Living Intentionally

Change

2011-09-26T16:36:00.002-05:00

Dear friends,

Many of you probably already found me there, but I now have a wordpress blog. While I loved being a part of blogger's world, I felt it was time for change. A LOT has happened since I moved blogs. I invite you to continue to follow my writings there. Thanks for reading!

Katlyn's New Wordpress Blog

Psalm 34:18

2011-02-25T00:27:00.004-06:00

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34: 18

I am traveling back to St. Louis Friday after I get out of class. I wish that I was going home for anything else besides a funeral. My heart is still broken for the Ocuaman family after the loss of Minda. Out of respect, I usually called her Tita Minda, which is aunt in Filipino. She really was like a relative to my family and me. I will always remember the Filipino congregation when I was a child in the days when it was called FAIC (Filipino American International Church).

She was such an inspiration to so many of us. In times like these, many (including myself) question why God has to take His children away from us so soon. It really hurts to know that she is gone and I quote my dad in saying this seems like a nightmare that we should be able to wake up from but it is actually real. However, I still truly believe that God still has a plan and purpose for everything - even in the midst of this tragedy.

Please continue to pray for the families. Pray for comfort for Romy, Minda's husband and their children Jes and Junior. Also pray for the Muthkumaru family as Margie and Raina are still recovering from the accident in Louisville.

The funeral arrangements for Minda are as follows:

Schrader Funeral Home

14960 Manchester Rd.

Ballwin, MO 63011

Viewing - Friday February 25 from 2:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Funeral service - Saturday February 26 from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Lastly, I want to share a song that I find most touching and uplifting for right now. It's called "Homesick" by Mercy Me.We are sad, yes, but we must celebrate the life that Tita Minda had on earth and rejoice that she is now in heaven with our Savior! Let us lean on Jesus for He can provide us the ultimate comfort.

I cannot wait to join you in Heaven, Tita Minda.

Urgent Prayers

2011-02-19T23:52:00.003-06:00

A tearful, heartbroken plea from my family and I. Please pray for the Ocuaman and Muthukumaru families.

A dear friend of my family, Minda, passed away last night in a car accident on the way to Louisville from St. Louis. She was driving and her friend Margie Muthukumaru was in the passenger with their daughters Jessica and Raina. Margie is in the ICU. Jes (Minda's daughter) had some staples on her head from a cut and has bruising on her body. Raina had a fractured arm, clavicle, and cut in her liver. She had surgery today.

They are all close Filipino friends to my family and I have grown up with them. Minda was like a sister to my parents and even helped start the Filipino church my dad planted in the early 90s. She was definitely a strong woman of God so at least I know she is up in heaven and not suffering. My heart is broken for this family and mine as they mourn this loss.

Minda's husband is Romy and also has a son, Junior. Margie's husband is Raja and they have a son, Shaan.

Please pray.

New Days, New Experiences

2011-02-07T14:25:00.000-06:00

My apologies for not writing since Christmas! Honestly I have no legitimate excuses except for my laziness. I completed my first January term and am now at the start of the spring semester. In January, I took Photojournalism 2 and Opinion Writing. So while I only had those two classes for the month, I still had a constant pile of homework. I ended up getting some pretty good photos taken in my class. My trusty new camera is great! Feel free to check out my Flickr page to see some of my work.

I am in my second week of the spring semester and I already have a LOT of work to do! I am now a page editor for the A&E section of our school's publication, Cardinal & Cream. While I'm excited for the opportunity to be in this position, I cannot help but be a little nervous and intimidated by feeling like I have a lack of experience. I know that God is in control, and these negative feelings will go away as I continue and get used to it. My professors and the staff are all great and have been more than willing to help me out which is such a blessing. I have written two articles already. Even though it is busywork, this issue was such a treat to write. One of the articles was about the upcoming concert at our school. I even got lucky enough to be in contact with the artists! For those of you that may not know, I am a huge music and movie buff! Even better, my second article was a review piece about the Academy Awards. Every article I write may not get to be that fun, but I am sure glad I got these two articles.

On top of article writing, I have a full course-loaded semester that I am sure will bring my sleep deprivation levels to greater heights. I am probably most excited about my two photojournalism courses - photo editing and social documentary. I have come to really look up to my professor and cannot wait to continue learning new things about photojournalism from him.

Some other great/scary news I have just received is that the editor-in-chief of the newspaper has asked me to go to the Southeastern Journalism Conference in Alabama. It may not seem like a big deal, but as a new student in this department, I am honestly pretty nervous about it. There are competitions involved. Our newspaper is up for awards that we have already submitted entries for, but there is also an on-site competition. There are 13 possible categories and only one student from your school group is allowed to do each category. If I do participate in this event, I do not know which will be assigned to me. EEK! Anyway, the conference is Feb. 17-19. Pray for me.

All in all, it's good to be on campus. We have a snow day today which is partially why I am making time to write.

I do have one urgent prayer request. My Great Uncle Mario (who we call Tito Mario), is having open heart surgery in St. Louis as I write this. He suffered a heart attack last Thursday. I do not know any other details at the moment, but I do ask that you join me in prayer for my great uncle and the surgeons who are working on him at this very moment.

Peace,
Katlyn

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T13:36:00.000-06:00

It's a beautiful white Christmas day and I am very blessed to be sitting in my home with family. A lot has happened, good and bad, these past months. I know everything has happened with a purpose and the God is shaping me and molding me according to His plans. I am reminded this morning how much I have to be thankful for. My family and our health, friends, shelter, food, and most importantly knowing that 2,000 years ago our Lord became flesh and sent Jesus to die for our sins. He was born to die. What a marvelous, selfless, incomprehensible act of grace and mercy. I don't have much more to say besides this and that I pray everyone has a wonderful Christmas and spends time thanking the ONE who made it possible for us to be here at all.

I also wanted to share this song that really touched my heart about why we should celebrate Christmas at all. It's called "You're Here" by Francesca Battistelli. Love it!

P.S. - I received my new camera and have been taking a LOT of pictures. Check out my flickr for some new pics.

Home Sweet Home

2010-11-22T14:18:00.000-06:00

I am glad to be home. Last week was definitely an emotionally draining one, so I ended up arriving back home a couple days earlier than I was supposed to for Thanksgiving break. There have been a lot of things going on lately that have been weighing on me and it's been a little difficult to endure, but I am not going to let it get the best of me. Just please pray for me and for the situations that have occurred recently that need prayer...

First, please continue to pray for the Brutton and Hessel families. I watched the funeral stream live on the internet. What a blessing Kathy's life was and continues to be! I have devoted my last few blogs in Kathy's honor, so please look back at those if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Second...I don't want to be all discreet, but I feel in this situation it is necessary...a dear friend of mine is going through something that is very sad and draining and I wish she would never have to go through. I gave her a call last Friday and decided that I needed and wanted to come back to see her. She has always been there for me and it would be the least I could do just to see her in person and try to comfort her. We only got to spend a couple hours together before she had other family events to attend, but I am thankful regardless that we got to hang out.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.

Anyway - I am definitely glad to be home! My family always has a lot of fun around the holidays and I'm anxious to continue to the traditional festivities. We have been decorating for Christmas and my mom and I have been planning for Thanksgiving. It ends up being a two-day cooking fest for the dinner we have on Thursday. Can't wait!

Peace and God Bless

In Memory of Kathy

2010-11-16T08:27:00.004-06:00

Our friend Kathy went home to Heaven today. My last two posts have been about her to pray for her. I ask that we still pray in rejoicing, for Kathy is no longer in pain. I ask that we still pray for the family and friends that loved her so much. She was a strong woman of God that I have admired since I was a teenager.

Mike's blog post after her death was short, but powerful. The post was titled "Victory" and he said, "Her battle is won."

She fought a great fight with more faith, grace, and courage than I could ever imagine.

I am so thankful that I was able to visit her this past Saturday. My friends Amy, Kelley, and I were able to chat with her and Mike about good memories at church and laughed a lot too. Honestly, I was nervous about going to see her because I did not want to act any differently around her or say anything that I should not. It was a wonderful visit and I praise God for that 40 minutes I was able to spend with her. I knew it would probably be my last time to see her on earth, which was difficult.

I cried on the way home that day. I am crying right now. My tears are tears of both sadness and rejoicing. At this moment, I got a text from my dad who got a text from Kathy's father, my former pastor, saying that she appreciated my visit.

I do not have much else to say but that my heart goes out to this family right now in their time of need. Continue to pray for them to be comforted in this difficult time. May God wrap His arms around Mike and their children Maddie, Sarah, and Colin.

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" Hebrews 4:16

Kathy will be greatly missed.

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." (Romans 12:12)

2010-10-22T00:46:00.001-05:00

I found this verse to be very fitting for right now. As I write to you write now at 12:30 a.m. through tears, my heart is aching for the Brutton family. Mike has just updated their blog. He told the kids the news about Kathy because she is still in the hospital. Hopefully she will get to return home tomorrow to be with her family as long as possible. I see this incredible faith continue to shine through the tragedy. It almost confuses me as to how they can be so strong in such a sad time for them. But then I realize - it is God. God is the only one who can get me, Kathy, or anyone else through our pain and suffering. Living on this earth is not to build glory for ourselves, but to the Creator. He is the only reason I am breathing right now. So why not praise Him for it? The title of this blog is "Living Intentionally". The Brutton's have brought me back to remembering why this is so important. We need to be living each day with intention. We never know when our last breath will be, so we should live each moment as our last and be thankful to God that we are still breathing life.

What I find most comforting in the midst of the sadness is how the Brutton's have looked at their situation as an opportunity. Rather than dwell on the sickness, look to the One above. Mike wrote that he hoped that Kathy's story would turn people to the Kingdom. I believe it will. It already has for me. God has a purpose for everything that happens on this earth.

Please keep Kathy, Mike, their children, and the rest of the Brutton/Hessel family in your prayers.

Where are the words?

2010-10-20T12:43:00.002-05:00

I found out last night that a friend of mine's cancer has returned. She had her stomach removed due to the cancer but it has shown up again after having tests done in the last week. The doctor's prognosis is grim. There is nothing more that will be done for her. Kathy Brutton is 32. She is married and has three children. Her husband Mike updated their blog last night. It brought tears to my eyes reading these unimaginable words. Mike said, "Please pray for Kathy and I as we tell our children that their mommy is going home to heaven." I cannot even imagine having to process this. My heart breaks at the thought. This really does not seem right. After reading the blog (which I hope you will read it as well), I had no idea how to respond. Where are the words? I ended up writing on her wall among the dozens of other posts that I will be praying for them. Prayer is all we can offer to them now. That is all they ask for.

Even in the midst of this painful news, the Brutton's are still remaining strong in their faith. I believe many who have undergone such things as cancer have questioned God's presence and meaning to why He would allow such travesty. The Brutton's do not live this way. They understand that God still has a purpose for them in all of this. They hope to further the Kingdom because of Kathy's cancer. Pretty amazing, huh? I am truly in awe and inspired by Kathy's courageous outlook she has had all along. She is a wonderful woman of God that I have had the privilege of getting to know. Kathy and Mike were my Sunday school teachers when I was in high school. I don't want to play favorites, but I have to admit they were probably the best Sunday school teachers I have had.

So please help pray for the Brutton's as they endure this time. Pray that if these are the last moments of her life that she will be able to live them out happily without pain. Pray for comfort to the family.

May God wrap His arms around Kathy and the Brutton's.

2010-10-09T11:32:00.001-05:00

I can update my blog from my phone now so hopefully I can stay more connected through txts and pics!

Life

2010-10-07T18:11:00.001-05:00

Wow I definitely got some things put into perspective for me yesterday. All day Wednesday I was complaining about all the stuff I had to do. Granted, I literally have eight papers I am currently working on, but still...I was reminded how I need to rejoice in everything that I do. Last night I saw a friend's facebook status that a friend of ours who is the church secretary at my home church was in a car accident. I immediately called my mom to see if she knew about it since I know she would just be returning home from Wednesday night church. She said she hadn't heard anything there, which I thought was odd. Well it turns out that April was probably on her way back from working at church yesterday around 4:30 and her heart stopped. Her. Heart. Stopped! This is just devastating news to me. She was found by police not breathing and was sent to the local trauma center where she is now in a coma. I'm not a nursing major anymore, but I do understand how serious this is. It is a miracle already that she is still alive after not breathing for so long. I immediately changed my facebook status to alert anyone else that knows her or doesn't to pray for her condition. The doctors cannot fully diagnose her until she is out of the coma which could take 24-48 hours. I cannot imagine how frightening this must be for her husband Jeff so if you are reading this, I ask you to please keep them in your prayers. I pray that April will wake up without too much significant damage to her heart or brain from the loss of oxygen that was not entering in the time she was not breathing.

This is just so scary for me to hear. I have to say that I felt a little guilty for complaining so much about the business in my own life when I really should be thanking my Father in Heaven that I even have a life and that I am breathing right now.

Every Step

2010-10-05T16:31:00.000-05:00

Every step of the journey has to be on mission. If not, it's a show not a ministry. This is something that really hit me over the weekend while was in the Lake of the Ozarks for Getaway Conference. I had a great weekend being rejuvenated in Christ and just being able to focus on Him without distractions. Lately I have been in another downward slump in my walk. I always feel so guilty when I get to this point and I wish I never had times like this. The weekend was really eye-opening in that I need to keep His plan in mind. One of the speakers said we need to stop telling God what we're going to do in our lives. Partially obeying is not obeying at all. I was reminded how much I have been doing this and I am thankful that the speakers and scriptures turned my attention to what I need to fix in my life.

I was also able to get a lot of photography practice in over the weekend. I ended up helping out by taking pictures of all the international students and the events going on for them. It was fun! I cannot wait until I can have a better camera. Hopefully this winter I will be able to purchase my first SLR...too bad they are so expensive! Anyway...I have been able to take some really great pictures for my assignments in photojournalism as well. My professor is so great! He is really teaching us how to develop a good eye for capturing the right moments to tell a story. Here are a few pics to show some of my progress so far!

Capturing motion

I took pictures of TOMS shoes for product assignment

My roommate for a higher perspective angle

A car with some cool lighting

I have a lot of writing to do for classes so even though I would love to keep writing on here to update you more, I think I've procrastinated homework enough.

