WHY FAITH-BASED PRINCESS MINISTRIES? THE STORY

The Road to Kingdom Image Princess Ministries:

The birthing of the vision for Kingdom Image Princess Ministries and faith-based princess-themed photo sessions has been a long time coming, but they are both finally here!

This story, though long, details the miraculous encounters with The Lord, the call to birth and carry this ministry, and the journey along the way.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I pray you are encouraged and inspired to faithfully walk in obedience to what God is calling YOU to do in your life! 

A Princess Outside of The Magic Kingdom - Disneyland:

The vision of Kingdom Image Princess Ministries and faith-based princess-themed photo sessions was birthed in 2005 during my time working as a Character Hostess at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. 

One day, I observed a young girl in my line who was visiting Cinderella and noticed her obvious disappointment and sadness. As she watched the other girls, dressed in beautiful princess gowns receiving attention from their favorite heroine and their parents, her face looked more and more downcast. She shuffled her feet, her little head and shoulders heavy with weight and feeling left out and her eyes looked on longingly.

I took notice of her expression and knelt down beside her and looked right into her eyes. 

I asked, "Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

She replied, "I can't be a princess because I don't have a beautiful dress like the other girls do."

My heart broke for her in that moment because it reminded me of a similar moment in my own childhood where I had felt left out and how so much shame had entered into me that day. I wasn't going to let that happen to this little girl!

I gently reassured her, "Do you see Cinderella?"

She nodded her head yes.

I continued, "She was kind to her mean stepmother and stepsisters and she proved that she was already a princess in her heart before she ever got her dress from the Fairy Godmother!" I asked her, "Do you help your Mom at home? Are you kind to your brother?"

She said yes.

I said, "Then see? Just like Cinderella, you really ARE already a princess in your heart, even though you don't have a dress yet! You will one day, but you're already a princess inside!"

In that moment, she was reassured to know that being a true princess isn’t defined by a dress or tiara, but the qualities of love and kindness inside of us, even when others are not kind to us--that being a princess was about who we ARE rather than what we look like on the outside.

Her whole countenance changed and her face brightened up. Grinning from ear to ear, she went skipping down the path to meet her beloved princess and her day was changed.

Then God Planted a Seed:

That little girl will probably never know the impact that SHE made on ME in that very moment. God took that interaction and planted a seed deep within my heart that He would pursue me on to grow for His Kingdom.

I had personally grown up with many struggles and insecurities and had a hard time knowing my own identity and worth in Christ when I became a Christian. My heart went out to this little girl. 

I felt a surge excitement as a dream starting for form inside of me. But I also wrestled with my own deep insecurities. Why would God call me to create a ministry that I myself had struggled so much as a child and adult with?

Still, I felt excited about the idea of the venture and like Moses, I went out in my own strength to make it happen. Because part of the vision involved princess-themed faith-based photo sessions, I found myself in Target one day, touching the fabric of the Disney dresses hanging in the toy department.

"What are you doing?" 

I could hear the Holy Spirit and His presence was weighing heavy on me.

I answered, "I'm buying princess dresses for the princess photo sessions."

"That's not what I want you to do." 

I protested, "But, what am I supposed to do? I can't afford to buy fancy dresses."

The idea dropped into my heart to sew.....only I had never sewn before! How could I do it?!

I protested again, "But, God...I don't know how to sew. I've never sewed before!"

I felt like He was nudging me towards sewing, so I prayed and asked Him to give me the ability to sew. 

I had to search online how to thread the sewing machine because I didn't know how to do it! 

Yet, I got to work and started to cut the patterns out of the material I had and it's like something just clicked in me and my mind understood how to sew. I had a few moments of frustration around the sleeve areas where I had to re-do them a few times, but the knowledge just came!

 This was the very first dress I ever sewed:

I received the opportunity to photograph hundreds of headshots for the women attending an event by Christian author and speaker Christy Wright called The Business Boutique in Phoenix, AZ in 2016. 

Because Christy was working as a Dave Ramsey personality at the time, I got to meet Dave's show producer. I told her about the vision God had given me to photograph princess photo sessions and have a princess ministry and she brought me a gold necklace and gave it to me.

