I can't help but wonder about God here. Since arriving, God has stood out to me in radical marvelous ways leaving me wide-eyed and breathless in His beautiful ocean of love. It's quite strange frankly because for some random stupid reason I couldn't feel it so strongly before! God has His comforting hand on me and has for a very very long time.

WOW!

Let me just lay it down this way... God has provided for me through the movement of others a lot EVERYWHERE! I can't seem to slip away from God's amazing generosity! It's beautiful!! No matter what it was, a free Jamba Juice drink, a ten dollar bill, a new pair of flip flops, someone not letting me pay for my own meal, or even something as simple as a lovely flower on the pillow, all these come from God through the workings of open minded people. And seeing these actions played out, I cant help but want to GIVE GIVE GIVE in return! I want my mind to be opened like that! Ready to give away something of yourself, whether its your time or a few bucks from the pocket, I am ready! So many of us go to God and say, "provide this for us, let him or her see this, don't let this happen to my family." But we seem to forget that God very often works his fingers through the obedience of His children. And it says in the book of James 2:24 "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." Like Abraham! Remember how he was willing to sacrifice his son for the Lord, and just as he was about to lower the knife, God called out to him and Abraham instantly had the fear of God! He had faith! You see, he was active in His works, and faith was completed by His works. And it works like that for one another! If we are to be a family in Christ, which we are, we should be putting our faith in works and obedience in helping one another! That is such a huge way that God works, and i have witnessed it here!! You guys!! It's never never never something that you will regret! Regret doesn't come with God.

So, keep listening, keep waiting, and keep giving to ANYONE around you because God speaks and works with us in the RADDEST ways =]

Missing Ellensburg weather, so enjoy it as much as you can for me!

Your sister in Christ,

Kay

Just Sitting under this Banyan Tree...

Wow, God is good hey?! Since I have been here, i can't stop thinking of how much God has blessed me. I mean, of all the places where God would put me to go out and share His unbelievably awesome name, Turkey and Russia are the places He wants me to go!!! TURKEY AND RUSSIA! I am nothing but excited to go and do Gods work there. My group consists of two leaders, and eight students. Four men and six ladies! Its going to be such an awesome experience for us to grow closer together as a family as well as growing even closer with Christ =] We haven't yet been told exactly what we will be doing, but I do know that we will have the chance to love on people, which you all should know I love to do!

So, after i found out about my Soon to be adventure, I realized that Russia is one of the coldest countries in the world. In fact, half of the country, no body lives there because it is so cold. I LOVE COLD WEATHER!!! God is SO good! =]

I know for a fact that this is where God wants me to be this upcoming winter, however I am still praying and waiting on the Lord to help me with finances. I have about three thousand more to raise for my outreach and I have been working a lot on fundraisers. If any of you could please keep me in your prayers for my faith that God will provide and for me to continually praise Him no matter the outcome, that would be super great! I need all the support i can get!! =]

God is doing so many ridiculous, random, crazy, exciting stuff in my life that I'm going crazy! =D In fact, this past weekend, my whole Compassion DTS and I got to take part in the huge Ironman event as security for five hours. The best part about it was that we got to work the very last shift which you all should know, that time is when all the struggling people try their every last muscle to make it to the finish line in time. It was such a different way of seeing a race... Instead of sitting back and watching it or actually running the race, I got to be the supporter and the one to root them on! Screaming at them that they are gonna make it! How awesome they are! Basically lift them up so that they know they are gonna make it. And I could tell on the looks of their faces how wonderful it felt when all these random red shirted kids were cheering them on! Those smiles were worth every second of standing for five hours =]

God is so BEAUTIFUL! Yeah!?

Soaking in His love,

Kay

We Are Loved.

Have you ever experienced Gods love?

Like, really. Have you ever fully felt the love of the Lord so strongly that your knees went weak and met the earth, your heart broke into a thousand pieces while hearing Him say three simple words, all control was lost, and all you could think about or say was... nothing. You were in so much shock and confusion, yet so over joyed and fulfilled that you could do and/or say nothing.

For me, one moment with God, the ALMIGHTY FATHER, is way way way more exiting, amazing and wonderful than a thousand places elsewhere, doing anything, with anyone!! (yeah, even Hawaii ;] ) You see, I have been hit with so many different idea sand visions of God this past week, that i honestly never deeply knew existed. And all my life, I have seen God as a good person, one who I would look to and pray every night safty over my family and for good grades on an upcoming test, a God who we were taught about in Sunday School and sang too in church... And that is all good!! Dont get me wrong! But, all that time I saw my relationship with Christ as a relationship of me wanting to show Christ how much I loved Him. Our relationship was a continuous showing of how much I was there to talk to Him and come to Him with my issues... I would never stop, shut up and listen to Him... So really, what I have found, is that God wants us to stop. Listen. And let Him love us.