I'm Back

2010-09-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

Hello! I'm sorry this post is long overdue! It's Friday and I am so happy it's finally the weekend because I have had a really awful week! My trusty computer decided to not be so trusty anymore after it decided to crash on me Tuesday. I took it to Best Buy and had the Geek Squad take a look at it only to find out that it needed to be sent in to be further diagnosed but of course, drum roll please, my extended warranty just expired in July. I obviously was not about to spend $80 just to find out what was wrong with it so I ended up buying an external hard drive to make sure I saved everything on my laptop before it fully dies. Right now, it still works while I have it on but I fear that it won't be much longer before I lose it. This really has not been my year for technology considering my ipod was lost/stolen last month and now I don't have a laptop. Anyway...enough with the negative.

Well I'm back to school for my second year at Union.I am taking all classes for my major and while I'm excited to dive into them, I'm also a lttle nervous. I have a ton of work to do already, but it should be fun also!
I successfully moved into our dorm, which are the newest buildings on campus. There were a few flaws in the buildings (like leaky toilets and showers streaming water from underneath into my bedroom) but I do like them overall. The new furniture is nice too. Seeing everyone has been nice...I have definitely missed my roommates and friends here. We have a new roommate this semester, too. She's really sweet and funny...I just hope we haven't scared her too much with our weird ways haha. Tonight we are decorating the dorm for fall and I'm super excited to just relax and have fun.

Many Blessings,
Katlyn

Hello!!!

2010-08-02T15:41:00.000-05:00

Wow I feel like such a slacker for not posting like all summer! While I'd like to say I've been so busy that I didn't have time to write, that's not really true. I've been enjoying my rest and relaxation at my house which has been super nice but I also feel really lazy as well. I only have three weeks left here in St. Louis and will definitely be making the most of it.

Last week was a super fun one! I spent the first part in Cape Girardeu working the Team Spirit Leadership Conference that I have worked for four years now! The people I work with there have become like family and I really wish we could see each other more than just for the conferences once a year. I also turned 21 on Friday so I had a great time! I went out to dinner with some friends at a place called Highway 61 Roadhouse. It is a New Orleans style restaurant and it was delicious! There was also a blues band performing which was a lot of fun.

I have been to a few good concerts so far like The Temper Trap/Warpaint at The Pageant, Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum, The Lilith Fair (which included Mary J. Blige, Metric, Vedera, and more), and I'm going to see Neon Trees/Civil Twilight/Paper Tongues on Thursday night at the Old Rock House. So excited! I love music so much!

As far as my movie critiquing skills go for the summer...I am shocked by the poor box office ranks so far. My top picks in movies I've seen this summer would have to be Inception, Despicable Me, and Toy Story 3. All three were fantastic and I would definitely give each of them an A rating.

I am finally going to a Cardinals game tonight! I have been waiting all summer and cannot wait to see my Cardinals play! Go CARDS!

Until next time,
Katlyn

Approaching finals

2010-05-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

Well it's Friday! I'm about to head to my last class of the semester (which unfortunately is a test!) and then I will have 5 finals next week before I will return home to STL for the summer. I am so ready for a break! Right now my mind feels like it's going to explode from everything I have to complete! This weekend will probably not be as fun as I would envision my last weekend of the semester to be. I just hope I make it through next Thursday alive and with decent grades. Sorry this is so short, but I just wanted to check in and ask for prayer as I go through my finals. I have one everyday and then 2 on Thursday, my last day. I also have much packing up to do so hopefully I can get all of this stuff done without too much stress!

Peace out!

A Definite WOW Moment

2010-05-04T21:42:00.002-05:00

Have you ever been overwhelmed with the power of God? Well I had a moment like this yesterday as I was driving back to school from home. There was some flooding in TN, so I waited until Monday morning to let some of the roads clear and also so I would not have to drive in the dark. About an hour and a half into my drive, I drew my attention back to the uneasy, something is wrong feeling dwelling in my stomach the last few days. After praying to God about it heavily, I decided to call my mom to talk about what I was thinking about. Basically the whole nursing thing being super complicated in my life was a big factor that was pressing on me and I knew God was trying to speak to me, but I did not understand what was going on. Seriously, I was so flustered about this feeling that I ended up pulling over in Cape Girardeau and walked around Target while I spoke to my mom (and eventually my dad) for an hour about what I should do about nursing and whether it was still my true calling from God. This struggle has been so emotionally consuming! I just wanted some confirmation that what I was doing was the right path for me. Well, I brainstormed other options of what I could major in because basically as long as I found something I could serve people and do missions with, I was open to learning more about. My original "Plan B" for if I didn't get into nursing school was to do TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), but that didn't feel right to me either. After winding down a little, I got back on the road and started listening to my new Casting Crowns album and began praying that God would reveal to me whatever He was trying to get through and that I would understand and take it willingly. At one point of a song called "At Your Feet", I had just finished praying out loud seeking any type of answer, and the song lyrics said this; " At your feet I lay my future down, all of my dreams I give to you and I find peace". At this moment, I felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders and the feeling in my stomach went away. I felt as though I could breathe again. Again, the realization that Jesus is all I will ever need was exactly what He continued to show me. Like in the song, there is nowhere else I want to be than at the feet of Jesus. One of the major obstacles keeping me from pursuing another major was mean old Satan trying to get me to worry about what others would think if I changed my major after four years of telling them nursing is what I was going to do with my life. Well, I decided that it was time to stop worrying about what others think and just focus on what God thinks and what I feel is best suited for myself. When I got back to campus, I pulled up the school's website and ended up on the communication arts website. I had told my mom earlier that I thought maybe something in communications might be a better fit for me but had no idea how it would work out with me wanting to do missions. Ironically, or maybe it was just God, the first thing I read about was journalism. I found that the director of journalism had lived in other countries and did and still does a lot of mission work. Seriously, I thought I was about to burst from the feeling of excitement. So my longer story shortened, I ended up meeting with this professor earlier today, and I ended up changing my major to journalism with a photojournalism minor. I am so psyched about all the classes I get to take this fall!

My parents tell me that writing in this blog has been encouraging to others and I finally started to consider that maybe me writing on this is more of a gift from God than I thought. Up until this point I thought writing was just a fun way to get what is on my mind out into words and what God's doing in my life so if anyone read my blogs, then that's great but I'm definitely not writing to draw attention to myself. After receiving the suggestion from my mom, I showed my last blog entry to the professor (who is now my new advisor) and was relieved that he didn't have anything negative to say about it and ended up showing me the articles written by students in the magazine Commission he is an editor for. God also somehow revealed a memory from 5th grade to me of how my writing made a difference. I wrote a paper for an assignment I believe was about a wish or dream of ours. I had just gone to the Philippines the summer before and saw the poverty and what my family and our team did to serve the people. My paper was about how I wanted to help the people who did not have anything in the Philippines by helping provide for them somehow. This gave my teacher the idea that we could do a project and have the whole 5th grade collect items to send to the Philippines. So even at the age of 10, God used my writing to help others and spread awareness of the poverty I witnessed. Advocating for poverty and doing missions is what I want to do with journalism and I pray that I will be able to use these abilities to further the kingdom as well. I can honestly say at the very least of this new experience is that I believe God is pointing me in this very new direction with a purpose. Even though I was and still am a little wary of this big change, I feel that this is truly something I am passionate about and know that God will use journalism through me in ways I don't even know He has in store for me yet. Praying Jeremiah 29:11 works! I cannot wait!!! Keep me in your prayers as I continue this strange and new (but exciting) journey that God has allowed me to envision. Thanks for reading.

In Christ.

Make a Difference

2010-04-19T00:11:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out,"Good morning! What are you doing?" The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean." "I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?" "The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die." "But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!" The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one."

SO I just read that while I was procrastinating and on bored.com...gosh I love that website! Anyway, I thought this was a great example of how we as Christians should strive to live. Sometimes I believe Christians can get apathetic and just say "Oh, I'll witness to that person someday". In reality, we need to be living in the here and now and trying to be making a difference in others' lives on a daily basis.

Today in church, we had Compassion Sunday. I have always admired this ministry and have wanted to adopt a child for a long time but have been postponing it because of the money and being afraid I would be able to afford the $38 a month. When I think about it, I definitely spend at least that much on just junk...like Starbucks or makeup or gossip magazines. So I kept thinking why shouldn't I be able to do this? I was also planning on saving my money over the summer to be able to pay for an iphone and the bills that would occur in the months I wouldn't be working. I think that instead of saving for the bills for an iphone, I will save and adopt a child through Compassion. I feel that it would definitely be much more rewarding than the worldly possession of a fancy phone with a lot of cool apps...which I will still really want one, but I think I would sacrifice that in order to bring good health, food, and the gospel to a child in need.

Just a thought that I had and thought could be one step toward making a difference (like the man did for the starfish) for at least the life of one child in need among the many.

Ah, Spring Break

2010-03-26T10:09:00.000-05:00

I am finally on Spring Break! It is so great to be back in the comfort of my house with my family. The past two weeks have been very rough on me emotionally so I'm definitely relieved to be here and away from there. I love my school and the people there, but sometimes getting away is pretty good medicine. As for me being emotionally overwhelmed, let's just say I've been making sure to put much more focus on God since He is the only one that knows my path and can make everything okay. This work of really giving everything to Christ lately has really been good for me. Even in the midst of a really awful week of school and thinking my whole future was about to be torn apart, I really felt God's embracing love - I felt safe in His arms. So basically, what happened to me is that I found out that getting into the nursing school is going to be a lot harder for me than I hoped. After praying about it, and taking all options under consideration closely, I feel that the best thing for me to do is stay at Union another month this summer to retake a class to raise my grade. I do not like that I have put myself into this situation at all, but I'm taking this one day at a time and letting God stay in control. My previous post has really been a good reminder on what is important to focus on.

I guess the burden of all the stressful elements of my life was still laying heavy on me this week too. I was a little on edge too much and I don't like it when I get like that, because it's not me. All things considered though, I could have it a lot worse off so I am still thankful for everything I am going through because it is just another learning step on the way to adulthood.

In my devotion this morning, it was called "Honoring Others" and out of 2 Samuel 9 with the story of David and Mephibosheth. I had not read this story in awhile and know it was a God thing that it came up this morning. The story is about honoring others even if it would seem they do not deserve it or really do not relate to you in any way. Mephibosheth was Saul's servant....Sual was David's greatest enemy, but David took him in anyway and allowed him to eat at the table everyday with his sons. This is a great example of showing God's love to others. God has given me a love for people. All people. I find myself relating to so many different types of people and I just really want to show them love, especially the lost and broken ones. Last night, I watched the movie The Blind Side for the first time and it blew me away. That woman Leanne took in that boy when she did not know anything about him and gave him a life that he probably would have never gotten to had it not been for her and God's grace through her. It is so terrible to think children go through parents that abuse, neglect, do drugs, etc. around them. These are things children should never have to endure. I witnessed this in Bolivia with the children I worked with, too. It breaks my heart to see the reality of this. I know seeing all this is why God has given me a desire to do mission work someday. I long for that day that I can be helping others and show them God's love that they have probably been neglected from...whether that is overseas or here, I know I will go.

I pray that God will continue to increase this fire I have for His children. I pray that God will help keep me in line and that I will remain focused on Him. There is nothing else more worthy of doing than praising Him in anything and everything I do.

Focus

2010-03-05T14:41:00.003-06:00

The more I have been trying to accomplish things in my life on my own, the more I have found that I am likely to go nowhere. Not like I didn't know this already, but for some reason this keeps coming back to me. If I choose to try to be a person that does not worship and honor God with my actions, then why do I bother at all? Growing up always being taught the ways of right and wrong with the Bible as a foundation should really be the basis for living. Though I truly believe this and have faith that I should do right and be in the word constantly, lately I have just been a really good faker. Now this is not something I am proud of by any means, but admitting this is the first step to going somewhere better right? My last post about my bad day has really been a great reminder to myself that I need to stop faking it because Christ knows when I am and He really cannot help me unless I stay fully devoted to Him and the Word. I find lately that following my devotional really does improve my day and outlook on life for my day brighter. There is a reason pastors and mentors tell us to be in the Bible everyday...to stay focused on Him instead of everything else. Again, to stop focusing on the 'waves' and instead on the One who walks on them is a great reminder for me. All the waves that have been crashing into me lately have really been wearing me out. School is probably the biggest wave right now. It is indeed very difficult for me to stay positive when the workload at school keeps piling up and continues to get more and more challenging. With weeks like this one, I feel like I'm drowning in the waves, but really I need to just keep trying to hold my head above the water and grasp onto Christ in the midst of it.

²² Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. ²⁵And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea,they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out in fear. ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, evening came, he was there alone, "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid."
²⁸And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." ²⁹He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. ³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out,"Lord, save me." ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did youdoubt?" ³²And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." (Matthew 14:22-33)

I have faith that keeping strong and in the word will allow me to get through this storm I am in. I need to stop doubting that I can get through this because I know I can and I will. If for some reason the way I want my life to turn out starts going in a different direction, I will have to trust and accept that it is part of God's plan for me to go that way instead.

Bad Day

2010-02-26T10:06:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I had a day as bad as yesterday was. Let's just say a lot of things went wrong and I was overwhelmed emotionally. I talked to some of the most important people in my life and prayed about it a lot so I am on the verge of recovery. I really just need to focus and concentrate on the good God still puts in my life everyday and stop dwelling on the bad. I just read my daily devotional, it was from 1 Samuel with David getting ready to approach Goliath. It talked about allowing God to show you more about yourself, him, and the way life is. Such a great reminder and really needed with how I've been feeling. It concluded by asking "What might happen if you shifted your attention away from the waves, and to the One who walks on them". I pray that you and I may keep that in mind as we continue to live our daily lives. He is so much bigger than all of us combined, so why not let Him take control? I need to let Him help me more, trust in Him more...I know that is all He wants of me, so I want to let Him.

