Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

Well... there has been a couple of hiccups in the trip (and we haven't even left yet..), but it has seemed to work out for the better!

I will try and make this short!

So we were suppose to leave for Greensboro today, and leave Sunday morning for Haiti. It has been crazy, bc it didn't seem like ANYTHING was working out for us. For example, we were suppose to get plane tickets to fly from the capital city to Les Cayes, Haiti. They were never purchased due to various reasons, such as bad communication with Haitians via the phone. Rides were difficult to get coordinated, we were going to have to stay overnight in a hotel for $100 more than expected...and on and on and on.

On Friday, my boss happened to call the travel agent and mentioned us leaving on Sunday, and she quickly said (in a nutshell)..."no, they are leaving on Monday."  She had actually purchased tickets for the 19th instead of the 18th bc she had found a cheaper flight.

I immediately drove back to work to call our contact down in Haiti, and he actually seemed relieved! Through all of the difficult communication, there was a sigh of relief and understanding. We now know why things had been so difficult. If it had worked out to purchase tickets in Haiti, we would have had the wrong dates and lost hundreds of dollars. Now we won't have a bad plane ticket, or extra hotel fee!  We now have a ride from the airport straight to Les Cayes saving us a significant amount of money.

We are now all ready to go and excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the country of Haiti. Funny how He always has us in the palm of His hands...

So that all may know Him,
Kathryn

PS...I emailed the missionary and asked if he had any needs or anything that we could bring...you know, like Peanut Butter... He replied saying that their ministry really needed a PRINTER! Yes, a printer. So, my checked bag is now an HP printer...so please pray it does not get damaged and makes it all the way to Haiti without problems.

Haiti bound in t-minus...

        8 days! Wow...only a handful of days until I leave for Haiti.  Today, I got together with the lady that I am going with and we prayed for the needs of the people and that we would be open and willing to be used by God.  Please join with us in praying for this country as we are gearing up to leave to spend 2 weeks there.  We are very excited about this trip and what the Lord will teach us as we are ministering for His name and renown.

        Some other good news!  In my early teen years, or maybe even before, I used to listen to my grandmother tell me stories about the prison.  She used to visit the prison weekly with a group of other believers and pray for the women who were incarcerated. I longed to go with her, but I wasn't old enough. That desire to minister in the prisons never left me. While I was in Peru last year, the Lord opened the door for me and my husband to visit the women in Prison. This experience deserves its own blog and there is too much to write....but I would love to share it with you if you ever have the time.  Before leaving for Peru, I had been trying to get inside the prisons in Tazewell County.  The opportunity never presented itself, even though I tried for many months.

        One day at HSM, my boss asked me where I really felt called and that he wanted to get me plugged in to where God wanted me to be.  I replied that first is International missions, and the second is Prison ministry...and i wanted to merge the two.

        Long story short, he knows a guy that is actively doing prison ministry in the area that is willing to get me plugged in.  Please pray for Jason and I as we pursue this opportunity and for the doors to open if this is where God wants us to be.

Thank you for your continued prayer support. If you would like more information on what we do or how to get plugged in to a short-term trip overseas, email us at vicars4missions@gmail.com

So that all may know Him,
Kathryn

Equipping the Called

     Have you ever felt inadequate in your walk with God? I believe that all of us can answer "yes" at least some point in our Christian walk.

     In late July, i was coming to an end of working at two different places of employment at the same time.  Since I would have more spare time, I decided to go into our office and pick out a good book off of the book shelf. The first book that caught my attention was The End of the Spear by Steve Saint.  Steve was the son of one of the 5 missionaries that were brutally killed in the jungle of Ecuador that set out to share the Gospel to unreached people groups.

     As I have slowly been making my way through this book, the Lord has been teaching me many things; one of them being something that I believe we have all struggled with: feeling inadequate to be used by the King.

    As the main focus of the book is about God changing the hearts and lives of the most feared tribe in the World (the Waodani, formerly known as the Aucas), there is a big lesson to be learned from Steve's late Aunt Rachel.

    Aunt Rachel, as a young girl, was offered the riches of the World from a very wealthy woman who was passing away. This woman wanted to leave Rachel all of her money.  For a reason that the world and this woman could not understand, Rachel turned her down, knowing the the Lord had big plans for her that did not include ties to something that would hold her back from being able to follow His will. To make a long story short, Rachel was asked to leave the woman's house and was banished for her "foolish" decision.

    Rachel ended up living among the most fierce tribe and becoming a part of their family. As she came to the end of her life, dying from cancer among the Waodani, Aunt Rachel began to reveal her lack of qualifications to Steve as he visited her in the jungle:

 "Isn't is something that the Lord Jesus would have used someone like me to do His work in this special place? I was too old to apply for missionary service, I couldn't help the Waodani that much medically, I was not a Bible scholar, and i wasn't a superior translator....

"...{I just} loved the Lord Jesus with all of my heart, and I trusted Him completely." [End of the Spear, p. 184]

     As my husband Jason always says, "He doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called." Isn't is great to know that we can be used by Him, if we just trust Him with all of our hearts and lean wholly on Him.

    Please go and read this book. it is very inspiring and encouraging.

   Continue to pray for me (kathryn) as I gear up to leave for Haiti in 2 weeks.  To know more or support us through prayer/finances, please email vicars4missions@gmail.com

So that all may know Him,

Kathryn