The Full Experience...

It's been almost 3 weeks in Africa and I'm beginning to wish that I could stay longer. I'm a little torn because I miss my family and home, but I'm starting to get used to it here and there are so many more things I want to see! 


I got to go to another slum the other day and it was an amazing experience. 


Saturday morning: It started off pretty chill. I ate breakfast, read a book, prepared something for Sunday, and basically just took my time. At around 2:00 I began walking to meet up with the children's pastor. He called and told me that he was at the main gate... I didn't know which gate was the "main gate" so I walked to the gate that I was familiar with.. He wasn't there so I walked outside of the compound and began looking for the main gate.. We ended up passing eachother and it was about a 1/2 hour before we actually met up! It was fine though, I enjoyed my adventure of walking around Africa by myself haha. Though I did get a lot of strange looks from people as I walked by (I guess it was pretty obvious that I didn't know where I was going... Plus I was probably the only white person they had seen all day). 

Anyway, eventually we met up and we began walking to the slum nearby called Mathare. I got the full experience. Before I got there we stopped along the road to try a local treat. I forget what they called it but it basically tasted like popped corn.. but from fresh corn!  It was a huge slum, way bigger than Marurui (the first one I went to).The first part was like a huge outdoor mall. You could find almost anything you wanted there from dresses, socks and jewelry, to raw meat, peanuts and rocks people would eat, believe it or not, to get the iodine in their systems (yes, I was surprised by that too). Almost everywhere I went small children would yell out "how are you!" (which was probably the only English words they knew) or "Mazungo!" (which is their word for "white person"). Kids would gather around everywhere I went to shake my hand or try out their English. I had the time of my life and would go back any day :) 

It was amazing to see how many kids were there. And if I would stop anywhere there would be an instant crowd that would listen to anything I said.. What an amazing mission field! That's one reason I would love to stay longer. No where else have I found such a captive audience as in these children, ready to soak up anything I had to say. 
    

Oh! And I also had my first ride in a Matatu (the common transportation system in Nairobi) and also got to ride on the back of a motor bike to get the rest of the way home. It cost me 50 shillings (which is basically 50 cents!). Oh how I love Kenya :) I feel like I got the full experience that day, though I was so tired the next day from all the walking around and staying up late that I could barely get out of bed to go to church :P (I ended up having a 3 hour nap later in the day.. It was glorious).


Anyway, enough talk for now :) 
Next time I'll tell you all about the day to day life here and all the random things God is showing me :) 


Thanks for paying attention


- Katelynn 
Bada ba ba bah... ;)

Day 8 (Happy Thanksgiving ;)

So, it’s day 8 in Africa, and I’m loving it. It just started to sink in last night that I am actually here. I was thinking about my calling and how long I’ve wanted to do this, and I realized that I’m living out my dream. It’s the craziest feeling to know that you’re right in the center of God’s will. It may not always be easy getting there and you may have a lot of doubts along the way as to if you are doing the right thing. I just know that when I start getting a lot of déjà vu moments from dreams I’ve had, I know I’m where I’m supposed to be.

I went to the slums yesterday and was struck by the intense poverty. Their houses reminded me of little forts I used to make as a kid. I always thought it would be so much fun to live in one of my forts… The difference though, is that I could always come back inside my nice, warm, furnished house when I was tired of living in my little fort… These people have no where else to escape to. They have mud floors, no insulation, most don’t have running water, and the houses are all claustrophobically close together. You could see the pure hopelessness on people’s faces. It makes me realize that, for the ones that are saved, God is really all that they have. I know I can't help every one of them.. I barely have enough money to get through school right now haha, but such as I have, I can give to them. That verse is really making sense to me now (Acts 3:6). I can't give them money, but I can give them hope.  

God is so good. I'm glad to be here, and I'm thankful for all of you who have been praying for me :) Everything has worked out beyond my expectations.

Stay blessed!

HUGE AFRICAN YARDSALE!

I know it may be a  little soon for another blog, but I had to tell you all about today.

I was told yesterday that I would be helping out with a sale the Jacaranda Creations ladies were going to. So I got up this morning and went to the school where they would be selling. After we set up I was lead around the biggest African yard sale I've ever seen. I was in my element!
   As most of you know already, I love yardsaling :D It was like a huge community yardsale, only with tons of African dresses, jewelry, and other memorabilia. It was fantastic :) I'm starting to get used to being here, and I really love it.
 
