Well... I managed to FAIL Epically in updating this regularly this summer. :/ sigh. figures. oh well.. I've spent the past week and half home in McIntosh. I'll be heading off to Hattiesburg in a few hours.
But for now, I'll share with you what I wrote in "my brain" AKA my journal the other night. It was really challenging to me, especially as one who is very good friends with my snooze button! I hope it is as encouraging and challenging to you as well!
<1 Timothy 1:19>
"Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked."
-Paul instructs Timothy to cling to his faith and to keep his conscience clear. These are very wise words for young (and old) workers. Both in the ministry, and [ those who are not] as well!
It is so easy to get caught up in the tasks of life and forget the most important things! Thankfully God built us with an alarm system that goes off when something is not right.
Problems arise, however, when we choose to ignore that alarm. Just like hitting "snooze" too many times can lead to falling behind in your day, ignoring our conscience can cause major setbacks in our spiritual life. Ignore it too many times and you are liable to sleep straight through your alarms eventually.. And no alarms means not being awake + alert to what God has for your life. Not to mention, you miss out on so many amazing opportunities! No matter what, your faith will eventually suffer, and even shipwreck!
Moral of the Story? --> Cling to your faith + stop hitting snooze!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
PTL for Foosball and "gay" rap music
It’s amazing how God works. Just last night I was frustrated, and feeling like I wasn’t really doing much around here. I know I’m doing a lot. I mean, we clean bathrooms, we vacuum, we work gym shifts, we clean and organize things, we work the food program. It’s not necessarily that we aren’t doing anything. I was more worried about doing anything of lasting worth. The carpets will always get dirty again, the pantry will be full and unorganized within a month or two. The toilets will get stinky again in 2 days. I’m more concerned about how people are changed by us being here.
I guess it’s almost selfish of me to expect people’s lives to be changed just by us being here, but isn’t that the point of being a missionary? Somebody asked me two weeks ago how we could call ourselves missionaries if we weren’t preaching. After all.. the missionaries in the Bible preached everywhere we went. Yet what are we doing? We are mostly cleaning toilets.
Needless to say, I’ve been a little frustrated and confused. I haven’t really known what to think about the whole thing….
But all of that changed when I started my gym shift today. I knew that there was some people downstairs, but didn’t know who. A few minutes later, Jacob, Gabriel, Richard, and Wesley, 4 of my youth boys, came upstairs from playing racquetball. These 4 are some of the ones I have the most trouble with, and the one’s I really have wanted to get through to. Well… I think I might actually be getting somewhere. I was minding my own business, working at the desk, when the boys came and begged me to play foosball with them. Technically, since Marlee was working somewhere else for the afternoon, I’m supposed to stay at the desk.. But honestly, I didn’t really care. I put my stuff away and went and played a few games with the boys. Jacob, Richard, and I killed Gab and Wesley, but then Jacob left and they beat us. Obviously my skills were not the reason we were winning before. Haha. It was great though.
Afterwards they showed me the creature-ish thing they had built out of the duplex blocks before I had gotten there.. then they were playing with some other stuff we had, while Wesley tried to refresh my memory on how to play Spades, and critized me for my “gay” rap music. Lol. I reminded him I was a white girl, and definitely not from the ghetto.. baha! By the time 3 rolled around and they were supposed to leave to meet somebody they were dragging their feet and wasting time. :)
God is good. That is all I can say. I know it wasn’t really much, but it meant the world to me. It was God’s own way of showing me that I really am in the right place, doing the right thing!
I know they put on a front because they are “too cool” to admit they have fun or are listening whenever they come to our events.. but I guess we are finally getting somewhere with them. Praise God. I hate that my time here is so short. I wish I could be here to set up a more permanent program for these youth. They need it so bad.
Marlee is looking to come back as a semester missionary starting this fall. She will be here till at least December, but I have a feeling she will stay longer than that. I pray that she will be able to continue the Youth on Fillmore program in some form or another whenever she comes back. I know that she will definitely try, so I feel a little better. It still breaks my heart to think that I am here, doing what my heart yearns for during the school year, doing what God has called me to do.. and I have to walk away from it all in 5 short weeks.
I know it is all in God’s plan, and I have to go back and finish what I started back in the Burg.. but I long to be able to do this “for real”.. to not just do it for a few weeks before going back to “real life”… I’m so ready for THIS to be real life. Sigh…
I guess it’s almost selfish of me to expect people’s lives to be changed just by us being here, but isn’t that the point of being a missionary? Somebody asked me two weeks ago how we could call ourselves missionaries if we weren’t preaching. After all.. the missionaries in the Bible preached everywhere we went. Yet what are we doing? We are mostly cleaning toilets.
Needless to say, I’ve been a little frustrated and confused. I haven’t really known what to think about the whole thing….
But all of that changed when I started my gym shift today. I knew that there was some people downstairs, but didn’t know who. A few minutes later, Jacob, Gabriel, Richard, and Wesley, 4 of my youth boys, came upstairs from playing racquetball. These 4 are some of the ones I have the most trouble with, and the one’s I really have wanted to get through to. Well… I think I might actually be getting somewhere. I was minding my own business, working at the desk, when the boys came and begged me to play foosball with them. Technically, since Marlee was working somewhere else for the afternoon, I’m supposed to stay at the desk.. But honestly, I didn’t really care. I put my stuff away and went and played a few games with the boys. Jacob, Richard, and I killed Gab and Wesley, but then Jacob left and they beat us. Obviously my skills were not the reason we were winning before. Haha. It was great though.
Afterwards they showed me the creature-ish thing they had built out of the duplex blocks before I had gotten there.. then they were playing with some other stuff we had, while Wesley tried to refresh my memory on how to play Spades, and critized me for my “gay” rap music. Lol. I reminded him I was a white girl, and definitely not from the ghetto.. baha! By the time 3 rolled around and they were supposed to leave to meet somebody they were dragging their feet and wasting time. :)
God is good. That is all I can say. I know it wasn’t really much, but it meant the world to me. It was God’s own way of showing me that I really am in the right place, doing the right thing!
I know they put on a front because they are “too cool” to admit they have fun or are listening whenever they come to our events.. but I guess we are finally getting somewhere with them. Praise God. I hate that my time here is so short. I wish I could be here to set up a more permanent program for these youth. They need it so bad.
Marlee is looking to come back as a semester missionary starting this fall. She will be here till at least December, but I have a feeling she will stay longer than that. I pray that she will be able to continue the Youth on Fillmore program in some form or another whenever she comes back. I know that she will definitely try, so I feel a little better. It still breaks my heart to think that I am here, doing what my heart yearns for during the school year, doing what God has called me to do.. and I have to walk away from it all in 5 short weeks.
I know it is all in God’s plan, and I have to go back and finish what I started back in the Burg.. but I long to be able to do this “for real”.. to not just do it for a few weeks before going back to “real life”… I’m so ready for THIS to be real life. Sigh…
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Great Tomato Epic
Soo… as promised, I now bring to you the infamous tomatoes story!!
So as I mentioned in a previous post, Marlee and I received a large amount of produce, etc from the food program our first Tuesday here. Among that large amount of produce was an entire crate of tomatoes. Once again, I have no earthly idea WHY I accepted a 15lb box of grape tomatoes, but I did none the less!! Have any of you ever SEEN 15 lbs of grape tomatoes? Let me show you a picture to help you understand..
So anyways.. once I got this gastly amount of tomatoes home and into my fridge it began to set in just how many tomatoes I had on my hands! I immediately started eating them. I had a cereal bowl just full of tomatoes for dinner that night. The next night I bought cottage cheese to help me eat all the tomatoes. The next day I made sauce for Marlee and I, in fact, enough sauce for two meals! And yet, even after all of these attempts, along with daily throwing away a good amount of already wrinkly or rotten ones… It still appeared as if I had never so much as touched that silly box. I was at a loss! I had no earthly idea what to do. Every night I would get them out of the fridge and throw more away. But sadly, even with eating them on top of salads, I still was only getting rid of a handful (if that) at a time!
Come to find out, when Marlee told me she would not eat many, that was Marleespeak for “I won’t eat ANY”. Maybe I just imagined the ‘M’ in front of that. Sigh. So then I tried to gift some on to all of my neighbors, only to find out that I possibly might be the only person around here that eats fresh tomatoes!!
Finally I decided to just make a motherload of sauce and freeze it all. So that is what I did. 3 pots worth of that wretched sauce I made! There was enough for 4 pots, but I didn’t have enough pots. Then I also had some saved aside for lunch on Sunday to go on top of the salads.
The good news is that Sunday rolled around and I was able to use about half of the sauce to feed all of my hungry guests I had invited over. The bad news is that I never got around to making the rest of the sauce, and the salad came with tomatoes already in it. So we ended up throwing the last 2 lbs or so of it away. Sad times.
Needless to say, when I bought some tomatoes a few days ago for a recipe I was shopping for, it definitely hurt me a little inside.
My latest task is to figure out how to use two huge slabs of chocolate that we were gifted last week. Earlier this morning I was offered an enormous amount of carrots. I refused. I’m proud of myself. I did however give in to 1 tub of yogurt. But I convinced them that there was not enough room in my stomach, nor my refrigerator for the entire case. I think they have made it a game to see what all they can get rid of by sending it over to our place. Sometime last week Marlee accepted a partial block of roast beef. Yes block.. like what they have in the deli cases at the grocery store! Sigh.. oh well.. it is kinda fun. :)
Be good yall. Don’t accept bulk items from strangers!
~Kat K.
So as I mentioned in a previous post, Marlee and I received a large amount of produce, etc from the food program our first Tuesday here. Among that large amount of produce was an entire crate of tomatoes. Once again, I have no earthly idea WHY I accepted a 15lb box of grape tomatoes, but I did none the less!! Have any of you ever SEEN 15 lbs of grape tomatoes? Let me show you a picture to help you understand..
So anyways.. once I got this gastly amount of tomatoes home and into my fridge it began to set in just how many tomatoes I had on my hands! I immediately started eating them. I had a cereal bowl just full of tomatoes for dinner that night. The next night I bought cottage cheese to help me eat all the tomatoes. The next day I made sauce for Marlee and I, in fact, enough sauce for two meals! And yet, even after all of these attempts, along with daily throwing away a good amount of already wrinkly or rotten ones… It still appeared as if I had never so much as touched that silly box. I was at a loss! I had no earthly idea what to do. Every night I would get them out of the fridge and throw more away. But sadly, even with eating them on top of salads, I still was only getting rid of a handful (if that) at a time!
Come to find out, when Marlee told me she would not eat many, that was Marleespeak for “I won’t eat ANY”. Maybe I just imagined the ‘M’ in front of that. Sigh. So then I tried to gift some on to all of my neighbors, only to find out that I possibly might be the only person around here that eats fresh tomatoes!!
Finally I decided to just make a motherload of sauce and freeze it all. So that is what I did. 3 pots worth of that wretched sauce I made! There was enough for 4 pots, but I didn’t have enough pots. Then I also had some saved aside for lunch on Sunday to go on top of the salads.
The good news is that Sunday rolled around and I was able to use about half of the sauce to feed all of my hungry guests I had invited over. The bad news is that I never got around to making the rest of the sauce, and the salad came with tomatoes already in it. So we ended up throwing the last 2 lbs or so of it away. Sad times.
Needless to say, when I bought some tomatoes a few days ago for a recipe I was shopping for, it definitely hurt me a little inside.