Thats all He wants!

"You can not build ANYTHING but my love for you, Katrina..."

"Stop trying to earn my love, Katrina..."

"All I want is to love you!"

Christ wants to tell all of us that, right now, everyday, all the time! He loves you, He loves you, He loves you, He loves you.

In the book of Zephaniah, God is telling us how much He loves us! It says, "He will exolt over you with dancing and loud singing.."

Do you know exatly what the bible says about dancing and singing in Hebrew? The deffiniation of dancing in Hebrew is,"to spin around wildly with violent motion!" Can you imagine that!?! God, the Lord of Lords, sees you, dirty and messy from all that you got into that day! And with just a glimpse of your eye ( says the book of Songs of Solomon) His knees go weak, and he cant help but get up on His feet and start running around wildly because He loves you that much! And on top of that, He is singing!!! (Which i love!) In Hebrew, the word singing means, " screaming with a loud shrill voice..." HA! Papa, the One above, is screaming like a little girl, how much He loves me!!!! wow...

So now guys, imagine, the King of kings, seeing you in the middle of a ballroom or somthing, and with one glance of you, He instantly starts dancing, going crazy!!! He's knocking flower vases over, running into people and falling over, aswell as... He is screaming out your name with a loud shrill little girl voice!! "I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you!!!"

Wow... wow... Jesus loves me. And it is such an amazing feeling to finally get to grasp...

Thanks again for your prayers, I love them!

One hecka loved daughter,

Kay

Annyong!

Ahhhhh...

I'm finally here, exactly where I know I'm supposed to be, Kona Hawaii! It is the third day of YWAM, and let me tell you, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! Kona is beautiful in so many ways! The campus is filled with palm trees (in replace of shrub bushes back home), the ocean has a life of its own and definitely loves to show off its wave power to us. And the waking and resting of the sun? Breathtaking...

God has truly been showing me alot these past few days. Most of it includes how creative He is with everything! The heat, the lava, the trees and flowers, and the people. I room with four other girls, and it is awesome! Me and another girl are the only Americans along with a Norwegain girl and two Koreans. Now, each of them are super sweet and filled with excitment and a passion for God! But, the Koreans do NOT speak english, so for a room filled with five girls and one bathroom, it has been a little difficult trying to discuss who takes showers when and who needs to go to bed at this time and so on. But God is doing some amazing work in us. The other night, us five stayed up late eating snacks and teaching each other words in our own language(such as "Annyong" which means hello and goodbye) and it was awesome!! Did you know that Koreans eat octopus at thearters like we eat popcorn!? Yeah, i even tried some and it was very interesting! haha Anywho, the cool thing about the five of us, is that we all worship and praise the same God who loves us dearly!! Sweet eh!?

So yeah, I am nothing but happy to be here! Thank you so much for praying for me! It has brought nothing but a peace to me knowing I have so many back home thinking of me! You all are amazing!

With love to all my Ohana,

Annyong!

Katrina

9 Hours and Counting

Can you believe it!!? In exactly nine hours, my family and I will be waking up and heading off to Seattle where my starting line for the next six months will be.

Start the countdown for my return mom, cuz i cant wait to give you our next hug!!

Until then, my prayers will hold you all.

Enjoying God's Sunset,

Kay

A Tie-Dyed heart

I'm leaving in twenty two days for YWAM. TWENTY-TWO DAYS! Oh goodness, has time flown by since graduation. Honestly, i haven't really gotten to have that much time to sit and think about what God wants me to prepare myself for YWAM.

Welp, after countless trips to Lake Chelan (with a wonderful family i must say ;] ), Tennessee and San Francisco throughout the whole summer, I believe God has opened my eyes to so many different understandings on what he wants of me. I've learned more of what a child-like faith and love should be like, I've learned how wisdom plays a huge roll in our walk with Christ, I've learned that no matter what somebody may look like, smell like, act like, they have a name and God loves them just as deeply, sincerely, and truly as He loves me. So much randomness from Papa, I love it!!

