mission u

This last week I had the amazing opportunity of being a part of Mission U.

You may be wondering what Mission U is. It's a chance to study mission study topics and current issues that are impacting our society. There are classes, worship, fellowship time and that kind of thing. I'm not exactly sure what all they did each day to be honest. While all of that was happening, my job was to prepare lessons, activities, games, and crafts for the children during the day while the kids' parents were in their classes and meetings and etc.

Up until now, I had never experienced working with and teaching kids that extensively and for that much time at once. It was definitely a new experience but I learned a lot and I had a great time. Coming into the week I had no idea what ages I would be working with except that they were in elementary school...that made planning really hard. I went into the week with ideas and some activities to choose from, but I had no specific schedule or lesson plan. It was truly a "go with the flow" few days.

Meet our students!

Alora, Cameron, Keely, and Lexi.

We had four students. I was expecting there to be more but when our rosters were sent out I was, to be honest, relieved to only see four names. Since it was both mine and my helper Miranda's first time, four was a perfect number for us.

We ended up having the kids on average about 8 hours the first couple of days. The third day was a half day. We made lots of crafts, read stories and acted them out, had bible lessons, and the kid's favorite....swimming.

The theme was "Migration" so we talked about what migrate means, experiences we have had ourselves of moving from one place to another and what that was like, and what "loving our neighbor" means and looks like.

Here are some crafts we did! (Thank you Pinterest! :))

We made hand print wreaths. They turned out great! Very colorful and pretty! 

The paint drying.

They just LOVED this part. (Hint: note the sarcasm!)

The finished product. Lexi got tired of cutting so she just stopped. It still looks good though!

:)

She was really hoping she would have enough hands without having to cut her smiley face picture. Success!

To go along with the "migrate" theme and loving our neighbors...even those from different towns, states, or countries, we made the Earth. :)

This was super easy! Take a coffee filter, use a blue and green marker and color it, then spray a few sprays with the water bottle. They looked so cool and helped to brighten up the sad, boring, white room.

A close up.

We also got a list of all the names of those attending Mission U and their room number so that we could put cards that the kiddos decorated on their doors while they were in class. From what we heard they really enjoyed the nice surprise that was waiting for them! :)

Delivering the cards.

On our way to dinner we had some time to kill so we brought along some chalk and the kids left drawings along the way. They ended up leaving a path that would lead everyone to the food. 

"Tell your belly don't worry. Food ahead." (This was my favorite!)

One of their favorite activities was swimming!! And I think I enjoyed it just as much as they did.

 As another time filler we picked out some verses to talk about and then have them write and decorate the verse on poster paper. I have to share a funny story though. A couple of them were complaining and had negative attitudes sometimes so we talked a lot about being positive and how sometimes in life you have to do things you don't want to do. haha. In picking out the verses we may or may not have intentionally picked them out and specifically gave them to certain people. When it came time to start reading them one of the students started reading and was about 3 or 4 words in and stopped mid sentence and said, "Why do I feel like you gave me this verse on purpose?" It was priceless. Miranda and I were curious as to whether they would catch on to the theme or not and they definitely did. :)

Lastly, we ended with a party. We had pizza (that they were not too excited about...who would have thought?!) and a movie, as well as some goody bags (mustaches, bracelets, and candy...what could be better?!") that Miranda put together while I kept the kids entertained! Big thanks Miranda!!!

There was no pool stick involved in the first picture but after taking it Lexi says, "wait!" So I did. She comes back with a pool stick and says "people with mustaches play pool." I cracked up! No idea where that came from but it made me laugh! 

And apparently people with mustaches are very serious too! :)

Sassy!

Peace!

One cool dude.

We ended our party with a pop just in time to walk to the "Celebration" (I don't think it was quite the kind of party they thought it was going to be! lol). 

They did however have lots of ice cream and cake! :)

I didn't notice when I took this but I do believe she has some ice cream on the corner of her mouth which makes this picture all the better!