Another Semester Begins

2010-02-10T16:48:00.000-06:00

So I have not posted in a very long time...I really miss writing here but have been preoccupied with other things. I guess I should start out by saying I had a very amazing winter break. It was a very long 6 week break that most people don't get the luxury of having. I got to relax and sleep a lot which was much needed. I also got to spend some quality time with friends and family that I missed so much while I was at school. The major events of the break were Christmas (duh), concerts, Urbana'09, and more that I can't really think of at the moment. For those of you that do not know what Urbana is, it's a week-long missions conference that was held downtown St. Louis. Convenient right? Anyway, I got to spend that week with about 15,000 other students from all over the US and World that had a passion for missions. AMAZING! There was hundreds of missions organization booths that I got to speak with and have found some great resources of places I could potentially work with as a nurse doing missions in the future. It was such a blessing to be able to feel like I was in the right place and truly finding answers to God's calling for me. Another big blessing of that week were the many speakers and music at the worship services. We got to sing praises to our Lord in Swahili, Arabic, and Spanish...such an incredible worship experience.
       Some other experiences on my break...I got to see White Christmas the musical at the Fox Theater in STL. It was epic! Judy Garland's daughter was one in it and that was really special for both my mom and I considering how much we love Judy Garland.
      What else? Oh! I went to see Lady Gaga in concert at the Fox with my brother...what a wild show that was! If you have ever seen a music video or live performance of her on TV, it was the same only better in person. It was wildly entertaining to say the very least.
   In January, I took New Testament for the accelerated semester online. I learned so much and it was so much fun! Yes, there was quite a bit of reading, but I really got to dig deep into the word and we also watched movies and listened to music to interpret and see how it compared to the Bible. Our final was to watch the post-apocalyptic movie, The Book of Eli, and write a 2 page paper on it. How cool is that? I would definitely recommend seeing The Book of Eli because it was probably the most spiritually based movie I have seen in a theater. Denzel does an amazing job!
        My mom and I got to cook a lot over break. I really really love to cook. I know my mom dreams of owning her own coffee shop/bakery cafe someday and I really hope that it comes true for her. She is currently working on a project called 52 Weeks of Baking inspired by the movie "Julie and Julia" in hopes to come up with a good idea of a menu for her future cafe.

Now on to the present! I am glad to be back at school in Jackson. I have a very busy semester (17 hours!) ahead of me, but hey, I gotta get it done in order to be in nursing school this fall. My workload is currently under control but I fear the day when it becomes an overwhelming pile of misery. My roommates and I have decorated our dorm for Valentines Day. We have some cute heart garlands and even gave our cardboard cutout of Edward Cullen a pink cape! This Friday, the Student Nurses Association is going to be holding a bake sale called "Have a Heart for Haiti" and all proceeds will go toward the victims of the Haiti earthquake. My roommate Michelle came up with the idea and I'm so excited for it! I am going to make gooey butter cake and strawberry white chocolate chip cookies to contribute. I hope we make a lot of money for them! I am anxious for to see where God leads me this semester. I am actually doing really well in reading the word and staying on task so I'm praying this stays put!

Love in Christ,
Katlyn

ONE MORE DAY!

2009-12-09T14:05:00.000-06:00

Wow this semester flew by super fast! I cannot believe I am heading home tomorrow for winter break already! Though I have not been able to post much this semester, I cannot even describe how thankful I am for how much God has been working in my life. Through so many changes, God is continuing to shape me and use me in mighty ways.

After the mission trip to Bolivia in August, I now still fully believe mission work is more of a desire in my heart than it ever has been before. I just read the monthly newsletter from Nacer Ministries that I worked with, and it still breaks my heart knowing how unfortunate these children are, but are still being blessed daily by following God. Two homes I worked with will be moving this month. The girls home was lost due to government issues, so they are being forced to leave and are going to be staying on the new property. This property that I helped with over the summer is great for them, but their new home is yet to be built. They will stay in little huts that are already there, so it will be a tight squeeze until the construction of the new home is complete. I really wish I could go help them myself, but know that is probably not going to be able to happen. I pray that many will be able to assist in the construction there to help them get it up even faster.

This semester was a challenging one, but a good one to say the least. My classes were pretty tough, so I had to force myself to get into better studying habits. I raised pretty much all of my classes a full letter grade. Thank you Jesus! I have completed 3 of my 5 finals this week. My last two, world civilization and statistics, is tomorrow...then I'm off to St. Louis until I come back for spring semester which is not until Feb. 2nd! I can't believe I have almost 2 months off! I will be taking an online accelerated class in January, and I got my job back at the Magic House, so I will have things to keep me occupied.

I feel so blessed to be here at Union. I know it was definitely in God's plan to get me here. My roommates have been one of the biggest blessings of all. They are all so sweet, understanding, and supportive. I love spending time with them and getting to know them. I have also made many great friends here. So many have amazing hearts for serving God. City Fellowship, the church I have started attending, has also been a great place of worship. I will elaborate on my experience there some other time.

Christmas is approaching fast. The weather here finally feels like winter...it's refreshing actually. I am so excited to go home and do all the Christmas festivities with my family and friends that we do every year.

Love and Peace
Katlyn

F.R.O.G.

2009-11-13T18:44:00.002-06:00

FROG (Fully Rely On God)...remember that old saying? I used to write that on everything when I was a kid in the 90's and looking back on it, I don't think I really comprehended or really followed the true meaning behind that saying. I don't even though why I just thought of it now, but I guess it has to do with how God is really working in my life again and I really just need to rely on Him while He takes me through the next steps I'm going through. Lately, I've been really struggling again with my future. I feel like Union is definitely where I'm supposed to be and I know that God has called me to nursing, I am just having a hard time seeing myself making it there. I'm worried about my classes that I'm getting ready to take next semester. Classes this semester are pretty rough, and next semester is going to be sooo much harder and it freaks me out--a lot! I have to take microbiology and pathophysiology which will be hard in itself, but I might have to take 18 hours next semester to get into nursing school next fall. Ahhh I know it sounds crazy! But I have to get these classes done to get in the nursing school. Also, I need to make sure that I have a good enough GPA to get in as well. Right now, my grades are okay, but they could be better. Anyway, I know that this is in God's plan for me, and I will be a nurse someday no matter what it takes, but it's just a little scary and overwhelming to imagine it.

On a brighter side of my life lately...a lot of things have been going on that make me so thankful for the people God has put in my life and the experiences He has allowed me to go through. My roommates and I have begun decorating for Christmas already which is funny to most people considering it's only the beginning of November, but really we only have one full week of classes left after Thanksgiving then finals before Christmas break so we want to enjoy the decorations a little longer than that. We also decided to decorate early to cheer up one of my roommates who went through a break up with her boyfriend this week. Hopefully we finish tonight. I will put up pictures when the job is finished. :) I'm so excited for Christmas season to get here! Last night, our Lifegroup went to buy stuff to make two boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It was so fun going and picking out toys and essentials for children in need. Our whole campus is getting really involved in making these boxes...again such a blessing to be on a campus that does this kind of stuff. I got to experience the joy that comes from these boxes when I went to Bolivia over the summer and saw a little girl carrying around her box and playing with everything that she got. She especially loved the Princess Jasmine tiarra in it. So adorable! Speaking of Bolivia, I have really missed it a lot and have been thinking about all the children lately. I pray that everything at the four orphanages I helped with are doing well.

A week from today is going to be amazing! My roommates and I are roadtripping to St. Louis for the premiere of New Moon at the Mega Screen (the biggest movie screen in the midwest)! We are such dorks, I know...but it's going to be so much fun! I cannot wait!!!!

Tonight I'm going to be going to the school's musical called The Zombies From Beyond. It looks like it's going to be really funny so I'm looking forward to it. So I better get going.

Peace,
Katlyn

Life is Precious

2009-11-03T00:34:00.000-06:00

I am super stressed out with life right now with a lot of tests to study for, papers to write...gotta keep my grades up for nursing school. In the midst of my crazy, chaotic life I have found comfort in just knowing that I can rely on Jesus in all things. I find it hard to go back to Jesus sometimes because I've chosen to not let Him consume me like I should. The guilt I have is sometimes overbearing, but I know I am forgiven and I have to just keep doing my best. I have not written in awhile because of the messiness of life, but I hope to start writing more often again. Right now, I am studying for a statistics test that I'm praying I will do well on because I really need a good grade in there! Motivation has been lacking the last few days...probably because I got so distracted from the Halloween festivities over the weekend! I had a really great Halloween. Two of my roommates and I dressed up as obnoxious teen Twilight fans. We made shirts for our teams...haha I was Team Edward! It was hilarious. Here's some pictures for you to enjoy! I will leave you here and catch up again as soon as I can. --Katlyn

It's Fall!!!

2009-09-29T17:51:00.000-05:00

I love the fall. The weather is beautiful here in Jackson today. I would really love to just lay outside all day...but I can't because I have work to do. Since my last post, I have completed my first round of tests. I did not do too bad. I need to keep working though because the classes are getting tougher. Geez procrastination is really trying to overcome me, but I can't let it!

Anyway, I have some exciting news. Last night, I found out that I am going to be the new Vice President for the Student Nurses Association at Union! I could not believe it! The position opened up and I applied a couple weeks ago after being encouraged to do so by my roommates (all of them are officers as well). I did not really think I would get it considering I'm new here, and I'm an underclassman. But...I was chosen. Sharon, my roommate who is the president, said she went over all the applications with the staff advisor. She said my name came up first because the advisor really liked my application. Sharon told her that I was dependable and kept the fact we're roommates on the down low so it would not look like she was biased toward me. I was still chosen by the advisor. I beat out 2 juniors, which is why I'm still shocked. Wow, God really works in mysterious ways. This was a great boost for me to be motivated and work hard. I want to fulfill my responsibilities as VP and as a student and succeed.

I got to go home this past weekend. I wasn't planning to originally, but I decided to go back for the first time since I moved to school. It was nice to be home and relax. I got to hang out with my brother and my mom a lot. My brother and I always have a lot of fun. We played the Beatles Rock Band and watched movies all weekend. He had homecoming on Saturday night and was even nominated for homecoming court. He didn't win, but I was psyched to hear of his nomination. My mom and I got to go out for Vietnamese at a new place we'd never been too that was good!

I have so much that I could write about, but time is not on my side so I better continue another time.

Much Love,
Katlyn

It's All New

2009-09-15T16:04:00.000-05:00

New Beginnings, New Changes, New Friends...I've been at Union University in Jackson, TN for about a month, and I'm really glad to be here. Back in January, I had no idea why God was sending me here and did not know what would happen. Well, now I'm here and I definitely know that this is where God wants me to be. Though I truly miss my friends back at SBU and love them very much, I am totally content here and am adjusting to life here very well. Union has been treating me very kindly since I arrived. Though I have some difficult classes, the professors are all such great examples of Christ and each have been more than willing to kindly assist us if we ever need help. Also, I've been very impressed with the activties and events that are offered to us. The first week, they had a Howdy party for all new and returning students to see each other and hang out with music and free drinks. During labor day weekend, they had something different offered each day for those who stayed on campus. Last Friday, I saw Star Trek in our campus coffee shop called Barefoots Joe for free and it's not even out on DVD yet! Last night, all the girls' dorm RA's hosted a progressive snacking where each RA had a different snack that we could eat...like s'mores, puppy chow, queso, and chocolate covered pretzels! u So as you can see, they keep us very entertained. I really don't leave campus unless I need groceries because I have so much that I can do here.

Starting out, I got here and moved into my apartment dorm before my 3 roommates arrived because I had to go through the new student orientation weekend called Focus. The weekend was kind of boring as far as workshops and stuff go, but I was in a group of all transfer students and I got really close to all of them. For the first week, we probably hung out everyday and now we still hang out whenever possible. The dorms here are sooo nice! It's an apartment with a bedroom for each girl, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and a living room. I love having a kitchen where I can cook and bake...I've already made brownies, a cake, and I even made chicken curry for dinner one night. Also definitely loving having my own room...it's so nice to have a place of my own for privacy and studying alone.

I am so thankful for the 3 roommates that I've been blessed with. From the first time I met them, they made me feel welcome. When I found out that two of them are sisters and they were really close to the third girl, I was a little nervous that it would be awkward and that I wouldn't fit in with them. They are all nursing majors like me and all so sweet. We've had a lot of marathons watching all the seasons of the Office which is a lot of fun! I thank God everyday for blessing me with three amazing girls that I can be myself around and rely on. I love hanging out with them and look forward to continue to get to know them.

I have joined a Life Group, which is a program for new students that meets weekly to hang out. My group is mostly transfers and we get along great. We have a lot of fun! I have gotten pretty close to my leader...she lives in the building next to me so I've been hanging out with her a lot. A couple weeks ago, we all went to the West Tenn. Diamond Jaxx minor league baseball game. It was fun! Last week we had a scavenger hunt on campus against the other transfer group and we won so that was exciting. I don't know what we'll do this week, but I can't wait to hang out with them some more.

God has been so good to me since I got here. The only thing I need to work on now is studying and making sure I spend time in the word daily...been slacking a little. I have been finding myself to be a little stressed (especially since I have 4 tests and a quiz this week!).

Well, I hope this was a good update on my life and I pray that God is working as abundantly in your life as he has in mine.

In Christ,
Katlyn

My trip to Bolivia!

2009-08-27T15:23:00.012-05:00

It has been awhile since my last post, and I have a LOT to write about. The end of my summer was amazing! I went to Bolivia with a team of 10 other students and myself to serve for two weeks. God used me and taught me a lot while we were there. I probably won't be able to express everything that happened, but I'll do my best. The trip started on my birthday, July 30th, around 4:30 in the morning. We headed out of the Kansas City airport with some layovers in Dallas and Miami, with final destination of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was a long day, but we made there around 11:30p.m. and then had to wait to get our visas which took like 2 hours! Victor, the missionary we worked with that is from there, picked us up with his wife and daughter. Now let me just say now how much I (and I know the rest of my team) came to love Victor and his family very much. They took us in like we were their own children and were wonderful blessings to us. They took us to a seminary where we stayed most of the trip. It was very nice...a lot nicer than sleeping in an orphanage on cots (which is what we all imagined). Knowing very little details of what we were actually going to be doing, we met the next afternoon with Victor and Andrew (who moved to Bolivia from the US about a year ago). Andrew works with Nacer Ministries, which has four different children's homes. I was very excited to hear that we would be visiting all four homes, and also working on a land they purchased to build a new girls home. We were being blessed in our time there from the very minute we arrived. I immediately saw the suffering that the people go through in this country. Driving around Santa Cruz, it is very common to see people trying to sell you something on the streets or washing your windows because they need money to make a living. Though the country is dominantly Catholic and some protestant, you can definitely see the need for Christ.

Our first weekend, we helped with an Awana ministry in a nearby neighborhood. The children have families and homes, but it was definitely not a well developed area. We played relay games with them, and I worked with some kids and their weekly memory verses. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand them, but I actually could. The only real difficulty I had was communicating effectively with them because my Spanish speaking skills are a little rusty...but I managed!

We started out our week going to the Niñas (girls) home, which is the only home of the four that is in the city. The girls there were so adorable and all of them just wanted and needed to be loved. They would all hug on you, and sit with you. Even though we couldn't communicate very well, we could still show them the love of Christ through our actions. The girls make crafts like metal crosses with beads, scarves, jewelry, and cards to help raise support...so I definitely bought a lot! A great thing we got to do was go to the market one day and split up to buy vegetables and fruit for the four homes. The money exchange rate is 7 Bolivianos to 1 American dollar. We only spent like $150 for all four orphanages! I felt so convicted after hearing this considering that here people (myself included) spend that much on meaningless stuff that we don't need!