The necklace was given to all the keynote speakers and had the word, "Inspire" stamped into it. She said, "The team and I believe in what God has called you to do and we want to encourage you in it." Then, she invited me to record a podcast episode for Christy's podcast, which you can listen to here:

God was opening doors left and right in photography and blessing me abundantly in it. 

But then, I said something wrong that I still regret to this day.

I said, "Look at what I'M doing."

Screeeeeeeechhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

That is NOT the right thing to say and God was going to deal with that pride in my heart real swiftly.

I ended up speaking at another event and gave a Christian message at a highly secular event complete with fortune tellers. I was not prayed up at the time and absolutely bombed that speaking event. I was doing things in my own strength and it showed. I swore that I would never speak ever again...and I didn't! I ran.

Like Moses, I had tried to do something in my own strength and ran and ran out of fear. Things in my life started to fall apart. In the next year, the photo sessions that had been pouring in screeched to an almost halt; I was in the emergency room six times, I had surgery to remove an organ, I had a biopsy, my hair was falling out, I lost my day-job and my car broke down.

I was wrestling with God so much in that year. 

"God, where ARE You? Why have You left me?" 

It was like the heavens were brass and I couldn't hear Him.

Even the gold necklace that I had been given at Christy Wright's Business Boutique event had gotten all tangled up and it's delicate chain had impossible knots all over it. I tried to use safety pins to undo them to no avail. In frustration, I took the necklace and angrily threw it in a drawer and asked, "God, do You even WANT me to do this anymore?!" 

I almost gave up at that point. But something kept moving me forward.

A New Season and a Miracle:

A couple of years later, God moved me into a new and sweet season. I met my now husband and we got married and God made way for us to purchase a new build home. While I putting things away and decorating one day, I opened a drawer and found the old Inspire necklace I had been giving in 2016 from Christy Wright and Dave Ramsey's team.

"Oh wow, I almost forgot about this," I said.

It was still really knotted up, so I got the safety pins out again to try to untangle it to no avail. I put it down on my nightstand and turned my attention and efforts to decorating instead. I held up a wooden sign that says, "Be Strong In The Lord" and thought, "That will look nice above our bed." I placed it down on the nightstand over the necklace and decided I would actually hand it up the next day.

I went to sleep that night and didn't think anything of it. The next morning, I woke up to something striking my feet. It wasn't a hard strike or a soft strike--but enough to catch my attention. I though it was our dog, Theo, but when I called his name, I realized Theo wasn't in the room. I crawled to the end of the bed and looked to see that the bedroom door was not only shut, but locked!

Theo wasn't in the room and I turned to my husband sleeping beside me and got scared. "What was that?!" In my fear, my first thought was that it was a ghost, kind of like the disciples on the water did when they saw Jesus walking on the water at night. 

I went about my day and came back to our bedroom to decorate that afternoon. I picked up the "Trust In The Lord" sign and as I did, I looked down and stopped short:

The necklace was untangled!

I thought for sure that my husband had untangled it for me. I called him at work to ask him. He hadn't untangled it.

I hadn't untangled it.

He hadn't untangled it.

Our dog definitely hadn't untangled it.

Our door was closed and locked.

But something had definitely hit my feet that morning and someone had definitely untangled my necklace that morning!

It was in that moment that I heard The Holy Spirit say, "I still have this dream for your life. You got things all tangled up trying to do things your way. I still have this for you, but now you need to do things MY way."

My jaw almost hit the floor! 

A Spiritual Fugitive, Still on the Run:

I was ready to go and jump into this princess ministry, right? 

Nope! 

I wish I had got it through my stubborn heart, but I was still afraid to do what I felt God calling me to. I was still running.

I was convinced that I needed to chase a "steady" paycheck and focused on promoting the types of photography I thought would be the breadwinners. Yet, I felt God hotly pursuing my heart to write for this princess ministry, but I kept brushing it off and focusing, not on things that are necessarily bad, but not on the things that He was specifically calling me to do. 

My Mom ended up unexpectedly passing away from cancer in October of 2022, only a week and a half after receiving a cancer diagnosis. For her memorial, my family asked if I wanted to speak.

Gulp. I had become really good an being a wallflower and felt just fine staying that way, not speaking in front of others. I had sworn off ever talking again...but it WAS my Mom's memorial, so I agreed to do it.