All in all it was a fantastic few days! The kids were so much fun!! It was such a blessing for me to be there and have this opportunity. I love these kids! :)

                           

laughing is the best thing.

I have the opportunity to teach and hang out with some kiddos at what is called Mission U this week (I leave tomorrow) and well, let's just say I have a long list of things to do before then.

And just to clarify, it has nothing to do with procrastination or the fact that I am terrible at making decisions, nope not at all! (My sarcastic side may or may not be coming through right now!)

I am the worlds worst about waiting until the very last minute possible to make a final decision which leads to me getting nothing done until the very last minute. I am so indecisive...it's no bueno! But that's another topic for another post. :)

So the last couple of days I have been feeling a little bit overwhelmed, but trying to stay calm and not stress out about all these things I have to do. Key word being "try".

Well....

This afternoon I was feeding Brods his afternoon snack. Brodi loves food so it's never a struggle to get him to eat the food but sometimes I like to do the whole "the spoon full of food is an airplane flying into his mouth" thing. If you have a baby/watch a baby, you know what I'm talking about.

It makes Brodi smile/laugh though... anything to get a baby to laugh right?

For some reason I was doing up and down motions today with the spoon. Brodi laughed so of course I kept doing it! I added the words "up and down" with the motions as I was going up and down....he laughed harder. Then I started doing it with just my hand...there was no food involved. I didn't think it was possible for him to laugh any harder, but he did.

And I'm sure all of you who know me, know that I was cracking up as well!

Then Brodi started doing the hand motions himself....

And there was more laughter.

It was the best thing.  :)

Once we got settled down a little Brodi decided it was time for some basketball. That little boy is a stud. He's the best shooter I know and he is only 11 months old!

We ended the afternoon with a dance party and more laughs. Brodi loves to dance! :)

Many laughs later, my heart is full!

All in all, my list hasn't gotten any shorter but all that laughing took the stress/worry/overwhelmed feeling right out of me. Rather than throwing myself a pity party I will embrace this very busy evening with a smile on my face. With the music turned up, and the help of Jesus, I will get everything done that needs to be done. And I will enjoy it!

that's grace...

GRACE.

Grace is an act of kindness, mercy and favor that is given though it is undeserved.

Max Lucado says it best…

“Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, ‘I can clean that if you want.’ And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin.”  

The line that I highlighted and underlined multiple times in that is “I can clean that if you want.” That’s what I talked about last week. Are we willing to accept this grace that God has to offer us? Are we willing to let Him wash away our sin?

This gift of grace is God’s way of showing us just how deep and unconditional His love is for us. No matter where we are at in our lives, no matter how far we are away from Him, (even when He is nonexistent in our lives as far as we are concerned), no matter how badly your life may be messed up, God is still there and He loves you the same. That is grace.

There are no amounts of “good things” that you can do or have to do to earn this grace…it is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8) There is no list you have to be on. There is no amount of money you have to have. There is no certain level of job you have to have.  There is no “accepted” or “denied” status. You just have to be willing to receive it.

The truth is nobody needs grace more or less than anybody else.

And this is a good time to transition to this week’s message which ultimately can be wrapped up in the following sentence:

Every person that you meet, they are in God’s eyes, worthy of Jesus dying on the cross.

Before you continue reading, read that last sentence as many times as it takes for that to really sink in. And when you have done so, you can continue reading! :)

With this truth in mind, I pray that it would alter the way we look at the people we see every single day. The way we treat them, the way we interact with them, the way we love them.

Let's start looking through the eyes of God, seeing people the way He sees them. Seeing ourselves the way He sees us. 

I will leave you with a song. It's called "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath.

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing.

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the brokenhearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach.

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see.

So give me a second chance

To see the way you see the people all along.

4th of July 2013 

here is the plan, stan! :)

I miss blogging so I have been trying to decide what I want to do with this blog. I really want to do more than what I have been doing with it I just don't really know to write about.