So today, i got to meet with a wonderful lady and her parents to talk and learn more about YWAM and what it did in her life. Anna Milligan is super cool! Honestly, with out her and another awesome girl who has been helping me prepare for YWAM, Hannah Greene :], I would freak out and probably run away from YWAM with my tail between my legs! That's literally how scared i was. But praise God he threw me these two wonderful gal's to comfort me a support me as i take my child-like steps becoming a fisher of men. So anywho, once meeting with Anna, i began feeling so many different feelings for YWAM that has just blown me away. Kind of like my heart was taken, wrapped up, bound with rubber bands, and tye dyed with hundreds and hundreds of different colors, than thrown back in giving me this exciting and wild feeling for Gods life for me. Each color representing the way i feel and where i stand. A dash of Nervous blue, a few blobs of Ready For Growth Green, drop a bit of Totally Pumped Pink on it, with the verse Matthew 16:24 slapped on the back, and there you have it, I'm ready for take off. =]

Yours Deeply

-Kay

Jump.

Everyone has a name. Wether it be the king of England or a lonely beggar on a sidewalk, everybody has a name. I realized that this past week while going on a mission trip to San Francisco with my Youth Group. 

Matthew 16:24 says, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple my deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow me.'" 

I honestly never quite understood what it meant to "deny" ones self. But this whole trip taught me exactly what i needed to know. In the beginning of the trip, during our 20 hour drive, we stopped at a breathtakingly beautiful lake. Crater Lake. Now, i had been their before when i was very young, but getting to see it with a wider brian circumference, I realized how artistic God is! Crater lake is basically a huge volcano with a lake in the middle of it. The water is crystal clear blue with highlights of greens and yellows that give it the perfect "pop". It was so inviting! So, my youth group decided that we were gonna take a hike down to the water and jump in. 

"This will be fun!" I remember thinking, not worrying about the difficulty of it. 

Well, when we got down, i realized that really, the only way to get wet was by literally jumping off of a 20+ foot cliff...! Ah... ha, yeah i was not going to jump. Plain and simple, its too cold of water, i could hit my head on a rock, I could slip and fall to my death!, or worse! (Looking back i was totally over exaggerating.) One by one, all my friends were taking their leap and there i was, telling everybody i "didn't wanna get wet.." So, it was about time to get going and continue our trip and before i knew it, i was standing toe edge on the cliff unable to budge. 

"Jump Katrina! Come on, you'll regret it if you don't! Jump jump!!"

I can still feel it.. that free flying feeling, in the air with nothing to grasp but my good friends hand who was also falling with me. The fall was longer than i thought and i was begging for the water to come quicker. Once hitting the water and covered by the blanket of icy cold mountain water, i began begging for the water surface! I was alive! Hallelujah!!!

That night I couldn't help but see myself jumping off that cliff over and over again, believing that God Above would keep me in one piece. He told me something that night. He told me that i would be taking leaps of faith all week down in San Francisco. Step out of my comfort zone, talk to people i would never imagine myself talking to, give up myself and fall for someone who needs it. And believe me, that one week in San Francisco, i jumped.. a lot. And i can't regret it one bit, because God made me see so much more that i never even knew! I met so many amazing people that taught me so much more than i could teach them! Edgar, the desperate consumer, Radio, the lost and wounded, Phil, the fighter, Li and T., the broken beggars, Earl, the lonely traveler, Marcos and Mell, the hope seekers, and Bedee, the hope finder. Each one of them will forever and always will remain in my mind and in my prayers, God bless them all. 

"God is good. We all know that. He takes care of us, He protects us, He loves us. God is good. Btu the real question is, are we good to God..?" -Paul, the story teller. San Francisco 

Seven Days

Eighteen years have truly flown by. I remember the day i moved here to this quiet little town. I was eight and i didn't think that life would be the same as it was in Seattle. Rain was replaced with wind, trees were out of question and the answer was sage brush. Parks with swings were supposedly "lame" here. And i just didn't like it. Well, looking back at the years, I couldn't have asked for any better place to grow up in than here. God has provided me with way more than i could have asked for! Thats for darn sure. And now, I am graduating! Halelluja! So, i just wanted you all to know whats kickin it for me this coming year as a freshmen in college. I'll be attending YWAM in September, Youth With A Mission, for six months and will be back in March. My YWAM base is in Kona Hawaii. Hawaii right!!!?!?! After three months of understanding God more and building a stronger relationship with Him, my life will be working in South East Asia with orphans for the last three months. I know that God will have his hand in that area because He knows how much i love and adore children and what a blessing it is for me when i know that they have been touched. So, that is where i will be going shortly and i just wanted you all to know so that i could ask for prayer while i am away from friends and family. I'll be thinking of you all aswell and will be keeping updates on what is going up in my life over the summer! =] Keep it real.
-Kay