You all may be wondering what exactly I will be doing here. So far I've been trying to help organize the children's ministry for their church. I will probably visit the slums soon (which is where a lot of the kids are from that go to the church). I will also be teaching some music too for the family I'm working with :)

That's all I know so far :)
More updates to come!

p.s. I keep trying to get in the wrong side of the car... It will take a while to get used to that

First Impressions

So, It's my first week here and it's been amazing!

     Flying here was a little crazy. I had 2 layovers: One in New York and the other in Amsterdam for 3 hours each. So, basically I left on the 15th at 12:30 in the afternoon and got here on the 16th at 8:30 p.m. (not including driving time before and after). The good thing is that everything went smoothly and I didn't lose my luggage.

     I almost lost my water bottle at the beginning because I forgot to dump the water out before I went through security, but I walked back a few minutes after they took it from me and they gave it back to me. Praise God! (I had just bought it the day before and wasn't about to waste my $5.00 haha)

     So, Africa... One of the first things I noticed was that everyone drives on the left side of the road. I found this out when I tried to get in the right side of the car only to have the taxi driver direct me to the other side. The next thing I noticed was that everything was in English (which I found out is their main language here). As we were driving down the road towards the house I would be staying at, I saw lots of tall buildings and advertisements. You would almost think (driving there in the night time) that we were in a large city in America. Though, the roads were a little rough at some points and randomly would turn into dirt roads for a few hundred feet.

    I didn't get to see a whole lot of the scenery the first night because it was already dark when I arrived. But the next morning I woke up to see the most beautiful sight. It almost looked like a jungle right outside the window. Everywhere you go there are awesome trees and flowers and vines... The American botanical gardens have nothing on this. In my personal opinion- who wouldn't want to live in Africa? I'm loving it here.
  I was going to take a bunch of pictures but I lost my phone the first full day I was there (pray that I find it). I will hopefully be able to access a camera sometime soon, but for now I will just have to describe everything.

      Oh, good news, I inhaled a bug yesterday. It was fantastic.... I wasn't sure at first if I had actually inhaled it, but a few minutes later, my suspicions were confirmed when I coughed the little critter up... It wasn't the most pleasant experience of my life :P.

       
God has been so good. Almost every prayer I've prayed for this trip has been answered. The flights went smoothly, my luggage didn't get lost, my cold is getting better, and I'm not even experiencing any jet lag. I love the family that I'm working with. All of their daughters are so welcoming and I feel almost part of the family.

If you think about it please pray for:
- My health (my eye has started acting up a little)
- That I'll find my phone
- Grace to be able to accomplish everything that needs to be done while I'm here (I still get nervous talking to new people and I'm definitely out of my comfort zone :P)

Thank you all for reading and for your continued prayer support :)

Stay Blessed!

- Katelynn
Loving it

Part 2

 So, in my first blog I told about my actual calling to do children's ministry in Africa. Now, I will tell you about the way God made it happen. 




     I am currently a student at FIRE School of Ministry in Concord NC. The 3 year program that I am taking requires me to do a 16 week internship either with FIRE or some other ministry, either local or overseas. At first, being the "stay where it's comfortable" type person that I am, I figured I would stay at FIRE and intern under the worship leader there as well as with the children's pastor. That sounded great to me! Just stay where I'm at do what I've been doing (with some added responsibility of course). It was already figured out for me and I didn't even have to call anyone I didn't know (which is one of the things I'm pretty much terrified of doing) :) 
    Anyway, I ended up talking to my lovely sister on the phone one night, and she suggested to me that I get out of my comfort zone and do something that will really stretch me for my internship. And naturally she suggested working with her. That sounded pretty good to me too. Get out of my comfort zone a little bit by going to another country, but still be close to people I know. So, I wrote a few people and started trying to plan my trip... Nothing really opened up there. People wouldn't get back to me and.. I honestly didn't feel specifically called to that place. 
     During the process of trying to work with my sister, a door had opened for me to work at a church here in Concord. I walked through that one, deciding to do a split internship (half in Concord and half wherever else) and told them I might be headed to another country after 12 weeks, but if it didn't work out I would stay the whole 16. 
     By this point I had pretty much given up working with my sister, and I started thinking about my true calling. I knew God had called me to Africa, but I didn't know anybody there.. How on earth could I even get there? 


      I don't exactly remember how it came about, but I remembered that the Keans lived in Africa, but I hadn't seen them in years. I didn't even know if my parents kept in touch with them or not. But, this crazy idea popped into my head. What if I just found them on facebook and sent them a quick message asking if they were looking for an intern. It wouldn't hurt to try. So, I wrote them, and I waited. I checked every day just to see if they would write back. I told God, "if this somehow strangely works out, I'll know it's your will." 
        About 2 weeks later I got a reply.. and it was positive :)


      The whole situation was so random and so unexpected that I can really only see it as God working in my life. He knew the whole time, I just had to step out a little bit and give him the chance to work. 