And then it dawned on me...

I do have things I can share with you!

I am leading the contemporary service at my church which started today. So why not briefly share the message that I give at church? You're not going to get the full sermon - sorry - but you can get an overview at least! By the way, it is still so strange to me that I am writing "sermons". Those are most definitely words that I never ever thought would come out of my mouth.

For those of you who go to my church, I realize this won't be the most exciting thing for you. But I will do my best to share other stories and happenings in my life as well to give you something to read or pictures to look at. I do know that there are several people who read my blog who don't live in Chanute (or at least I think they read it ;)) so hopefully it won't be so boring for you guys. haha.

I really enjoy blogging and want to get back into it so this might be a good solution.

Thank YOU for reading my blog!! I appreciate you and am excited to share with you what the Lord is teaching me and putting on my heart. As well as any pictures or cool/funny stories, neat experiences, funny moments,or new opportunities that may come about.

And with that being said....yesterday my family traveled to Newton, KS to attend the wedding of Shana Kaufman and Adam Tilman. They said their "I do's" and are now Mr. and Mrs. Tilman. Sweet! :)

Here are some photos from the evening.

Trying to find that perfect pair of sunglasses. I think we all found our perfect pair! :)

I happen to have a good friend from high school who lives in Newton so in between the wedding and reception we got to hang out for a bit. Sat outside at Sonic and talked (it was so nice out), went on a walk, and made a trip to Walgreens! Wonderful afternoon spent with Erin!

Dustin's dance with Tilly (the groom) for the dollar dance. It began with a bro hug of course.
Sorry for the blurriness. I forgot to change the settings. :(

Blurry again but I think you can clearly see that it was a special moment for them both ;)

Devin: "Kaci, are we going to take a picture?"
Me: *In shock* "What? You want to take a picture? Yes, let's do!"
Dusty proceeds to photo bomb.

Mom and Devo.

Is there such a thing as a normal sibling picture? I don't think so. Not in our family anyway.

I didn't get one picture of the bride. Or of my sister in-law who was the matron of honor. Picture taking fail. :( They both looked gorgeous though, you can take my word for it. :)

i can't get it out of my head.

When people find out that I have a huge desire to go overseas I get many different reactions. "Awesome!" "Are you sure you want to do that?" "Why?" "Is it safe?" "You're brave!" And some people just shake their head...I don't really know what that means... haha!

Before I go on, I'm going to push the rewind button and share with you the moment when I felt as though the calling to missions overseas was placed on my heart.

I have always been interested in traveling and going new places I think...that I can remember of anyway. But I distinctly remember back in my freshman year of high school. I was at Acquire the Fire in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A representative was there from Global Expeditions to share about the different trips they had to offer. After hearing him speak and seeing the brochures my heart was pounding so fast. I wanted to jump up and down with excitement right then and there and scream "Take me, take me! I'll go right now!". I didn't though, but it was hard to contain my need to jump up and down with joy. And to think I got that excited just from hearing stories and seeing pictures of other people's experiences. That's when I knew at some point I was going somewhere....I had to. I didn't know when, I didn't know where, I just knew I was going to GO.

It wasn't until my freshman year of college (four years later) that I had my first opportunity to go. I was asked if I would be interested in going with a youth group here in Chanute and I don't think I hesitated for a second to say YES! My dream was finally coming true.

In March 2008 I was on a plane to the beautiful and wonderful country of Honduras. I really had no idea what to expect. At this point in my life I really hadn't been to too many places let alone leaving the US of A! I still haven't but my list of places I have been is slowly but surely growing. :) From the moment I stepped off the plane I couldn't believe that I was actually there...in Honduras....it was so surreal.

