Matriculated 1999-2001
As a 14-year-old, Heather Khym knew she was being called into evangelization after experiencing a profound personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
That led her to Franciscan University to study theology and catechetics.
“I wanted to be trained to be a leader in the Church,” she says. “I wanted a vibrant, Catholic, orthodox experience, and that’s what I got.”
Today, Heather and her husband, Jake ’01, whom she met at Franciscan, work with Life Restoration, a ministry they founded to advance the Church’s mission of making disciples.
“The deepest work we do is with the leaders in the Church,” Heather says. “We want leaders to experience restoration and healing so they can be really effective in what they do.”
Besides serving as Life Restoration’s director of Vision and Ministry, Heather is a mother of three, the author of Abide: A Pathway to Transformative Healing and Intimacy With Jesus (Ave Maria Press) and co-host of the Abiding Together podcast with Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, and Michelle Benzinger.
“Sister and I have been friends for 12 or 13 years,” Heather says. “I introduced her to Michelle, and God began to form a strong, beautiful friendship among the three of us.”
When another friend asked Heather if she would be interested in doing a podcast, she initially balked. “I’m quite shy, and I said, ‘I don’t know how to do any of that.’” Her friend offered to handle the technical aspects and, when he asked her for co-host suggestions, she says, “I immediately thought of Michelle and Sister. We were already journeying together. We prayed about it and just felt like God said yes.”
The name they chose is from John 15:4 in which Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I will abide in you.”
“It was the whole idea of intimacy with Christ, not the hustle and striving most of us are doing in life,” Heather says. “We wanted a place of connection and rest for people on the journey with Jesus.”
Heather has been amazed to see what God has done in just five years with what she says felt like a tiny yes. Abiding Together now is in the top 1 percent of all podcasts globally. It has more than 10 million downloads, and the co-hosts continue to hear from listeners—women and men alike—whom the podcast has touched.
“I didn’t know God could use an avenue like that to do something so deep in the hearts of people,” Heather says. “It’s a very sacred, very special ministry.”
Judy Roberts writes from Graytown, Ohio.