My latest task is to figure out how to use two huge slabs of chocolate that we were gifted last week. Earlier this morning I was offered an enormous amount of carrots. I refused. I’m proud of myself. I did however give in to 1 tub of yogurt. But I convinced them that there was not enough room in my stomach, nor my refrigerator for the entire case. I think they have made it a game to see what all they can get rid of by sending it over to our place. Sometime last week Marlee accepted a partial block of roast beef. Yes block.. like what they have in the deli cases at the grocery store! Sigh.. oh well.. it is kinda fun. :)
Be good yall. Don’t accept bulk items from strangers!
~Kat K.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Week 1 = CRAZINESS!!
6-8-10
Well.. sorry it’s been forever since I updated! Life got a little crazy around here! Starting last Wednesday we finally got a list of things to do and a semi-schedule. Most of what we were given to do included cleaning and organizing things. Over the next three mornings (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) we managed to vacuum the sanctuary & foyer, clean all 6 bathrooms/locker rooms, vacuum and dust all of the offices, classrooms, and the library, and then we also vacuumed/swept/mopped the whole FLC Gym. That was just in the mornings! We also worked a few shifts in the gym, had worship practice, worked out a few times @ LA Fitness with Roxann, and went to Bible Study.
And then of course there was the Walmart adventure! Wednesday afternoon, after we finished our morning work, we decided it was time to brave phoenix on our own and make a Walmart run! Problem #1, no vehicle. Problem #2, no sense of direction for either of us. Sooo.. we went to John, who graciously lent us his truck. Problem #1 solved. Then he drew us a pretty detail map of how to get there, and helped us understand how the phoenix streets are set up. Good stuff. Problem #2 semi solved. We still had very little sense of direction, but we were better off then, than we had been before! So off to Wally World we went. Thanks to John and his lovely little map we found it quite easily! We spent a good bit of time going through walmart stocking up on the things we weren’t able to get on our trip to Costco the week before. Then after we checked out and found the truck (which took a little effort, not gonna lie!) we traded seats and I took the reins for the trip back. Unfortunately, the map did a great job of getting us TO Walmart, but not such a great job getting us BACK from walmart! He didn’t remember to write the name of the road we were supposed to turn off of. We knew the street AFTER, but not the actual street. But we thought we figured it out pretty well, but I made the mistake of thinking that the street was at the light. Well, it wasn’t. it was the street before the light. No sweat, I said, we’ll just turn down Roosevelt and find 15th, no problemo. Ok.. so maybe it was a problemo… the light was at a funky intersection.. you know the ones with 5 roads, not just 4? So I accidentally turned down some other street, NOT Roosevelt. Trying to keep it cool, I immediately started reading road signs to see if I could figure out where I was then. Within less than a minute we saw the McDonalds we had visited the week before, so we knew we were still close, but not quite in the right place. But it didn’t take us long to find 9th Ave and get ourselves back on track. Really all we did was make a big circle around the church. And in the end we made it back all safe and sound!
We did become the highlight of Bible Study though, since everybody found it quite hilarious that the interns A. took johns truck, and B. got lost in PHOENIX. For those of you who don’t know.. phoenix roads are set up VERY simply, so technically it should be pretty hard to get lost around here. But then again.. it is Marlee and I!
Haha.. so yeh. That was pretty much our week last week. On Saturday night we went to a Block Party for the Spanish Church, and then went out to dinner with Ed. Then Sunday we had church. I have officially been recruited to sing on the Worship team, so that was fun. Marlee taught Sunday School for Danielle, and did a pretty good job. Then after church, we had John, Roxann, Danielle, Jack, Jerri, and Ed over for lunch. It was really nice, and a good chance for us to kind of make up all of the stuff that they have been doing for us. We’ll probably do it again at least one more time before we leave..
Yesterday was a pretty chill day. In the morning we hung out with john watching youtube vids (haha), and then later went back to the apt to work on some stuff for the Youth on Fillmore event Friday. Then later that afternoon we came over to the gym to work our shift. After gym shift we went to ladies bible study at Mrs Debbie’s house. We got to meet some other young ladies that are closer to our age. They are all married and have children, or are pregnant, but it is nice to meet some people that are not twice or three times our age!
This morning was the feeding program. It went pretty well. There was one man who got all mad. He said he was being cheated, blah blah blah.. called all of us “Unchristian”. Meh.. oh well. Basically what had happened was, he showed up at 8 to get in line, and there was one lady standing at the gate, and then “50” boxes lined up behind her. But when he tried to get in line behind the lady, in front of all the boxes, the people who owned the boxes eventually showed up and told him he had to go to the back of the line. He said it was not fair and unchristian for them to put their boxes in line and then not stand there themselves. But the reality is, and this is what John and everybody else told him.. this is the way that they have been doing it for years! People will come as early as 2 in the morning to put their boxes in line, before coming back the next morning to get in line again. It’s just how it has always been done around here, and one guy isn’t gonna change that. Especially since he isn’t in any authority, he is just a member of the program. The sad thing is that he put up such a ruckus that he ended up being asked to not come back. How sad is that? I mean, I understand being frustrated by that kind of thing, but if you aren’t going to change anything, then let it be! And don’t make everything hard for everyone else. And ESPECIALLY don’t fight us so bad that you are asked to never come back! Sad Sad.. He even threatened to call the police on us, because we wouldn’t do anything about it. Sigh. I have to say that there definitely was a quote of the hour that came out of it.. He was outside yelling @ Pastor Jim and John and everybody and telling them that they were unchristian, blah blah blah.. and somebody looked at him and said, well, you are acting pretty unchristian yourself! His response? I’m not a Christian! Well.. at least he’s honest! Ha. Anyways.. I guess it’s his loss.. Other than that it went off pretty well. Similarly to last week, we ended up with so much stuff still left over toward the end that we were giving people 2 or 3 of each thing, and we had so much bread left over that they were just allowed to take whatever they wanted, whatever they could use, or give to their friends/neighbors.
All in all it’s been a good day. A good week really! Hope you guys are doing well!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Well.. sorry it’s been forever since I updated! Life got a little crazy around here! Starting last Wednesday we finally got a list of things to do and a semi-schedule. Most of what we were given to do included cleaning and organizing things. Over the next three mornings (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) we managed to vacuum the sanctuary & foyer, clean all 6 bathrooms/locker rooms, vacuum and dust all of the offices, classrooms, and the library, and then we also vacuumed/swept/mopped the whole FLC Gym. That was just in the mornings! We also worked a few shifts in the gym, had worship practice, worked out a few times @ LA Fitness with Roxann, and went to Bible Study.
And then of course there was the Walmart adventure! Wednesday afternoon, after we finished our morning work, we decided it was time to brave phoenix on our own and make a Walmart run! Problem #1, no vehicle. Problem #2, no sense of direction for either of us. Sooo.. we went to John, who graciously lent us his truck. Problem #1 solved. Then he drew us a pretty detail map of how to get there, and helped us understand how the phoenix streets are set up. Good stuff. Problem #2 semi solved. We still had very little sense of direction, but we were better off then, than we had been before! So off to Wally World we went. Thanks to John and his lovely little map we found it quite easily! We spent a good bit of time going through walmart stocking up on the things we weren’t able to get on our trip to Costco the week before. Then after we checked out and found the truck (which took a little effort, not gonna lie!) we traded seats and I took the reins for the trip back. Unfortunately, the map did a great job of getting us TO Walmart, but not such a great job getting us BACK from walmart! He didn’t remember to write the name of the road we were supposed to turn off of. We knew the street AFTER, but not the actual street. But we thought we figured it out pretty well, but I made the mistake of thinking that the street was at the light. Well, it wasn’t. it was the street before the light. No sweat, I said, we’ll just turn down Roosevelt and find 15th, no problemo. Ok.. so maybe it was a problemo… the light was at a funky intersection.. you know the ones with 5 roads, not just 4? So I accidentally turned down some other street, NOT Roosevelt. Trying to keep it cool, I immediately started reading road signs to see if I could figure out where I was then. Within less than a minute we saw the McDonalds we had visited the week before, so we knew we were still close, but not quite in the right place. But it didn’t take us long to find 9th Ave and get ourselves back on track. Really all we did was make a big circle around the church. And in the end we made it back all safe and sound!
We did become the highlight of Bible Study though, since everybody found it quite hilarious that the interns A. took johns truck, and B. got lost in PHOENIX. For those of you who don’t know.. phoenix roads are set up VERY simply, so technically it should be pretty hard to get lost around here. But then again.. it is Marlee and I!
Haha.. so yeh. That was pretty much our week last week. On Saturday night we went to a Block Party for the Spanish Church, and then went out to dinner with Ed. Then Sunday we had church. I have officially been recruited to sing on the Worship team, so that was fun. Marlee taught Sunday School for Danielle, and did a pretty good job. Then after church, we had John, Roxann, Danielle, Jack, Jerri, and Ed over for lunch. It was really nice, and a good chance for us to kind of make up all of the stuff that they have been doing for us. We’ll probably do it again at least one more time before we leave..
Yesterday was a pretty chill day. In the morning we hung out with john watching youtube vids (haha), and then later went back to the apt to work on some stuff for the Youth on Fillmore event Friday. Then later that afternoon we came over to the gym to work our shift. After gym shift we went to ladies bible study at Mrs Debbie’s house. We got to meet some other young ladies that are closer to our age. They are all married and have children, or are pregnant, but it is nice to meet some people that are not twice or three times our age!
This morning was the feeding program. It went pretty well. There was one man who got all mad. He said he was being cheated, blah blah blah.. called all of us “Unchristian”. Meh.. oh well. Basically what had happened was, he showed up at 8 to get in line, and there was one lady standing at the gate, and then “50” boxes lined up behind her. But when he tried to get in line behind the lady, in front of all the boxes, the people who owned the boxes eventually showed up and told him he had to go to the back of the line. He said it was not fair and unchristian for them to put their boxes in line and then not stand there themselves. But the reality is, and this is what John and everybody else told him.. this is the way that they have been doing it for years! People will come as early as 2 in the morning to put their boxes in line, before coming back the next morning to get in line again. It’s just how it has always been done around here, and one guy isn’t gonna change that. Especially since he isn’t in any authority, he is just a member of the program. The sad thing is that he put up such a ruckus that he ended up being asked to not come back. How sad is that? I mean, I understand being frustrated by that kind of thing, but if you aren’t going to change anything, then let it be! And don’t make everything hard for everyone else. And ESPECIALLY don’t fight us so bad that you are asked to never come back! Sad Sad.. He even threatened to call the police on us, because we wouldn’t do anything about it. Sigh. I have to say that there definitely was a quote of the hour that came out of it.. He was outside yelling @ Pastor Jim and John and everybody and telling them that they were unchristian, blah blah blah.. and somebody looked at him and said, well, you are acting pretty unchristian yourself! His response? I’m not a Christian! Well.. at least he’s honest! Ha. Anyways.. I guess it’s his loss.. Other than that it went off pretty well. Similarly to last week, we ended up with so much stuff still left over toward the end that we were giving people 2 or 3 of each thing, and we had so much bread left over that they were just allowed to take whatever they wanted, whatever they could use, or give to their friends/neighbors.
All in all it’s been a good day. A good week really! Hope you guys are doing well!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
"The loaves and fishes"... or in modern times "the pizza dough and jimmy dean sausage patties"
6-1-10
Wow.
I know I start off almost every single post with “wow”.. but that is about all I can say when I start out to write these things! Today was especially “wow” though!
We started off our day very early… 5 30am! Yikes! I didn’t even get up that early to leave for the airport! Sigh.. nyways. We had to be over @ the church bright and early at 6 30 to start preparing everything for the feeding program.