We weren't in Honduras but for 10 days but that 10 days was enough for me to not want to get back on the plane to come home. It was an incredible 10 days. It was enough for God to confirm in my heart that I was called to missions overseas. It was long enough for me to fall in love with the country. It was enough time for me to still miss Honduras to this day, 5 years later. I can't imagine what it will feel like when I am in a country for over a month. It still makes me smile just remembering my time in Honduras and dreaming of the day when I hopefully will have the chance to go back.

I don't know where I will go yet. I don't know how long term it will be. And I don't know when exactly I will have the opportunity to go next. But I do know that I am going and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that day. God has put this longing in my heart to GO that cannot be ignored no matter how much I try. Believe me I could come up with 101 excuses of why I shouldn't go, but there is one reason to go that is greater than those 101 reasons why I shouldn't. That reason is Jesus... To go to these countries (or maybe country) and be the hands and feet of Jesus... To love on the people and serve "the least of these".... To further the Kingdom of God.... That's reason enough for me to ignore the 100 reasons I should stay and GO!

I wish I could let those around me feel what I feel. Maybe then they would understand more of why I want to go, why I need to go, but unfortunately I can't. Thankfully even if they don't understand why, or they just don't want to leave, they are still supportive of me going which is amazing! This may seem a bit extreme but sometimes I feel like I am homesick for places I haven't even been yet. And it doesn't go away. Sometimes it's stronger than others, but it's always there in the back of my mind. It's been there for approximately 10 years....:)

The saying is "Home is where the heart is." A piece of my heart will always be in Kansas no matter where I go or how long I am gone. But I have this feeling there will be pieces of my heart left all over the nations and that puts a ginormous smile on my face!

And that's why I need to go. I can't get it off my mind. I can't get it out of my heart. Therefore, I must go.

The cool thing is, while I'm waiting God has given me so many amazing ministry opportunities right here in the states...in my hometown even. I don't know what I did to deserve it but I am so grateful. How blessed am I to be doing the things that I love and near my family...especially that cute nephew of mine! ;)

I. Am. Blessed. God is so good. (And I just can't stop smiling right now!)

Here are some pictures from my Honduras Trip in 2008!

The beach....right out our back door. We were lucky enough to spend a few days in this beautiful place. It was also my first time to see the ocean. :)

This is an embarrassing picture. But we got our hair braided. My hair was short so this was the only option for me. I took it out that night. But it was a cool experience!

:)

Our mode of transportation.

They loved the bubbles!

View from the top of a mountain. Honduras is the most beautiful place I've ever been...so far anyway!

Us girls on top of the mountain. :)

The group who went to the top of the mountain. It was amazing...incredible view.

The kiddos we got to spend several days with.

They had no sitting in their home so the dad, without being asked, went to work and made a bench for us to sit on. And voila, we had seating. :)

P.S. None of these pictures were taken by me. I didn't take my camera. :( I will NEVER leave my camera at home when I go somewhere again.

encourage and be encouraged.

God has been showing me the importance of encouragement lately. Whether it's me giving words of encouragement to someone, or someone giving me words of encouragement.

Definition of encourage: to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.

Another way to put it: to inspire someone with the courage and confidence to do something.

The words that we speak are powerful. Sometimes they have more power than we may ever know. Are the words coming from your mouth uplifting and encouraging to those around you??

I could make a pretty lengthy list of things I most likely would have never done had it not been for my wonderful friends and family cheering me on and encouraging me along the way. I definitely wouldn't be where I am today doing what I'm doing. I wouldn't have had the courage, the idea, or the ability (or so I thought...we are always hardest on ourselves) to do some of the things I have done if I hadn't been encouraged by someone.

Without the words of encouragement I have received in the difficult times....they would have been 100 times more difficult to go through.

I will say it again.... Words are powerful.

Are you surrounded by people who say encouraging and uplifting things to you, or people who bring you down? If it's the latter, maybe you should find some new people to be around because when you have people in your life who support you, encourage you, and believe in you....that is when you start believing in yourself and build up the confidence and courage to go out and achieve your biggest dreams.

