Kathleen ""Kitty"" Louise Johns

Kitty was born January 7, 1952 in Evanston, Illinois to Roald and Mary Lou (Hackett) Flater. She has an older sister, Lottie, and a younger sister, Jackie. The family moved to Minnesota where Kitty spent her elementary school years and became a good water skier. The family moved to Littleton, Colorado when Kitty was in middle school, living in Normandy Estates and later in Bow Mar, where her mother continues to reside. While in Normandy Estates, Kitty had two horses whom she cared for, rode and loved: ""She Glows"" and ""Lady Rose"". While living in Bow Mar, Kitty played tennis and competed on the Bow Mar swim team as the girls' No. 1 ""butterflier"". (daughter Kristi followed in her footsteps, swimming butterfly and freestyle for Applewood Athletic Club and Green Mountain High School). Kitty is survived by her father and mother, her sisters, her husband Jeff, and their two daughters – Amy Anderson and Kristi Collins, along with one granddaughter – Madelyn Jane Anderson who is now 15 months and extremely rambunctious. Kitty married Jeff on November 7, 1980 at Faith Bible Chapel, Arvada, and they lived in the same house in the Green Mountain area of Lakewood Colorado for the past 35 years. Kitty attended Grant Junior High School (where she and Jeff first met), Littleton High School, and St. Mary's Academy – from which she graduated. She then went to college at University of Colorado - Boulder and at the C.U. Medical School in Denver, where she graduated with a degree in Physical Therapy. Kitty worked as a Physical Therapist for about 10 years, primarily at Lutheran Hospital in Wheatridge, Colorado, and for two years with the Denver Visiting Nurses. With the birth of our first child, Amy, in 1984, she became a stay-at-home Mom, caring for Amy and later Kristi (born in 1986) and doing much volunteer work for our church (Faith Bible Chapel South) and several para-church organizations including Living Free Ministries and Abundant Word Ministries. She founded the Daughters of Ruth, an organization whose purpose is to pray for and bless the nation and people of Israel in accordance with Genesis 12:3. While as a youngster Kitty preferred horseback riding to tennis, later on tennis became her favorite sport, and she usually played one or more times every week. Once she gained an interest in tennis, she was coached by her Dad, Roald Flater who is an outstanding tennis player with six national titles to his name and who played on the U.S. Davis Cup Team. In her latter years, she and Roald would meet to play tennis every Monday. Kitty played in a number of tournaments, and helped coach the Green Mountain High School tennis team when her daughters played on the team with her friend Pam Press. I (Jeff) would have to say that tennis was one of the things that Kitty loved most, not just playing but socializing with her friends. She was on a tennis team with her dear friends at The Point Athletic Club, and was a serious competitor. She never got the concept of ""let's just play for fun"", as she was always a tiger at the net and delighted in ""putting the ball away"". Jeff's cousin John Astuno remembered a wonderful time we had playing doubles at the tennis courts in East Vail, and how Kitty scolded him when they lost a point and told him to ""mind your alley!"" She loved to play tennis with her family which we did on a number of memorable occasions. Kitty loved horseback riding, and these past several years had the opportunity to go horseback riding a number of times as Jeff's Dad, Bob Johns, purchased several horses (Spirit, Sundance, Glory and Lucy) that were kept initially at the family home in Fraser, Colorado and later moved to a stables in Lakewood. She rode with our nephew's wife, Kelley Johns, her friend Shannon of Living Free Ministries, and Jim Parks who has taken over care of the horses. In middle school and high school, Kitty competed on the Vail Ski Team, her best event being the Downhill. Mary Lou (Kitty's Mom) would faithfully drive her and Jackie over Loveland Pass up to Vail every weekend for practices and races. Kitty was an outstanding racer, and one year she missed qualifying for the Junior Nationals by only one spot. In recent years she was part of an infamous group of gals that called themselves ""Chicks on Skis"" (written on the sleeves of their turtlenecks) that ski the bumps (""moguls"") at Mary Jane Ski Area. The group included Maria Cochran, Cindy Ronlov, Dana Larson, and Andrea VanDike, all of whom are beautiful skiers that make the bumps look easy. She loved to ski in the trees when the snow was deep enough and especially when there was fresh powder. I (Jeff) remember one ski day after a particularly heavy snowfall when daughter Amy followed her into the trees alongside Sterling Way, got into trouble and Amy didn't come out for a long, long time. Kristi followed in her Mom's footsteps in competitive skiing, participating in slopestyle events with the rails, halfpipes and big jumps where she had opportunity to apply her gymnastics skills. Her claim to fame was a big win of the Aspen Open about 5 years ago, in which the runner up was the woman that won gold medal in slopestyle in the last winter Olympics. Kitty supported and encouraged Kristi in her endeavors, but was relieved when Kristi retired after several knee surgeries. Kitty also was an avid hiker and climbed around 25 of Colorado's 14, 000 plus foot high peaks (14ers), many with friends from Faith Bible Chapel Arvada when Pastor Ray Cobb was getting groups together to climb 14ers with him, including Longs Peak and Mount Massive. Those who hiked with Kitty don't forget how she would sing while walking up a steep mountain path. She loved the mountains. Just this past summer/fall, Kitty and Jeff hiked to the Missouri Lakes in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area, and also hiked to Devil's Thumb on the Continental Divide with our friends Steen and Cindy Ronlov. We had some adventurous times in the mountains, including slippery, ice covered rocks on the way up Castle Peak, lightning on top of Mount Shavano (sparks literally from her fingertips), losing the trail for awhile on a dicey part of Mount Sneffels, and Kitty struggling with hypothermia after reaching the top of Mount of the Holy Cross on a windy day. We had some wonderful camping memories with our family, with Bob and Cathy Hedlund, Steve and Sandy Hinton, Keith and Patricia Ealy, and Pastor Ray Cobb, with whom we climbed Windom and Sunlight Peaks, and Snowmass Mountain many years ago. When Amy and Kristi decided hiking up 14ers