Probably the most challenging and most rewarding experiences of the trip for me was our journey out of Santa Cruz to visit the other homes. We went to Nacer(an older boys home that's for street boys) and the niños home. Both are very close to each other and about an hour away. We had a lot of fun with all the boys. 5 hour trek up a mountain... in the rain ... in a bus ... with like 17 people. We were warned that it could be dangerous because rain could cause mudslides and we would risk getting stuck. Well, we did get stuck once and we had to get out and walk a ways up the mountain to get out of the way. It wasn't looking too good so our leaders were coming up with alternatives to what we could do (one option was walking like 25 miles up the mountain in the dark!). One of the girls on our team, Jessica, prayed a really dramatic prayer that apparently worked because the bus tried one more time and was successful! We got to the little town of Postrervalle, and met the kids at the home. This home is for brothers and sisters that they don't want to separate. It was freezing up there! We knew that it was winter there, but none of us were prepared for like 40 degree weather! Another great opportunity that we were able to do after praying about it a lot was to provide Bibles and a coloring packet for every child in each home. When we got to Postrervalle, the couple who direct there told us the children had been praying for Bibles for months! What a blessing to see God answer prayer! It filled my heart with joy to see the faces of the children as we called out their names and gave them their own personalized Bible. They immediately opened them and started to read. We had one night that weekend that gave us quite a scare that I'm sure I will never forget. God persevered and protected us though so we definitely are grateful that nothing serious happened. It's a very long story and maybe I'll write about that sometime, but not now. On our way back to Santa Cruz, we stopped at Samaipata to see the Incan Ruins there. It was breathtaking to see all the mountains and the amazing scenery!

We got to spend some more time at the girls home our last week and also worked a couple more days on the land as well. I hauled a LOT of rocks those 2 days. It was fun though because my friend Anna and I are good at keeping ourselves entertained. Our last days there were a lot of fun. One night, we drove back to the Nacer home (it was definitely an adventure for a lot of my team)...and 3 homes were there to have a farewell party for us. Raina, a one of the little girls, stayed with me most of the time. She even sat on my lap while we ate. It was so sad to say goodbye to all of those kids.

SO overall, this trip changed my life. I have been called to missions and am so thrilled that I got the privelege of spending a couple of weeks in Bolivia. I hope that I will get to return there someday...maybe even as a nurse! I know they told me healthcare is slim there and not very good. I would love to be able to help them in that way. Anyway, please keep Bolivia in your prayers...specifically Victor and his family, Andrew, and Nacer Ministries.

This Summer is Flying!

2009-07-13T10:47:00.002-05:00

I have completed week two of the summer mission work I've been doing in St. Louis and it went very well in spite of some challenges that I know the enemy tried to hinder my focus with. This is my weekly report I had to send in to the MBC...it's pretty much exactly what I would be writing anyway so I figured it would be okay to recycle it :)

I unfortunately am now working alone since Shawnee, the other summer missionary left, so that was sort of a shock and kind of a downer, but I'm completely at peace and content with it now.

I have accomplished a lot in my work at Oasis International refugee ministry. I am enjoying every minute I spend there and developing an even deeper passion for this ministry than I ever imagined God would place on my heart. I am continuing to meet new refugee families everyday I am there. In the last week, there were 3 new families that just arrived from Iraq with nothing to live with. They came in asking for furniture and whatever else could be provided to help get them started. It still amazes me at how happy and joyful they are in spite of their circumstance. I definitely believe that God is using them in my life as much as He is using me in theirs. I am continuing to tutor Dina, an Iraqi woman who just moved here in May with her family from Baghdad. I get along so well with her and her husband, Anwar. Anwar speaks very good english for not being here very long. He and some other Iraqi men are always making jokes with Jenna (an intern from IL) and me. They are also teaching us some Arabic, too. They all find it quite entertaining when I greet them with "Shaku Maku", which translates sort of like "What's up?" here. On Wednesday morning last week, we went to the farm that they are working on with refugees in Columbia,IL. My dad even got to come help out. I helped harvest some of the crops like cucumbers and zucchini while the other did weeding and plowing. It was a blessing to be a part of that day working together to help prepare the produce for selling at a stand they have set up by the local McDonalds. We have used opportunities where we are all together to share that we believe God is blessing us. As they are mostly Muslim, they respect us for being follower of Christ. I have not yet been able to fully share the gospel with any of them, but I pray that God will open opportunities for me to do so.

I have not yet spent a lot of time with International students. We did not have any Washington University students show for our Wednesday night outing to Botanical Gardens which was a bummer. I hope this week we have better luck in building relationships with the students there on campus. I want to hopefully plan a few extra fun events this week and next week to continue getting to know them.

I was in my best friend's wedding as her maid of honor on Saturday so that took a lot of energy out of me, but I feel pretty well recovered after resting. It was amazing to see so many faces that I've not seen in years there come together like old times. The Filipino ministry that my dad started in the early 90's is still going...even without a pastor right now. I got to attend a service/fellowship Sunday afternoon to hear their hearts for plans to continue trying to spread the good news to the Filipino community in St. Louis. I pray they can be successful in their attempts and I hope I can be a part of that too.

I can't wait to see what God will do this week as I continue to serve.

In Christ,
Katlyn

Jeremiah 29:11

2009-07-06T19:05:00.003-05:00

Well, I have been through one week of my summer missionary position. It went very well...along with a few exceptions. God is definitely working some crazy stuff in my life right now and I'm trying to let Him be in total control.

I love working at Oasis (an International Refugee ministry). I'm going to be tutoring an Iraqi woman in English for 4 hours a week! She is very nice and have definitely enjoyed that so far. Oasis did a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday that was really cool...it was just to show how thankful they are for Oasis being a blessing and the people they have been able to encounter. I am glad to be a part of this. I have also started working with some International students from Washington University. We went to Botanical Gardens for the free concert on Wednesday. I met some students there. On Thursday, we had Culture Junction, which is a conversational English time with students. We talked about Independence Days in different countries...although we only had 1 student so it wasn't a big learning experience, but still informative. Friday consisted of prayer walking on the campus. I am definitely going to like working this summer. The one negative to this week was that I have just been informed that my other co-worker is also not going to be able to continue working with me, so now I am doing this job solo. We started this summer with 3, now it's just me. I guess I have to have faith that this was in God's plan all along and trust that I will be able to handle everything on my own. It scares me a little, but I believe it will work out for the best. I will not let the enemy bring me down!

On another positive note, I got to go to the Fray and Jack's Mannequin concert this past Friday. It was probably one of the BEST concerts I've ever been to in my life! The Fray definitely gave an excellent performance. I also am glad I got to attend with my friends Angel and Justin, and also my brother. It was so much fun. I'll never forget it!

Yesterday, we celebrated my brother's birthday (which is actually today). We had a LOT of food, which is normal for us Filipinos :0). I am so blessed to have such a great family that I can have fun with. Some friends got to come too!

Well I've got a lot going on this week. My best friend Angel is getting MARRIED on Saturday, so I have many maid of honor duties to tend to.

Gotta Love It

2009-06-23T23:26:00.002-05:00

So my summer has gotten increasingly better everyday and definitely better than my last post. I was having a very off week to say the least. I had a lot of weird emotions and stress going on that prevented me from really being my usual self. I'm definitely better. All the feelings I had of being stressed out or frustrated with have diminished by the grace of God. I am so thankful that God has humbled me and continually reminds me how wonderful and extroardinary my life is and how I need to cherish every moment instead of dwelling on tiny, miniscule details. I cannot wait for my summer missionary position to officially start this weekend. Yes, I will lose a lot of free time, but that is a price I'm willing to pay. There is nothing I want more than to be in this particular mission field. I know there will be struggles, but I will have to keep reminding myself of the bigger picture that I'm ultimately trying to further God's kindgom and there is no greater thing I can do on this Earth than that.

This week has started with a lot of fun! Yesterday, I hung out with my brother and then went to hang with one of my best friends from high school, Jenny. We had a random adventure just driving around doing silly things like we used to and it was a lot of fun! Today, I went to Chesterfield Valley with my mom and brother for breakfast at the Original Pancake House...which is quite tasty! Then, we went shopping and ended up getting to hang out with my friend Justin there for awhile which was also quite entertaining. Tonight, I got to hang out with one of my great friends Eric. We've been friends for so long and we rarely get to hang out anymore so I'm glad I got to spend time with him as well.

I have a lot more in store for me this week. A major event going on this weekend is Christian Family Day at the Cardinals game. Over 3000 underpriveledged children get to come and have a day of fun and I get to help make it happen. After the game, there will be a concert by the Christian band Newsong and a message from some of the Cards players like PULJOS and others!!! I'm pretty stoked!!!!

Peace Out!

Trying to Find Peace and Understanding

2009-06-19T15:11:00.005-05:00

Yes it has been a very interesting week to say the very least...very busy, difficult at times, and stressful even. On Monday, I registered for classes at Union University in Jackson, TN. I felt very odd there still I think mostly because that day was mostly filled freshman and something I did not really care to experience again. I believe that the school will be excellent for my education none the less and hope that my experience there will be great as well.

On Tuesday, I started helping out with VBS at my church. I hadn't gotten to help the last couple years because of working, so it was kinda fun to be around all the kids again. I didn't really work in one spot like usual though...I helped with bed babies 2 days and 3&4 year olds today. On Wednesday, I taught the missions class! We learned about missionaries that work in Columbia. I enjoyed that a lot, too.

I also got to hang out with friends this week that I enjoy hanging out with a lot so that was good too. I am very blessed to have friends like I do to rely on and have a good time with.

On the more down side, I have been struggling with something that is not even really my own issue. I tend to worry about others and their problems sometimes even more than my own. I just found out that my friend who was going to be working with me this summer doing International Student Ministry is no longer going to be working it. This is not about me just wanting to work with my friend all summer, because I know we'll still see each other (hopefully). I guess I'm just a little discouraged because he had already made the commitment to it and we went through training and a conference in LA, and he's decided not to do it only a week before the job starts. My dad and I both thought he would be able to help this ministry and really receive the blessing I think God is going to be working in it this summer because he wants to do mission work and displays some great leadership qualities. He really had some issues with the way our weekly schedule was laid out. On our schedule we were given in description to what we'd be doing...it did look full and had 5 days/week laid out for us. Honestly I really don't think he understood that it's not going to be the same schedule every week. I highly doubt there will be one week this summer that I work the amount of hours he thought we were going to work, but oh well. Yeah, there is a bit of a time commitment, but it's a ministry and we're just doing fun stuff like the whole time. I really think I'll probably end up working 3days a week, then having one bigger event planned for the weekend or maybe like 2 smaller things. For me, I know that I want to see my family and friends this summer, too...but I also know that God has called me to missions so I will have to find a balance between them now just as I'll have to learn how to in the future as well. But mission work and family/friend time doesn't have to always be separated either. I mean, the whole reason I became so interested in International Student Ministries in the first place was because of my dad including me in this ministry all these years. I definitely plan on inviting my friends to come to our fun events too so they can experience how God is working and also gives me more time to see them! So I guess my purpose for ranting about this is mainly because I guess I'm a little confused about all of this and why it's happening to me, and also feel bad for him because I think this summer will be amazing, and I just wish my friend would have been able to experience it. I understand his reasoning, but still don't think he gets the full picture of what we're doing. Hopefully he still gets a great summer experience in whatever he ends up doing. This summer is going to be big I know, because God is big and he will do great things in this ministry.

I know that God knew this was going to happen. I hope and pray that everything else this summer goes great. I'm no longer going to let this situation discourage me because I know that God will make everything ok.

Did You Know?

2009-06-08T00:28:00.002-05:00

This is a video that was shown to us at the ACMI conference in LA. It is very interesting and kind of scary to say the very least.

Great Start To The Summer

2009-06-02T19:15:00.002-05:00

I just got back yesterday evening from Los Angeles. It's way hotter in St. Louis than it was there!

I had quite an experience in my little over 4 day trip...full of conference stuff that wasn't all that bad, and we got to go touring too. I got to see some pretty amazing stuff! On Sunday afternoon, my friend that lives in LA picked my friends and me up from Azusa and took us to Santa Monica Beach! It was beautful! We got to try some authentic Mexican tacos, and ate dinner at In and Out burger which was also really good! I'm super glad I got to experience this awesome stuff!

As far as the conference goes, it was good overall. I mean there were some boring moments, but I also learned and experienced a lot. One morning, we worshipped in the Hindi language to Indian sounding music and it was so amazing! I had never experienced worship in that way before and I loved how I could feel God's prescence in music that was so foreign to me in the worship sense. It kind of amazes me to see how this organization called ACMI has come so far working in International Student Ministry (ISM). Not so long ago, I thought my dad was one of the only ones who had a passion like that to reach out to the international college students. I cannot wait to start my summer missionary position this summer to find out what ways God will use me to minister to internationals and refugees. God is definitely starting a fire in me....I can feel the enemy trying to hinder it, but I am striving to keep him out and letting the light stay shining.

I feel like my summer is really starting at home now because I was only home for 2 days from school before I left for Hannibal then L.A. Definitely glad to be home now. I cannot wait to see all my friends that I've been missing while away at school. This week is already full of plans to see them! I plan on making the most out of my summer and not wasting a single minute.

LOS ANGELES!!!

2009-05-31T01:00:00.004-05:00

I'm in L.A. right now with my dad and our St. Louis International Student Ministry family for the annual ACMI (Association of Christians Ministering among Internationals) conference. We get to learn about the different religions/cultures and the new and current ways to reach out to Internationals at our campuses. We are staying at Azusa Pacific University and it's beautiful here! The campus has a lot of really awesome landscaping and flowers. On Thursday afternoon when we first arrived, we went with the NAMB group downtown. We toured with our busdriver as the guide...he also hit a car with the ginormous charter bus and knocked off the guys side mirror...kind of scary :) We went to see some cool places like Grauman's Chinese theatre with all the celebrity handprints. There are also a lot of people that dress up as movie characters that walk around there hoping to make some money off of you if you take a picture with them. I got my picture taken with Edward Scissorhands haha! So I'm having a great time so far. I wish we had more time to tour! My unofficial Bolivia team leader lives in LA and he took Justin and I up the mountain through Azusa Canyon which was alot of fun! Which reminds me, I'm thankful that I have Justin to hang out with this week. It wouldn't be the same without him here...we're goofy.

