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
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
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!
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!
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