God has called you to write.’ Dr. Kendra Norman Holmes, Perry DAR honor Women’s History Month

The General Daniel Stewart Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Perry invited Dr. Kendra Norman Holmes to speak an opening message at their March meeting Wednesday morning in honor of Women’s History Month.

Holmes has been dubbed the “Royalty Writer” because of her work as a multi-award winning, eight-time national bestselling author of 22 faith-based books, with another to be published later this year.

She is the founder of Royalty Publications, LLC, an independent publishing house for Christian books; the owner and publisher of The Royal Trumpet, an internationally distributed newspaper featuring faith-based news and information; co-founder of Royalty Relationship Coaching alongside her husband, Dr. Michael Holmes, encouraging biblical principles and practical applications to create extraordinary relationships; as well as lead pastor at Deliverance Revival Church of Byron, alongside her husband.

Holmes has served on staff with The Houston Home Journal in the roles of staff writer and managing editor, as well.

She said she was appreciative to be given the opportunity to share her story of some successes, some struggles and everything that ended up leading her to where she is today.

“I love, love, love sharing my testimony because I can’t share it without sharing my God,” Holmes said. “I can’t do it without that because I know that I am where I am, who I am, I’ve achieved everything I have achieved because of the God that I serve.”

She said that pondering on her path to success made her think back to the title of one of her nonfiction books published in 2014, “The Path From Pain to Purpose.”

“It was a portion of my life’s testimony; this is one of the nonfiction, true-to-life ministry books that I wrote,” Holmes said. “And oftentimes, people will look at where you are, and they have idea where you came from. They look at your ‘now,’ but they don’t know your ‘then.’”

She elaborated on the “uniqueness” of her life testimony, saying her purpose has been “a journey.”

Holmes was first married at a young age, working in ministry alongside her first husband. They had just gotten married and started a family — but after four years, her husband fell ill.

Doctors said there was a chance that she and the children could also become ill with the same disease affecting her husband.

“I remember not even being concerned about myself, but a lot of that was because of my upbringing and my faith,” Holmes said. “In God, I just had so much faith.”

Her test results repeatedly came back negative, while doctors went on to give her husband just days to live.

“The doctors at that time gave my husband three days to live; God gave him three years,” she said.

Her husband passed away after three years following a journey back to full health.

“I never would have started my writing process had I not gone through that,” Holmes said. “Because I remember him encouraging me: ‘You’ve got to write, you’ve got to write.’ He said: ‘Don’t tell me you don’t have anything to write about; write about my story, write about whatever — but you need to write. God has called you to write.’”

She continued, saying he passed away, and she still hadn’t gotten around to writing anything.

“I didn’t want to open those wounds back up; I was just barely healing over time as to what had happened to him,” Holmes said. “And God was merciful in my disobedience of not doing what he really was telling me to do.”

Fifteen years following her husband’s death, Holmes wrote “I Shall Not Die.” This work was based on one of her husband’s sermons of the same name.

“At that moment, I felt like I had found some type of therapy, some type of healing in my writing,” she said. “I positioned in my heart at that time that I wanted to do this for everybody.”

She said she had written seven or eight complete manuscripts before ever trying to publish her work. She ended up sending a manuscript to Moody Publishing in Chicago.

The managing editor at Moody reached out to Holmes, saying she had to make her aware that the company wasn’t taking on any new authors — but they really enjoyed what she had written.

“It did something to me for her to call me,” Holmes said. “It gave me the courage to go ahead and start self-publishing.”

She went ahead and began her journey in self-publishing, and a year later, the same person called her back.

The editor told her that the company had sent Holmes’ manuscript to a highly acclaimed Bible study group associated with the publishing company, and it went on to be a hit within the group.

“And so they offered me a book deal, and they published a book for me,” she said. “And then a couple of weeks after that, I got a call from another mainstream publisher, and this one was called ‘Lift Every Voice.’

“[This] was the imprint that was calling me at that time, but they were actually BET — Black Entertainment Television. [They] had a book department at that time.”

Somebody from Lift Every Voice had read a copy of Holmes’ self-published version of her first book, and they wanted to help her get her work out to the public.

Moody Publishers and Lift Every Voice allowed her to work for both of their mainstream publishing houses at the same time, requiring at least two books written a year.

A couple of years into that journey, Holmes received a third offer from another publisher.

“So, then I was writing for three major publishing houses, putting out books that told about the goodness of God — that told a difference between what happens in your life when you trust God versus when you do not,” Holmes said. “So, all of this helped propel me in my publishing journey to become the author that I am today. And it started out with pain, but the pain did not stop there.”

She worked her “dream job” at Aflac in Columbus for five years, serving the company and finding a “comfort zone” for herself while working her way up through the ranks.

“When God has something for you to do — what I know from my life is that He has a way of positioning you, putting you in the right place to do what He has for you to do,” Holmes added.

She thought she would end up retiring with Aflac because she loved the work culture there, along with her management. A switch in management changed everything for Holmes.

An open position for a staff writer position at The Houston Home Journal caught her eye, and she applied with support from her husband.

“I did not know why God had placed me there, but I learned so much,” Holmes said. “I loved what I was actually doing, and I remember talking to my husband one day and saying: ‘I really love what I’m doing, but I wish I could do it in a different way.’”

The nature of the journalism industry leads to some “good” news, as well as some “bad” news. She said she was more interested in exclusively publishing that “good” news.

The term “faith-based newspaper” came to her one day while at work, and she checked with a co-worker to see what she thought. The co-worker liked her idea.

Later that year, a former boss of hers from decades earlier showed up for a visit that holiday season, and Holmes shared with him her idea of a faith-based newspaper.

“He made the drive 100-plus miles just to come and see me for my birthday, and we were talking about this project that was in my mind and stayed on my heart about this newspaper,” Holmes said. “He left from his visit with me, and he called me back a day or two later, and he said: ‘Kendra, do it.’ He said: ‘Do the paper. If you need help, I’ll help you.’”

She said while her spirits and dedication were high, she put in her resignation letter at The Houston Home Journal.

“But God had to put me in another place of pain to leave the job that I loved so much at Aflac, to bring me to this area, to put me at The Houston Home Journal, because this is something He had as a part of my calling for me to do,” Holmes said.

In all the writing she had done previously, the newspaper was a whole new experience and writing style than she was used to.

“I had to take the job at The Houston Home Journal to prepare me for the next phase of my purpose that God had for me,” she said. “And then, He put me in another place of pain because I had to leave a place that I really loved — which was The Houston Home Journal — in order for me to really carry it out and do it full-scale as He would actually have for me to do.”

She said Romans 8:28 went on to become her favorite scripture and “life mantra”: “And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and who will call according to His purpose.”

“So, that is my testimony of becoming who I am,” Holmes said. “It’s all about Him.”

DAR Regent Bronwyn Young presented a check from her organization to Holmes’ choice of charity in appreciation of her testimony.

“I have a feeling your journey is not over,” Young said. “I think you’ve got many chapters left to go, and we appreciate you coming and sharing so much with us.”

Holmes opted to provide that money to Dallas Anderson and the Fatherless Daughters program.

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