I won't officially start my summer missionary term until the end of June. I can't wait to see what God has planned for us this summer. It's going to be busy and I can imagine that there will be a few struggles/complications that the enemy will try to attack us with because I can already feel it, but I have faith God will work all of it out because He's just cool like that. I'm also totally excited about going to Bolivia at the end of July! We will be leaving on my birthday...so I'll be turning 20 on one of the 4 planes we'll be riding to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Well, I'm off to go hang out with my ISM fam until bedtime! Check back soon for more about my experience here and pictures too!

In Christ,
Katlyn

I'm Not Ready

2009-05-22T11:50:00.005-05:00

I just got out of my last final. I am officially a sophomore and also no longer a student at SBU. I am sitting here in my now very empty room feeling almost that same sense literally in that I feel empty.

I'm not ready to go.

Yes, I know it is God's plan for me to move to Union, but I cannot describe the pain I feel right now from having to say goodbye to my roommate and my close friends. As I write this with the non-stop tears streaming down my face, I reminisce over the past two semesters that have changed my life forever. I love my friends here so much and wish I could understand why God has made this happen to me....I guess I'll find out someday and I'll definitely be rejoicing. I will be eternally grateful for the relationships I have formed with some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life.

I felt awful when I had to say a quick goodbye to my roommate that I have become so close to. God truly blessed me with the most amazing roommie anyone could ever ever ever ask for. I am pretty sure my new roommates next year will never live up to what Jana and I have. I loved how honest and pure she is and loved being able to talk to her about everything. We had some crazy fun times and those moments will be cherished for a lifetime. Thanks for being you Jana! I love you!

I know this is not the end of any of these friendships, though. My friends here have become my family and we will find ways to see each other. And for when we don't, we still have our wonderful internet to keep in touch on and stalk each other. :)

As I have continually said in my last posts this semester, I am following God's will for my life and even though I'm still fighting Him to see it, I know He knows when I come into the light out of this dark and heartbreaking time for me.

As for right now, I have to finish packing up my car and then make the most of my last moments here in BoMO before I head home tomorrow after seeing my best friend graduate.

Final Days

2009-05-19T17:27:00.002-05:00

Well I'm approaching my last days here at SBU. I took my psych and english compII finals today, now I only have A&PII and old testament history until I'm finished. It's so bittersweet for me. I've had a wonderful year in Bolivar and I'm thankful God blessed me and my time here.

This past weekend was so fun! My roomie and my other really close friends had a suprise party for me on Saturday night at El Rodeo, the Mexican restaurant in town. No one has ever thrown a suprise party for me before, and I must say, I was truly touched by it. My roomie also made me a cake that was a-mazing! We took a lot of really fun pictures too. I'm definitely going to miss all of them so much.

On Sunday, I attended what may have been my last Sunday ever at Springhill Baptist. I have fallen in love with that church and have been blessed to be a part of the body there for the past 9 months. Pastor Kevin's message was like he was talking directly at me and no one else! It was entitled "God's Best For You"....such a God thing for this to be the last message I heard there! Basically, he described my whole semester and what I've been going through the last few months in about 30 minutes. He told us that God's best for us may not be what we expected and it sure won't be easy at times, but God will fuel our passion for it and guide us without ever leaving us astray. My main struggle with transferring was because I was questioning my motive and my wants over seeking God's best for me. Kevin also said that it's a fight to get there, but we will need to commit to following Him. This semester has been one of the hardest fights I've ever gone through with God. I was so reluctant to accept what God was putting me through because I wanted it to work out exactly the way I wanted it to. Consequently, I am following Him even though it has been a struggle. I was moved so much by this I started crying...which has been going on a lot lately and I fear it will continue. I was really crying mainly because this was a wonderful confirmation for me that everything will be okay and I don't have to fear it because I am not alone.

Okay, so enough of that. I need to get back to studying and then head to my last Bolivia team meeting!

Uplifted by Christ,
Katlyn

You Don't Mess With Texas

2009-05-03T22:48:00.005-05:00

I just got back from a great weekend with 4 of my great girl friends on a road trip to Texas. My friend, Christina, is from Denison, TX, so we decided a while back to take a trip to see where she's from. It was my first time to Texas, and it was a lot of fun. We got there Friday night and hung out at her house with her parents (who are super sweet!). On Saturday, we went to Dallas and Frisco...we ate at South of the Border and shopped at a mall. I didn't buy much--but did get some amazing North Face flip flops! These girls are probably the craziest, funniest, and sweetest girls I have ever met in my life. God really blessed me with such good friends here at SBU, and I'm going to miss them soooo much next year.

My final days at SBU are approaching. We only have 3 weeks of school--that's only 2 weeks of classes and 1 week of finals! I'm glad that school is going to be finished, but starting to get really depressed that I am leaving everyone I love here. I don't think I will be excited about going to Union until I actually get there because I'm so sad about not coming back here. I know it's where God wants me, and I'm trying to trust in Him that everything will be okay, but it's so HARD! I know in a few years I will look back at how I feel right now and say "Wow, I should've just trusted in you God!" But I guess I will just have to wait for that day to come.

I am super excited about my summer coming up. There are going to be a lot of new things I get to experience and I cannot wait! I probably have written about all of these things in my past posts, but I would love to share it again.

I am going to be a summer missionary in STL under my dad's ministry and work with international students. I am thrilled to be doing this because I love people and I just pray that God will open many doors in this ministry. I get to do this as a job which is amazing because I actually will be enjoying what I do. This job comes with many benefits! I don't have to work at The Magic House anymore! I get to go to Los Angeles for 4 days to attend a conference! Also, my very good friend Justin will be working with me so not only will I get to do something I love, but I get the priveledge of working alongside a great friend who loves God and loves serving Him.
Another big thing I'm looking forward to is going to Bolivia on a mission trip with a team of 13 students! We will be working in orphanages and helping in various community service projects as well. I cannot wait to get on the mission field in another country!

Well, I have some things to do before I sleep and go to class tomorrow morning.

Peace and Love,

Katlyn

What a weekend...

2009-04-19T13:24:00.003-05:00

Well, it has been quite the weekend experience for me. I went to visit Union University in Jackson, TN. Friday, I left Bolivar and drove 3 hrs to STL, then went from STL and drove the 4 hrs to Jackson with my family. I do honestly believe that God is leading me to go there, and I don't really have any other choice anyway. The town is very cute and a lot bigger than Bolivar. That's besides the point, though. One thing I think God has taught me (once again) is that I really need to just trust in Him that this is where He wants me. I was kind of expecting that once I arrived on the campus, that I would be so in love with it that I would not have any doubt that my place was to be at Union, but that wasn't really what happened. I ended up feeling an immediate force of doubt come over me...like "What if this isn't the right choice? Why did I decide to come here?" etc...and I also realized how much I have become attached to SBU. But really after much thought and prayer, I think that Satan was attacking me more than anything because I was letting the doubt bring on a fear that I know was unnecessary. Yes, I am comfortable at SBU because I've already been through almost 2 semesters there and I love pretty much everything about our community we have and the relationships I've formed, but I know that Union is going to be the place I need to go to prepare me for my future and career. It will be a struggle and challenging going to a new place and having to re-live those first-year nerves, but I have faith that God will help me get through it.

I did absolutely fall in love with the town, dorms, and science building! I was amazed at how wonderful the technology is for their nursing program there. I just got even more excited to become a nurse. Also, I heard that the nursing students do mission trips! So that was a major plus considering that's what I want to do! The student-faculty ratio is like 11:1 which is amazing so I'm pretty stoked about that too. I think the more personal setting will be better for me. The dorms are flippin' sweet! Every dorm is apartment-style each complete with a kitchen, washer/dryer, living room/dining room, 2 bathrooms, and 4 bedrooms! The bedrooms are like closets, but I'm glad I will be able to have some privacy. There were a few down sides....like their rec center. I feel like our wellness center at SBU is like heaven compared to Union's, but the town makes up for it since there are a lot of parks and trails I will be able to run on. I also loved how everyone there is super friendly. And...the campus has over 35 other countries represented in the student body which is awesome.

After we visited the campus, we drove to visit Memphis for ahile and hung out on Beale Street. It's only like an hour away from Jackson! I love Memphis a lot!

Other stuff going on lately...
I went barefoot all day on Thursday for TOMS shoes to raise awareness for what they do. TOMS is an organization that makes shoes and for every pair you buy, they send a pair to a child in need. Going barefoot was a very humbling experience for me. Though I know a lot about poverty, it was difficult to go only go barefoot one day and know that people all over the world go without shoes everyday. I was complaining that my feet hurt after only a few hours walking on concrete. Knowing people go all over, walking long distances on less-than sanitary surfaces is truly heart-breaking to me. I love this cause and my TOMS shoes and will definitely be supporting them again soon with another purchace! Check them out http://www.tomsshoes.com/

Well I'm going to get ready to head back to Bolivar, so I'll check in later this week sometime!

In Christ,
Katlyn

Bored

2009-04-13T09:18:00.004-05:00

I hope that everyone had a pleasant Easter weekend. I ended up going home to St. Louis, even though I had not been planning on it. I'm glad I did, though, because I got to spend some quality time with the family. I got to go to the Cardinals game on Friday night. It was cold, but fun and I was psyched to be going to a game during opening season week...and we won so that's really all that matters! :)

I have a crazy week ahead of me. I have an Anatomy and Physiology test on Wednesday and a Psychology test Friday...so not really looking forward to all the studying that is going to be going on. Then, after the week comes to a conclusion, I am heading home again and then going to straight to Jackson, TN.

If you haven't been caught up in my life...well, here's a little update for ya. I am not coming back to Southwest Baptist next semester. Though I love the community and the college life here at SBU, I have decided that I am going to transfer to Union University in Jackson, TN. The main reasons for my decision were that 1) The nursing program here is not as suitable to me as I thought for many reasons like the last 37 hrs are online. 2) If I did stay, I would not be able to receive the SBU scholarships I receive here on the Springfield campus---which is totally lame because I would still be an SBU student, just not on the Bolivar campus. I am super sad to be leaving everyone here. I have begun to tell everyone about my leaving...I have already cried a few times telling friends. I will miss all of my friends for sure. God has blessed me with some amazing friends that I know will last a lifetime, no matter the distance. Consequently, I have found that Union is very appealing and I would get many good scholarships. I love the Christian campus community and am looking forward to what God will do in my life there.

Well I guess I should go back to attempting to listen in my psychology class...haha.

I hope you have a blessed week!

In Him,
Katlyn

Well...

2009-04-02T00:46:00.004-05:00

I have survived half of my first week back to school. It's going okay for the most part. I'm doing pretty well with studying actually. I have a big Anatomy Lab test on Friday that I'm a little worried about, but not too bad. Feeling pretty confident about this one...hopefully getting the grade to prove my confidence. ;)

So God is still doing some crazy stuff in my life right now. I'm a lot more at ease with all the stress that I've been dealing with. I have to admit I was beginning to get a little doubtful and weary, but God proved faithful...He always does. Thanks Jesus!

Summer is getting closer everyday...I can almost taste it! I'm going to be working as a summer missionary in St. Louis with International students and other mission opportunities. I cannot wait to see what God does this summer! Only 6 more weeks of school after this week!

I should probably get going because I have to work on a paper and want to get it finished before the caffeine in me wears out. haha.

In Christ,
Katlyn

Sigh

2009-03-28T17:11:00.003-05:00

So I really don't want to go back to Bolivar tomorrow. For some reason, I'm just totally not thrilled about school at all. I am pretty sure it's because of all the work I have to do. I'm thinking about maybe dropping a class just so I can concentrate better and make sure all my grades stay up. Also, since I know I'm transferring, I guess that is adding a lot of stress. My Bolivia team fundraising is also stressing me out a little as well. I've been praying a lot about all of this, but I'm having a hard time just givin it all up to Him. I want everything to just fix it on my own or if it could fix itself that would be nice too. But....I have to have faith that God is in control. He knows what will happen with all of this and He will take care of me.

Spring break went by too fast. I didn't really do much. I got to shop a little, but didn't buy much. I mostly hung out watching movies and caught up in my t.v. shows. I also had to study some because I have an A&P lab test when I get back to school (UGH!). I ate and made some really good food like THAI! Oh I wish I could eat that everyday.

I may not be posting much in the next few weeks. I'm trying to stay away from internet totally unless I really need to use it. I mean, I only checked facebook like 3 times over break which is like amazing lol but I realized how much time I waste on the internet...I am going to be studying a lot instead because I really really need to make good some better grades. They're not all terrible or anything, but definitely need to improve. Anyway, should probably get going because it's my last night and I have stuff to get done before I head back tomorrow. I'm also going to make sushi with my mom...yummy!!

God Bless
Katlyn

IS IT BREAK TIME YET?!

2009-03-16T00:27:00.003-05:00

So I have been completely overwhelmed with school. I have had a ton of tests, and I'm not finished. Luckily, this will be our last week and then we have spring break! Thank God! I'm so ready to take a break....ugh. Anwyay...life has been decent other than the stressfullness of college work. I have gotten to do a lot in the last weeks.

On the weekend of February 27th, I went home and took my friends Christina and Katie to a conference called Engage. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them in my hometown and worship Jesus together. I got to meet some cool people, and I learned a lot too.

Then, last weekend (March 6-7), I got to lead my first Disciple Now in Steelville, MO. It was a great experience! I lead a group of 6th grade girls with my roommate. They were so funny and full of energy! I wished I could stay up all night and still be able to be all hyper the next day too. Haha yeah I guess you could say they made me feel old. One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to lead one of the girls in my group to the Lord. We had an invitation at the end of our service Sat. night and she came up to me and said she wanted to be saved. I was thrilled! It was definitely an emotional night to say the least. I could write a lot more about that weekend, but I will refrain for now and move on.

This weekend was good as well. On Friday, didn't do anything except watch movies with my girls all night and eat junk food. Oh, and we went to a show here called "Battle of the Air Bands". It was great! Yesterday, I studied and worked on my paper, then I got to hang out with my friends. My friends Tricia and Jennifer came in from St. Louis for their spring break. We watched a couple movies--one of which was "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". It was definitely one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen about the Holocaust. Then today, I went to 2nd Baptist church in Springfield with my friends. That church is huge! I thoroughly enjoyed the service though. The music was awesome, and the message was touching. The pastor spoke about how when life crashes, we have to be able to still turn to God and know He is there watching over us and guiding us.

