club

Its 6:32pm on Monday night and I'm standing in a garage in the middle of Chesapeake singing Taylor Swift with my teammates in preparation for club.  Its freezing... we prepared everything for club stood together and prayed... we were on holy ground.  Who knew that I would every think a two car garage was holy ground but it is.  In a little over half an hour kids would be piled into this garage ready to sing, to laugh and to hear me talk about their need for a savior.

Its 8:24 and I am now screaming that very same Taylor Swift song with a few high school girls. I am laughing and jumping around and all of a sudden Nacho (yes that is one of my teammates names) grabs me and pulls me out of the crowd and into the attached house.  He has a panicked look on his face covers his mouth and goes "A boy threw up." "Ok." I responded "is he ok? Does he need to leave." "No Katie, he threw up in the laundry room, he didn't make it to the bathroom." Meanwhile I am supposed to be running the game and eventually giving the club talk. "I can't go in there Katie I'm going to throw up." I just said "Its, ok Nacho I will clean it real quick." A Few seconds later I am searching this family's house for paper towels (don't worry the family wasn't home and they had no paper towels) and bleach.  Finally I am hands and knees on the floor cleaning up puke... yes I get paid for this.  If you have read my posts before you know I have been housekeeping boss many times so I knew what to do but I couldn't help but laugh.  

I didn't know who Dom was but he eventually walked passed and I shut the door thinking it was another kid but I made eye contact with him.  I know he was embarrassed  and I'm sure he felt bad that I had to clean up his throw up, who knows maybe he didn't care but I was thankful.  It was Dom's first time at club, he saw me cleaning up his mess and then 20 minutes later telling him his need for a savior.  

  I am so thankful the Lord let me do the lowly things so I could later do things that are glorious only because of God's name, what a crazy thing to experience.  Please pray for Dom as I still don't know where he stands but I do pray he felt loved and of course he feels better :)

 

katy, brooke & connor and becoming the fabric.

This morning I woke up to 15 texts, usually one would think the world is ending but I just sighed and looked at the senders and I found myself in a group text with these three sweet girls.  I met the three of them early on last year (their freshman year.) I went to football games to watch them cheer, jv basketball games to do the same and spent a week with them at camp where each of them decided to start a relationship with Christ.  These three girls are precious to me, I love their innocence, their love for each other, their desire to love their friends, but most of all their joy in Christ. 

 I woke up early to eat breakfast with the three of them this morning, as we walked up to Chikfila and the workers didn't give me odd looks because of how we interacted I realized the Lord had done it.  I had somehow become a part of the tightly knit fabric of the Hickory community.  I knew all the workers at the restaurant, I said hey to kids that walked in, I saw parents I had met.  I dropped the girls off at Hickory HS and waved at countless students, they don't think its weird anymore that I'm there... its almost as if they expect it... maybe thats weird?  

Jesus was the fabric of the places he traveled through, he knew people, knew their hopes, their past, their desires and loved them.  Ever since the moment I stepped foot in Chesapeake that was the desire of my heart.  He granted me that desire... I am thankful for Hickory I am thankful for Chesapeake and I am thankful for these three girls and the way that they have help mold my heart to be bold and to love the lost of this community 

brooke and I at Lake Champion 2011

Connor <3

Katy <3

aunt susan

Last week I traveled to Williamsburg VA to visit with my sweet, incredible, humble, sacrificial, smart, funny, lovable, patient, genuine, bold, passionate, selfless, inclusive, and kind Aunt susan. She is my Dad's sister and is a sweet friend to me.

My aunt is one of my biggest fans, she has prayed for my salvation since the moment I took my first breath, she has held me in her arms when I was an infant and has held me before the Father ever since.  My Aunt Susan is a warrior for God, she is prayerful, considerate and passionate and wants all to know the true freedom of our savior.  She is a gift to my life and to my soul, she loves what I do and loves hearing about HS girls and the mission of YL.  She is always for me, she prays for me, asks me about what I'm learning about Jesus, and loves to talk to me about the glory of a God that has called us to himself.  It breaks my heart that this amazing woman lives in Alabama, I wish she lived right next door because time with her is life giving and special.

I haven't seen my aunt for about seven years which I didn't even realize because she is someone so close to me, she knows SO much about my life.  When I saw her nothing changed she loves coffee, she loves talking and she LOVES praying.  We spent about 2 hours just sitting on the couch catching up and another 2 at lunch laughing and sharing deep sorrows and joys of ministry and then we spend time praying for one another.  I have never sat and prayed like this with someone in my family before, we praised God, we asked him for blessings, and begged for freedom for those in captivity in our lives, we prayed for people we loved, we worked with, we prayed for joy, for strength but mostly just for Him.  When I left my sweet aunt I felt whole... I went into our time wounded needing love and care and confidence in my life and I left KNOWING that our God was real...

