A drive around Derry.

All right! My UKBA visa was delivered last night and I did a little happy dance. Today marks 3 weeks and I will be in Northern Ireland. I'm getting down to the wire to get projects, packing, visiting, and other details completed. The list grows. It gets smaller. It grows and I throw things out that I'm realizing just aren't important.

God has been utterly amazing. At every turn, I see his calming presence. I was checking something on Facebook today and in the right column, I see a blurb (to the right) that I apparently wrote on this day last year. I remember finding that quote and knowing it spoke the very words of God into my soul. At that time, I'm not sure I had even began to think going back to Northern Ireland was even the slightest possibility. Is not it wonderful that we don't always know the plans God has for us.

As I get closer to my leave date, my heart is desiring more and more to see how I can be made available both here and in Northern Ireland to see God's Kingdom move. A pastor recently gave a message at my church about living as a person with presence. "The best place to be is where your two feet are planted. " God has us where he wants us, and He may simultaneously, be moving us to another location.

God is doing amazing things with in my church, especially with the youth and I desire to see that fire continue. I am trying to have as much time as possible with that before I go. A wave is changing the face of Vineyard Community Church in Gilbert, AZ. However, in that change is myself stepping away and that is hard to grasp in the past couple of days.

As I struggle with one, I’m hopeful for another.
 
When I was in Coleraine last summer, one event that we did really struck me was the prayer walk. On the walk, we went through the town and prayed for businesses, homes, and public areas. Then we prayed for the people who would fill all of those spaces. I recently found a video on YouTube that is a driving tour of Derry, the city that I'll be located in. It was both awesome seeing more of where I will be (and will give you that insight too), but it also gives me a head start to pray for more places that are specific.

I love working with youth for these reasons...

It's no surprise - I work with youth. It's littered all over my posts that I work with them. Tonight I feel like sharing how amazing I think they are.

I'm sitting here tonight thinking over a passage from Matthew that one of them sent to me over Facebook. She sent the passage as an encouragement to all of the struggles I've faced recently with my travel plans. It's often the other way around where I am posting verses for them when they need it. She took the time to think of me, to listen to my situation and to encourage me. Moreover, when she sent it, it was at the perfect time.

This little act of service is just one of many that are starting to pop up like wildflowers all over with these teens. I seriously could jump up and down in giddiness from the joy this brings me. These kids truly want to change the world around them and they are doing something about it.

Throughout this week was the Vacation Bible School at our church. The smaller children are split into several age groups with a few teens and leaders assigned to them. On Wednesday, a 10yr old girl in my group had slipped on a wet floor. She couldn't straighten her knee. My mind went to getting ice, talking to mom, sitting her down- but not my teens. Immediately, they asked the girl if they could pray for her. And they did! Six to eight of them gathered around her, placed hands on her and prayed for healing!

Every Sunday we ask them if they have God Stories to tell, stories of opportunities they had to pray for someone or how they saw God interact with someone. Every Sunday more stories pour in. One girl flew to her father's home in another state for the summer. On her plane ride, she prayed for a woman who has never had a plane ride without being sick. On that flight, she never became ill. Praise God!

We arrange treasure hunts, where we as an entire youth group, go out into the community, intentional on finding people to pray for. Each month when we do this more and more of them show up willing and eager to participate.

Besides acts of service, they are really allowing themselves to be real. I had an awesome opportunity to chat with a guy who is about to sign with the military. He really likes to act tough and strong. I'll guarantee that he'll even deny the words I write, but parts of his real heart broke through in that conversation. He showed vulnerability in that he's scared of how huge of a decision this is. And he showed concern whether he's really making the right choice.

A girl, for the first time, opened her heart to a group that she wants to be involved in full-time missions work. To say those words aloud was a huge step for she feared ridicule.

There is not a doubt in my mind that these teens are reaching up to God saying, "I want you in my life" with God replying, "I want that too. I'll never leave you. I'll show you the way, just follow me."

Some new work...

This is a small glimpse of some recent design work I've done. They're simple and not too over the top. There was an update to the youth room at Vineyard Community Church in May. The need was to things to hang on the walls that were not going to be outdated quickly or have no relevance to the teens- i.e. no photos.  It seems that the youth have been eager to learn more of the Bible lately (which is fantastic), so it seemed like a fitting solution to cover the walls with verses.  

These are some of my favorites.

The 3 o'clock hour

The 3 o'clock hour rolls by twice a day. The horrible morning and the beautiful afternoon. My preference is to be unconscious, fully unconscious, for the first 3 o'clock hour every day. It is pure torture to me to be awake at this time. I'm only 28, but its far enough past my college days that I can't keep these hours regularly. Yet my preference could not be honored in these last 4 days. And the reason- I am a youth worker!