Upon our arrival, (which might I add was pretty prompt considering the hour!), we were put to work individually bagging loaves of bread, as well as bags of bagels and rolls. I thought we were doing pretty good, till they started bringing in the boxes from the truck! Let me tell you… they just kept coming, and coming, and coming! Between 6 45-8 we went from about 5 trash bags full of bread to countless milk crates, as well as palates upon palates of prepackaged buns, rolls, loaves, and everything in between! If you ever wondered how Jesus fed the 5,000, I am here to tell you that I have a sneaky suspicion that Church on Fillmore was involved!
On top of the bread that had been donated by the bakeries… there was another interesting thing that was brought to us to bag up.. dough. That’s right.. frozen bread dough.. ranging from small breadsticks, to large breadsticks, rolls of all shapes and sizes, loaves, buns, and even pizza dough! It was nothing short of unique and hilarious! Even the “Fillmore Normals”** said it was strange for even them to see that! By the end of it all we definitely had caked on dough all over our hands and shirts from the crumbs mixed with ice chips. Oh yeh, and our hands were pretty cold too! Haha..
After we FINALLY were able to finish bagging bread (with the help of about 4 more volunteers!), I got a chance to step back and look around. As we were bagging, I had noticed all of the men bringing in crates and boxes and all kinds of stuff and placing them in different places around the room, but it had never really registered with my mind what they were bringing in, and how much! All I was concerned about, honestly, was whether or not that stack of crates or boxes was for us to divide up too! Not to complain, or be ugly of course.. but in my mind, I was just thinking that at the rate we were bagging, next to the rate they were bringing in more things to bag, we were NEVER going to finish in time!! Haha.. but we did.
Nyways.. moving on.. we finished and I looked around only to find that the rest of the food line had begun to take shape as well! Before us in the line was all kinds of frozen meats and random other things.. I mean, everything from lbs of jimmy dean sausage, to microwavable breakfast sandwiches, to frozen juice, to hot dogs and brats, to frozen pizza’s, gigantic blocks of cheese… you name it, they probably had at least one of it up along the line somewhere! There was also a huge stack of assorted pastries.. again, everything from elmo birthday cakes to donuts, to gigantic carrot sheet cakes, to hostess snacks.. all kinds of fun, sweet stuff!
In my mind, as I looked around the room, I was thinking that for as much food was there, it still was not much considering the amount of people that were supposed to be coming through the line in just under an hour. Well, little did I know that I was only seeing a small part of the food line!! Ah yes.. step outside, and you find the entire PRODUCE section! I’m telling you, they had the sidewalks of the other side of the church completely lined with palates and crates and huge boxes full and overflowing with produce! They had cabbage, and cauliflower, and peppers, and corn, and potatoes, and green beans, and cherry tomatoes, and regular tomatoes… all kinds of stuff. It was incredible. It seriously looked like a farmers market out there!
Anyways.. so we settled in for a few minutes break before we had to get back to work. I washed some potatoes for the volunteer’s lunch.. and then it was time to round up for prayer. After prayer, Marlee and I were once again blown away by a new surprise! WE got to go through the line and get food for ourselves! What?!? Haha. I guess all of the volunteers get to go through and get food for their families.. so Marlee and I grabbed some boxes and before we knew it, people had thrown enough food in our boxes to possibly feed the 5,000 ourselves! Ok, maybe not.. but to two little girls who had been happily living off of tuna salad and peanut butter sandwiches and cereal for the past week.. yikes, it was CRAZY! Craziest of all, I have to say though.. is the fact that somehow.. I’m still not completely sure how.. but somehow I ended up with an ENTIRE CASE of cherry tomatoes. Yes dear friends.. and entire case! I’m talking, 15 or so lbs of cherry tomatoes. I have tomatoes to feed an army. Or at least the Kendall family for probably a month! And the funny thing is that I’m the only one who eats them! I even tried to give some away to Roxann and John, and they wouldn’t even take some! Good gosh this should be interesting… I guess I need to find some pasta and start cooking homemade sauces or something!! Sigh.. I don’t even know.
Ok, moving on.. soooo.. after we went through, then it was time to roll! At first the families were trickling in, but then before we knew it, it was a steady flow of families making their way around the outside of the room and out the other door headed off to produce. It was amazing. I seriously almost started crying a few times. I wish I could have set up a video camera of this.. maybe I will some day. We’ll see. But for now, let me just say that it was incredible to watch. Families, ranging in age from infants all the way up to grandmas and grandpas, and I’m sure even a great grandma or grandpa even all came in groups. Each person old enough to carry something had some type of container to hold all the food in. For as much food as Marlee and I ended up with, we turned down about half of the line, just because we didn’t need it! So yeh, we saw everything from laundry baskets, to shopping carts (or buggy’s or whatever you call them), to rolling trashcans, rolling coolers, strollers, cardboard boxes, plastic totes, grocery bags, cooler bags, luggage carts, red flyer wagons, backpacks… just about anything that would hold a decent amount of groceries we pretty much saw go through the line.
For as diverse as the food and containers were, the people were just as diverse. I already mentioned they ranged in ages, but also in languages, races, nationalities, etc. I’m pretty positive I even saw a Haitian couple go through the line. I would almost bet my right arm on it, but I didn’t get a chance to speak to them. The line was moving too fast, and before I realized what I was seeing (and hearing!) they had disappeared out the door.
And for as much bread as we had, there were definitely times when I thought we were not going to have enough! As it turned out, the pastries went first, and were eventually followed by the bread and dough that we had bagged up.. but as for the prepackaged bread products we ended up with probably ten or so palates left over..
amazing. Absolutely amazing. I’m still trying to process the whole thing! From the moment we got here, people had been warning us of how crazy Tuesday mornings are, etc, etc.. but really, we were just blow away not by the busyness or the craziness, but at how many people were being touched in such a short amount of time! They said that almost 400 families came through the line today. 400 families.. include parents, children, grandparents, cousins, you name it. How AMAZING is that? And yet, how SAD is that? They say that when this program started 25 years ago, they only had 90 families. And even up until a few years ago when John came, it was only 175. But over the years, and as the economy has declined, it has increased more and more. Yet God is faithful and continues to provide food, even in great abundance of what is needed. It is such an incredible reminder that God is still in control, and will take care of our needs, no matter how down life gets..
After lunch and a quick nap was our first shift in the gym, or Family Life Center, or FLC, or whatever you feel like calling it.. Thom Tom came and showed us the ropes. It was fun, but not much to write about. After that we got to go with Roxann to LA fitness.. ha. Wow. That is a whole other post, let me tell you. Too funny.
Anyways. My laundry is done, and I’m sure most people have tuned out long ago. I’m mucho tired. (Like how my Spanish is improving? Ha) so I’m gonna go grab my stuff outta the dryer and head to bed. Night loves..
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Wow.
I know I start off almost every single post with “wow”.. but that is about all I can say when I start out to write these things! Today was especially “wow” though!
We started off our day very early… 5 30am! Yikes! I didn’t even get up that early to leave for the airport! Sigh.. nyways. We had to be over @ the church bright and early at 6 30 to start preparing everything for the feeding program.
Upon our arrival, (which might I add was pretty prompt considering the hour!), we were put to work individually bagging loaves of bread, as well as bags of bagels and rolls. I thought we were doing pretty good, till they started bringing in the boxes from the truck! Let me tell you… they just kept coming, and coming, and coming! Between 6 45-8 we went from about 5 trash bags full of bread to countless milk crates, as well as palates upon palates of prepackaged buns, rolls, loaves, and everything in between! If you ever wondered how Jesus fed the 5,000, I am here to tell you that I have a sneaky suspicion that Church on Fillmore was involved!
On top of the bread that had been donated by the bakeries… there was another interesting thing that was brought to us to bag up.. dough. That’s right.. frozen bread dough.. ranging from small breadsticks, to large breadsticks, rolls of all shapes and sizes, loaves, buns, and even pizza dough! It was nothing short of unique and hilarious! Even the “Fillmore Normals”** said it was strange for even them to see that! By the end of it all we definitely had caked on dough all over our hands and shirts from the crumbs mixed with ice chips. Oh yeh, and our hands were pretty cold too! Haha..
After we FINALLY were able to finish bagging bread (with the help of about 4 more volunteers!), I got a chance to step back and look around. As we were bagging, I had noticed all of the men bringing in crates and boxes and all kinds of stuff and placing them in different places around the room, but it had never really registered with my mind what they were bringing in, and how much! All I was concerned about, honestly, was whether or not that stack of crates or boxes was for us to divide up too! Not to complain, or be ugly of course.. but in my mind, I was just thinking that at the rate we were bagging, next to the rate they were bringing in more things to bag, we were NEVER going to finish in time!! Haha.. but we did.
Nyways.. moving on.. we finished and I looked around only to find that the rest of the food line had begun to take shape as well! Before us in the line was all kinds of frozen meats and random other things.. I mean, everything from lbs of jimmy dean sausage, to microwavable breakfast sandwiches, to frozen juice, to hot dogs and brats, to frozen pizza’s, gigantic blocks of cheese… you name it, they probably had at least one of it up along the line somewhere! There was also a huge stack of assorted pastries.. again, everything from elmo birthday cakes to donuts, to gigantic carrot sheet cakes, to hostess snacks.. all kinds of fun, sweet stuff!
In my mind, as I looked around the room, I was thinking that for as much food was there, it still was not much considering the amount of people that were supposed to be coming through the line in just under an hour. Well, little did I know that I was only seeing a small part of the food line!! Ah yes.. step outside, and you find the entire PRODUCE section! I’m telling you, they had the sidewalks of the other side of the church completely lined with palates and crates and huge boxes full and overflowing with produce! They had cabbage, and cauliflower, and peppers, and corn, and potatoes, and green beans, and cherry tomatoes, and regular tomatoes… all kinds of stuff. It was incredible. It seriously looked like a farmers market out there!
Anyways.. so we settled in for a few minutes break before we had to get back to work. I washed some potatoes for the volunteer’s lunch.. and then it was time to round up for prayer. After prayer, Marlee and I were once again blown away by a new surprise! WE got to go through the line and get food for ourselves! What?!? Haha. I guess all of the volunteers get to go through and get food for their families.. so Marlee and I grabbed some boxes and before we knew it, people had thrown enough food in our boxes to possibly feed the 5,000 ourselves! Ok, maybe not.. but to two little girls who had been happily living off of tuna salad and peanut butter sandwiches and cereal for the past week.. yikes, it was CRAZY! Craziest of all, I have to say though.. is the fact that somehow.. I’m still not completely sure how.. but somehow I ended up with an ENTIRE CASE of cherry tomatoes. Yes dear friends.. and entire case! I’m talking, 15 or so lbs of cherry tomatoes. I have tomatoes to feed an army. Or at least the Kendall family for probably a month! And the funny thing is that I’m the only one who eats them! I even tried to give some away to Roxann and John, and they wouldn’t even take some! Good gosh this should be interesting… I guess I need to find some pasta and start cooking homemade sauces or something!! Sigh.. I don’t even know.
Ok, moving on.. soooo.. after we went through, then it was time to roll! At first the families were trickling in, but then before we knew it, it was a steady flow of families making their way around the outside of the room and out the other door headed off to produce. It was amazing. I seriously almost started crying a few times. I wish I could have set up a video camera of this.. maybe I will some day. We’ll see. But for now, let me just say that it was incredible to watch. Families, ranging in age from infants all the way up to grandmas and grandpas, and I’m sure even a great grandma or grandpa even all came in groups. Each person old enough to carry something had some type of container to hold all the food in. For as much food as Marlee and I ended up with, we turned down about half of the line, just because we didn’t need it! So yeh, we saw everything from laundry baskets, to shopping carts (or buggy’s or whatever you call them), to rolling trashcans, rolling coolers, strollers, cardboard boxes, plastic totes, grocery bags, cooler bags, luggage carts, red flyer wagons, backpacks… just about anything that would hold a decent amount of groceries we pretty much saw go through the line.
