Well Folks, my life has changed significantly in the past couple of weeks. The plan three weeks ago was to continue living my life in Huntington and working at Pathfinders. However, one call from a friend changed it all. My friends Rachel and Austin work for Rosedale Mennonite Mission in Columbus, Ohio. They train groups to go out on short term missions for 9 months. As one of their team leaders dropped out Rachel called and ask me to consider applying. I told her I would think about it, secretly thinking I wouldn't think that hard. However, over the course of a week my attitude changed significantly.
A team leaders roles are similar to an RA position. Essentially it is the support for the whole team, in charge of discipleship all the way to budgeting. So after being offered the job and having an intense discussion of Jesus I decided to take the job. My decision essentially boiled down to God reminding me of all the times I sang in service "if you say go, I will Go" God called my bluff, and now I'm going to India
Time Line-
Aug 22 leave for Columbus. 22-29 will be leadership training and then from Aug 30 to Nov 20something Will be our team training also known as Discipleship Training School. During this time we will get to know each other as a team, volunteer various places around Columbus, get language and culture training, and sort out our baggage (both physically and emotionally)
Nov 20something to Nov 28 week off for thanksgiving
Nov 30 leave for Varanasi, India. The holy city of India
Over 17 percent of the world’s population lives in India on 2.4 percent of the world’s land surface. In India, over 600 million of its people live in deep poverty, and 300 million live below the means of daily survival. This team will be working alongside an established YWAM base. Outreach possibilities include teaching English as a second language, both rural and urban evangelism, prison ministries, leper ministry, friendship evangelism, and physical labor.The team is small because of the need to travel mostly by rickshaw (a cart pulled by a bicycle or scooter).
The Hindi people are glad to add Jesus in as one of their many deities but have great difficulty in accepting Him as the one and only true Savior.
South Asia is considered a closed country to Christianity. Therefore the team will have to use wisdom in how they share Christ and use caution in communication with people back home.
Aug 2011 arrive home!
So that is my one year plan. If you wish to be apart of it, I will try to keep you posted(literally) on my happenings throughout training and my time in India.
Some prayer requests- It was hard to make the decision to leave Huntington. Not only was I apart of something good in Huntington, I was experiencing true community and growth unlike any time in my life. This will be a hard to not be a part of. Things in my life were just starting to come together and now I'm leaving. I know God will use me in India and find other people to serve in the places where I'm leaving. I do know this, but just accepting it is where I need prayer.
Financially- I don't have to raise much support so that is a blessing, however I am having trouble with my Americorp end of the year stipend. I am leaving three weeks early,and although hours wise(due to tax season) I have completed all that I need to, I am three weeks short. I am not sure I will get any of the stipend which will be a great disappointment. Please pray that God will work this out, either by getting a prorated sum of it, or provision in another form.
That is all Folks
Here is a link to SEND ministries http://www.send-me.org/ if you want to check it out
Hey- Jon and I live in Columbus so if you want tips about cool places to visit or a home cooked meal some time. Look us up!
ReplyDeleteJody
Kater-
ReplyDeleteI love you sister, and will be PRAYING! I know that you are trusting God with your life, and all of it, and this is such a beautiful thing to watch a sister in Christ do. I am proud of you and just want you to know how encouraging it is to see you trust and how it encourages me to trust more.
Brother Brown
Hiii Katie,
ReplyDeleteSo great to hear about the exciting news on India! : ] Transition is never easy, but God has not called us to a comfortable life. I feel like every time I am stretched beyond my comfort zone, God meets me in that EXACT place and blesses me abundantly. I will definitely be praying for you sister! : ] -Natalie from NY
woot woot!!! so cool!!! look at God sending all of us out... i will be praying for you, please keep us updated :0) i know all about the difficulty of leaving the great community that is the 509, though you were way more involved in it...leaving behind what one is familiar with can already by so difficult in and of itself, but it is especially difficult when one is leaving something really really good behind. I love Senegal and have always been eager for the day when the Lord would finally send us back, but with time i started to get more and more acquainted with huntington, with its people, with families, its church community, and i grew to LOVE so much about it, and then, just at that moment, the Lord pulled me out of it all to go back to Senegal, which made it a little more difficult than if he'd done it a few year ago, when i wasn't near as attached... so i know how that goes, BUT, as we say here, "yalla baxna" God is good; the Lord is faithful and good; he's allowed for us to gain, to grow, to be challenged and stretched by being a part of the community of Huntington and by being a part of the 509 community as well, he has been working through and for us, these last many years, for these moments (amongst many others) so let us rejoice, in what he is about to do with and for our lives, so that ultimately he gets back all the Glory through our living out his love towards others who do not yet know it and desperately long for it...plus anyway, as another just wrote in her newsletter, as she prepares to leave to go work in an orphanage in Chad for 2 years, she can take comfort and delight in knowing that there is one person who she'll never have to say goodbye to when she travels (and so can we)...She quoted this passage:
ReplyDelete“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” (Psalms 139: 9-10)
i shall leave you with that...it is soooo true and so comforting :0)