It is amazing the relationships you can build with teens when you put yourself out in the most undesirable ways to spend time with them. When you aren't in the normal 6:30-8:30 Wednesday night or 11:00am Sunday setting, teens open up and walls come down and real relationships can be built.

By being a youth worker, in the last 4 days, it  has meant staying up all-night (ok - I didn't make it past 3:30am) with 9 girls at an over-nighter at my house. There was games & laughter.  Watching movies & watching college boys.  Eating pizza and chips.  And having serious heart-to-heart conversations while sitting on the kitchen counters.

It also meant waking myself up at 3:45am today to drive to a graduating senior's home by 4:30am to kidnap her for a celebratory breakfast before school. Myself, along with 7 other adults, kidnapped our 5 graduating seniors to take them for breakfast. And it was an absolute blast! The looks on their faces went from horror, to confusion, to happiness that they were being honored in such a way. Sitting at Denny's, all of us in varying levels consciousness was humorous to say the least.

In the last 3 years, while working with these teens, I've grown to love each of them. They bring such diverse opinions to the table. They need love as much as I do. They want to feel valued and listened to. They are so worth the time I get to invest with them.

Being a youth worker  has also given me such a heightened awareness of the time my own youth workers gave and the discomfort they received, to spend time with me when I was younger. I've now traveled overseas with teens. I've been on 8 hour bus rides for amusement parks. I've driven those huge 15 passenger vans. I taken hard phone calls when someone just needed to talk. I've dealt with parents. I've been at events I may not have wanted to be at. This stuff is fun. BUT IT IS HARD TOO! I remember what I did in my youth group and how many people where involved to make it happen.

So ... to Scott, Michele, Steve, Wendy, Denise, Bill, Dan, Debbie, Joe, Grant, Debra, and others I'm sure I'm missing ... because of the time you've spent on me, I want to say thanks. I hope I can turn around and give even a slim bit of what I've been given by you all. The impact you've made is irreplaceable.

A Journey Began.

Spring 2009
Count back about 2 years ago to a conversation with my friend Obie, the youth pastor with whom I've been serving with for some time now... "Hey, I met someone this week and I realized through Facebook that you know him. I'm thinking teaming with him (another youth pastor) and his teens and heading to Northern Ireland for a short term missions trip this summer. Would you be interested in coming?"

Treasure hunt anyone?

Last night was an interesting evening. We had put out a call, sent out facebook event invites, made announcements and we weren't sure what was going to happen. There was a treasure hunt scheduled for the youth group that I help with and it was a toss up to see what was going to happen. A treasure hunt in this way, is probably not what first comes to your mind. We weren't going to send the teens on a search for an amazing prize of candy or gifts or a physical take home object. Nope. We were sending them to find people that they felt God had told them that they needed to pray for, and to do just that- pray for them.

We, the leaders didn't know what to expect for attendance. Honestly, I hoped 15 would come, I prayed for more, but I expected 10. But alas, God has better planning skills than I or the other leaders. We had 27!

This idea of a treasure hunt, was first introduced to me in N.Ireland. You take an intentional 5-10 minutes, and just ask God to reveal to you someone that needs to have prayer. For ways of identifying the person, you just pray over an location, an appearance, a name, the need for prayer, and an unusual item. It could be a single word, a partial thought, or anything. Then you go in search of God's treasure. It's risky. You look and feel like a fool. It's super uncomfortable. But it can do amazing things. You've got to go with the expectancy God is going to show up, and He will. He's already there waiting for you.

... So we gave the teens a sheet of paper and had them pray. Then we loaded them up in several vehicles, headed down to the mall and split up to treasure hunt. I know in my group, we approached 5 groups of people and were able to pray for 2 of them. It might seem like failure, but it wasn't. The others we didn't get to pray with them but still we could pray for them.

On my list I had swings, and diamonds. Tthe girl I was with had job change, sweatshirt, boots, and long brown hair. Off to the kids playground we went and she saw a couple who fit the description somewhat and so we approached them. Sure enough, the guy, was in a bad job and had just started looking for a new one. I think they were shocked we'd stopped them and that we were willing to pray but they accepted our offer. When we finished praying I realized that then entire time we had been standing in front of a jewelry store with diamonds in the title. This story isn't a cool as some others. But to those people it could be life changing.

