The Hearts Behind Real Living Ministries

It’s a common phrase you probably hear from teens: “Get real.” However when you hear the words from Perry and Joy Chickonoski, the phrase takes a fuller meaning.

Joy and Perry Chickonoski are the founders and co-leaders of Real Living Ministries based in Boardman, OH, a suburb of Youngstown. Their mission is to ignite a passionate relationship with Jesus Christ through Real Living Ministries’ Life Coaching Center. Perry and Joy have a team of dedicated volunteers equipping the church through personal coaching, workshops, small groups and community events. Together they encourage, motivate, and train the body of Christ and bring the gospel to the pre-Christian on their terms.

Real Living stands for Responding Entirely to the Affections of the Lord. Joy explains, “Real Living is not just looking to start something new, but rather to return to God’s original plan for the body of Christ. Everyone wants to feel alive: to love and to be loved without conditions. This is what it means to ‘desire life.’

Joy comes to Real Living with over twenty-five years of international and national service. She’s an ordained minister and an author of Becoming Lovers: The Journey from Disciple of Christ to Bride of Christ.

Perry Chickonoski is Vice President in charge of Business Banking for Chase in Youngstown. He has twenty years of service helping small businesses get their start. In addition, Perry has over fifteen years experience as local church treasurer. His experience and understanding of business and church affairs gives him unique perspective for church boards and pastors seeking financial freedom. Working in the business field, especially in this economic climate, Perry explains his heart to serve at Real Living.

“Everyone wants ‘good days;’ to wake up in the morning knowing that your life means something and that you are a part of something extraordinary.”

Real Living’s encouragement comes from 1 Peter 3:10-11. Through Real Living ministries, their heart is help people seek peace. Peace begins with getting REAL with God, ourselves and others.

Real Life Ministries is sponsoring a conference, Come to the Journey. Hosted by New Life Assembly of God in Poland, Ohio, the conference is based off of Joy’s book.

The conference is for men and women who want to deepen their relationship with the Lord. The cost of the event is $30.00 per person before the 21st, and $35.00 at the door. No childcare is available for this event.

To learn more about Real Living Ministries, Joy Chickonoski or her book, or the Come to the Journey Conference, please visit http://www.getrealliving.com/ and http://www.localadlink.com/. To call Real Living Ministries for more information, please call 1-330-965-6000.

Julie Arduini is a wife, mom and surrendering writer. Her personal blog, The Surrendered Scribe, shows her writing resume. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she is also a columnist with Take Root and Write. She recently placed 10th in the JournEzine Christmas story contest about the Good News of Bethlehem. Her verse for 2009 is Deuteronomy 11:11-12. She's a new columnist with the daily online newspaper, The Cypress Times.

Surrender To Your Hero

"My Hero" by Michele E. Struss. Please visit her site for her story and amazing work, available for purchase

For a few years now, I have been convincing myself that I have surrendered many things in my life to the Lord. It sounded good, so I’ve said it over and over again. But it wasn’t until recently that I truly learned what it meant—and honestly did it.

My daughter is a person with hemiplegic cerebral palsy---the muscles on the left side of her body are tight, as a result of a brain injury from an infection when she was an infant. She is six years old now, and she does extremely well. She wears braces on her legs for support and balance, and she has an incredible, independent spirit.
She started Kindergarten this week—at a “big school” with lots and lots of steps. She is very capable of climbing steps, she just does it at her own pace—and since steps are part of the world, my husband and I wanted her to go to her home school with her big brother.

So she did.

A few months ago I made the conscious decision to lay all my thoughts and fears regarding this transition to the Lord. We needed someone at the school to be around her during the most crucial times of her school day, to keep her safe. I laid this all at His feet, and said, “I know you will send the perfect person to our school for this position, someone with a heart that will see and feel what my daughter needs.”

And He did.

The bus was also a concern of mine, and once again, I submitted everything to Him, and said, “I know you will send us a bus driver with a compassionate heart, and will ensure her safety as she climbs the big steps on and off the bus.”

And He did.

I have been holding on to her for so long, that I knew it was time. He has been petitioning me to trust Him for her safety and her progress, and I think He is very proud of me this week.

He has shown me that He has been holding on to her all her life. He is the one that catches her when she falls, He is the one watching over her and keeping her safe.

The painting shown above is very near and dear to my heart. The artist is an amazing woman that is a person with a disability, also. If you look closely, you will see that the little girl in the picture has fallen, and her crutches that she uses to walk are lying by her side.

This painting, “My Hero” is the epitome of my surrender.

He is watching over my daughter, and all children with disabilities and helping them up when they fall.

He is in control of it all. He chose special parents to parent children with disabilities—we need to trust that He is guiding us with each and every decision we have to make.

He is our hero.

He is the father of all of us, and He wants us to depend on Him for each and every thought, decision, and action.

And He is rejoicing with joy when we surrender it all to Him.


My prayer is that these words will resound in your spirit today and take root.

What are you holding on to?

He’s your hero, too— He is watching over you, and will help you up each time you fall.

Maria and her family reside in NE Ohio. She and her husband are the parents of two. Their daughter is a person with hemipelegic cerebral palsy.Because of her experiences, Maria provides parent-to-parent support for families involved in her local early intervention program.

Her gift for writing has come directly from the Lord since her daughter’s diagnosis. She writes a monthly column entitled, “Special Parents, Special Kids” for the Mahoning Valley Parent magazine in Ohio; and has expanded into Parent magazines in parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. She is also a contributing author at www.mommiesmagazine.com.

Maria's first published work is in Jan Ross and Jeanice McDade's Women of Passion's anthology, "Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God". Both Kim and Maria have been selected to have their work tentatively included in Lori Wagner,s upcoming book, Quilting Patches of Life, Volume 2.

Maria is very passionate about getting the word out to special parents that they are not alone in their journey of raising their special child; and that they were chosen by God to parent their children. Maria welcomes comments and communication as well as invitations for her to speak to your group.

Switching It Up

As we stated when this blog began, our heart is to share Christ's love for you but there are days when life gets in the way. All of us have young children and this was my turn to take one to the ER and then a specialist. The praise is all worked out and no further treatment is necessary, but my eyes are closing as I type. I'm beat. I'd rather give you something quality from the Lord than be legalistic because I typically blog Thursdays.

So....I'll be back Monday. If you've ever watched a TV channel (NBC and Disney come to mind) when they take one night and somehow connect all the shows together, that's kind of what I'm thinking will happen Monday. Over at http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/ on Mondays I blog about the book by Joy Chickonoski called "Becoming Lovers, The Journey from Disciple of Christ to Bride of Christ." Well Monday's post is going to be a little heavier than what that blog is used to with some terms that might not seem as mainstream in Christian faith as some are familiar with.

I thought I'd tie it all together the best I can with His leading and blog here explaining the terms in ways I wish I had been told to hopefully help anyone who has their own perspective on those words. That way, if anyone is over at the Surrendered Scribe and seeing words that make them go woah, I'm not so sure about this, I'm praying Monday's blog post here will help.

I hope this makes sense. Call it procastination, call it wisdom, I'm calling it quits for the night and going to bed. Thanks for stopping by. Stop back tomorrow with Kim, and make sure to wish her a belated birthday. If you live near a beach, throw some sand in the air in celebration. She loves all things beach-y!

Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger and is the Forum's book club facilitator. She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09. To get to know her better, read her interview by Lynda Schab at: http://www.faithreaders.com/featured-author-details.php?id=33%20

To contact Julie, please use the e mail provided in our profile.