For as diverse as the food and containers were, the people were just as diverse. I already mentioned they ranged in ages, but also in languages, races, nationalities, etc. I’m pretty positive I even saw a Haitian couple go through the line. I would almost bet my right arm on it, but I didn’t get a chance to speak to them. The line was moving too fast, and before I realized what I was seeing (and hearing!) they had disappeared out the door.
And for as much bread as we had, there were definitely times when I thought we were not going to have enough! As it turned out, the pastries went first, and were eventually followed by the bread and dough that we had bagged up.. but as for the prepackaged bread products we ended up with probably ten or so palates left over..
amazing. Absolutely amazing. I’m still trying to process the whole thing! From the moment we got here, people had been warning us of how crazy Tuesday mornings are, etc, etc.. but really, we were just blow away not by the busyness or the craziness, but at how many people were being touched in such a short amount of time! They said that almost 400 families came through the line today. 400 families.. include parents, children, grandparents, cousins, you name it. How AMAZING is that? And yet, how SAD is that? They say that when this program started 25 years ago, they only had 90 families. And even up until a few years ago when John came, it was only 175. But over the years, and as the economy has declined, it has increased more and more. Yet God is faithful and continues to provide food, even in great abundance of what is needed. It is such an incredible reminder that God is still in control, and will take care of our needs, no matter how down life gets..
After lunch and a quick nap was our first shift in the gym, or Family Life Center, or FLC, or whatever you feel like calling it.. Thom Tom came and showed us the ropes. It was fun, but not much to write about. After that we got to go with Roxann to LA fitness.. ha. Wow. That is a whole other post, let me tell you. Too funny.
Anyways. My laundry is done, and I’m sure most people have tuned out long ago. I’m mucho tired. (Like how my Spanish is improving? Ha) so I’m gonna go grab my stuff outta the dryer and head to bed. Night loves..
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Nothing like sitting in the breezeway with a nice cup of Chai..
5-29-10
Wow.. first full day @ Church on Fillmore. Today had been a pretty chill day. They pretty much allowed this day for us to get settled in and rest. So we got to sleep in late. Then when I got up at like 10ish I worked out for a little bit, emphasis on the little, and then got dressed and had some breakfast. After breakfast I got to spend a good bit of time just reading the Word and making some note cards for some stuff I’m trying to sort out in my head (ha). Then I rested for a while before grabbing a peanut butter sandwhich and heading outside to find Marlee.
I found her outside visiting with some of our sweet neighbors. So I sat down and joined them. It has been a gorgeous afternoon. The breeze is definitely blowing through our breezeway. For the longest time there was the steady hum of a helicopter as it flew around and hovered over the protesters that are marching a few blocks down. According to our neighbors I get is has been the people against the Immigration bill marching this afternoon, and then the people for it will start marching at 6 this evening. So I guess we will see if the helicopter shows back up later or not.
There is a monstrous American flag flowing in the breeze about a block away, and it is absolutely gorgeous. On the backside of our apartment buildings is the downtown skyline. Last night as we were getting ready to walk back across the street from John and Roxann’s house I was just standing there staring at it. It is so beautiful, and I can’t get over how close it is! It is such an awesome reminder of exactly what we are here to do.. to do INNER-CITY ministry! And inner-city we most certainly are!
I’m not really sure what the rest of the afternoon holds. It has been nice to sit outside. We’ve gotten to meet a lot of our neighbors as they come through, especially as they come to check their mail, since the mailboxes for all the apartments is in front of ours! They are all pretty sweet. Most of them are all elderly and retired.
I suppose I’ll sign off for now. Not much else to report. Peace out peeps! Don’t do anything overly stupid today!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Wow.. first full day @ Church on Fillmore. Today had been a pretty chill day. They pretty much allowed this day for us to get settled in and rest. So we got to sleep in late. Then when I got up at like 10ish I worked out for a little bit, emphasis on the little, and then got dressed and had some breakfast. After breakfast I got to spend a good bit of time just reading the Word and making some note cards for some stuff I’m trying to sort out in my head (ha). Then I rested for a while before grabbing a peanut butter sandwhich and heading outside to find Marlee.
I found her outside visiting with some of our sweet neighbors. So I sat down and joined them. It has been a gorgeous afternoon. The breeze is definitely blowing through our breezeway. For the longest time there was the steady hum of a helicopter as it flew around and hovered over the protesters that are marching a few blocks down. According to our neighbors I get is has been the people against the Immigration bill marching this afternoon, and then the people for it will start marching at 6 this evening. So I guess we will see if the helicopter shows back up later or not.
There is a monstrous American flag flowing in the breeze about a block away, and it is absolutely gorgeous. On the backside of our apartment buildings is the downtown skyline. Last night as we were getting ready to walk back across the street from John and Roxann’s house I was just standing there staring at it. It is so beautiful, and I can’t get over how close it is! It is such an awesome reminder of exactly what we are here to do.. to do INNER-CITY ministry! And inner-city we most certainly are!
I’m not really sure what the rest of the afternoon holds. It has been nice to sit outside. We’ve gotten to meet a lot of our neighbors as they come through, especially as they come to check their mail, since the mailboxes for all the apartments is in front of ours! They are all pretty sweet. Most of them are all elderly and retired.
I suppose I’ll sign off for now. Not much else to report. Peace out peeps! Don’t do anything overly stupid today!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Giant stores, Giant salads, Giant expectations!
[This was from last night.. I just didn't have internet to post it]
5-28-10
Today was a crazy day, but very good though. I started off going strong, and got up at 6 to workout. (yay me!) I biked for about 2 miles, and ran 2 on the elliptical. It killed me, but it also was refreshing in a way. Not to mention that I jumped in the pool for a few minutes after! Best way ever to cool off after a workout!
Afterwards I got cleaned up and finished packing before we headed down to breakfast. Man.. once again. Breakfast’s at the Hyatt are fantastic! Their fruit is so fresh and tasty! After breakfast we checked out, packed the cars and headed out..
At orientation we crawled onto the couches for our first meeting and talked about being stretched on the mission field with Crystal. After that we circled up with Jeff again to talk about expectations, both good and bad. He started out his session talking about William Carey (the guy) and used his “Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God” quote.. I’ll admit, I kinda died a little inside. I can’t seem to get away from Carey. Ha! Nyways.. it was a good session none the less. Afterwards we got to meet our supervisors for a few minutes before going outside to talk about “girl issues” with Crystal. Then some tasty Chick-fil-e with our supervisors and then it was time to say goodbye and hit the road. YIKES!
We were both excited but very nervous still as we climbed in the van and headed downtown. I had a headache that was starting to form, but I didn’t have any ibuprofen because I forgot it at home. So needless to say I was pretty quiet as I took in the sights. When John said that we were practically in the shadows of the sky scrapers he wasn’t kidding! As we drove through the middle of all of the tall, downtown Phoenix buildings I could feel my stomach begin to ball up in knots. I was SO ready to just get there already! But it wasn’t long before we arrived. I recognized it immediately after all of my google maps stalking that I had done previously, but seeing in person is a whole other story!
When we were told that we were living in an apartment, I expected something the size of the Johnson apartments. Come to find out, this place is HUGE! John and Roxann told us that it had actually been two separate apartments that were combined into one.. so we each have our own bedrooms and bathrooms. I think this is the first time I’ve ever had my own bathroom except maybe for a few days while waiting on my roommates to move in or after they moved out this year. So weird! Then we also have a nice little kitchen nook and a HUGE living/dining room area. And if Marlee didn’t mind cooking in a closet, I suppose we could each have our own kitchens! HA! Open the “closet” behind the tv and voila! There’s another kitchen! Too funny. They closed it off when they took out the wall between the two apartments.
After John and Roxann left we proceeded to unpack and get settled in. We even got a chance to rest for a little while before we went grocery shopping. Roxann took us to Costco.. Good Gosh that place is HUMONGO!!! PLUS it is inside a mall. How wild is that?! I was blown away. Not to mention my headache had exploded into almost full-on migrane by that point, and my migrane pills that I finally ended up finding/taking hadn’t kicked in. But hey, let me tell you. You can find a lot of protein by just eating the samples around Costco! By the time we left I felt much better.
So then we came back and put our groceries away before heading off to meet up with John and Eddy for dinner at Oregano’s. Let me tell you.. I ordered the jr salad and it was bigger than any full size salad I have EVER had! And their pizza’s are huge too. I’m pretty sure they ordered a medium, and it was definitely the size of Mama’s big giant pizza’s she makes for the boys! It was crazy.. but super delish!
After dinner we went back to their house and watched Facing the Giants. I had never seen it before. I still kinda have the same feeling about it as I do towards the other movies by these people, but it was a good movie nonetheless. After the movie Eddy walked us home and we were ready to crash! After we spent some time praying for each other, I curled up and read for a while.. now… time to catch some zz’s! :-)
~Kat K.
5-28-10
Today was a crazy day, but very good though. I started off going strong, and got up at 6 to workout. (yay me!) I biked for about 2 miles, and ran 2 on the elliptical. It killed me, but it also was refreshing in a way. Not to mention that I jumped in the pool for a few minutes after! Best way ever to cool off after a workout!
Afterwards I got cleaned up and finished packing before we headed down to breakfast. Man.. once again. Breakfast’s at the Hyatt are fantastic! Their fruit is so fresh and tasty! After breakfast we checked out, packed the cars and headed out..
At orientation we crawled onto the couches for our first meeting and talked about being stretched on the mission field with Crystal. After that we circled up with Jeff again to talk about expectations, both good and bad. He started out his session talking about William Carey (the guy) and used his “Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God” quote.. I’ll admit, I kinda died a little inside. I can’t seem to get away from Carey. Ha! Nyways.. it was a good session none the less. Afterwards we got to meet our supervisors for a few minutes before going outside to talk about “girl issues” with Crystal. Then some tasty Chick-fil-e with our supervisors and then it was time to say goodbye and hit the road. YIKES!
We were both excited but very nervous still as we climbed in the van and headed downtown. I had a headache that was starting to form, but I didn’t have any ibuprofen because I forgot it at home. So needless to say I was pretty quiet as I took in the sights. When John said that we were practically in the shadows of the sky scrapers he wasn’t kidding! As we drove through the middle of all of the tall, downtown Phoenix buildings I could feel my stomach begin to ball up in knots. I was SO ready to just get there already! But it wasn’t long before we arrived. I recognized it immediately after all of my google maps stalking that I had done previously, but seeing in person is a whole other story!
When we were told that we were living in an apartment, I expected something the size of the Johnson apartments. Come to find out, this place is HUGE! John and Roxann told us that it had actually been two separate apartments that were combined into one.. so we each have our own bedrooms and bathrooms. I think this is the first time I’ve ever had my own bathroom except maybe for a few days while waiting on my roommates to move in or after they moved out this year. So weird! Then we also have a nice little kitchen nook and a HUGE living/dining room area. And if Marlee didn’t mind cooking in a closet, I suppose we could each have our own kitchens! HA! Open the “closet” behind the tv and voila! There’s another kitchen! Too funny. They closed it off when they took out the wall between the two apartments.
