Greetings!  I am Shalom Serene Shick and, yes, there is a story behind that name!  You can visit SavedXWitch.com for the first part of that story and my basic testimony to how Christ snatched me from the precipice.

Now, PraiseMoves is another great story.  When I came to Christ, I had been practicing yoga for about 5 years, and with great success as it had resulted in a weight loss from 205 lbs to 132 lbs in a couple of years and I had been able to maintain the loss as well.  After I quit partying, I also stopped going to my yoga classes.  There were several reasons: I knew many folks at church didn't approve of the eastern influences, I felt a slight check in my own spirit about the little bit ("namaste" and "empty your mind") of eastern influence that was in my classes, and I also felt like giving myself a "break" since I didn't "get to party anymore."  Anyway, I began to binge eat and, consequently, put a lot of the weight back on.  I got up to 196 lbs!  Then, one day this spring, I was surfing the web and found a site about PraiseMoves.  This was a prayer answered!  A Christian alternative to yoga, PraiseMoves incorporates Scripture verses with the poses which are appropriately named to fit the pose & verse.  For example, there is the Mount Zion pose, where one stands tall, feet together and grounded to the earth, lifting the head high like the peak of the mountain, while meditating on "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever."  Such a beautiful way to keep the Scripture admonishment to "...glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's."  Finally moving again, I find that my depressive episodes are not nearly so intense or frequent. 

This has been coincidental with our incorporation of the Hallelujah Lifestyle into our regimen. 

Ever since I heard about vegetarianism in my teens, I found the concept compelling.  The compassion for animals’ lives really spoke to me.  I began to contemplate their suffering for my sake, and even tried to cut back on red meat, particularly after scientific studies began to show the detrimental effects thereof.  But I was still eating it occasionally, and continued to consume poultry and seafood on a regular basis.  The deeper I got into paganism and witchcraft, the more I felt conscientious about meat consumption, consequently I became more adamant about cutting out the red meat and greatly reduced all other meats in my diet.  When I met my husband, Kevin, I didn’t try to dissuade him from eating meat, but he observed my diet, saw the benefits of lower weight and tastier meals, and began to change his as well. 

When our miracle occurred, and Christ pulled us out of the mire of the party life, we were pretty much on the same page about our diets.  I became even more adamant about the compassion aspect of vegetarianism because of Christ’s admonitions in Scripture for compassion.  It seemed odd to me that Christians weren’t massively involved in the vegetarian movement, but rather were very much, especially at our church, into the decadent, health-busting pot luck dinners that contributed to my weight gain after quitting smoking and drinking.  I was confused that Satan was able to reach into my compulsive eating tendencies through my own church.  Folks blew off my concerns about the weight gain and encouraged me to indulge. 

I managed to get the weight off (30 pounds) before the wedding, driven by pride, pushing myself to exercise classes at the Health Club 5 days a week.   But after our marriage, the stresses inherent in the new responsibilities as wife and mother of two teenage girls brought out that compulsive tendency again in the form of food binges that packed on 60 pounds in only 6 months.

At that point I found out about a program called The 21 Day Detox.  We ordered the materials and tried it out while the children were away to visit their grandparents.  The first week was totally vegan, the second was raw vegan, and the third was all juices.  We struggled with the second week a bit, and the third we were only able to do halfway.  We decided it was a good thing to try occasionally, but that we just weren’t ready for it. 

But my interest in vegetarianism had evolved to an interest in veganism, and raw vegan at that.  I began to do internet research on the subject, and found that a trend existed in that direction, although it was primarily underground among vegetarians. 

My internet searches ultimately yielded a web site that was all about the Hallelujah Lifestyle.  Finally I had found a group of Christians that understood the values of veganism, health-wise and compassion-wise!  Just what I had been praying for! 

I told Kevin about it, and he was mildly interested.  I began to receive the ‘Back to the Garden’ publication, and became even more excited. 

Then, earlier this year, I heard Rev. George Malkmus was scheduled right here in Knoxville to give a seminar about the Hallelujah Lifestyle.  I knew I had to be there.  Kevin was very busy, and not really all that interested, so I went alone.  As I listened to Brother George speak, I felt the Holy Spirit within me respond to the Truth he was speaking.  I was so thrilled, and was the second person on my feet to give the standing ovation he received at the conclusion of his presentation.  I immediately went to purchase the DVD of the seminar, as I knew Kevin just had to hear this man.

It took a while, but a few weeks later I convinced Kevin to watch the DVD with me.  About halfway through, when Kevin turned to me, eyes bright with tears welling up, I knew our lives were about to change again.  Our Father was taking it up another notch.  With Kevin’s enthusiasm and encouragement, we are both making great strides in our new lifestyle.

 The Hallelujah Lifestyle has already helped us lose weight and experience a new level of health and well being.  Although I still experience the highs and lows of bipolar disorder, the frequency and duration of these episodes has decreased.  People frequently comment that my skin is so healthy and glowing, now, and numerous skin tags have either greatly diminished or completely disappeared.  Our breath is more pleasant, as well as our body scent overall.  We also rarely experience  flatulence nowadays, although that used to be a common occurance.  Cravings for processed foods are virtually nonexistent, and we just generally find that eating is a greater pleasure now that we can be sure that it is building us up, because we can literally ‘feel’ it!

We are both so excited about this new way of living, of getting more fresh air and sunshine and getting the rest we knew all along we needed, of making sure to incorporate God’s Word into our days, along with our dedication to eating in a way that will better please Him, that we want to know all we can, educate ourselves as much as possible, and take this message out to our fellow Christians, as well as the rest of the world.     So we became Health Ministers, traveling to Hallelujah Acres for certification training in March 2006.  We learned so much and were so inspired!  It is really interesting that the Lord gave us a friend to help out right away.  One of Kevin's employees was given a difficult diagnosis, but has been achieving excellent results by following the Hallelujah Lifestyle. 

The thing we most desire is to show folks that it is possible to be healthy simply by admitting, as Dr. Lorraine Day states in one of her highly informative videos (available from Hallelujah Acres - just use our Health Minister PIN of 'DUI'): You can't improve on God!  All the stuff we have done to food to "improve" it, make it faster, tastier, more convenient, is making us sick and killing many of us.  I do believe that Brother Dan at church is right about the sin of pride being at the heart of all sin.

Blessed, Healthy & Prosperous Be!