I was nervous, but again, just as with before at the women's conference years ago, The Holy Spirit took over and I got through it. And again, just as with before, people were telling me this was God's call for my life.

"But, it's uncomfortable, God. It doesn't feel natural for me. I feel a lot more comfortable with being behind the scenes."

God listened. I tried to talk Him out of it like Moses did when he shared his own inadequacies, but I instead heart Him press it even heavier on my heart what He was calling for me to do. I was starting to feel the weight of God's hand on me in my disobedience, and even more now as the world has recently turned towards identity confusion. 

In the time after my Mom passed away, I wanted a season of being around people. It was hard working alone at home because loneliness kept setting in. I took on a job as an executive assistant, which I worked at for eight months.

But again, God kept pursuing my heart that I needed to be writing, so I quit that job and went back into full-time photography, devoting SOME time to writing. Now I was really feeling the heaviness of God's hand on me! 

There was a time of financial setback that my husband and I walked through and I thought, "Well, I guess I need to look for a job" and opened Indeed.com. That's when I heard The Holy Spirit say pretty sternly, "I told you to WRITE." 

Yes, Sir! 

I knew that was my Father reprimanding me for my disobedience and complacency. I felt so uncomfortable, I finally said, "Okay, God! I relent. I'll write. I'll put the idea of work aside and I'll focus 100% on this and do it!" I knew I needed to be obedient and so I set myself to writing.

Holy Spirit completely surprised me! As I was writing, it's like He was giving me the next three things to write as I was writing. I finished the women's conference He called me to write in only two days! Talk about God-sized acceleration!

A Stubborn Heart Become Pliable in the Potter's Hand:

Okay, so, this is it, right?! This is when I finally became obedient, right?

No...unfortunately, there was still one more season of disobedience to walk through.

For those of you who don't know, I'm incredibly stubborn-hearted. It's got a plus to it in that God has made me tenacious and I persevere a lot longer than a lot of other people do, even when there is great resistance, but it also has a downside in that I can be like a stubborn donkey who doesn't want to walk forward because it's decided in its heart to sit down.

I had said, "Nice! I finished the writing. Now, what?" I thought maybe I was free and clear to pursue some other things, but again, God started pursuing my heart again so work towards this princess ministry and reminded me how many Christian believers did not know their identity or authority in Christ and how many people in the world about being made male and female in the image of God.

The warfare started to intensify GREATLY. I felt like I had in 2016 when everything was being shaken. God was pouring out into the photography business He has given me to steward, but the locusts were eating the profit immediately.

Things started breaking left and right. Sustained sickness was happening eating up profit. I believe that God allowed some of these storms to happen because I was walking out from under His covering and pursuing things that were not His call for my life. 

The enemy is the thief that comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but God was using those things the enemy was bringing against me to wake me up. He disciplines me because He loves me so much. He wants this dream for my life and He wants others to be woken up from the lies of the enemy and to instead come to life in His truth in Jesus.

God sent an older gentleman with a strong prophetic gift to prophesy to me and remind me that obedience is better than sacrifice....and then sent that message to me over and over and OVER again so specifically through verses I was reading, through people, shows on YouTube, social media posts....over and over again, I heard God's call to obedience, so I repented of my disobedience.

I talked and counseled with pastoral leadership over me at our church and received pastoral blessing and covering to walk this ministry out. Now in September 2024, the ministry is in its infancy, but I'm going after it 100% because I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is calling me to. I've left my disobedience behind and am asking God to show what the next step is and the next step and the next step and am doing as He says.

 I believe that God uses the weak and foolish (and even fearful, stubborn) things of the world to shame the wise. I ran for a long time, but thankfully, He was pursuing my heart and once it got in the hands of the Potter, the old, hard stubborn places because soft and pliable in His love and now this ministry and the princess photo sessions He has called me to focus on is being done with such GREAT JOY!

He called me to this for a reason--I love it! I just needed to stop long enough to trust Him with it. So, now you are here today and if you've made it this far in my story and why there is a Kingdom Image Princess Ministries, now you know why. I treasure your prayers in asking God to move in and through it to bless and free others from the lies of the enemy and that many will find themselves walking in the freedom that only He truly gives.

Love,

Alicia Kern

Steward and Founder of Kingdom Image Princess Ministries