Christ Made Us Holy!

I pray you all had a wonderful day celebrating our Savior's birth! My family (pictured left) spent the night at my parents' house so we could all wake up together on Christmas day. I don't think we've done that since I was in middle school. Praise God for blessed family time!

Tomorrow my friend Matt (worked with TouchGlobal last year) and myself will start the 12 hour drive to NEW ORLEANS!!! I praise God for the chance to serve there the next two weeks and I look forward to seeing friends.

Please pray:
1) We have teams from MD, CA, KS, and IL coming to serve. Please pray for them as God works in them and through them for His Kingdom purposes. They will be serving on Castle Rock's new property, Ms. Cammie's home, and Ms. Valerie Thomas's home. Pray for God to call people to come back and serve as an intern or staff!
2) I will have the chance to see ALL of my summer 2011 interns over these next 2 weeks. Please pray for our time together and that we'd all be a mutual encouragement to each other!
3) I am still in the process of raising support and will be traveling after New Orleans to St. Mary's GA, Jacksonville FL, and up the coast. Please pray that God would open up opportunities to share what He's doing through me and through the ministry and stir up in people's heart a desire to partner with me in His work! If you're in that part of the world let me know! Love to see you!

Thank you so much for praying and for your partnership in God's work through me! I couldn't do this without God and without you all! I'm looking forward to sharing all that God is doing that He might receive all the glory, honor, and praise!

Love ya!
Katie :)

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God

"Welcome to our World" by Chris Rice

click here to give online

God is working after Hurricane Irene

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for your prayers while I traveled around NC! It was a blessing to see friends and share what God is doing in my life and in the ministry.

Two cool God Stories from this past week were:

I had lunch with Norm from Greenville NC. I first met Norm after Hurricane Irene went through and pulled up three of his trees..none of which hit his home, Praise the Lord. Norm shared with me how one of his friends we helped and shared with their family the love of Christ has since that visit started to attend church! They were so touched by our willingness to help complete strangers and show them God's love and kindness that they wanted to know more about this faith! We praise God for using this storm to transform people's lives!

I also got to help with One Harbor Church's Crisis Response team this past Saturday. After Hurricane Irene, this church saw an opportunity to reach out to their community and started gathering volunteers from the church to hold work days on Saturdays! You can find out more on their blog: http://ohccrisisresponse.blogspot.com How cool to see the body of Christ have a desire to show His love to their neighbors! God is awesome!

This week I'll be more locally stationed out of my parents' home, visiting with friends and family. Next Monday, I'll be headed down to New Orleans for two weeks! I'm so excited to see everyone, including ALL of my summer 2011 interns!! woot woot! Praise the Lord for a chance to reconnect with them and continue sharing God's love with the people of New Orleans!


If you'd like to give towards God's work in me, click here!

Merry Christmas!
Katie :)

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"
Phillipians 4:4

Go Forth and Invite!

Hi Everyone!

My blog title "Go Forth and Invite" comes from a conversation I had the other day with a fellow long term staffer who is also raising support. We coined it as we shared stories of God's provision when we are obediently inviting people to pray about becoming a ministry partner.

The word "invite" came from the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22:1-14. This guy wants to throw a wedding banquet but no one wants to come so then he sends out his servants to invite anyone they find. But once the people arrive, the king throws out a guy for not wearing wedding clothes. haha. I definitely still need time to process the parable but the last verse is what stuck out to me. It says:

For many are invited,
but few are chosen.

This verse really encouraged me as I remember that my responsibility with support raising or ministry partnership development is to INVITE! I must invite people to pray about joining God's work through me. It is God's responsibility to pick out the ones He wants on the team. He is the one choosing who will come alongside me in His work.

I pray and ask God that He chooses quickly but more importantly in His timing. So please join me in praying that God would give me courage to invite and the Lord would choose exactly who He wants and they would be obedient to His leading!

Love you guys!

Katie :)

By the Power of Christ in Me...

This has been a really great song for me to hear and sing along to right now. I pray it encourages you as well.

It's Casting Crowns' song "In Me"
you can also watch the video by clicking here

Lyrics below:
If you ask me to leap
Out of my boat on the crashing waves
If You ask me to go
Preach to the lost world that Jesus saves

I'll go, but I cannot go alone
Cause I know I'm nothing on my own
But the power of Christ in me makes me strong
Makes me strong

Cause when I'm weak, You make me strong
When I'm blind, You shine Your light on me
Cause I'll never get by living on my own ability
How refreshing to know You don't need me
How amazing to find that you want me
So I'll stand on Your truth, and I'll fight with Your strength
Until You bring the victory, by the power of Christ in me

If You ask me to run
And carry Your light into foreign land
If You ask me to fight
Deliver Your people from Satan's hand

To reach out with Your hands
To learn through Your eyes
To love with the love of a savior
To feel with Your heart
And to think with Your mind
I'd give my last breath for Your glory

Thankful for Cookies!

Hi there!

So yes the joke is Katie does not go near a kitchen...I don't cook and have no desire right now to learn. However, because of my great friend Kristen, she showed me how to bake the most amazing cookies ever. So that's what I do, bake cookies, chocolate chip and chocolate chip-less are about the extent of my cookie baking but it's a start.

The reason I'm writing this blog is because I didn't realize how much I loved baking cookies with friends until I had to bake them by myself. It just wasn't the same. This got me walking down memory lane and I started thinking about all the people I have baked them with.

The list goes: (if I forgot you I'm sorry!)
1) The amazing Kristen who taught me how in Colorado and came all the way to NOLA to bake more with me! LOVE YOU GIRL and YOUR AWESOME FAMILY!
2) Kari from Canada and Ross from PA - it was a Sunday after church and we didn't have much to do but felt like baking. haha. Remember we even made one giant cookie and gave it to my neighbors!
3) One time after a block party with Matt, Shelby, Jen, and Jeremy in the LA house listening to Mumford and Sons in the background.
4) This summer at the guy's house on the north shore with Dustin, Keri, Ronnie, Chelsea, Jen, Shelby, and more. I did such a great job of delegating that when I asked "Who hasn't done something yet?" the response in one voice was "YOU!" haha!
5) This past November I made them twice - first with my girl Kim who even stirred in the 5+ cups of flour by hand...she's amazing! second - with Terah and Laura who came all the way from Maryland to hang out! Thanks so much girls!

So yes I'm thankful for cookies that brings friends together and provides fun and laughter and fellowship as we then eat the deliciousness the cookies and of our hard work!

Who will I bake them with next I wonder??

Katie :)