    Needless to say, I'm pretty scared out of my mind right now! I'm going to be flying all by myself across the ocean. Staying with people I don't know. Working in a country I've never been to before. Interning with people I only vaguely remember seeing as a child. I know God has a plan and thank him for stretching experiences. He is good. 


Phil 1:6
"..being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."






     It's all set. I will be headed to Nairobe, Kenya. I can't wait to see how God will use and change me there. The only thing I need to do now (besides getting four-thousand inoculations) is to raise the money to get there (another thing I hate doing.. Thank the Lord for stretching experiences... I've pretty much said goodbye to my comfort zone) 


         I need to raise $4,000 in a little over a month and a half. God has been faithful so far, and I know that He will continue to be :). If you would like to help support my missions trip/internship, you can give a tax-deductible gift online at the FIRE website (Just be sure to specify who and what it is for so that it will get to me). Or you can do it via snail mail, 


FIRE School of Ministry
P.O. Box 5108
Concord, NC 28027
If you'd like to send it directly to me, just find me on facebook and message me :). I'll work it out from there! 


Whether or not you can give, I would definitely appreciate your prayers as I travel to another country.


Once again,
thanks for paying attention. 


- Katelynn

My calling

Hey! 
       This is my first time blogging since I was pretty young, so forgive me if it doesn't meet general blogging rules and expectations :P


       I created this blog to keep people updated on the crazy things God is doing in my life, especially regarding the trips that I will be going on in the next little while. The first one I will be writing about is: 


My Call to Africa. 


I will be leaving in a little less than 2 months (just got the OK that I would be going about a month ago). Already, God has been doing amazing things. Let me first share with you my calling.. 


       When I was about 8 years old I was lying in my bed, during family camp, and I suddenly got this picture in my head. Some people may call it a vision, but all I know is that I knew it was God as soon as I saw it. I still remember it to this day. It was a picture of a stage and 2 human sized puppets (you know, the ones you see at Chuck-E-Cheese ;) dancing and praising in front of a bunch of kids. 
        As soon as I saw that, I jumped out of bed and ran to the front of the bus (yes I lived in a bus when I was younger.. another story for another time ;). I blurted out my vision/picture to my mom and told her I felt that God wanted me to be in Children's ministry when I got older. 


    Like I said before, I grew up in a bus. My family travels around doing ministry in churches across the States and Canada. Any time someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say, "I'm going to be a children's minister." Though that desire was always on y heart, I never really had the opportunity to really pour into kids lives because I was moving around all the time. 2 Years ago I started going to FIRE School of Ministry in North Carolina and got involved in the children's ministry there. It started out as a requirement, but then after the required time was up, I kept going just because I loved it so much. Now, I've been working with kids for about 2 years, and it is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. God has given me the opportunity to work with another children's ministry now, and I am currently interning under a children's pastor at a large church in NC.




I know this is kind of long already but I have to tell you the second part. 


When I was really young, I used to listen to this kid's tape series called "The Wimblies"... all the time. I had the tapes practically memorized. They were put out by Garry and Brenda Kean. I don't remember if it was actually on one of the "Wimbly" tapes or another tape by them, but there was this one song called "Bless the Children of Africa" that I would listen to all the time. Even after we couldn't find those tapes anymore, that song would always be stuck in my head. A lot of times when I would try to think of a song or just identify which song was in my head at the time (there is always a song playing in my head and sometimes I don't even notice which one it is), it would be, "Bless the Children of Africa." 


It didn't strike me that God was actually trying to tell me something until a few years later. God had been showing me, over the course of a few years, that He wanted me to go to Africa one day. He told me this a few different times. Then one day, while that song was playing in my head again, I made the connection that I was going to do children's ministry in Africa. 


Yay! Katelynn's brain takes a little while to catch up sometimes... ;P 


      Anyway, all this to say, this has been on my heart for years, and I finally have an opportunity to go. I will explain more in the next blog about how this opportunity came about, but for now, just know that God has shown me so much favor. I can't do anything without Him, and I am so excited for all the new opportunities He has placed in my life. 


       Let this be an encouragement to you. If you have a calling, a burning on your heart, God will not waste that desire. He's placed it in there for a reason and if you go after it, He will open the right doors. 


This has been Katelynn, 
blogging for the first time in years. 


Thanks for paying attention :D 
Be blessed!