Sifting through emotions.

God has been teaching me through this trip that I’m suppose to do everything for Him despite difficult people or situations that are out of my control. We are called to Glorify Christ and do everything with a joyful heart. Boy is that hard for me at times. I have no problem admitting that I’m a stubborn gal who believes in justice and treating people with respect. I know I have failed and have probably frustrated some of you but my goal for when I come home in a few days is letting God be God. He is the one who will bring justice to any situation. I want to serve with joy.

Saturday we got to help out with a mobile vbs. This truck travels to different communities and presents a Sunday school lesson and skits with games. The truck turns into a stage. The kids that we saw were lethargic. Bless their hearts. Because they dont eat hardly anything They have no energy to play. That and because of their family situations some just struggle with depression ad hopelessness.

Sunday I got to play with some kiddos. I wa ms in charge of the 2-3 year old class for Sunday school. After that we were blessed with an amazing lunch made by Erica who is our missionary contact. We got to just relax and fellowship with her and her host family. After lunch we went back to the brenes house and pulled weeds for them.

Today we worked with saddle back church. We went to an orphanage to play with kids. Kinda weird bc we weren’t allowed to touch them. They seemed to enjoy being kids running around with us. While we were there and police officer brought back a boy who had escaped the home. My heart broke to pieces knowing that he wasn’t happy. He was throwing a bad fit web he got back. Throwing shelving on the ground and trashing the place. They had to hold him down til he calmed down. Pray for him. That he feel the hope if the lord and feel loved by the adults in his life.

After that we headed to an area to plant trees. When we were shoveling we noticed that the ground was filled with shards of glass and trash. It was crazy to me to see how deep it all went.

Can’t believe that we are at the end of our trip. In 5 days I will be back home. I Can’t wait to tell you all about it. Love you all.

Jesus is THE way…

So I made it to Costa Rica. It was a long flight over and all but 3 luggage made it. It is nothing but jungle here. So you can imagine the views im getting to see. Got to see a toucan and gigantic spider!! Sheesh that thing was big.

Im in the city of Jaco. It is right on the ocean. The missionary has told us some amazing stories of how God is admits this area. People are so hungry and willing to sit and listen. They have literally just walked up to us and asked for prayer. Such a reminder to me of how I am suppose to be all the time.

So far we have been painting the outside and inside of this church. We got to spend some time with the members last night singing songs ad praising the Lord. We should be done this morning. Then hopefully tonight we will get to work with save the turtle ministry. We will get to take the eggs ofthe turtles and take them to a location for them to hatchbin safety. They then will be released back. The reason why it is important to do this is bc the eggs are eaten by animals an by some of the people here. I love animals so I’m excited to be apart of it.

So it seems the word god has been speaking to me is in James and 2nd Timothy 2. Know who you are in Christ. Be an example to everyone not just those your around. I have struggled with feeling like I have to always stand up for myself and fight for what I think is right. I’m a justice kind of girl. But God is the one who will bring justice. If I am living according to Him then I can be confident that He will take care of the rest. I desire to be an example by what comes out of my mouth and my actions.

Not sure if I can get pictures up anytime soon.

More to come. Gotta get going. Love you all. Thank you for being the ones who have allowed me this time with the Lord.

Bonjour! Priez pour la France…

Hello all the way from Nice, France! I can’t believe that we have already been here for several days and already leave on Thursday. We got in the morning and headed straight to the church to get the boys settled in where they will be sleeping. Sarah and I have the honor to sleeping at the pastors house with his sweet wife Jennifer and 5 kiddos. On the human side of me I can say that this is the most beautiful place I have seen yet in my life. It is all I have imagined it to be with gorgeous architecture, flowers everywhere and winding roads.

The godly side of me just aches for this place. Statistics are that the majority of people here want nothing to do with the “religious” stuff. Been there done that. It doesn’t work so why continue to try. I was told that it takes about 100 touches to see someone come to faith. Walking around in such a beautiful God-given place you can just see the long faces people wear. You can see the hopelessness with how they carry themselves.