was not fun anymore, we did a number of shorter family hikes to mountain lakes and waterfalls for picnic lunches that the kids enjoyed. Amy and Kristi have never forgotten backpacking to and camping at St. Louis Lake near Fraser, Colorado, where we lost the trail while taking a shortcut down to the car. Kitty, while normally of sweet and cheerful disposition, became seriously angry when she tripped climbing over fallen timber, fell into a stream on her back and couldn't get up because her heavy backpack was keeping her down (""like a turtle"" was the kids description). Kitty loved music, was a talented pianist, and loved to worship God with singing and dancing. While at Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, she helped lead the kids choir (such as: ""I am a promise, I am a possibility"") for years. At Faith Bible Chapel South, she played the piano and sang for the offertory. She enlisted our daughters, Amy and Kristi, into piano lessons at an early age, and Amy played keyboard on the Faith Christian Academy worship team throughout her Middle and High School years. We enjoyed hearing Amy play worshipful music in our home those years as she practiced for school worship times. Kitty believed to the end that the Lord would heal her of the breast cancer that began in 2009 when she had a lumpectomy, and eventually took her life. She stood firmly on scriptures that show Jesus not only paid for our sins to be forgiven, but also for the physical healing of our bodies. Isaiah 53: 3-5, states: ""He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."" She prayed and believed for many to be healed. I (Jeff) believe her favorite verse was Psalm 16:11, which states: ""You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."" Kitty loved life to the fullest, trusted the Lord with her life and obeyed His leading. We rejoice in knowing that she is now in Heaven with the Lord, experiencing the fullness of joy the Bible talks about in 1 Corinthians 2:9 where it says: ""Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."" I have never known anyone who loved Jesus more, and longed to live in close relationship with Him. She spoke of the Bible and Jesus often, was not ashamed of the Word of God, and helped many people to gain an understanding or better understanding of the truth of the Gospel, not just at the Denver City Jail where she preached to women inmates one Sunday every month, but also sharing with people at home, at the store and just in her day-to-day life. She had a revelation of John 3:16 that says: ""For God so loved the world (us) that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life"", and 1 John 3:1, ""What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God."" Kitty loved and was an active participant and teacher in Sunrise Ministries for many years, headed by JoAnn and Bob Atherton, that emphasizes ""setting the captives free"", and more recently in the Living Free Ministries of Golden Colorado, headed by Terri and Craig Parzibok, that teaches not only the physical and emotional healing power of God for us today based on the price Jesus paid at the whipping post and on the cross, but also how we can live a joyful, fulfilled life in close relationship with him. At Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, where Kitty attended since around 1975, she was taught the scriptures that emphasize the importance of blessing the Jewish people and the nation of Israel by Pastors Bob Hooley, and George and Sheryl Morrison. In recent years, she taught Sunday school classes to our church on the subject of what the Bible has to say about Israel. She travelled with church tour groups from Faith-Arvada to see and learn more about Israel, and also with a tour group from Faith Bible Chapel South that she helped organize. She came to have a deep love for Israel, wanting to support what God was doing in the modern-day miracle that is Israel in which He has brought His people back to their ancient homeland from all parts of the earth just as prophesied in the Bible, and she travelled to Israel some 20 times to participate in the annual prayer meetings of the Intercessors for Israel in Jerusalem, to stay with friends, see the land, and to partner with God and help in any way she could to be a blessing there. She sat in on Hebrew classes at the University of Denver, studied the Hebrew scriptures and spoke frequently with some of her friends (Rhoda Reiss comes to mind) to dialogue in Hebrew to better learn the language. As noted above, Kitty founded the Daughters of Ruth organization to pray for and bless the nation and people of Israel, in which she was greatly supported by our friend Ruth Hickman who leads a weekly bible study out of Calvary Chapel called Abundant Word. She was one of several U.S. representatives of Hatikvah Films (""Covenant of Hope Media"" in the U.S.), established by Hugh Kitzen of Great Britain who produces educational films about Israel and the Hebrew roots of our Christian faith, including the most recent film ""Blessing, Curse or Coincidence"" that demonstrates how throughout history God blesses nations that bless Israel and the Jewish people. She did all these things, but most important to Kitty was her deep love for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. She had such a close relationship, such a deep childlike faith and trust, such a strong desire and ability to hear His voice, and so much life pouring out from that genuine pure relationship that she was truly a joy to be around. A Christian whose life was truly surrendered to her Lord. A Proverbs 31 woman (""Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies."" Kitty was a blessing to many whose lives were touched by hers. As her family, we are deeply and forever grateful for the gift that Kitty was to each of our lives. A treasure and dear friend. A Memorial Service will be held at Faith Bible Chapel-West Campus Family Worship Center 6250 Wright Street Arvada, CO 80004 at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 21, 2016. Memorial donations in remembrance of Kitty can be sent to the following organizations: Faith Bible Chapel South 4250 S. Federal Blvd., Sheridan, CO 80110 (http://fbcsouth.org) Vision for Israel P.O. Box 7743, Charlotte, NC 28241 (https://www.visionforisrael.com) Abundant Word Ministries 200 South University Blvd., Denver, Colorado 80209 (http://www.abundantword.org) Living Free Ministries 16385 West Bayaud Dr, Golden, Colorado 80401 (http://www.livingfreehealingministries.com) Please share your memories of Kitty and condolence messages with her family below.