BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“By then our marriage was so splintered…” Natalie said. “Also, due to downsizing, the call center site where I worked was closed. Everyone was laid off. Now, I had no job. I started getting angry. I literally set my faith aside. I was mad at God, wondering where He was in all of this. In 2000, I had no choice but to move back in with my mom in Virginia and gratefully she took me and the kids in.” Two months after returning to Virginia, Natalie was working full time and able to provide for her four children. Two years later, she bought her first home. That same year, she and Tim divorced. Examining her life, Natalie knew something was missing. “I had gotten away from God, and I missed my relationship with Him,” Natalie admits. “There was a tug on my heart, but I was still angry and bitter. One day my mom said to me, ‘You really need to let that go. I know how incredibly hard it is to forgive, but you have to.’ “I was just disgruntled, and I knew it, but I also knew it’s a lot easier to love than it is to hate,” says Natalie. Acting on her mother’s advice, Natalie chose to let love prevail. In 2005, she started going back to church. She also reconciled with Tim, and the two remarried. Sadly, the marriage lasted only about six months. Over the next several years, Natalie struggled to keep the family together. Even when she suffered a negative reaction to prescription medication and was forced to leave her job in 2009, she managed to find a way to support her children. The Road to Victory In 2010, Natalie found herself faced with a challenge of a different kind when 14-year-old Gabrielle, who had been involved in gymnastics since age 6, decided she wanted to take her training to a higher level. By now, Gabby had become an accomplished gymnast, entering and winning a number of competitions. But with her sights set on competing in the Olympics, she needed advanced training. When she learned of veteran gymnastics coach Liang Chow, the man who coached 2007 World Champion and 2008 Summer Olympics Balance Beam gold medalist Shawn Johnson, Gabby pleaded with her mom to let her go to Des Moines, Iowa, to train. It took some persuading, but in time Natalie finally agreed. So, in 2010, Gabby moved to Iowa where, for the next two years, she lived with a host family and trained with Chow. In June 2012, Gabby competed in the U.S. National Championships in St. Louis, Mo., where she won the gold medal in uneven bars, silver in the all-around and bronze in floor. In July, she competed at the 2012 Olympic Trials in San Jose, Calif., placing first in the all-around rankings, and securing the only guaranteed spot on the women’s Olympic gymnastics team. Just seven months before the Olympic games, Gabby informed her mom that she was homesick and wanted to quit. Natalie was devastated, especially considering all the work that had gone in to her daughter’s training and getting this far. “I understood how she was feeling, and I wanted to bring her home so badly,” said Natalie. “But I knew if we did, we would never be able to live with ourselves. I also knew this was her dream. I told her that if she quit now, she would never get this moment back again, that it would be gone forever. “We prayed, and Gabrielle took some time to think about her situation. She called me later and said, ‘I’m going to give it everything I’ve got, Mom.’” Thankful that her daughter was living out her dream, Natalie wanted as much support for Gabby as possible as she prepared to compete. Remembering her relationship with KCM, Natalie called the ministry’s prayer line and requested prayer for her daughter. It was no surprise that after all of the hard work, time and sacrifices, in addition to the prayers from believers across the country, when the final scores were tallied, Gabby emerged as the overall winner. Asked during an interview how she stayed encouraged through the years of adversity, and how she made the hard decisions as Gabby was pursuing her dream, Natalie said: “I told myself, my daughter has an opportunity to make her dream come true. And in the midst of that she may very well make history and inspire a nation, so it’s a dream worth fighting for. It’s a dream worth putting everything that I have into. That was my encouragement.” As a mom who encouraged her children to pursue their dreams, Natalie is quick to point out how much her children continue to keep her encouraged. “My children know the Word of God,” she says, “and I’m constantly blessed as I watch them put it into practice daily. We’ve embraced God’s commandment of walking in love, and the unity that we experience as a family is beautiful.” Today, the roller-coaster ride for Natalie Hawkins has leveled out some, and the ups far outweigh the downs. Instead of fretting over bills, Natalie’s focus is on the future of her children. Earlier this year, the family moved to California—a move that made managing Gabby’s new career easier. It has also enabled daughters Arielle and Joyelle to pursue their dreams to become actors. The two are now taking acting classes. And as he winds down his first year in college, son Johnathan, an accomplished sprinter, has his eye on joining his sister as a competitor in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. “It’s easy to get caught up in all the excitement of what’s happened over the last couple of years,” Natalie said during a recent visit to KCM. “But the truth is, none of this would have ever happened without God’s help. Even when I turned my back on Him, He never turned His back on me. We owe Him everything.” Natalie is grateful for the teaching she received from Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and at EMIC. As a Partner with the ministry, she continues to follow their teachings. “I consider the Copelands my spiritual father and mother,” she says. “They have nourished me beyond what I can even put into words.” V JULY '14 : 15

• Cover