Other news--

I am pretty sure that I will be working for the MO Baptist Convention this summer as a summer missionary to work with International Students in St. Louis. So yeah, I guess I'll be seeing my dad a lot this summer. Haha just kidding...I can't wait!
I am getting more and more details about my trip to Bolivia. Fundraising is going well so far, and I learn more about the trip every time we meet. I'm so excited!

Hasta La Vista!

Katlyn

Jai Ho!

2009-02-25T00:47:00.003-06:00

If you don't understand my title, then you're missing out! Haha j/k. "Jai Ho" (which means "It Rocks" in Hindi) is the Academy Award-winning song from the Academy Award-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire...which is my new favorite movie. The music is amazing and I have that song stuck in my head.I have seen it twice now, and loved it just as much the second time. I would highly recommend checking it out.

So I'm writing late, once again, because I'm a little high on caffeine right now. I went to IHOP with Katie and Christina around 9 for National Free Pancake Day! Nina and I drank a whole pot of coffee. Now I'm too awake to sleep....but I'm going to have to make myself because I have an 8:00 Old Testament class! Yay!

God is slowly, but surely continuing to provide me with humbleness and humility that I have been seeking. It has been a rough couple of weeks getting into this semester and I know it's not going to get any easier. Oh well, I will live through it...hopefully haha.

Oh! I got an updated list of my progression in fundraising for my trip to Bolivia...and I'm super blessed to be about half-way to my needed amount! I am so thankful for the kindness and generosity of our close family friends. Praise Jesus!

I had a great weekend in Oklahoma with my roommate. It was definitely nice getting away from the dorm for a bit. I got to see Grove, where she is from and meet a lot of her family. They were all super nice and made me miss my family, too. Grove is a really cute town. I like the smaller town atmosphere a lot!

Anyway, I would love to keep writing but I should probably get some sleep!

Stay Tuned,
Katlyn

Impatiently Waiting for Weekend Arrival!

2009-02-19T23:23:00.002-06:00

So I have taken 2 quizzes, 2 tests, and have one more in the morning bright and early at 8! Seriously I think all my professors got together and schemed to give me a week from that fiery place down there. Okay, so maybe I'm a little bitter and upset about it...but now I'm mostly brain-dead and exhausted! At least I get to take a brake and go to Oklahoma with my roomie this weekend! I have never been to OK before and am totally excited to spend it with Jana.

Anyway, as for other aspects of my life, there is not really anything new. Today I got to take a study break and go to a florist with Angel. I'm super excited to be getting into more wedding plans with her! She told me today that the wedding is in 142 days! I'm still considering the transfer to Union next year. I am a little indifferent right now. Just seeking God's will for me and which path is going to be the best for me. He knows what it will be, so I guess I should be satisfied with that for now and just let it happen in His timing instead of being so impatient.

I actually have some more great weekends coming up that I'm anticipating as well. Next weekend, I will be going home to StL with 2 of my friends here for a student leadership conference called Engage. Though it has only been a little over 3 weeks since I've seen the fam, I am ready to see them again. They've been making me jealous of all the fun stuff they've been doing there. Or not...haha last weekend they went to a dog parade! But I was super jealous to find out that my mom made sushi for the first time tonight. *sigh* haha oh well...

I better get some sleep so I can be alive and alert for my Old Testament History test bright and early tomorrow!

In Christ,
Katlyn

Busy Busy Busy!

2009-02-12T18:28:00.002-06:00

I have been super loaded with work! (Which is why I haven't been writing a lot) I have 3 tests next week in Old Testament History, Psychology, and Human Anatomy & Physiology II. Ugh! I'm definitely dreading all of them. I also have to read a lot, work on a project, and write a paper! Basically, I should not have any life for the next week! I have probably been taking too much social time already (the weather has been super nice so I've been getting a little distracted)...so I need to get down to business and work.

On the fun side of college life, I have been having a lot of fun with my roomie and my 2 other girl friends Christina and Katie. We are making t-shirts for Valentine's Day which are going to be super cute and hilarious. I just finished mine. On the front, it reads "No Valentine? No problem...(see back for details)" and on back it says "I Got Jesus (He was single too!)" Haha I love it!

As far as my decision I have to make for whether or not I transfer to Union, I have yet to figure it out for sure. After a lot more research on Union, it keeps getting more appealing, but I'm still trying to decipher which voice is God's and which is mine. Only God can let me know for sure what I'm going to do because He already knows. Ugh...I love it at SBU so much, but since I'm going to have to change campuses for nursing anyway I guess it really does not matter because I'm leaving next year anyway...it would just be farther. I did find that Jackson, TN is 270 miles from St. Louis and it's about 210 to get to Bolivar so distance really won't be that bad either. I pray that I let God fully lead me in the right direction, whatever it may be.

Stay Tuned,

Katlyn

Something New To Deal With

2009-02-07T01:31:00.002-06:00

So it's super late here in Bolivar, but I'm still pretty awake from a dance party I just had with my girls! I haven't written in awhile...mostly because I'm busy, but also because God is doing some crazy things in my life again. He just started speaking to me a few days ago. This is really hard for me to even talk about this time. Basically, I am thinking that even though I love it here at SBU and everything, I am not sure that this is where God has called me to be after all. Ugh, I feel so bad because I hate it when I worry and think about stuff a lot.

So I was sitting in Old Testament history a few days ago, when all of a sudden I felt this overwhelming feeling that I can't exactly describe that immediately had me thinking about my major and what's to come of my future. I know that God has given me a passion for other cultures and I still have every intention of doing mission work in my future...and as a nurse, too. But I have felt since that morning that I may not need to necesarily major in missions (the intercultural studies major) and nursing. First of all, God has already called us to be missionaries....we should feel led to do so once we have been taken in by His grace and love...so I do not really need to major in missions because really ICS is just a fancy title for becomming a missionary. Nursing is already a mission field anyway! Secondly, I do not know if I would like how this program is set up (3 semesters in Bolivar, then 2 yrs of nursing classes in Springfield, then 2 semesters back in Bolivar, then a semester abroad). Lastly, I don't like how the regular bachelor's nursing works either. It would take me 5 years too! Ugh! Anyway, this really got me concerned about how things would work out. For some reason, I kept thinking about my original first choice school, Union University, and how much I thought I wanted to go there to do nursing or intercultural studies too! I pulled up their site and long story short, they have a 4 year BSN that I think looks very appealing and if I would want to do MSN for nurse practitioner; they have a 15 month program that seems promising! This whole time, I'm just thinking "Why is this happening now, God? Why not before I chose to come to SBU?" Anyway, So after getting really upset and frustrated with myself and even God a little-I talked to my parents, roommate, and couple other friends about it.

So now I am a little stuck in this situation. I am working things out, weighing out good and bad things, and really praying about this. I don't want to leave SBU because I love it, but if God wants me to go to Union, I will go. I cannot fight Him...I've already tried...you lose everytime. I have been humbled a lot since Thursday morning, but am still scared/nervous/anxious. I'm desperately awaiting to hear more from God on this one!

I have faith that everything will be okay. I believe that God sent me to SBU as part of His plan and do not regret coming here, even if it ends up only being for a year. I have had a wonderful experience. I will write more about this soon, but I should probably get some sleep now.

First Week Back!

2009-01-29T18:49:00.003-06:00

So I have been back to school for almost a week. I am slowly but surely re-adjusting to waking up early and going to classes every morning at 8:00. Other than classes, I've been hanging out with my friends, working out, and catching some of my tv shows. I think it will be a good semester, rough for sure, but good. I have 6 classes...all of which require a lot of reading so I will be spending most of my time reading up for them. It has been good to see all of my friends. I missed them all a lot over the month and a 1/2 we had for break.

There are a few exciting things coming up too! Next week, I start weekly team meetings for the mission trip to Bolivia I'm going on. I am going to be working a merchandise table for the band Remedy Drive during Welcome Back concert here at SBU Friday night...so that should be fun! My roommate and I are also going to rearrange our room, which may not sound exciting, but I'm looking forward to it.

Also, I'm currently in progress of starting an SBU chapter of the ONE Campaign. ONE is an organization thats working to end poverty. Around a week ago, I became the campus leader to SBU for ONE as a part of the campus challenge. If you can, I'd encourage you to check out our page...and please sign up to support ONE through SBU. We get points for every person that supports it through our school...so please help us beat our competiting schools!
Here's the link....http://www.one.org/campus/mycampus.html?school_id=1944 Thanks!

I pray that this will be a great semester. I can't wait to see all God has in store for me.

In Christ,
Katlyn

Inauguration Day

2009-01-21T00:58:00.004-06:00

I got to see history made today (well yesterday since it is early morning now). I watched 44th President Barack Obama sworn in as the first African American President of the United States. To be honest, I really didn't think it was going to be worth my time, but in reality, I am very glad I watched because it was really eye-opening. There was a lot of things that went on at the ceremony that I believe were great. Rick Warren said the opening prayer...he got to declare Jesus' name to the entire world. I know that God has a plan for Obama this country. He is an All-Knowing God and even though all of my views do not totally match President Obama, I have faith that he is a good and generous man that will do great things with this country. I was very pleased and impressed that he used scripture in his speech, and that he spoke about the need to help poverty. I signed a petition for the ONE campaign ensuring that he did. I even sent him a thank you through ONE to express my appreciation for his commitment to helping our world's increasing problem in poverty. I will end my post with he had to say about it...because it was great and important.

"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it." -President Barack Obama--Jan. 20, 2009

My Last Week!

2009-01-20T11:54:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's my last week of winter break....I'm not complaining though because it's been almost five weeks since I've been in BoMO. I do miss it actually. I have been struggling a bit with some stress over some random things, but God is good and He has already been humbling.

Matthew 6:34 says "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own".

I am looking forward to what God has in store for me this semester. I will be starting weekly team meetings for the Bolivia mission trip I'm going on once the semester begins. I believe I will learn and grow a lot through my fellow team members.

I am very thankful for the time I got to spend with family and friends this break!

The ONE Campaign

2009-01-19T00:31:00.003-06:00

If you don't know that I'm all about raising awareness of the increasing problem of poverty in the world today, then you don't know me very well. A friend of mine introduced me to an organization that is working to end poverty called the ONE Campaign. It took me awhile before I really got into it, but now I feel that I should take a part in this more than ever! We talk about how low our economy is every day, but in reality there are far worse environments and living situations around the world today. More than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day. How sad is that? I spent around 10 bucks on coffee this week, and that would be like what a family lives off of in like 2 weeks! Ugh, man do I feel a little more than guilty after letting that one sink in! Anyway, I would like to invite you to take action with me by learning more through their website, http://www.one.org/.

Thanks for reading!

Katlyn

It's Been Awhile

2009-01-14T23:54:00.002-06:00

So it's been a bit since I last posted. I have been hanging out and doing some pretty fun stuff. I got to go on a scavenger hunt my dad created for my friends and I which was awesome. My team (called Jesus' Favorites), won! Haha yeah it was a blast! I also got to go to Blue Springs, MO for 3 nights to work Team Spirit, a leadership conference for high schoolers to promote safe driving. I love my team spirit family and am super glad I got to see them since the only other conferences we have are in the summer and I'm not even sure I will get to attend this year because of Bolivia. :^/

Not much more exciting-ness has been filling my time. Just work and hanging out. I have gotten to see some friends I haven't seen all break, and then said goodbye to some as they left and went back as well. It's been quite a break I'll say. I still have over a week left! Yeah I think I'm starting to feel a little anxious about going back. I love my friends at school and I really miss them!

I do want to share that God has yet again touched my heart to remind me that even in the midst of all the things I have to stress about, I shouldn't because there is so much to be thankful and happy for. And...He will always be there. So yeah, keep me in your prayers that I may be able to continue to follow His path for me.

I believe this is going to be a great year filled with blessings!

Hello 2009!

2009-01-02T01:07:00.007-06:00

I can't believe it is 2009! I hope everyone had a great New Year celebration. I had to work New Year's eve and day so I didn't really do much. I spent time with the fam...which is fine with me. We ate a lot of food (haha what else is new) and played Bingo. :0)

So far I've had a decent break! At the very beginning, I got to go to an International Student Banquet at a new International ministry in St. Louis called Oasis. There were around 50 internationals there. My friend Justin came to hang out and we went back to my house afterward to have a cookie decorating competition with my brother. It was definitely a good time (probably one of the highlights of my break so far). Christmas was great! God is good! I got to hang out and spend some quality time with my family. I got some sweet gifts (gift cards & an ihome are among the many). I didn't even ask for anything. The only thing I actually asked for, I got early since I knew it was coming. I got Tom's Shoes...for every pair of Tom's you buy, they send a pair to a poor child in another country. I love them! They're navy blue and have the Gandi quote "You must be the change you wish to see in the world". LOVE!

As you can see in the picture...our tree fell down the day after Christmas. Ha oh well we still have 5 other trees in the house. :)

I still have many plans before I go back to SBU on the 25th. I will be in Kansas City the 7-11 for a Team Sprit conference. I will be facilitating a group of high schoolers to create an action plan to promote safe driving at their school. I love my Team Spirit family and can't wait to see them! I also have quite a few friends I plan on seeing while I'm home and can't wait to hang with them! 9

I Need Winter Break To Come Faster

2008-12-14T00:00:00.006-06:00

Haha so it's midnight and I'm completely exhausted but of course I can't sleep...so here I am.

First of all I would like to tell you how AMAZING the Shane and Shane Christmas concert was here on Wednesday! My committee brought them in, but I didn't get to hang out with any of them really because I was working the will call tickets....oh well. I did get pictures with all of them and they signed a poster for me. I still got to watch a great concert of them and Bethany Dillon and Phil Wickham. They all did an amazing job.

Today (well, Sat) I spent the day in Springfield starting early to perform in the orchestra for First Baptist Church's Christmas musical. We had a 4 hour rehearsal that lasted until 2:30 and our performance started at 7:00 so I just hung out in the town instead of making the 30 min drive back to BOMO and then going back to Springfield again. I was going to meet my friend at the mall to do some Christmas shopping but decided not to after I saw the CRAZY crowd of people there. People were parking in other lots not for the mall thats how busy it was! Ugh...anyway I got a little bit of studying done at Kaldi's for my Biology final...but not enough.

I cannot wait for this next week to be finished! I just want these finals to be over with. I will miss it here I'm sure, but I'm so ready for a break and to go home. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing all my family and friends....I miss them a lot!!! My friend wrote me today and said I needed to get back so we can play video games and watch Lost...I'm stoked because I'm became addicted to Lost this semester. I watched the first 3 seasons already, and started the 4th which I need to finish before the new season starts in January! Ahhh! Wow, I'm super tired.

