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