After John and Roxann left we proceeded to unpack and get settled in. We even got a chance to rest for a little while before we went grocery shopping. Roxann took us to Costco.. Good Gosh that place is HUMONGO!!! PLUS it is inside a mall. How wild is that?! I was blown away. Not to mention my headache had exploded into almost full-on migrane by that point, and my migrane pills that I finally ended up finding/taking hadn’t kicked in. But hey, let me tell you. You can find a lot of protein by just eating the samples around Costco! By the time we left I felt much better.
So then we came back and put our groceries away before heading off to meet up with John and Eddy for dinner at Oregano’s. Let me tell you.. I ordered the jr salad and it was bigger than any full size salad I have EVER had! And their pizza’s are huge too. I’m pretty sure they ordered a medium, and it was definitely the size of Mama’s big giant pizza’s she makes for the boys! It was crazy.. but super delish!
After dinner we went back to their house and watched Facing the Giants. I had never seen it before. I still kinda have the same feeling about it as I do towards the other movies by these people, but it was a good movie nonetheless. After the movie Eddy walked us home and we were ready to crash! After we spent some time praying for each other, I curled up and read for a while.. now… time to catch some zz’s! :-)
~Kat K.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Congrats Patrick Fry!
First off.. Happy Birthday to my amazing big/little brother, Dwight. He is now officially 17. YIKES!!!!!
now....moving on to the actual post.
WOW! Crazy day!
But I have to say it started out amazing. I might do a more in-depth post on this later, but I read Acts 6 this morning.. It was waay cool considering the circumstances!
Today was our first full day of orientation. We got to have a nice late start, and didn’t have to leave for ASU till 9 this morning. BTW, the free breakfasts @ Hyatt Place’s are a-ma-zing.
Orientation was great. No offense to the New England people, but I definitely think I liked AZ’s better! We had a lot of information being thrown at us, but it definitely was all very good, relevant, useful info. We had two evangelism 101 classes, both of which were actually pretty cool. It’s always refreshing to get new material, new perspectives, and new “methods” I suppose. Eddy Pearson was the teacher for those two, and he talked about the contents of the Gospel, and then talked about testimonies. He finished by giving us tools to help us form a “mini-testimony” of sorts, in 100 words or less. Its something I had never thought of, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Especially since I really like to talk and tell stories.. so my testimony always ends up being either really long, or very incomplete.. so needless to say, it was very helpful to get some tips on super-focusing it down to a paragraph, but still have it be relevant and complete. I’m still working on mine, but I’ll try and share when I get it figured out. :)
After E-101 we moved on to Leadership. I couldn’t help but think of the “leadership lectures” @ Carey, and cringe! But Keith Henry did a great Job. He covered how Jesus led and served, as well as leading with Integrity. Both were really insightful and info-filled! Just how I like it :p In fact, he has so much stuff that he was having to move really quickly through it to stay on time, and I didn’t get it all written down in my notes if I had known I would have brought my computer! Haha.
After the leadership sessions we moved on to living “by the book” with Jeff Smith. He talked about Being in God’s word, and all of the types and aspects of being in the Word. He used the hand/get a grip model which I hadn’t heard in FOREVER. It was a neat reminder. Especially since I’m such a visual person. : ) thumbs up to Jeff.
After that we got to come back and take a nice, well needed break/nap before heading back over to ASU for dinner (Pizza Hut galore! Pizza, pasta, wings, breadsticks, and cinnasticks!) and the prayer time. The prayer time was great and definitely a great start to the summer. Tomorrow we will talk about being stretched while serving in missions, great expectations, and issues that guys/gals face. Then we get to meet our supervisors! Eek! I’m kinda wigged out, not gonna lie. I’m super excited about meeting John and getting to see the church, but I’m also nervous too. Also I’m sad that I have to say good bye to the rest of the AZ missionaries, and probably won’t see them the rest of the summer. PLUS there is no debrief like in NE. Sad times. Oh well.
Oh yeh, one last thing. After the prayer time we all piled in the cars/trucks and went to walmart. Tonight was Patrick’s (one of the SM’s from AZ) high school graduation. But he left right afterwords and came back to orientation to be with us instead of going out and celebrating. So we went to wally world and bought streamers and congrats signs and ice cream and all that fun stuff and threw him a surprise party in the lobby whenever he walked in. I’ll try and get pix up as soon as I post this.. Check the comments if you aren’t my facebook friend and I’ll post the link. Or just look on my FB page.
Aight… think that’s all folks. Time to do a quick upload and hit the sheets. My plan is to get up at 6 and go work out/jump in the pool before getting ready and going to breakfast. We shall see how that turns out. Ha.
Night all. Be safe. Love ya. Don't do anything overly stupid tomorrow!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
p.s. the yogurt place from last night was Yogurt Land!
now....moving on to the actual post.
WOW! Crazy day!
But I have to say it started out amazing. I might do a more in-depth post on this later, but I read Acts 6 this morning.. It was waay cool considering the circumstances!
Today was our first full day of orientation. We got to have a nice late start, and didn’t have to leave for ASU till 9 this morning. BTW, the free breakfasts @ Hyatt Place’s are a-ma-zing.
Orientation was great. No offense to the New England people, but I definitely think I liked AZ’s better! We had a lot of information being thrown at us, but it definitely was all very good, relevant, useful info. We had two evangelism 101 classes, both of which were actually pretty cool. It’s always refreshing to get new material, new perspectives, and new “methods” I suppose. Eddy Pearson was the teacher for those two, and he talked about the contents of the Gospel, and then talked about testimonies. He finished by giving us tools to help us form a “mini-testimony” of sorts, in 100 words or less. Its something I had never thought of, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Especially since I really like to talk and tell stories.. so my testimony always ends up being either really long, or very incomplete.. so needless to say, it was very helpful to get some tips on super-focusing it down to a paragraph, but still have it be relevant and complete. I’m still working on mine, but I’ll try and share when I get it figured out. :)
After E-101 we moved on to Leadership. I couldn’t help but think of the “leadership lectures” @ Carey, and cringe! But Keith Henry did a great Job. He covered how Jesus led and served, as well as leading with Integrity. Both were really insightful and info-filled! Just how I like it :p In fact, he has so much stuff that he was having to move really quickly through it to stay on time, and I didn’t get it all written down in my notes if I had known I would have brought my computer! Haha.
After the leadership sessions we moved on to living “by the book” with Jeff Smith. He talked about Being in God’s word, and all of the types and aspects of being in the Word. He used the hand/get a grip model which I hadn’t heard in FOREVER. It was a neat reminder. Especially since I’m such a visual person. : ) thumbs up to Jeff.
After that we got to come back and take a nice, well needed break/nap before heading back over to ASU for dinner (Pizza Hut galore! Pizza, pasta, wings, breadsticks, and cinnasticks!) and the prayer time. The prayer time was great and definitely a great start to the summer. Tomorrow we will talk about being stretched while serving in missions, great expectations, and issues that guys/gals face. Then we get to meet our supervisors! Eek! I’m kinda wigged out, not gonna lie. I’m super excited about meeting John and getting to see the church, but I’m also nervous too. Also I’m sad that I have to say good bye to the rest of the AZ missionaries, and probably won’t see them the rest of the summer. PLUS there is no debrief like in NE. Sad times. Oh well.
Oh yeh, one last thing. After the prayer time we all piled in the cars/trucks and went to walmart. Tonight was Patrick’s (one of the SM’s from AZ) high school graduation. But he left right afterwords and came back to orientation to be with us instead of going out and celebrating. So we went to wally world and bought streamers and congrats signs and ice cream and all that fun stuff and threw him a surprise party in the lobby whenever he walked in. I’ll try and get pix up as soon as I post this.. Check the comments if you aren’t my facebook friend and I’ll post the link. Or just look on my FB page.
Aight… think that’s all folks. Time to do a quick upload and hit the sheets. My plan is to get up at 6 and go work out/jump in the pool before getting ready and going to breakfast. We shall see how that turns out. Ha.
Night all. Be safe. Love ya. Don't do anything overly stupid tomorrow!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
p.s. the yogurt place from last night was Yogurt Land!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
A day of many firsts!
It official.. first update from Phoenix. I don’t even really know what to say. After 4 hours on planes, plus an hour or so in the van before, and a few hours in airports along the way, I was more than excited to land @ Sky Harbor. The drive home (well, to the hotel at least) was gorgeous! I guess I did not expect Phoenix to be this beautiful! But then again, God is in the habit of surprising me with a lot of things.
Anyways, I had two amazing “first”s today upon my arrival. I got to eat at In-n-Out for the first time ever.. SO COOL! I was so pumped to find out that they even had them here, then I found out we were eating there!!! It was a moment I had been looking forward to for years. And frankly, I was not let down either.. it was delish! Afterwards I got to experience frozen yogurt in a whole new way at .. ok, don’t ask me where. I can’t remember the name of it. Bottom line = amazing! Basically you take your bowl, serve your own yogurt, and then add whatever toppings you want. Granted, queen of indecisiveness had some issues (remember folks, this is why I don’t like Subway and walmarts.. too many choices!!), but even I could not hold out forever. I finally decided on a delicious blend of two vanillas, strawberry, and plain tart. Come to find out, I should have gotten only the plain tart because guess what?! It tastes like Haitian Yogurt!!! AHHHH!!!! I was sooo excited. Definitely ate way too much, but it was soo worth it.
Afterwards, we came back to the hotel for our first “meeting”, followed by a trip across the parking lots to walmart. That was another first I suppose, since I’ve never been close enough to a Walmart that I could walk. Hmm. Anyways. Moving along. After Walmart it was back to the hotel for chill time and homework time. As always, I’m waiting till the last second to do my homework. Hmm. One day I’ll learn.. one day.
But after last night’s ponderings, I decided I would much rather spend time with the Arizona gang then hiding in my room on my computer. And it was so much fun too! These kids remind me so much of my Carey family, so of course I’m having a blast! But then again, it also makes me miss my Carey fam even more, too.. :/ oh well. I’ll get over it. I tried coming up with a quote of the hour like 200 times, but pretty much every other sentence was QotH worthy… sad times! I considered coming up to the room just to record part of the conversations, but was too lazy. Ha. Maybe tomorrow night. But I will say that the conversations ranged from singing the most random songs, to pictures, to more random songs/youtube videos, and finally landed on bathroom subjects.. at least that’s how far they had gotten when I left. But I did find out some interesting things. Did you know that there is such thing as guy etiquette for bathrooms? Quite interesting. Even more interesting is the iPhone app that tests your knowledge of man codes in relation to urinals… I’ll just leave it at, uh, interesting..
All in all, it was an amazing day. I’m so excited to see what the next few days, weeks, and months have to hold! One interesting thing I will say though.. part of our homework was to do our first posts to the facebook group (which is AZ SM’s btw, if you are interested later on in the summer to see what other summer missionaries in AZ are up to). Reading over what the other girls have posted I have noticed a common theme.. almost every single one has said, in one way or another, that they don’t know why God called them here.. I guess it is comforting to know that I’m not the only one still kinda scratching their head about what they are doing here. I know God has an incredible plan, and that Church on the Fillmore is a great church that (supposedly) lines up with my calling. But at the same time, I still can’t help but ask God on a regular basis why he would put New York so strongly on my heart only to send me the complete opposite direction to Arizona. :-/
oh well… I’m too tired to really think anymore. Jet lag is kicking in.. My body tells me it is 1 am, when its really only 11.. good news is I can sleep till 7 30 and still get 8 ½ hours! Booya! Haha. Night yall.
~Kat K.