Dream Big. Encourage and be encouraged. Believe in yourself.

How have you been encouraged lately? And how have you encouraged someone recently?

I dare you to encourage someone today!

"When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need--words that will help others become stronger." --Ephesians 4:29

my provider.

You know those times when God does something really cool and you can't help but smile and say thank you even though thank you really doesn't even begin to express how thankful you really are?

Right now I am in a weird situation. I am doing a lot of things and I have a lot of "jobs" but I'm not making a lot of money. I am by no means complaining about this, and actually I have been extremely blessed in what I am making and getting to do what I am doing. But the Lord has definitely been a part of it. And He is really teaching me to be completely and totally dependent upon Him in every area of my life.

A few years back I learned my lesson when it comes to finances. The money situation can be very stressful at times and can result in a lot of worry. God has taught me time and time again not to worry about money though.

There have been several situations where God has come through financially (as well as many other ways) in my life. There is one particular time though in which God blew me away and I was convinced and truly believed at that point that my God is a God who really does provide.

Urbana is a missions conference in St. Louis and the opportunity came for me to go on this trip with a friend. I am very into anything that has to do with missions so I was very interested. At the time though my job wasn't very consistent and I could never count on a steady paycheck. And when I did get a full paycheck it was hardly anything due to not getting many hours.

So I prayed a lot. Of course I really wanted to go, but I told God that I didn't want to go just because it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to go but only if He really wanted me to be there. I didn't want to be there on my own selfish terms. My parents weren't exactly thrilled that I was even considering spending the money (it was a bit pricey) when they knew I wasn't making much. So I prayed some more...a lot more. I was convinced that I was in fact supposed to go on this trip. And it was because God told me to go. So I said yes.

Once I said yes I found out that the church I was going to - keep in mind I hadn't been going there but for a couple of months if even that at this point, they were offering to pay so much of my way to go. I don't remember now the specifics but I do remember it being a pretty good portion of what was needed. A week before leaving on the trip though I was still short some money to pay for my share of the hotel room, gas money, and food while I was there.

I remember I was stressing about what I was going to do and my mom asked me how the finances were coming for the trip. I had a freak out moment. I broke down and started crying. In the midst of the crying I started praying. "God I don't understand how you can tell me to go on this trip but yet not provide the money." And then I realized I was being ridiculous. I was taking matters into my own hand, stressing myself out, and I was doubting God. So we chatted it out and I came to the conclusion that it was silly to worry about it, God had it covered, I needed to stop doubting Him. I knew without a doubt that he wanted me to be at that conference so I finally said "Alright God. You will come through somehow someway...I'm trusting you."

Wow...boy did He come through.

The next week I received 3 different checks, all were very unexpected! I don't remember where they all came from even. I know one of them was a bonus at work that I had no idea was coming (It was around Christmas time). I think I randomly received money from someone...maybe in a Christmas card or something? I'm not sure. All I know is I went to Urbana with enough money.

And guess how much I came home with?!! I had exactly $1.00 left. God had come through. And I was even able to buy the CD from the conference and a Starbucks drink. :) He provided in every way and more.

Since then, the Lord has always continued to come through for me in every way...and not just financially.

And he just keeps doing it!

Last Sunday I spoke at my church and after the service someone came up to me who I don't really know very well other than what her name is. We said a few words, she shook my hand, and she had something in her hand that she was putting in my hand. I looked down to see what it was...there sitting in my hand was $20.00 bill.

I was so in shock, I know I didn't give her the proper thanks that she deserved. What an unexpected blessing that was. It was just God reminding me once again that He really does care, He knows my needs, and He is a God who provides. I know this to be true not because of stories I have heard from other people (although I do love hearing those kind of stories), but I know that to be true from how He has come through in my life personally in so many ways I can't even list.

Whatever you may be struggling with today, whatever worries you may be consumed with, any financial concerns you may be burdened with... take them to God. He truly does care for you, and He is a God who provides.