The second day we were here we walked around the beach in Nice and prayer/worshiped walked. Also be praying for the missionaries that come here. Majority of them leaved with their cups empty. They told us that they usually leave ministry all together because of how dry it is here.

Sunday was such a sweet day to have church amongst some of the locals. We attended the church where we are staying in the morning then went to one that is closer to the beach in the evening and got to meet more people.

Please be praying for a man named Edwin. He is an older gentlemen who struggles with depression and many other things. The church has taken him under their wings and are just loving on him. Here in France they tend to just give pills away like candy. They believe that is the way to fix it. They don’t tend to the ill here really. They are on the lower of the totem pole so if they can just give them as much medicine possibly it will make it better for them. We all know that only creates a bigger monster. Our boys have been going over to his place to clean up his apartment and to just love on him. It was neat to see him come to church on Sunday. He hadn’t come in a long time.

Yesterday we stayed at the pastors house chopping down bamboo so that it can be used as decoration for their vbs program coming up. I had an allergic reaction to something out there so I broke out all over the place. Ended up taking a Benadryl which knocked me out the entire day/night.

Today we have gone to Edwin’s to clean, some went to a basketball camp to help with that and I have hung out at the church doing some research and exploring the town.

The other morning I led the morning devotional over the second part of James 1. It talked about being doers of the word. We should be quick to listen and slow to speak. Oh how that has been so hard for me in my life but God has helped change that. I know that when I am slow to speak the Lord always grows me. The msg. says it like this…”He is our gardener and we are the landscape” We will never grow if we are always the ones trying to feed ourselves with what we already have. We need much more than that.

What would your life look like if you just merely listened to the word and nothing else? Wow, I never want to go back to that place in my life. Yet I never want to be content with where I am now. I just want to be a doer.

so a verse that spoke to me was 2 cor. 10:5 ..”take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

K. Those are my ramblings of the week. We leave thursday for our Debrief. Continue to pray that God is our first and that we can finish this last leg of the trip strong.

au revoir! (bye)

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It’s a “See you Later”, not a goodbye…

Leaving Uganda and the orphanage was harder than I thought. Although I was there a little over a week I felt my heart get heavy not wanting to leave. God is doing amazing things there and I consider myself blessed to have been apart of it. Hopefully I’ll get to go back.

The last day there was hard for me. I didn’t want to say goodbye and got attached to many children and adults already. One lady who I just adored and for some crazy reason she adored me too. In fact she called me the crazy munzugu. Her name is Mama Flower. She is a precious precious woman of the Lord with so many talents. She runs an organization that makes the paper beads and purses etc. The organization helps women who have run from the war and don’t have many options are surviving or making any money. She makes these items and gives it to them so that they can sell them to help support themselves and/or family. What a servant’s heart this woman had. So on the last day as we were saying our goodbyes I could tell she was avoiding me. I too was avoiding her bc I didn’t want to ball like a baby. So when I went up to her she said is her precious accent, “I don’t want to say goodbye Katherine. No goodbye.” I told her that it was a see you later not a goodbye. So as the van was leaving she said bye to everyone but me and before she closed the door she said see you later Katherine. Tears are coming now just thinking about it. My heart will forever be in Mbale, Uganda with those adorable children and God send woman and men.

Enjoy the pictures!!!

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Birthday in Africa

Thank you all for the bday wishes on Facebook. I had a great birthday. Wish you all could have been with me to celebrate. It was weird bc there was no 4th of July celebrations competing with my birthday. I started the day off with my first gift from the group… Orange juice!!! Oh how I missed my oj every morning.

We worked at the orphanage until evening. There were lots of painting going on the past week. After work I was told to take a quick shower and be ready to head out. They took me to “chat n chino” the coffee/food shop. We had hamburgers and fries. I got to open a few sweet gifts. Some chocolate bars and monopoly Indian style. I was sooo excited. It is so old and they found it in one of the shops in town. Then they heard that brownies and ice-cream was my favorite so I got to watch “my candles” aka firework sparklers that we outside use only. The pictures are priceless of my face.

