2 Firsts in 2 Weeks!

Hi Hi!

Praying everyone is having a great weekend and spending time with God!

I got to spend the week with a returning team, Black Rock Congregational in Fairfield CT. It was awesome! They are such a great group and they had another great week in NOLA. God really taught them the importance of compassion and how to love each other along with the people of NOLA! I'm soo grateful this church is a part of my life! We have 2 returning teams this week: Trinity EFC from Plainview MN and Trinity Western University from Canada! Good to reconnect and please pray for their time here as well!

My momma is coming Thursday! hollerrrrr! Can't wait to spend time with her and I'm glad she's coming to catch me after my marathon! hehe.

yes my FIRST MARATHON EVER IS SUNDAY FEBRUARY 28TH!!! Please please please pray! I got up to 19.5 miles so please please pray God will give me the strength to complete this race He's given me! If you'd like to pledge for my race, there is still plenty of time! Just send me an email at katiehooks@gmail.com

I'M GOING TO HAITI for the FIRST time! March 4th through the 7th! Please pray for my trip! Please pray for my time there. Please pray for protection! Please pray that my trip to Haiti will open my eyes to the sufferings of God's children and will transform me to love God more and love His children more! Pray I will see God's greatness and goodness in my time there! I'll be headed there to train Trinity who is taking on coordinating volunteers and help set up our office. I'm excited to see everything first hand but also realize how challenging it will be as I've never been to a 3rd world country especially not after a major crisis so please pray God would prepare me for what I'll see and experience in Haiti.

I finished my February newsletter so let me know if you would like one! katiehooks@gmail.com

Thanks for being a part of my life and for your prayers! Please Please let me know how I can be praying for you!

Love ya!

Katie :)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

SAINTS!! Here we come to get YOU!!!

Hello Faithful Blog Readers!

I have NO teams this week! So you might ask, well what do you do?? Haha, catch up on everything I haven't done yet, like Feb newsletter, thank yous, preparing for the next TEN weeks of teams...and have fun catching up with my NOLA girls I don't see much when I'm working...God has really blessed me with solid girl friends here who I can talk with, vent with, pray with and I'm super blessed to have them in my life! Me and Eliza below after the first Mardi Gras parade of the year! (yes it's a family-friendly parade!)

PRAISE:
1) God gave me the strength to run 19.47 miles on Saturday! There is NO way I did that on my own!
2) SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!! yayayay!
3) Bringing awesome teams last week, Meriden and Chippewa (pic below)! And for Ms. Jeri, SueBeth, Lori, and Chase who rocked in the kitchen and rocked in general! Loved having them here too! PRAYER:
1) Get my newsletter finished this week!! Write my Thank Yous!
2) I'd be less selfish with my time and more giving of my time to serve God in whatever way He asks.
3) I still need to multiply myself...basically work my way out of a job as my boss says...so please pray for wisdom and guidance as the spring break rush begins that God would begin working in someone's heart to come down and do what I do...releasing me to be involved in other parts of the ministry.

HAITI UPDATE:
We are still developing partnerships and logistics for taking teams to Haiti. Right now our need is for small constuction teams WITH 3rd world experience. contact me at haititeams@efca.org if you can help in this way! Also contact me if you would like more info on how to help in general!

Thanks so much for your prayers! I definitely love it here in New Orleans and I thank God for giving me the chance to be here! More than likely, I will be staying longer than the summer...but pray as well that I give my future to God and allow Him to work out the details!

Saints Superbowl Champs!!! :)

Love,

Katie

"And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him." Hebrews 11:6

Never Satisfied But Always Content

Hi Everyone!


I hope you're all doing well! It has been a crazy couple of weeks and I'm now starting to recover from the mad-rush of coordinating medical teams which we ended up cancelling due to the change of needs...I'm now focusing on coordinating construction teams down to Haiti, with possibly having help from another missionary that is here to help multiply me! If interested in going, please email haititeams@efca.org.

The title of my blog comes from a devotion I did. It says, "While we are never satisfied with our spiritual progress, we're always to be content in Christ." So yes our spiritual walk with God will always be a long process of us realizing we have so much more to learn about God, so much to learn about how we should live, we're constantly pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (phil 3:14)....BUT we can always be content in Christ no matter the circumstances (phil 4:11). So yes continue pressing on knowing that we can be content in Christ...Godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6)

Praises:

1) On Saturday I took 24 hours off from work for probably the first time in a while! It was great! Rest is good! Helps me learn to trust God more because I can't be responsible for everything.
2) Up to 15.5 miles for my marathon..woohoo!
3) God really has multiplied us here on staff and excited to see the body of Christ rise up to help us!

Prayer Requests:

1) the Meriden EFC and Chippewa EFC teams that are here this week! Pray they learn more about God this week and grow closer to Him!
2) My boss Mark Lewis is returning from Haiti tonight...he was there for 2 weeks so pray he can find rest at home with his family and spend time with the Lord!
3) Next week we have no teams, then we have 10 straight weeks of teams...please pray that I would spend next week preparing for how God would use me during this time..that I would be praying for God to work in the volunteers' lives (which may lead some to join us here on staff)...praying the community would come to know Christ and put their hope in Him...praying I would seek God and continue to rely on Him!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please pray for me and God's work here!

Love,
Katie :)

“However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"" 1 Corin 2:9