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My Biography

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By high school, I managed to maintain a straight A grade average and participate in sports to achieve ten varsity letters ( tennis, gymnastics, volleyball). I also played basketball, ran track and did swim team during the summers. I was a well rounded athlete, and very well liked.  However, I still pushed away any type of physical embrace, as I felt it was undeserved.  If we won an athletic event, everyone would cheer and hug, but I would be the first one over the other side of the net or court to congratulate the other team just to avoid all the embraces. I much preferred to be slugged by my teammates because it was far less confining. I graduated from South Adams High School in Berne, Indiana as Salutatorian with Honors. I never dated much because most guys knew I was a preacher’s kid and they wouldn’t get very far. I always had the look that if they tried anything, they’d get clobbered. Even though I had an attractive body, I didn’t have much time for boyfriends.

After High School, I was accepted on partial academic scholarship to Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, Indiana). On the very first day I met Heather Kinne, who like me, wanted to major in sports related field AND wanted to try out for the gymnastics team as a walk on.  From the very first day, Heather thought I was so cool, she hugged me and I tackled her off in jesting way, wondering who this gal is-- so adept at easily embracing others. There was a lot of competition between us the first semester as there was only one spot available left on the team, but luckily the coach liked both of us and allowed us to both participate with the team. We were in a lot of the same classes together and we started to become good friends, and found out that we both loved the Lord as Christians. Heather was a basically a blonde ditz who was getting a 2.5 GPA (D average) who did not know how to study. She needed help in this area in a big way!

Being a preacher’s kid I had been taught that Bible reading was an important part of my day. I wanted to be the best Christian I could be and I wanted to do what was right. As I was reading my Bible, the verse 1 John 4:8 stood out to me. It said that “He who does NOT know love, does NOT know God!” I read it again. He who does not know love….that was me…I certainly was trying to avoid feeling loved. I wanted to know God and His true love, but I had not yet learned how to love or allow others to break down the walls I had built. I wondered who could teach me love… the first person who came to mind was Heather Kinne. She knew how to love and embrace people better than anyone I had ever met.

It was my sophomore year, and I decided that I would ask Heather to teach me to love. I went over to her dorm room one night and knocked on the door which she greeted me with a hug. (Ugh!). I wrestled her to the ground laughing and asked her if she would like to “swap me a deal”. I would teach her how to get straight A’s if she would teach me to love. She excitedly replied jumping up and down as she was burying me in another one of her overwhelming embraces. (Oh boy! What was I in for!) We decided to start by studying the Bible twice a week together and then at the end of each prayer session I would let her hug me, but just for a moment! At first it was just a few seconds, but as the years went by I was able to let her hold me without squirming.  

In a nutshell this is all being put in a book called True Victory -- a biography of Heather Kinne Gollnick (visit her website here) who is now an Ironman Champion with three young children with handicaps. You can purchase the book as it becomes available hopefully by December of 2004 if all goes as planned!

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Textual Content ©2003-2005 by Suzanne Himka unless otherwise noted.