Oh- I made turtles tonight! They're made with melted chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter, and peanuts. I haven't eaten one yet because a) I snacked on the melted stuff in the bowl and b) they are still drying. Haha so yeah guess I'll have to wait a while. Anyway, I should probably sleep now because I have church in the morning followed by studying and then another performance in Springfield.

Goodnight!

Advent Conspiracy

2008-12-10T13:26:00.005-06:00

So I wrote about 2 speakers that came to my school not too long ago. Their names are Shane Claiborne and Mike Yankosky. I'm still working on reading Claiborne's book and it continues to inspire me and the way I live out my faith. Well Christmas was brought up by both speakers in the same way. I have wrote about this as well, but I'll just restate that I have definitely been convicted this season. How did we let ourselves get lost in the cultural view of Christmas with consummerism. CHRIST should really be the reason for the season. I mean yes, Christians do want to show that they celebrate this time of the year because our Savior was born, but it really doesn't show in my opinion most of the time. I'm speaking to myself when I talk about it like this, but if we all just took a step back to observe the way we live at Christmas...I think a lot of us would really be ashamed.

Today, Christmas has become this holiday where people think for themselves and what they want to get or what kind of sales they can find. The Bible doesn't even say anything about giving gifts for Christmas! This kind of reminds me of those birds in Finding Nemo that only know how to say "mine, mine, mine" over and over again. We are falling deeper into consummerism everytday. There are so many suffering without food, clean clothes, shelter, proper health care. I'm not saying that gift giving and the fun stuff should be eliminated completely...I just want Jesus to be seen. Shane told us about a new movement called the "Advent Conspiracy" while he was here. A church that started it decided to fill the floors of their church with manure on their Christmas Day service to let them see what Christmas was probably like when Jesus was born in that manger with barn animals....so all the members (most of whom dress nicely on this day) sat in poop during the service. I can only imagine what that was like and I bet none of them will ever forget that Christmas. Here is a video from them that I believe really gives the message of what I've been saying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&eurl=http://www.adventconspiracy.org/&feature=player_embedded Check it out!

God Bless!

This Week Is FULL!!

2008-12-09T14:11:00.002-06:00

Wow so it's Tuesday and I'm already worn out from the week! I have already taken a Biology lab final and College Algebra exam, but still have 2 more tests this week and finals next week! So I'm definitely ready to be done and go home for my 6 week break! I cannot wait..

I am really excited about tomorrow night though...I will get to take a break to help out with our Shane and Shane Christmas tour concert! Bethany Dillon and Phil Wickham will also be performing! I'm so excited to be on the committee that brings them in because I get to help them unload when they arrive at 11:00 tomorrow morning and I'll be working they're merchandise and selling tickets before the show. It is going to be awesome!!!

I love Christmas time so much, but it's going by so fast and I don't have a lot of time to do the traditional stuff that's so fun to do this time of year. I did receive a box with PENGUINS on it full of candy and some other penguin stuff from my family. It was cute.I have to admit that I wish I could be home more so we could bake our goodies and do all of our activities we do every year. Oh well, I'll be back the 19th around 2:00!!!

Break is Over, Now on to Studying

2008-12-01T16:21:00.006-06:00

So I'm back to school after our week-long Thanksgiving Break. It was a lot of fun! I got to spend time with all my favorite people! Our T-Day celebration was great! My turkey turned out great this year! It was 24 pounds and it fell off the bone it was so juicy! All of the food we made was amazing! I ate way too much of everything!

I am so blessed to have family and friends to spend time with. I made a lot of new memories while I was back in STL and wish that my time with them wouldn't end. I got to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen in a while and actually relax for some time! I even got to go ice skating with some friends. Haha it was only my second time to ever ice skate and I didn't do too bad.

Well now I have 3 more weeks of the semester left. I cannot believe it's already been this long that I've been in college! I have quite a few tests before finals so I am going to be pretty busy with that. But I also get to celebrate the holidays a lot around

Yay for Penguins!

2008-11-20T20:11:00.003-06:00

So yeah if you didn't know already...penguins are pretty much my favorite animal in the entire world!! Tonight, Jana and I decorated the room for Christmas since it will be December when we come back from Thanksgiving break! We put a Christmas tree in the room (which doesn't have very many ornaments yet so we improvised a little--like a McCain/Palin button LOL) and we also put up penguin window clings...I even have a penguin stocking! All of this came from my family because we are like ultra holiday happy around this time of year and I guess they wanted my room to have a little of the same spirit as our home does! It's not a bad thing at all...I used to pretend like it was lame that we always seemed to let the decorations explode, but I love it actually...and our house is really cute! I'm kinda sad I won't be around for all of the traditions we have for Christmas. We used to do something different every day in December leading up to Christmas Day....like making cookies, cutting snowflakes, or watching a favorite holiday film! It's okay though...at least I get to be back for 5 weeks starting Dec. 19th!

Shane Claiborne and Mike Yankosky (authors who spoke at our school) really made me think about how we celebrate though. It's good to have fun with the holiday spirit, but we cannot forget what the season is really about. I mean, we were reminded from Shane of how awful it had to have been to be born like Jesus was and the time he was born. He was in a nasty smelling manger in a stable with poop! And this was at a time of genocide when all newborns were being killed! Now that's not all happy, bright fun now is it? And here we are buying tons of gifts for each other while Jesus got 3...which were probably not something a baby would want. Haha I remember Shane saying "yeah, what kind of baby wants myrrh?"

So yeah, I am totally for having fun, but really want to make sure I respectfully observe this time as being when my Lord came to Earth as flesh in Jesus to save us from our sins.

I'm coming home tomorrow after my class ends at 3:00 for a week! YESSSSSSS!!!!!!

God Bless!

So Close I Can Almost Taste It!

2008-11-19T14:34:00.004-06:00

Thanksgiving break is comin in 2 days! I'm so ready to be home for a week to hang out with family and friends and cook some really good food with my mom and g-ma (who I call Mama). Makin the turkey and chicken 'n dumplings are just 2 among the massive menu we make every year. I just love cooking!

This week has been quite amazing so far if I do say so myself. God has really blessed me by being able to be on the committee (IFC- Integration of Faith & Cultures) that brought in a very unique, passionate, Jesus-following author named Shane Claiborne. (You may recall I wrote about his book, Jesus for President, a few posts back on my thoughts after the election). He spoke at our school 4 times...twice in chapel and twice the past 2 evenings. He wears clothes he made himself and has dreadlocks...which is awesome! I got the priveledge of getting to know him working his merchandise table and going to dinner with him with aboout 12 other students on the SGA and UAC. He has some of the most mind-blowing stories of his past experiences. I really loved every minute because he was humorous, yet challenging us and stepping on our toes about the way we live for Christ. He has been to countries all over the world reaching out, and lives in a community house with 7 others he started called The Simple Way. Each individual person in their community only lives off $150 per month! The rest they use for thier ministry...like feeding others in the neighborhood. It was very inspiring for me to see how simply he lives his life and just uses all of his time to truly glorify Christ in everything he does. Here's a pic of him...unfortunately I didn't take any with my own camera (I know...it's very unlike me!) I'm goin to move on for now...but will probably write more later on about this.

Oh..I'd also like to encourage you to check out his ministry at http://www.thesimpleway.org/

Lazy and Anxious

2008-11-10T11:05:00.000-06:00

Just got out of chapel service....Higher Ground (a worship singing group here on campus) performed a time of worship with us. It was much needed for me because it allowed me to really focus on God and have a personal time to pray and worship Him without any distractions.

My weekend was actually pretty awesome...and I was in Bolivar the whole time! Yep, that's right, I didn't even go to Springfield. Friday I just hung out on my own and relaxed watching movies and such. Saturday was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with a few of my friends and we went to the public library in town and looked at Bridal and fashion magazines for about an hour. We also got library cards! :) Then we drove around Bolivar to more familiarize ourselves with the town (which did not take long since it's a tiny town lol) and we ended up at Bolivar Park...it is a very cute park. I felt like such a kid. We made a big pile of leaves and jumped in them! :) A lot of pictures were taken as well... Afterward, we went back to the dorms and watched some chick flicks and talked. And to end the night, Lindsay and Alison showed up to my room and we went and Tagged our friends, Parker and Teddy's cars! If you don't know what tagging is...we just decorated their cars with window chalk and we made their cars look like Christmas with red ribbon and candy canes. Haha it was hilarious!

Anyway...
Haha so I really don't want to have to study all week for my Biology test on Friday, but I will have to because it's a lot of material to memorize. Ugh...I definitely need prayer to maintain the motivation to focus. I'm just so anxious for the next 3 weekends to come....because I'm going to be home! Yes, 3 weekends in a row! Here's a brief summary of what's going to be happening in case I don't get to post anything for awhile because of my crazy, hectic life.

This weekend I will be going back to see Sweeney Todd on Broadway at the Fox Theatre (which is like my favorite place of all time to be in St. Louis!). And as an extra positive note for this coming weekend...my good friend Justin will be home from school to teach D-NOW at his church! I haven't seen him since August!!! I'm going to go to his church service on Sunday to see him. Yay! :)

The following weekend....is the start of my WEEK LONG Thanksgiving break! Heck yes! I'm super excited. I'll be starting out the weekend in Springfield, IL at an International Student conference, then the usual making Thanksgiving dinner with my mom...which will be on Wed. this year since she has to work all day on T-Day. I also look forward on seeing a lot of friends I haven't seen in awhile either!

That's about all I have for now....On to the Studying!

Jesus for President

2008-11-05T11:51:00.000-06:00

So we have a new president....history is in the making with the first ever African-American president in office. There are a lot of people really upset that Obama won. I'm actually more apathetic to be completely honest. I knew...and I think everyone saw it was coming...it didn't take like some major prophecy. I may have voted for McCain, but in all honesty, I was never persuaded to like one more than the other. I did really like Palin and think that they could of had great potential as President and VP, but there is nothing we can do about it now and whining and bashing Obama will not fix anything. A lot is going to happen in the next four years, and whether good or bad comes from his first term in the White House....I choose to have complete faith in God that He is still in control and everything happens for a purpose. He is the author and perfector of our faith and we must strive as a Nation to be a follower of Christ.... and to not let the government or that we don't like the new president rule our lives. Yes, it is important to believe in our government and follow it, but we cannot let the president be the deity of our lives that we look up to. Without letting Christ take the lead...we're not going to get anywhere. The book I'm reading is very appropriate for our Nation's situation today. The book is called Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne (who's coming to SBU in like 1 and 1/2 weeks!). It is an excellent eye-opener to learn how society should focus on love, humility, and the fact that how we have become so consumed by the politics of the world has become a problem. I will close out with a quote from Jesus for President that I think is really relevant to the way I feel right now.
"Maybe it's time for Christians all over the world to lay down the flags of their nations and together raise the banner of God. The Christian icon is not the Stars and Stripes but a cross-flag, and its emblem is not a donkey, an elephant, or an eagle but a slaughtered lamb"

So much to do....

2008-10-27T23:42:00.000-05:00

Well, this week is going to be rough! I have already been very busy and it's only the end of Monday! Oh well...I know I'll get through it. I have to really rely on God this week to guide me in studying for my tests (a final in University seminar and a test in Chemistry).

I wanted to share a little about my weekend...it was busy as well but very fun indeed. On Friday, I went to Springfield after classes were over with my friends I met in English, Katie and Jae. Jae is from S Korea and has only lived in the states for a little over 2 years. We like to joke about being Asian. Our goal when we went to Springfield was to find some good sushi....Unfortunately one of the places that was recommended to us was too expensive for us college kids and the other place was apparently invisible because we didn't find it. Actually, we just gave up on looking for it and settled for a Chinese Buffet with Mongolian bbq. It was not the best place ever, but definitely satisfying enough for our hunger. On Saturday, I was at a retreat for being a D-Now leader here at SBU...it was good but I definitely had a few issues that I'd rather not elaborate on at the moment. Sunday, I went to Springhill Baptist Church with my roommate and my friend Lindsay. I most definitely enjoyed everything about it and am thinking that it is where I'll more than likely start regularly attending. Again, more details on that later.

Overall, life is pretty good in spite of all the craziness I always seem to have. It's okay though...life is still a blessing no matter what.

~Love and Peace~

Katlyn

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

2008-10-21T23:47:00.000-05:00

So I'm on the University Activities Council at my school in the Committee called Integration of Faith and Cultures....we like to show films, have speakers, and bands perform to really work on integrating our faith to the culture of society today. Well tonight, here at SBU, we got to watch a new unreleased film, "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers", and had the privilege of Dan Merchant, writer and producer of the film to speak with us. I even got to work the merchandise table and speak with him for awhile. He's a great guy.

Dan Merchant goes on a 3-year trip around the world revealing what Christians are like, how non-believers view Christians, and how Christians represent themselves through interviews, statistics, and more. So basically the movie will be a big smack-in-the-face to many Christians who really don't get how to reach out to society today and think that they are fine living in their bubbles and being judgemental to the rest of the world. The film shows how Christians are the reason people aren't being led to Christ....not Jesus. I was shocked to see when Dan interviewed non-believers on the street asking them to describe Jesus and they used words like "Love" and "Saved the World" or "Forgiven". I personally enjoyed every minute because this is what I have been trying to speak out and this film put it into action. It explores so many ways of our culture today and how it takes so much an effect on Christians. Wow I just loved all of the shocking statistics and seeing how the world views Christians.

The film is not out yet in theaters....Dan is just touring to promote the film right now. So when it comes out...go see it and be prepared to be challenged. Here's a video clip from the movie of Dan as the "Bumper-sticker man" interviewing people on the street...check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmFHVkMud7k

or visit the website http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/home.html

So....my life lately

2008-10-15T23:51:00.000-05:00

I'm so awake right now (12:00 am) it's not even funny. I went to Java Station, our coffee shop hangout here in BOMO and sat there for over 2 hours with my $0.94 bottomless cup for coffee that I definitely took advantage of because I drank 4 cups. By the way, the cups there are ginormous!

Anyway, it's been quite the week! I've been studying like crazy for my biology exam Friday. I pray that all the studying pays off because I really need a good grade on this one! I'm definitely determined. The workload just keeps getting heavier...like I had a quiz today in comp and a paper due in that class Friday. I'm definitely starting to really learn my study skills and how I learn best. I also feel so old and grown up because I'm doing all of this on my own without parental or teacher reinforcement. Today also was the starting process of figuring out my schedule for next semester. I can't believe it's already time for that because I feel like I'm just getting used to my schedule for this semester!