My Aunt Susan prayed everyday that I would come to know Jesus some how... her prayers came true on a warm June night at a Young Life camp in NY in 2004 and as she and about a million angels in heaven rejoiced she went straight back to her knees again to pray for many more in our family, in our lives to come to know the freedom of His name.

I want to be like her... I want to live a life like her... I am so thankful that one of the women I admire most in life is a woman who can't drive, doesn't text, hates waking up before 10, loves cats, has been all over the world, has lived all over the US, writes manuals for army tents, reads Corrie Ten Boom,  prays with joy, is bold with her friends, has brought many to the feet of Jesus, and can walk into a shop in a town she hasn't lived in for 20 years and see a woman who she prayed with weekly and act as if no time has passed at all... that is a woman of God... that is His kingdom.

Aunt Susan you're a gift to me, thank you for bringing me to the foot of the cross, thank you for sitting with me, and hearing my sorrows, and always loving me and supporting me even when I act like a totally crazy person and tell you I am going to move to a town in Virginia to love lost broken high school girls because the Lord told me to.  Thanks for loving me whether it be financially, prayerfully, or through a sweet email or phone conversation you are a precious gift to my life... thank you for loving me... I pray the Lord makes me like you one day!

top 20

Once again time got away from me but here I am BACK IN ACTION! Since there are just too many stories to tell here is a list of 20 things that have gone on in my life since I've last posted:

1. Went on assignment at Young Life's Saranac Village in Saranac Lake NY (july 26-august 24)
2. Was a housekeeping boss on assignment thus learning how to thoroughly clean vomit out of carpet  (yes this is indeed part of my job on Young Life staff... and I'm not kidding.)
3. Learned that baptism is beautiful and necessary.
4. Broke up with a boyfriend.
5. Fell deeper in love with the Bible
6. Broke a rib (still recovering... currently on muscle relaxers)
7. Coordinated a beautiful wedding for two sweet friends.
8. Got a pair of vans... I swore I would never fall into the ways of Chesapeake, yet here I am.
9. Became a dance coach for the Hickory HS Hilites
10. Realized that I am WAY overcommitted for this fall.
11. Turned 24
12. Cried... a lot.
13. Laughed more.
14. Realized the only hobby that I truly enjoy is being with people... all of the time.
15. VERY reluctantly skinny dipped for the first time (the action not the frozen yogurt shop)
16.  Made new friends
17.  Said "see you soon." to one of my best friends sweet sweet Stephanie.
18. Learned that my compassion is a gift and a curse
19. Saw some old friends
20. and last but certainly not least...Fell even deeper in love with the ministry of loving lost HS students to the foot of the cross.

I am learning a lot about myself.  This year is going to be tough I can already feel it... the Lord has some huge plans of which I may not seem ready for but I know that He has me and will give me boldness when needed and confidence when necessary for now I will just sit in trust and REMAIN.

Exodus 14:14
"The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still."

Something I am not too terribly good at... but he is calling me to be still when it seems that all I do is run around.

 A few of my housekeepers in the assigned team house: The Guidehouse

my housekeeping girls (all in HS,) from left: MK, myself, Daisy, Meghan and Rachel

 Being silly always...

The Housekeepers and Laundry girls we called ourselves #HKLF standing for Housekeeper laundry friends. From Left: Kyle, Daniel, Jenna, Natalie, Zach, Me, Joe, MK, Daisy, Meghan & Rachel.

Every bus that comes to camp gets a HUGE welcome by the work crew (this is just a few of us in between buses)... all the kids will run off the bus and run through our gauntlet of high fives and screams... almost as if they were being welcomed into the kingdom of heaven... I can't wait for that!

The Best Week of My Life

Young Life has a tag line of saying "the best week of your life or your money back." I have said that to A LOT of students... never would I expect to say it to myself as well.  We got back from Lake Champion on Friday night and I would have to say this has been one of the best camp trips I have ever been on... the Lord moved in tremendous was he did huge things! 8 girls stood up to declare that they accepted Jesus into their hearts.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to pray with them that sweet special prayer where they declared Him as their lord! I wanted to share with you FB status', texts and tweets about lake champion! 

senior club 2012- stephanie

Phew, year two of club is done... Finished and I can't believe it.
When I got to Chesapeake it was a long uphill battle if you have read my blog from the beginning you will see, I didn't think I would see fruit, I was scared 98% of the time and I felt like I had failed... Lord thank you for all of that because it humbled me it showed me that all I have and need is you in me.