Anyways, I had two amazing “first”s today upon my arrival. I got to eat at In-n-Out for the first time ever.. SO COOL! I was so pumped to find out that they even had them here, then I found out we were eating there!!! It was a moment I had been looking forward to for years. And frankly, I was not let down either.. it was delish! Afterwards I got to experience frozen yogurt in a whole new way at .. ok, don’t ask me where. I can’t remember the name of it. Bottom line = amazing! Basically you take your bowl, serve your own yogurt, and then add whatever toppings you want. Granted, queen of indecisiveness had some issues (remember folks, this is why I don’t like Subway and walmarts.. too many choices!!), but even I could not hold out forever. I finally decided on a delicious blend of two vanillas, strawberry, and plain tart. Come to find out, I should have gotten only the plain tart because guess what?! It tastes like Haitian Yogurt!!! AHHHH!!!! I was sooo excited. Definitely ate way too much, but it was soo worth it.
Afterwards, we came back to the hotel for our first “meeting”, followed by a trip across the parking lots to walmart. That was another first I suppose, since I’ve never been close enough to a Walmart that I could walk. Hmm. Anyways. Moving along. After Walmart it was back to the hotel for chill time and homework time. As always, I’m waiting till the last second to do my homework. Hmm. One day I’ll learn.. one day.
But after last night’s ponderings, I decided I would much rather spend time with the Arizona gang then hiding in my room on my computer. And it was so much fun too! These kids remind me so much of my Carey family, so of course I’m having a blast! But then again, it also makes me miss my Carey fam even more, too.. :/ oh well. I’ll get over it. I tried coming up with a quote of the hour like 200 times, but pretty much every other sentence was QotH worthy… sad times! I considered coming up to the room just to record part of the conversations, but was too lazy. Ha. Maybe tomorrow night. But I will say that the conversations ranged from singing the most random songs, to pictures, to more random songs/youtube videos, and finally landed on bathroom subjects.. at least that’s how far they had gotten when I left. But I did find out some interesting things. Did you know that there is such thing as guy etiquette for bathrooms? Quite interesting. Even more interesting is the iPhone app that tests your knowledge of man codes in relation to urinals… I’ll just leave it at, uh, interesting..
All in all, it was an amazing day. I’m so excited to see what the next few days, weeks, and months have to hold! One interesting thing I will say though.. part of our homework was to do our first posts to the facebook group (which is AZ SM’s btw, if you are interested later on in the summer to see what other summer missionaries in AZ are up to). Reading over what the other girls have posted I have noticed a common theme.. almost every single one has said, in one way or another, that they don’t know why God called them here.. I guess it is comforting to know that I’m not the only one still kinda scratching their head about what they are doing here. I know God has an incredible plan, and that Church on the Fillmore is a great church that (supposedly) lines up with my calling. But at the same time, I still can’t help but ask God on a regular basis why he would put New York so strongly on my heart only to send me the complete opposite direction to Arizona. :-/
oh well… I’m too tired to really think anymore. Jet lag is kicking in.. My body tells me it is 1 am, when its really only 11.. good news is I can sleep till 7 30 and still get 8 ½ hours! Booya! Haha. Night yall.
~Kat K.
No other choice
Well this is it.. my last post from McIntosh, AL before heading off to the Wild, Wild West! I’ll go ahead and warn ya, this may end up being a pretty weighty post.. so feel free to move on if you’re in a good mood or something.. I just feel like I need to post it.
To be completely honest, this is the most scared I have ever been leaving for a trip. At least for this reason that is. I mean, I’ve always been worried about getting through the airports smoothly, missing flights, not getting along with people once I get there, great unknowns, blah, blah, blah.. that’s normal.. But this is not the same kind of fear. In fact, this is so much greater that it just about has taken up so much of my mind that I have no more room for the other “normal” worries.
Let me explain… Over the past few weeks and months, the topic of being a true disciple, and the costs of being a true disciple of Christ, has come up over and over. Seems like every where I turned it was there! It wasn’t until it came up this last time (my dad is teaching a series on it in Sunday school @ Oak Hill) that it dawned on me that maybe the reason it keeps coming up is because I’m not really listening. What is God trying to tell me?
Well, over the past week and ½ I have had a lot of time to think. Combined with a few random comments and some research, it started to come to me. You see, Phoenix is the Kidnapping Capital of the USA. Granted, most of it is tied to drugs & human smuggling from Mexico, but it is none the less. On top of that, there is a great number of young women who have frankly disappeared from Arizona and the surrounding areas… Authorities say that they know the women are being used in the Sex Trade, but can’t find them nonetheless.
Ok, so maybe it’s just my silly overreactions to everything, and paranoia, but you have to understand that my fear of Kidnapping is not really on a normal “just don’t want it to happen to me” level. Blame it on too many movies, blame it on too many cop shows, blame it on living in Haiti through countless political unrest times, blame it on whatever -> it is there nonetheless. I’m terrified to go places by myself, especially at night. I hate being in a house by myself, especially at night. I always check my backseats when I get in the car…….. you get the point. I’m pretty freaked out about kidnapping. And that is just in Mississippi + Backwoods Alabama! So when the thought of me going to the Kidnapping Capital of America comes to my mind, I’m frankly terrified!
So what does all of this have to do with the costs of being a true disciple? Here is my conclusions over the past few days..
I have had a choice. I could either call Beverly, Lainee, John, and everybody else and just tell them that I’m not going, or I can choose to go despite the fear behind it! I don’t really know what will happen while I’m in phoenix. I don’t know whether I will come home safe and sound on August 6th, or not. But then again, I don’t know if I will wake up later this morning when I go to bed for my quick nap.
And who knows? Maybe God’s plan IS for me to be kidnapped. While I can’t see any good in that at first, when I think about it.. if it brings glory to him through it, should I not be willing to step up and go? Maybe his plan is for me to bring my kidnappers to Christ just like Paul + the Jailor back in the Bible. Think about it..
When I think about that, I definitely feel a little better. Yes, I’m still a little scared, but if it is God’s will, then so be it. What I’m more worried about now is the affect it will have on everyone else. You see, consider for a moment that I disappeared, never to be heard from again.. what would happen to my family? What would my friends think? Am I leaving any loose ends before as I go?
As I was packing tonight, I started thinking about it again and it brought tears to my eyes. I was ashamed of how I had spent the past few days. How would my brothers + sister remember me? Would they remember me as the sister who didn’t really spend much time with them because she spent more time on her computer, or sleeping? Or the sister who, even on her last night at home, wouldn’t spend time with her family because she had procrastinated so much that now she had to pack..
I looked around and the huge mess our room was in and walked right out. I went in and watched a movie with my sister and my mom. My sister painted my toenails. I went to prayer time with my siblings and my dad.. I still feel like I cheated my brothers, but I suppose I have no one to blame but myself..
For their sake, I pray that I do come home when I’m supposed to. I don’t want them to remember me like that. I hate the thought that they probably think that anyways. In fact, part of me still wants to call my supervisors and tell them I’m not going.. not because I’m scared, but because I feel like I owe it to my brothers and sister for not being the best big sister I could be…
But I can’t. I have to go. I know I have to go. Why? Because no matter how I’ve treated my family, in order to be the true disciple of Christ that I say I am, my love for my family has to be so much smaller than my love and devotion for God. So much so, that it almost seems as if I hate my family..
Gah… I hate that thought!! I never want my brothers or my sister, or even my parents to ever feel like I hate them because I chose something else over them! Honestly, I did choose things over them in the past week, and in the past in general.. but it wasn’t God, that’s for sure. But now I’m faced with one of the biggest decisions of all.. 9 hours before my plane is supposed to leave, I have to decide which is more important to me, my family or following God.
I have to go. That’s all there is to it. It breaks my heart. It scares me to death. But I have to go! Do you think God wants [me] to obey [me] rather than him? [I] cannot stop telling about everything [I] have seen and heard! (Acts 4:19-20)
I have to go. . . . I have to go
To be completely honest, this is the most scared I have ever been leaving for a trip. At least for this reason that is. I mean, I’ve always been worried about getting through the airports smoothly, missing flights, not getting along with people once I get there, great unknowns, blah, blah, blah.. that’s normal.. But this is not the same kind of fear. In fact, this is so much greater that it just about has taken up so much of my mind that I have no more room for the other “normal” worries.
Let me explain… Over the past few weeks and months, the topic of being a true disciple, and the costs of being a true disciple of Christ, has come up over and over. Seems like every where I turned it was there! It wasn’t until it came up this last time (my dad is teaching a series on it in Sunday school @ Oak Hill) that it dawned on me that maybe the reason it keeps coming up is because I’m not really listening. What is God trying to tell me?
Well, over the past week and ½ I have had a lot of time to think. Combined with a few random comments and some research, it started to come to me. You see, Phoenix is the Kidnapping Capital of the USA. Granted, most of it is tied to drugs & human smuggling from Mexico, but it is none the less. On top of that, there is a great number of young women who have frankly disappeared from Arizona and the surrounding areas… Authorities say that they know the women are being used in the Sex Trade, but can’t find them nonetheless.
Ok, so maybe it’s just my silly overreactions to everything, and paranoia, but you have to understand that my fear of Kidnapping is not really on a normal “just don’t want it to happen to me” level. Blame it on too many movies, blame it on too many cop shows, blame it on living in Haiti through countless political unrest times, blame it on whatever -> it is there nonetheless. I’m terrified to go places by myself, especially at night. I hate being in a house by myself, especially at night. I always check my backseats when I get in the car…….. you get the point. I’m pretty freaked out about kidnapping. And that is just in Mississippi + Backwoods Alabama! So when the thought of me going to the Kidnapping Capital of America comes to my mind, I’m frankly terrified!
So what does all of this have to do with the costs of being a true disciple? Here is my conclusions over the past few days..
I have had a choice. I could either call Beverly, Lainee, John, and everybody else and just tell them that I’m not going, or I can choose to go despite the fear behind it! I don’t really know what will happen while I’m in phoenix. I don’t know whether I will come home safe and sound on August 6th, or not. But then again, I don’t know if I will wake up later this morning when I go to bed for my quick nap.
And who knows? Maybe God’s plan IS for me to be kidnapped. While I can’t see any good in that at first, when I think about it.. if it brings glory to him through it, should I not be willing to step up and go? Maybe his plan is for me to bring my kidnappers to Christ just like Paul + the Jailor back in the Bible. Think about it..
When I think about that, I definitely feel a little better. Yes, I’m still a little scared, but if it is God’s will, then so be it. What I’m more worried about now is the affect it will have on everyone else. You see, consider for a moment that I disappeared, never to be heard from again.. what would happen to my family? What would my friends think? Am I leaving any loose ends before as I go?
As I was packing tonight, I started thinking about it again and it brought tears to my eyes. I was ashamed of how I had spent the past few days. How would my brothers + sister remember me? Would they remember me as the sister who didn’t really spend much time with them because she spent more time on her computer, or sleeping? Or the sister who, even on her last night at home, wouldn’t spend time with her family because she had procrastinated so much that now she had to pack..
I looked around and the huge mess our room was in and walked right out. I went in and watched a movie with my sister and my mom. My sister painted my toenails. I went to prayer time with my siblings and my dad.. I still feel like I cheated my brothers, but I suppose I have no one to blame but myself..
For their sake, I pray that I do come home when I’m supposed to. I don’t want them to remember me like that. I hate the thought that they probably think that anyways. In fact, part of me still wants to call my supervisors and tell them I’m not going.. not because I’m scared, but because I feel like I owe it to my brothers and sister for not being the best big sister I could be…
But I can’t. I have to go. I know I have to go. Why? Because no matter how I’ve treated my family, in order to be the true disciple of Christ that I say I am, my love for my family has to be so much smaller than my love and devotion for God. So much so, that it almost seems as if I hate my family..