Upon returning to the church with the teens, we asked what they thought of the experience and it was almost 100% that the wanted to do it again. There were some who felt they failed because they didn't find their person. One or two thought the whole thing was coincidence and not of God. But almost all are wanting to do it again.  I want to!

These teens I get to work with, continuously amaze me. They all put on this front of coolness. But when it comes down to it, they go after what they want. And right now we're seeing a tide of them really wanting to be apart of something bigger than themselves. They want to do something for God, and they are. It's incredible to watch.

So yeah, last night was a good night. :)

Where to now?

About 10 weeks ago I was sitting at my kitchen table, trying to prepare a lesson that I was going to share with my team that was heading to Northern Ireland. We were supposed to leave in 3 days and I had yet to figure out what I was going to share. I started freaking out a bit, but a scripture passage came to mind. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with in us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” Ephesians 3:20. Do you ever have moments when something just clicks and you know you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing? This was one of those moments. This is what I was supposed to share with my team. Little did I know that it was maybe more of a reminder or kick-starter for myself than for my team…

Today is two months that I’ve since returned from Northern Ireland. The trip, I think was one of the most important things I’ve done in my lifetime. It’s taken two months of thinking it through to formulate a blog that can explain even a portion of it– and that’s still questionable if it will. Every day there’s a new insight I’m seeing on why I was there, and what I’m taking away from it.

When I boarded a plane to head to Northern Ireland, I expected to be a chaperon of 9 teenagers who were going to serve people in the city of Coleraine. It was a missions trip for the youth at Vineyard Community Church. I expected to help them, and help people I met. I expected to walk the streets talking to people I’d never met and most likely won’t see again in my lifetime, to serve them in unknown ways. I felt hesitant to go on the trip even up to a few days before leaving. “Why am I doing this?” “How can I do anything to impact N.I, let alone the kingdom of God?” “Lead teenagers?”

I didn’t expect my life to change. But it did. I prepared a lesson about a God who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, but I didn’t take into account that this was a lesson God wanted me to hear too. In Coleraine, I was faced with so many moments of weakness, and being broke down before my team and before God. Fear overtook me on occasion, to be superseded by His amazing power. Opportunities to talk with the teens and fellow leader I went with, were given in abundance. Times of transparency of my life had to happen–often. Strong reminders of where I’ve come from and how God’s woven His way through it all were shown to me like a map. “See Katie, this is where you were, and I restored this decision. I was there in that moment. I introduced you to that person. I held you here. I’m talking to you now. And I’m in your future.” I was meeting people half a world away who shared the same struggles as I do. I met new friends that I’ll cherish always. Issues of love were hitting me left and right. Being completely transparent- this is my biggest struggle and the one I’ve kept the closest to me and shut away from everyone, and yet it has been laid bare for everyone to see against my desires. Almost all of the trip I was surrounded by people, loud people, when I was accustomed to the quietness of living alone. Laughing at myself was required. All of it was out of my comfort zone.

I can’t really say I was comfortable in my life before going to N.I., but I was accustomed to life. I had certain motivations for my life. I knew what to expect. I knew and understood patterns of the daily grind. I am a graphic designer, a problem solver, a fixer type of person. I like trying to see the puzzle and find a solution amidst the chaos. And this trip clouded that vision in so many ways, only to open to a much clearer version. His version.

Before leaving some other passages had been brought to my attention: 1 Kings 6:8-18 and Matthew 14:22-33. Both passages were the basis’ of each sermon I heard in Northern Ireland. Each are about perspective change and God showing up in ways we couldn’t expect or comprehend.

I’m realizing that’s what all of this is about. My perspective was wrong to see where God has really been transforming my life, and he wanted/wants to change it. I just had to come to a place where I could allow that. I still, everyday, have to come to that decision, just like everyone.

I said earlier that everyday brings new insight, and today was no different. But today brought some answers of my job. I was at a conference surrounded by the “Phoenix Design Community” as they’ve called themselves, and the last speaker of the day presented ideas that really struck a chord. I’m a designer, its no secret to anyone that designing impacts my life. But has it ever played in reverse? Is it apparent that my design is effected by my decision to follow God? A big question coming back to the states was, “Am I doing the right job? Yes. Being a graphic designer is where God has placed me. I’m paid to put things in front of peoples faces. What am I doing about that? How will I leverage that to lift up the Kingdom of God? The presenter didn’t pose the question of God, but yet he posed how does your passion of ________ impact your design. I filled in the blank.

So many other revelations have come about in the last two months too, that I am super excited about. I just have to keep clinging to “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with in us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” Ephesians 3:20. It’s God’s glory, not mine. Never mine.