School Chapel, which is called the Gathering. Most people would recognize it as South Campus Ransom when Ransom owned it. But now it is the Sioux Falls Christian Chapel. Awesome. Again, it is Heather Kittleson and Amos Kittleson talking about fortitude and the I Am Fortified event. That's going to be happening on Saturday, September 7th. And guys, it was great to meet you and to come on the show with us. We really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for having us. All right. We'll be back. A whopping 78% of consumers say it's important for them to shop locally owned businesses. And they plan to do it more this year. Most consumers realize that supporting locally owned businesses has a positive impact on the local economy. In another study, small business owners shared their main challenges in running their business today. Number one on the list was standing out from the competition. Number two was their budget. And number three, choosing the right marketing tactics for their business. And fourth, lack of expertise. We specialize in helping businesses differentiate their business within their budget using a variety of tactics. I'm Chad Jacobs with Results Town Square Media. We create and produce effective strategies for video, streaming TV, radio, digital, and live events. We evaluate the growth potential in your category, your competition, and the barriers to growth. Men, and only then, will tell you if we can help you. You see, we care more about growing your business than selling you. I'm Christine Manica and you've been listening to Sunday Focus. Thank you so much to Amos and Heather Kittleson from Fortitude for joining the program today to tell us about their journey, about fortitude, and the upcoming "I Am Fortified" by Fortitude event this fall. It will be happening on Saturday, September 7th, starting at 8 a.m. at the Sioux Falls Christian School Chapel, otherwise known as The Gathering. Sunday Focus is a public affairs program of a Results Radio Town Square Media Sioux Falls. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]