Gah… I hate that thought!! I never want my brothers or my sister, or even my parents to ever feel like I hate them because I chose something else over them! Honestly, I did choose things over them in the past week, and in the past in general.. but it wasn’t God, that’s for sure. But now I’m faced with one of the biggest decisions of all.. 9 hours before my plane is supposed to leave, I have to decide which is more important to me, my family or following God.
I have to go. That’s all there is to it. It breaks my heart. It scares me to death. But I have to go! Do you think God wants [me] to obey [me] rather than him? [I] cannot stop telling about everything [I] have seen and heard! (Acts 4:19-20)
I have to go. . . . I have to go
Monday, May 24, 2010
A day of FAIL's .. oh wait, isn't that everyday around here?! :/
Well, a few more days have passed, and I’m closer than ever to “leavin’ on a jet plane”! Wish I could be more motivated to update here on a daily basis. I just feel as if I’m only posting “filler” or “fluff” entries. I figure, in light of what I will be doing this summer, watching TV and baking brownies is so much less worth writing about! But at least I know that I’m only writing to myself, really, right now! Soon, dear Blog, you will soon be filled with meaningful entries, and be read by someone other than your author!
Ok, now that we are done talking to inanimate objects (my fav!), let’s see.. another fluff post.
I went down to Mobile today, in hopes of renewing my driver’s license. 2 hours later (after a stop at the bank in Saraland) I find my way down to the Demotropolis Office. Too bad the parking lot is COMPLETELY full. I had to park behind the Pizza Hut across the shopping center and walk across. FAIL #1. Walk inside, stand in line to get my number.. Get to the front desk only to have the lady tell me that getting it renewed there will require quite a few hour’s wait. She told me to just go to a local tag office. There is a tag office for Washington county in Chatom, less than an hour away from Sanktown. FAIL #2. Sigh.. Chatom is only open on certain days of the week. I’m praying that the youth kids were right when they told me they were open on Tuesday. :/
Oh well. Went to walmart to pick up a few things for my trip out west, and headed home. Considering that I was planning on not getting up till 8 30 (which technically was FAIL #1, but whatever), I was finished and home by 12 noon! And that includes going through Saraland twice, all the way to almost downtown Mobile, and then getting lost once back up in Washington county :/ !
Spent the rest of the day resting, coloring (see my facebook quote of the hour [QotH] from earlier about my sister’s reaction), cleaning my room, playing with Jazz and Emily, and chilling with my brothers. We also had a fun, surprise visit from a Gopher Tortoise, whom I named Franko. He was pretty cool. Fast lil buggar! I thought turtles were supposed to be slow?!? Hmm.. don’t know. I posted pix on Facebook. Cutie.
After dinner (fried fish, rice, + hush puppies), we lugged ourselves over to exercise. Ok, so we waited like an hour or so, but whatever. FAIL #3, or is it 4? Anyways.. Insanity and fried food don’t mix at all!! Barely made it through torture tonight.. in fact, I cheated on some of the workouts. But hey! In my defense, I was seriously switching back and forth from blacking out to almost puking.. blehhh… Showers never feel so good as they do right after an Insanity workout session!
Finally, to top off the night… drum roll…. I dyed my hair! Hehehe.. If you know me, don’t even bother wondering what color. If you don’t, it’s pretty much a given that if Kat dyes her hair, it will probably be some shade of red! I like this one! Bright, but not quite clown red either. :)
Not much other than that! Fun, exciting, FAIL-filled day.. as usual!
Peace out crazies.. Don’t do anything overly stupid today!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Ok, now that we are done talking to inanimate objects (my fav!), let’s see.. another fluff post.
I went down to Mobile today, in hopes of renewing my driver’s license. 2 hours later (after a stop at the bank in Saraland) I find my way down to the Demotropolis Office. Too bad the parking lot is COMPLETELY full. I had to park behind the Pizza Hut across the shopping center and walk across. FAIL #1. Walk inside, stand in line to get my number.. Get to the front desk only to have the lady tell me that getting it renewed there will require quite a few hour’s wait. She told me to just go to a local tag office. There is a tag office for Washington county in Chatom, less than an hour away from Sanktown. FAIL #2. Sigh.. Chatom is only open on certain days of the week. I’m praying that the youth kids were right when they told me they were open on Tuesday. :/
Oh well. Went to walmart to pick up a few things for my trip out west, and headed home. Considering that I was planning on not getting up till 8 30 (which technically was FAIL #1, but whatever), I was finished and home by 12 noon! And that includes going through Saraland twice, all the way to almost downtown Mobile, and then getting lost once back up in Washington county :/ !
Spent the rest of the day resting, coloring (see my facebook quote of the hour [QotH] from earlier about my sister’s reaction), cleaning my room, playing with Jazz and Emily, and chilling with my brothers. We also had a fun, surprise visit from a Gopher Tortoise, whom I named Franko. He was pretty cool. Fast lil buggar! I thought turtles were supposed to be slow?!? Hmm.. don’t know. I posted pix on Facebook. Cutie.
After dinner (fried fish, rice, + hush puppies), we lugged ourselves over to exercise. Ok, so we waited like an hour or so, but whatever. FAIL #3, or is it 4? Anyways.. Insanity and fried food don’t mix at all!! Barely made it through torture tonight.. in fact, I cheated on some of the workouts. But hey! In my defense, I was seriously switching back and forth from blacking out to almost puking.. blehhh… Showers never feel so good as they do right after an Insanity workout session!
Finally, to top off the night… drum roll…. I dyed my hair! Hehehe.. If you know me, don’t even bother wondering what color. If you don’t, it’s pretty much a given that if Kat dyes her hair, it will probably be some shade of red! I like this one! Bright, but not quite clown red either. :)
Not much other than that! Fun, exciting, FAIL-filled day.. as usual!
Peace out crazies.. Don’t do anything overly stupid today!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Why "Paws & Claws"?
Ok, soooo it dawned on me that you are probably wondering why I title everything “Paws & Claws”. So I thought I’d post a quick explanation for ya!
When I was thinking about the name of a blog/newsletter, I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate the idea of me being the hands and feet of Jesus in what I do.. when it came to actually finding a unique name + blog address, it turns out my idea is not so unique. Hmm.. FAIL!
Anyways, a stroke of genius hit me one night as I was messing around with various names involving hands, feet, and Kat….. AH-HA! Kat Paws!
The claws part comes into play when I have my not so productive days. The days when I choose to do my own thing over what HE wants me to do. The days when I ignore opportunities because I don’t feel like. Or perhaps the days when I’m flat out cranky! In any case, there are days when, just like my sister’s kitten, my claws show more than my paws. Through it all though, they are still HIS paws, they are just not up to their full potential on my “claw days”…
So there ya go. The method to my madness!
~Kat K.
When I was thinking about the name of a blog/newsletter, I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate the idea of me being the hands and feet of Jesus in what I do.. when it came to actually finding a unique name + blog address, it turns out my idea is not so unique. Hmm.. FAIL!
Anyways, a stroke of genius hit me one night as I was messing around with various names involving hands, feet, and Kat….. AH-HA! Kat Paws!
The claws part comes into play when I have my not so productive days. The days when I choose to do my own thing over what HE wants me to do. The days when I ignore opportunities because I don’t feel like. Or perhaps the days when I’m flat out cranky! In any case, there are days when, just like my sister’s kitten, my claws show more than my paws. Through it all though, they are still HIS paws, they are just not up to their full potential on my “claw days”…
So there ya go. The method to my madness!
~Kat K.
Acts 3
Well, I suppose it’s about time I share something of actual substance. I guess lounging around the house all day, with the occasional trip out does not result in much deep insight. Oh well.. ANYWAYS!
I was reading Acts chapter 3 last night, and came across something that caught my attention. For those of you who don’t know what Acts 3 is about (or those of you who are too lazy to walk across your room to get your Bible’s out!), I will give you a brief overview.
In Acts 1 & 2 we read about Jesus’ ascension, Matthias replacing Judas, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and finally a sermon preached by the ever-awesome Peter. In the beginning of Acts 3, Peter and John are going to the Temple “to take part in the three o’clock prayer service” (v. 1). Outside the gates they find a lame beggar. After watching him for a while, they start talking to him, and eventually tell him to “get up and walk!” (v. 6). After being healed, they went into the Temple all together.
The crowds were pretty wowed by the whole ordeal, and kept staring at their lil group. Peter saw what was happening and jumped at the opportunity that he had just been given and preached another one of his awesome sermons.
Now, three major things stood out to me in this passage…. and guess what? I’m gonna share them with you!
1.) “Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service” (v. 1)
--> Peter and John were pretty busy dudes! But they didn’t forget to set time aside for prayer and worship. It may not have been the “quiet times” that we so often are preached to about, but they made sure they took time away from all of their preaching, teaching, and working to pray. Now, I’m not advocating substituting quiet times for public prayer and worship”, I don’t think that is the point. The point is that no matter how busy you are, don’t forget to take time away from all of it to focus on God and God alone, to pray, to focus on his attributes, to praise him, etc..
2.) “Peter and John looked at him intently” (v. 4)
--> These guys did not make any hasty decisions, or jump right in to help this guy out. They watched him intently.. What were they looking for? I think that they were watching to see if he was who he says he was.
Coming from a background in a country where street beggars are often not necessarily who they say they are! All too often you see “mothers” begging for money for food for their infant children, day after day. Yet they ALWAYS have an infant! The baby never really gets any older, nor are they ever really pregnant. Curious? I Think so! Dig a little deeper and you will find that these “mothers” rent babies from their true parents in order to raise money on the streets.
If things like this go on today in poor, desperate areas of the world, isn’t it feasible that it may have gone on in the past as well? If that is the case, Peter and John were exercising great wisdom in how they interacted with the man. They watched him intently, and it wasn’t until they saw his sincere need that they chose to react and interact with the man.
3.) “Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd.” (v. 12a)
--> This is probably my favorite verse out of this passage. I think we can learn a lot from Peter and John out of this passage, but this is the most important lesson of all.. Peter saw an opportunity, and he TOOK IT.. How many times a week, or even daily, do we see an opportunity and not take it. Peter and John were not so focused on their way to the temple that they overlooked the lame man. And once the miracle had happened and they were worshiping inside, they did not completely close themselves off to what was going on around them.
Peter and John went in to the Temple to worship, and ended up worshiping in a manner far greater than they probably expected. They probably expected, just as you and I would, to worship through prayer. After all, it was a prayer service! Yet they were presented with an opportunity and took it, an act which far outweighs simple prayer! They glorified God by doing what He asked them to! Not only that, but they glorified God by preaching his Word to the people there, while their attention was captured.
Now, I’m not really thinking that the next time you or I go to church, we need to stop everything in the middle of prayer and just begin to preach. Again, that’s not the point here. The point is that for that particular situation, God provided them with an opportunity to serve him and to serve others. So what we need to learn from this situation is not when to preach and when not to, but to merely keep our eyes and our minds open to see what God would have us to do, and then DO IT!
--> Remember, these are just my thoughts on what I’ve read. These are notes you’d probably find in my journal if I wasn’t too lazy to write them twice.. I’m not some biblical scholar, these are just my Ideas. Please don’t quote me on them. If you are a biblical scholar, or have a different idea, feel free to comment! By all means! I’m up for hearing other people’s opinions.
Blessings,
~Kat K.