Stephanie my best friend... a high school senior of whom I have post after post about got to share her testimony at club tonight. Stephanie has been in this with me, she sees the need for a savior in girls lives and she desires true, real, life for them. Tonight she shared the trials of her life in front of 60 kids all of whom go to her school. She shared the brokenness of life and how Christ granted her with freedom and the spirit was glowing from her.
I wish she could have seen the Stephanie I met October of 2010 the one who was obsessed with looks, the silent, scared girl that I got to see blossom into a gorgeous woman of Christ.
Stephanie is creating a legacy at hickory and she knows it now. She is going to the university of north Texas next year (yes I'm sad) and she has seen fruit she has seen death and life and joy and she will get to lead girls that don't even know her yet to the foot of the cross. I can't wait for her to breathe the life of Christ into the broken the lord will show her.


I'm so proud of her and so incredibly blessed that I have a best friend who is 17 years old who knows more about faithful living than most people my age and I am so thankful that a room of HS students got to hear her testament to freedom. I will miss having her physically by my side in this so much more than i let myself feel but if she stayed here it would stifle the kingdom its so obvious she is a gift and has so much Christ to share!
So my sweet Stephanie you are free indeed, you are allowing kids to bump into a holy place when they hear you and speak to you, I am so sorry I didn't introduce myself to you when you were decorating that junior hallway but don't worry that is forever etched in my mind and I know it is a part of your testament to him :). Stephanie don't you ever forget that it is never finished it is just the beginning I love you dearly you are a precious gift to my soul. Galatians 2:20 is what you're living.

sweet haleigh

I was blessed to baptize Abby
Dec. 2010

After I baptized Haleigh
Dec. 2010

Abby, Haleigh and Mollie at our Campaigner Christmas Party 2009

If you look wayyyyy back at my first posts you can read all about when I left Lynchburg to move to Chesapeake how it was hard but good. Lynchburg was a really difficult place for me I had a love hate relationship with my time there but the things that I loved far outweighed the things that I hated.  One thing I loved in Lynchburg was the ministry at Jefferson Forest High School that the Lord called me to.
The people I lead with became my best friends and we grew together as we ran after a school that seemed to have doors that were cemented shut.  After my first semester leading there that team left (they were seniors) and from that semester on I had a new team pretty much every semester which made for consistency in ministry difficult.  But the girls were the same, the heartbreak was the same, and the passion the Lord gave me was the same... thank goodness... all of that leads me to the Andersons and to Haleigh.

Abby and I at Saranac

I met Haleigh when I was 19, she was 16. Haleigh was a Junior and was reaching for everything and anything that she thought would give her life... she was very close to my best friend Natalie (she also lead with me) and once Natalie graduated and stopped leading she and I became close.  I spent many afternoons with Haleigh talking about her life and quietly introducing her to Jesus at a local coffee shop in the tiny town of Forest. Those afternoons were precious but she just wasn't seeing the words she was reading as we would look through Mark together... that summer I took a group of 11 girls from JF to camp at Saranac including Haleigh and her sweet little sister Abby.  That week changed those two girls for the rest of their lives... not just Haleigh and Abby but the entire Anderson family... they were changing the generations that both Haleigh and Abby would create.  That week on a sandy beach at Saranac I got to pray with the sisters to come into the arms of their Lord and savior. I will never ever forget that moment as long as I live those girls are precious to me.  When they got home they were exploding with Jesus and their littlest sister Sydney and their mom eventually came to know the Lord through their own testimonies, it was beautiful!  All of that leads me to this past Monday.
I was in Lynchburg for the weekend and was able to get coffee with my sweet Haleigh on monday morning. Haleigh is now such a grown up! She is married and is pregnant with her first baby a sweet little girl.

We had a photo day in a field :)

Playing "scenarios" together

Being silly at our first Spink Party!

Haleigh and I sat and drank our waters and talked for hours about her life and her family the hardships of pregnancy and marriage what I was so thankful to see and hear throughout everything was her heart for Jesus... she has immersed her life in Christ every action every word everything she wants Christ to be at the center.  I was amazed to see how she has grown and changed and how she is in love with her savior just as much now as she was 4 years ago I would say even more so!

I sat back in my chair as Haleigh described what the Lord was teaching her and I felt so convicted that the Lord is calling me to create a legacy... to alter lives... to alter generations... families... lives for all eternity... just for Him, not for me, not for young life, not for a job but for Him! As I listened to this beautiful girl speak of her savior I couldn't help but think of her past of her life and of the healing the Lord did to make every broken thing in her 4 years ago whole again and here she was whole and passionate.

 I am so thankful the Lord let me see this and experience this and see that our lives here are short but when we use every moment for His glory we can experience every second of this life.  So my sweet Haleigh I am so proud of you, for your passion for your love and for your desire to raise your sweet baby girl in the name of Jesus and how her life will forever be changed just as yours was on that little beach at a small little young life camp called Saranac.

 Abby, Haleigh and I At church

Haleigh, her husband Levi and their sweet baby girl (in her belly!)