Another thing I got to do this week was train to be a volunteer substitute receptionist for a Christian pregnancy resource center called Alpha House. It is a great place where women (and men too) can come for mentoring in duration of pregnancy, post-abortion, education on pregnancy and abortion....and it's all for free. Alpha House, like me, is definitely against abortion no matter what the circumstance, so they strongly encourage women to re-think their plans if they consider abortion, but do not enforce it because they want to help.

So I believe that I have made my decision in regards to my major. After much prayer over the last couple weeks and a discussion with my parents and a few other close friends, I have made the decision to be the Intercultural Studies and Nursing major. It is a 5 year program that I will receive my A.S.N. and B.A. in ICS. My last semester will be 6 months studying abroad...which was one part of the major that I was really nervous about to begin with because it's a little scary to me. But I came to the conclusion that God will protect me and guide me through everything, no matter how tough it gets and how much I actually dread the 5 years. I think it'll be a great experience and it will be wonderful to allow God to let me minister with the knowledge I will gain in ICS. So I'm super excited to see the journey God leads me in the next 5 years. Also, after my ICS degree is complete, I will more than likely work on my B.S.N. for nursing since I will only have like 35 more hours to complete. So please keep that in your prayers!

Here is a memory verse I thought was definitely appropriate from my bible study I'm doing "A Call To Die" by David Nasser.
"Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." Isaiah 26:8

Oh, I also have been praying heavily for a lot of other things lately. Here are a couple that I hope you will take time to lift up as well.

My good friend just left yesterday morning to do a 2-year journeymen program through the International Mission Board overseas. It was definitely rough knowing that last Sunday was the last time I'd get to see him for 2 years, but I'm definitely proud of him and he's been like a big brother and a huge inspiration to me since I was probably 13 or 14 years old!
Our nation and the upcoming election. Need I say more? It is definitely a pivotal time right now and important that the body of Christ come together in prayer for what will be an election that goes down in history. There is what in my opinion, too many people who have strayed so far from what this country was founded upon as far as beliefs and standards go. I'm definitely preaching to myself when I say this, but as my friend said in his blog; please become informed on this election, especially for candidates running for office.

I hope that you will lift these up in prayer. God Bless

Because of His Grace,

Katlyn

Homecoming Week

2008-10-08T03:06:00.000-05:00

In the midst of the two tons of homework and tests I've had this week, it is also Homecoming week here at SBU and I'm trying to enjoy what I can. On Tuesday night, Sean Michel(he was on American Idol and has a really long beard!) and the band Scratch Track came to perform. They were both great, but I really loved Scratch Track. Check them out if you've never heard them before.

Today we had spirit chapel. Basically, all the dorms represent their pride in chapel and each share a cheer/chant and some type of dance or skit. My dorm, Leslie won 3rd place! Ours was a dance to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby" but re-worded with "Leslie Ladies". Haha it was a riot and also very well done. Our cheer was hilarious...it ended with us sitting down and repeating "We can get real clean without standing up, without standing up"---if you don't know, our dorms are the only girl dorms on campus with bathtubs. :D ha it cracked me up!

<--Tonight was definitely very interesting. I went with a friend to see the "Brawl behind the hall". It's just a bunch of brawls between guys at the Maupin dorm on campus. I definitely freaked out a little because I was paranoid that someone would get seriously hurt. But no one did, so it's all good.

Well that's my week so far. One more test left this week then none till next Friday! Yippee!

God Bless!

craazzzaay!

2008-10-07T01:01:00.000-05:00

So....it's like 1:00 a.m. and I can't sleep...hmm I think it's the free coffee I got from McDonalds(they're giving SBU students free coffee all week!) Haha anyway, I really should be sleeping considering I have my Biology lab test at 10:30.

Earlier today my mom calls me and leaves me a voicemail saying "call me so I can tell you what I did" ha so that gave me an immediate "uh oh" thought. It turns out that she got a cat! It's a black and white cat. I really wish I could be home to meet him. He is exactly what we'd been searching for if we decided we'd ever get another cat. I mean, our cat Tiger is like the boss of the house so we were a little worried about even considering getting him a friend. Anyway, I think my suggestion of the name "Dwight" fits very well even though I haven't officially met the new addition to our family of pets (it's turning into a zoo haha). I hope I get to see him soon and that everything works out with adjusting to the house (apparently it's Tiger who is having a hard time accepting him tho...he's selfish!)

Moving on...I pray that I can do well on this test and my other 2 tests this week. Lord knows I need the good grades on them. Also, I am really looking forward to all the Homecoming stuff this week so I hope that I will be able to balance my studying time and fun time too!

Until next time...

Katlyn

Doing My Best

2008-10-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

So....today I went to church with my friend Angel in Springfield, got to see my friend Grant who is leaving for East Asia for a 2 year Journey Man trip a week from Tuesday, and also got into a fender bender with Angel coming back into BOMO(I wasn't driving and everything is fine). So it was quite a day to say the very least. I'm writing this now in procrastination of my chemistry homework...shh don't tell. haha

God has really humbled me a lot in this last week. I have beat up by Him, then swept up by His grace. Ha it's truly amazing how God works. God has been teaching me and telling me that all I have to do is follow Him...it's going to be rough and confusing at times...but the reward will be great in the end. It's not like I did not really know/understand this before, but I really think I need to continue to just lay down my life and surrender fully to Him. I cannot do anything, not one tiny thing on my own. I guess I've been ignoring Him some just because I just keep being brought right back. This time, I pray that I can truly die to myself and take up my cross daily.

As for my decision on my major...it is still undefined. I am still doing some reasearch on the Intercultural Studies major and some hardcore praying in the process. I have until the end of October to make my decision...so please keep me in your prayers.

I will be going into quite a busy week starting tomorrow...it's homecoming week which should be fun since it's my first on in college, but I have to keep balance with my studies because I have 3 tests this week!

It's All By Faith.

In Christ,
Katlyn

Wake Up

2008-10-02T11:02:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning, and I knew God was already tearing at my heart. I did not really know what He was saying to me, so I opened my Bible not knowing where to even start. My music was playing Christian music on my laptop, and before I could even look at anything, a song by MercyMe called "Keep Singing" came on. It's such a simple song that just says I got to keep praising Him no matter what. Immediately, I knew that God was speaking to me and telling me that I shouldn't worry so much about my future and everything that I've been frusterated with. I was overwhelmed by His prescence and grace to a point where I felt tears form.

I guess I'm really thankful for the gift of music. It is such a blessing to hear words that hit so close to home. Another song that came shortly after the MercyMe song was a song by my friend Kaleb that also really speaks to my heart called "Even Here". It seems so relevant. Here are some of the words to the the song. (if you read this Kaleb...hope it's okay I put them in my blog)

"Finding my way in the night. Every step gets harder and the voices they fill me with fright as I try to progress farther and just when I think I'll never make it through the valley before me.
That's when by Grace and through Faith I begin to see the morning.

As the sun is rising, your mercy is falling on me. As I stand in the glow of its radiance I remember the light of your presence on me. Even here in the death shadowed valley.

You know each step of the way. You have gone before me And the darkness to you is like day, you are here even when I can't see.

Even here...you are with me...even here I can sing."

So I am still praying about my decision to officially be an Intercultural Studies/Nursing major....but I have faith that God will lead me to do what I'm supposed to do.

Mixed Feelings

2008-10-01T15:08:00.000-05:00

First of all...I'm really sleepy right now and am very much considering taking a nap and further procrastinating my Chemistry scatter plot lab due tomorrow. Haha anyway...though I know that the Lord has given me a heart to do missions , I find myself really questioning whether I do the intercultural studies/nursing major here at SBU. I have really praying about my decision of whether I want to actually change it or not. I know that God will provide for me no matter what, so I just pray that he guides me in the right direction.

A Call

2008-09-30T11:54:00.000-05:00

I am so incredibly grateful for the life I get to live. My family has never ceased to support me in everything I do...I have decided that God has called me to really do missions that I've felt so led to do through nursing. It may sound a little cliche but I know that He has given me the sign. I was in a college fair here at SBU for the St. John's College of Nursing, and my original plans were to recieve my B.S.N. and do mission work with it. Well...at the end of the meeting, the advisor said that just that morning, the Director of Intercultural Studies majors had created a Nursing/Intercultural studies major. I was completely astounded considering Intercultural Studies was so intriguing to me before I ever decided to become a nurse. SO...now I'm going to be an RN and get to do missions as my major! I'm so excited!!!

I have also interviewed in the last week to go on a mission trip next summer to Bolivia where I will be working with an Orphanage and other things in the city of Santa Cruz....and I also interviewed to be a Disciple Now leader at churches in the area that request SBU student leaders. I pray that God will really use me to minister according to His will.

Please keep me in your prayers!

Remembering

2008-09-10T23:01:00.000-05:00

It's about an hour until it is September 11th. It is extremely difficult to believe seven years have already passed when I can still remember that day so vividly. I was 12 and in 6th grade... and my math class was just starting...I recall my math teacher being overly anxious and upset. Her sister worked in the WTC and she could not get ahold of her. While all of this was going on, my friends and I looked at each other in confusion. We tried to figure out what was going on, and when she told us, it was so unreal we didn't know what to do with that kind of information. The day went on to me going home, still a little confused, but also very uneasy. My mom and I sat in front of the television for hours watching those towers fade away...I remember watching all the families of the victims and emergency crews wait for the news of whether their relative had made it out alive. I could never imagine the terror of waiting...especially for how long many of them had to. I know God has a plan and purpose for everything, but I know this had to be a definite struggle for everyone to try to comprehend.

I got the privilege of being able to see ground zero in 2006, and it was very heartbreaking to witness the tragedy that is still so heavy in that city. The subway was filled with drawings from the victims' children to their lost parent. It brought tears to my eyes knowing that so many children will not be able to grow up with a parent. That gave me a feeling of thankfulness that I am privileged to have both of my parents here with me that love and support me in all that I do.

All I know is that I will be remembering and praying for the victims and everyone who was and is directly involved with the tragedy of September 11th. I hope you are today as well.

In Christ,

Katlyn

Philippians 4:13

Living the college life...

2008-09-07T01:04:00.000-05:00

So I've been through 2 weeks of classes, and almost through my first full weekend on my own in Bolivar. I love it! God has completely blessed me in my time here so far. God has surrounded me with other believers and I've been having a blast every step of the way. Today I got to spend time with my friends from my church in St. Louis who live here and in Springfield and then later tonight I hung out with some friends here at SBU and had a blast just goofing around with my stuffed animal Sebastian the crab. Haha we took pics with him all over Bolivar...you have to find ways to keep yourself occupied on the weekends! :)

Anyway...I hope and pray my time here continues to be fulfilling in and my walk with Christ grows fuller each and every day.

God Bless,
Katlyn

Wow

2008-08-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

Okay so I've been in school at SBU for a week now. So far so good. It was definitely a challenge to have to leave my family and friends behind back at home and I miss them all very much, but I think I am adapting to the atmosphere here very well. With God's grace I can hopefully continue to do well here.

God has blessed me with an awesome roommate that is super kind and accomodating to our living situation...our room is not very big! Haha but we are definitely making the most of it. I think that God has big plans for my time here at SBU and I pray that I may continue serving Him in whatever way He needs. I have quite a course load so hopefully I can do well in all of them this semester.

I have all been through a few other challenges and odd situations in my new life here, and I won't go into detail, but please pray for me so that I can stay strong in this time where it is a little difficult learning how to live on my on.

Until Next Time....
In Christ,
Katlyn

Closing Time

2008-08-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

I'm so enthralled by the grace of God. I just came back from my last trip officially as a youth at my church. Honestly, I can't believe 6 years have passed since my journey began with my youth group at South County. It has been a crazy 6 years; filled with everything from pranks to drama that I desperately tried to avoid. God has most definitely used my experiences at South County to really grow nearer to him in my walk and I'm truly thankful for each blessing, trial, temptation, etc that He has put me through. There are so many people who have helped me in my path to where I am now....I can't believe how far I've come! To God be the glory!

yesterday

2008-07-31T12:18:00.000-05:00

So it's my first blog! I'm super blessed to be able to have celebrated my 19th birthday yesterday. It was definitely an interesting birthday to say the very least.

I got to eat at my favorite restaurant, The Lemongrass, with my family for dinner. I also got to spend time with a great friend at the mall and more time with her and another later. I'm thankful for family and friends who continue to lift me up daily.

What I didn't know was how God was going to test my patience last night. I ended up being able to learn about growing closer to Him at our youth study from our intern. Little did I know, but I actually did feel that I got closer in my faith last night because I was reminded of how I need keep strong and just be there for a friend when they are in need. I did wrong at one point last night that I immediately lifted up in prayer. It is easy to let things try to ruin your day, so you must be sure that you don't do anything to ruin anyone else's.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Katlyn

Living Intentionally

Change

Psalm 34:18

Urgent Prayers

New Days, New Experiences

Merry Christmas!

Home Sweet Home

In Memory of Kathy

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." (Romans 12:12)

Where are the words?

Life

Every Step

I'm Back

Hello!!!

Approaching finals

A Definite WOW Moment

Make a Difference

Ah, Spring Break

Focus

Bad Day

Another Semester Begins

ONE MORE DAY!

F.R.O.G.

Life is Precious

It's Fall!!!

It's All New

My trip to Bolivia!

This Summer is Flying!

Jeremiah 29:11

Gotta Love It

Trying to Find Peace and Understanding

Did You Know?

Great Start To The Summer

LOS ANGELES!!!

I'm Not Ready

Final Days

You Don't Mess With Texas

What a weekend...

Bored

Well...

*Sigh*

IS IT BREAK TIME YET?!

Jai Ho!

Impatiently Waiting for Weekend Arrival!

Busy Busy Busy!

Something New To Deal With

First Week Back!

Inauguration Day

My Last Week!

The ONE Campaign

It's Been Awhile

Hello 2009!

I Need Winter Break To Come Faster

Advent Conspiracy

This Week Is FULL!!

Break is Over, Now on to Studying

Yay for Penguins!

So Close I Can Almost Taste It!

Lazy and Anxious

Jesus for President

So much to do....

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

So....my life lately

Homecoming Week

craazzzaay!

Doing My Best

Wake Up

Mixed Feelings

A Call

Remembering

Living the college life...

Wow

Closing Time

yesterday

Sigh