I was reading Acts chapter 3 last night, and came across something that caught my attention. For those of you who don’t know what Acts 3 is about (or those of you who are too lazy to walk across your room to get your Bible’s out!), I will give you a brief overview.
In Acts 1 & 2 we read about Jesus’ ascension, Matthias replacing Judas, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and finally a sermon preached by the ever-awesome Peter. In the beginning of Acts 3, Peter and John are going to the Temple “to take part in the three o’clock prayer service” (v. 1). Outside the gates they find a lame beggar. After watching him for a while, they start talking to him, and eventually tell him to “get up and walk!” (v. 6). After being healed, they went into the Temple all together.
The crowds were pretty wowed by the whole ordeal, and kept staring at their lil group. Peter saw what was happening and jumped at the opportunity that he had just been given and preached another one of his awesome sermons.
Now, three major things stood out to me in this passage…. and guess what? I’m gonna share them with you!
1.) “Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service” (v. 1)
--> Peter and John were pretty busy dudes! But they didn’t forget to set time aside for prayer and worship. It may not have been the “quiet times” that we so often are preached to about, but they made sure they took time away from all of their preaching, teaching, and working to pray. Now, I’m not advocating substituting quiet times for public prayer and worship”, I don’t think that is the point. The point is that no matter how busy you are, don’t forget to take time away from all of it to focus on God and God alone, to pray, to focus on his attributes, to praise him, etc..
2.) “Peter and John looked at him intently” (v. 4)
--> These guys did not make any hasty decisions, or jump right in to help this guy out. They watched him intently.. What were they looking for? I think that they were watching to see if he was who he says he was.
Coming from a background in a country where street beggars are often not necessarily who they say they are! All too often you see “mothers” begging for money for food for their infant children, day after day. Yet they ALWAYS have an infant! The baby never really gets any older, nor are they ever really pregnant. Curious? I Think so! Dig a little deeper and you will find that these “mothers” rent babies from their true parents in order to raise money on the streets.
If things like this go on today in poor, desperate areas of the world, isn’t it feasible that it may have gone on in the past as well? If that is the case, Peter and John were exercising great wisdom in how they interacted with the man. They watched him intently, and it wasn’t until they saw his sincere need that they chose to react and interact with the man.
3.) “Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd.” (v. 12a)
--> This is probably my favorite verse out of this passage. I think we can learn a lot from Peter and John out of this passage, but this is the most important lesson of all.. Peter saw an opportunity, and he TOOK IT.. How many times a week, or even daily, do we see an opportunity and not take it. Peter and John were not so focused on their way to the temple that they overlooked the lame man. And once the miracle had happened and they were worshiping inside, they did not completely close themselves off to what was going on around them.
Peter and John went in to the Temple to worship, and ended up worshiping in a manner far greater than they probably expected. They probably expected, just as you and I would, to worship through prayer. After all, it was a prayer service! Yet they were presented with an opportunity and took it, an act which far outweighs simple prayer! They glorified God by doing what He asked them to! Not only that, but they glorified God by preaching his Word to the people there, while their attention was captured.
Now, I’m not really thinking that the next time you or I go to church, we need to stop everything in the middle of prayer and just begin to preach. Again, that’s not the point here. The point is that for that particular situation, God provided them with an opportunity to serve him and to serve others. So what we need to learn from this situation is not when to preach and when not to, but to merely keep our eyes and our minds open to see what God would have us to do, and then DO IT!
--> Remember, these are just my thoughts on what I’ve read. These are notes you’d probably find in my journal if I wasn’t too lazy to write them twice.. I’m not some biblical scholar, these are just my Ideas. Please don’t quote me on them. If you are a biblical scholar, or have a different idea, feel free to comment! By all means! I’m up for hearing other people’s opinions.
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Pretty sure you are supposed to be already semi-fit to be Insane!?
Well, day three of Insanity. In so much pain can barely think to write tonight’s update. Sigh. I cried through tonight’s work out!
I did have a pretty good day today though. Slept in late, then made brownies with my lil sissy. Super tasty and fun! Then I helped mama work on the chili and other stuff for the youth cook out tonight. We spent most of the afternoon chilling and watching tv, and my brother’s finished getting stuff ready for the cook out.
The cookout this evening went pretty well. We had about 16 youth show up for hot dogs, chili, baked beans, potato salad, and brownies. It was fun getting to hang out with the kids and get to know some other youth beyond the ones in Petal. It was also fun to hang out with a group that small! It’s amazing how much easier it is to learn everybody’s names! I’m STILL trying to learn everybody’s names at petal, and I learned pretty much everybody’s names over here tonight alone!
I’m excited to see how much interaction we will have with youth this summer, but also kinda scared as well. Hmm.. we’ll see I suppose. I’m crossing my fingers that they will be a group that I am able to relate well with. I would hate to have a group that is hard to connect with, especially since I only have 10 weeks in all! :/
Ok, well.. tomorrow is a long day that will start early. I’m taking my painful body to bed! Peace out yall! Don’t do anything overly stupid today!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
I did have a pretty good day today though. Slept in late, then made brownies with my lil sissy. Super tasty and fun! Then I helped mama work on the chili and other stuff for the youth cook out tonight. We spent most of the afternoon chilling and watching tv, and my brother’s finished getting stuff ready for the cook out.
The cookout this evening went pretty well. We had about 16 youth show up for hot dogs, chili, baked beans, potato salad, and brownies. It was fun getting to hang out with the kids and get to know some other youth beyond the ones in Petal. It was also fun to hang out with a group that small! It’s amazing how much easier it is to learn everybody’s names! I’m STILL trying to learn everybody’s names at petal, and I learned pretty much everybody’s names over here tonight alone!
I’m excited to see how much interaction we will have with youth this summer, but also kinda scared as well. Hmm.. we’ll see I suppose. I’m crossing my fingers that they will be a group that I am able to relate well with. I would hate to have a group that is hard to connect with, especially since I only have 10 weeks in all! :/
Ok, well.. tomorrow is a long day that will start early. I’m taking my painful body to bed! Peace out yall! Don’t do anything overly stupid today!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Oh the "Insanity" that awaits you in McIntosh!!
Well, I see I’m not doing such a good job on updating. So much for trying to get into the habit before I hop on the plane to Phoenix! Oh well.. :-/
So let’s see. What has been going on the past few days? Well, I’ve mostly been resting and recharging from the crazy last few weeks of school! It has been nice to sleep in guilt free the past few days!
Besides sleeping, I’ve loved getting some good family quality time in! I’ve spent many hours just chilling with my mom and brothers and sisters. We went to church together at my grandfather’s church around the corner on Sunday. For Sunday lunch, my grandparents came over and we enjoyed a delicious Haitian meal to celebrate (a little late, mind you) my brother Christopher’s birthday. Then we spent the afternoon and evening resting, watching TV, and playing games.
Even the animals are getting in on the family action! I have loved getting to play with our precious chihuahua “Jazzy” again, and my sister’s kitten “Emily” is absolutely adorable! Though watching the two interact with just each other is quite entertaining as well!
Just in case you are worried that I am spending too much time resting and being a bum, never you fear! My parents and oldest brothers are making sure that I am fit and ready for my Phoenix adventure! They purchased the workout program “Insanity” just in time for sissy’s homecoming. We started the first session last night. Sad to say that we could barely even complete the “Fit Test”. As we would say around here, “Fit test FAIL!” haha. Tonight we jumped back into the torture with the first official night of actual workouts. Though we are not sure what the difference between tonight and last night were! :/ In any case, we are all majorly sore, and praying it is worth it!
As for getting ready for Phoenix, there is not much to report. Without knowing exact details of what we will be doing, it is hard to prepare. Mostly I am trying to tie up any loose ends, and get ready to start packing again. Yes, the dreaded packing. *shudders* Good news is there will be much less to pack for Phoenix then there was packing to come home to McIntosh!
Tomorrow we are supposed to host a party for the youth group out here. It will be strange not going to youth @ Petal Harvey, or going to the Junction either! I’m looking forward to it though. It will be good to interact with a different youth group before heading over to minister in Phoenix, since it will help me open my mind back up to how “other people” work. Hehe.
Well, I guess I’ll quit for tonight. Nothing really insightful this round. Mostly randomness. But hey, I warned you! :] And remember, “Don’t do anything overly stupid today”!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
So let’s see. What has been going on the past few days? Well, I’ve mostly been resting and recharging from the crazy last few weeks of school! It has been nice to sleep in guilt free the past few days!
Besides sleeping, I’ve loved getting some good family quality time in! I’ve spent many hours just chilling with my mom and brothers and sisters. We went to church together at my grandfather’s church around the corner on Sunday. For Sunday lunch, my grandparents came over and we enjoyed a delicious Haitian meal to celebrate (a little late, mind you) my brother Christopher’s birthday. Then we spent the afternoon and evening resting, watching TV, and playing games.
Even the animals are getting in on the family action! I have loved getting to play with our precious chihuahua “Jazzy” again, and my sister’s kitten “Emily” is absolutely adorable! Though watching the two interact with just each other is quite entertaining as well!
Just in case you are worried that I am spending too much time resting and being a bum, never you fear! My parents and oldest brothers are making sure that I am fit and ready for my Phoenix adventure! They purchased the workout program “Insanity” just in time for sissy’s homecoming. We started the first session last night. Sad to say that we could barely even complete the “Fit Test”. As we would say around here, “Fit test FAIL!” haha. Tonight we jumped back into the torture with the first official night of actual workouts. Though we are not sure what the difference between tonight and last night were! :/ In any case, we are all majorly sore, and praying it is worth it!
As for getting ready for Phoenix, there is not much to report. Without knowing exact details of what we will be doing, it is hard to prepare. Mostly I am trying to tie up any loose ends, and get ready to start packing again. Yes, the dreaded packing. *shudders* Good news is there will be much less to pack for Phoenix then there was packing to come home to McIntosh!
Tomorrow we are supposed to host a party for the youth group out here. It will be strange not going to youth @ Petal Harvey, or going to the Junction either! I’m looking forward to it though. It will be good to interact with a different youth group before heading over to minister in Phoenix, since it will help me open my mind back up to how “other people” work. Hehe.
Well, I guess I’ll quit for tonight. Nothing really insightful this round. Mostly randomness. But hey, I warned you! :] And remember, “Don’t do anything overly stupid today”!
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
First Post
5/15/2010
Well.. In true Kat Kendall fashion, I am managing to avoid packing my room/apartment till the very last second. And even though I'm supposed to check out tomorrow, I STILL can't motivate myself to get a move on (no pun intended) and finish packing!
So I decided to upload my first post for this new lovely blog. The idea has been floating around in my head for a few weeks, just never got around to it. So here is what you will find on here:
*Random ramblings from the brain of Kat
*Random thoughts from quiet times worth sharing with the world
*Random happenings from my ministry
*Lots of possible randomness (if you didn’t notice..)
*Prayer requests --> Especially during my summer assignment in Phoenix
So here you go. The first of many, much randomness :]
Blessings,
~Kat K.
Well.. In true Kat Kendall fashion, I am managing to avoid packing my room/apartment till the very last second. And even though I'm supposed to check out tomorrow, I STILL can't motivate myself to get a move on (no pun intended) and finish packing!
So I decided to upload my first post for this new lovely blog. The idea has been floating around in my head for a few weeks, just never got around to it. So here is what you will find on here:
*Random ramblings from the brain of Kat
*Random thoughts from quiet times worth sharing with the world
*Random happenings from my ministry
*Lots of possible randomness (if you didn’t notice..)
*Prayer requests --> Especially during my summer assignment in Phoenix
So here you go. The first of many, much randomness :]
Blessings,
~Kat K.
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