We came home and I got one last gift. They also sneakily found out that I love Julia Roberts so they found a movie of hers. We tried to watch it but the DVD player smoked like crazy bc of wrong converters being used. That was interesting to see.

Anyways. I’m just hanging out at the church in France typing on my iPhone.

Pictures hopefully soon. Love u!

Church Ugandan Style

Church was so beautiful today. It was long but the music was so sweet to my ears as well as the african dancing! It is so neat to me to be able to experience the same God in so many ways, languages, cultures etc. May the Lord continue to be lifted by many!

I got my toes and hands done yesterday. No polish but a much-needed scrubbing was in order for my feet! I just could not stand it anymore. It was a blast to experience a african hair salon. I am so amazed at how they do hair. I watched a lady go from beautiful long hair to beautiful short hair. They were just ripping and cutting it out like no business. Amazing! Then you know when you are in the asian nail salons and they look at you, then your feet, then they say something to the person next to them. You just know they are saying, “Oh girl look at her feet….” So that happened to me here and I just smiled and acted like I understood them because after that the guy comes up to me and asks if I understood what he was saying. So I told him no and he had a priceless look on his face like whew! bahahahahha. I laughed so hard.. I was the only muzungu in there so it was quite the experience.
Did I mention how much I love it here?!!!I might possibly get to watch some ladies make the paper bead necklaces and I’m so thrilled. They are so fun and beautiful. Tomorrow I am going back to the orphanage to probably paint more and have some craft time with the girls while the boys build wooden box car type things.

Alright, time is short. Have a great 4th of July!! Enjoy pictures if I get them up.

Elephants, Giraffes OH MY!!!

Hey everyone! I made it to Uganda!!! It is so beautiful here, I can’t believe my eyes! The weather is so amazingly cool. I am feeling so much better and haven’t slept like I have in a long time. We got to the airport and then had a 5 hour drive to Natalie’s home where we are staying. Sarah our cook had dinner ready for us but I could barely stay awake to eat it so I went to bed soon after.

We got up and headed towards the orpanage around 10 in the morning. It is so funny because both in India and Uganda they are on their own time schedule. So if you say 9am it could mean 10am or later. We got to the home and the kids were in school so we got a tour the entire area. Natalie told us some amazing stories of how the orphange began and how God has just answered so many prayers and provided so many things that couldn’t have possibly happened with us humans.

The land that the orphanage is on was haunted and considered bad. The land was used as a body mass fill during the war. Nothing but bad things happened on the land, it was cursed, no one would thrive on the land and basically the gangs would stay there. No one would come on it especially at night. So when the vision came from a church back in Houston the Locals didn’t think they would last because no one had. So they basically said lets wait and see how long these Christian people will last. Well it has thrived by the Lord for six years now. Not only did the children who are there benefit but it has brought the local community together and they have a great partnership with them. The leaders came and prayed over the land before the first building was started. Now they have a school all the way up to p8 which is 8th grade. They have 2 dormitory like buildings for the younger girls and boys. A hostel is where the older girls live which is like a house with 4 in each room. Their vision is to build a boy hostile for the older boys and add 20 more kids. Their vision is 130 kids and they are at 110 right now!!!

So after that I got to jump in a begin to paint their murals. I as sooo overjoyed. I don’t think I didn’t stop smiling for the entire night. I prayed the Lord would give me the gift of being able to do that and he provided. He is sooo good! I’m so grateful that he has blessed me with the gift and that he is allowing me to use that here in Africa. All Glory goes to him!!! There isn’t as much interaction with the kiddos since they are still in school but we have about 45minutes before we leave to hang out and one little one has already stolen my heart. Her name is Stella and she is the newest and can cry at a whim when she gets scared of people. Also an older women named Rita is special to me probably just because she shares my Grandma’s name and I adore her. But her smile is so genuine and sweet. I love it here!!!!!