There is a boy in my preschool class who has the same prayer request every single day. "The shiniest, reddest car!" When he says it, his whole face lights up into a huge smile. His favourite colour is red, and his family desperately needs a car. His parents tell me that at night, when they pray before bed, he doesn't let them pray for a new car, because he has taken it upon himself to pray for it.
That boy is now away for three weeks, on a fundraising trip back in Seattle. So the past two days, he has not been at preschool. Yesterday, the other kids and I were sitting in our circle. I asked if anyone had any prayer requests. One little boy -the one from the community- raised his hand. "I want to pray for the shiniest, reddest car for Micah," he said.
It just warmed my heart. That family needs this car, so the son prays for it every single day. And when he isn't around, the other kids pray for it for him. They know that his family needs the car, so they want that for them. It made me smile so much! They are thinking about each other, and about the other's needs.
A new car is a big thing. It might seem like an impossibility for that family to get a new car, let alone a red one. They are missionaries. They live off of support, and sometimes, that can barely be enough to cover normal expenses, let alone a new car. So it can seem like an overwhelmingly impossible prayer. But those children fully believe that God can answer it. That boy faithfully prays for that car, and he believes that his prayers will be answered.
Its that childlike faith. I know God can do it; I have seen him to bigger things than providing a car for a family. Yet at the same time, it can be so hard to believe that it actually will happen. Micah has been praying for this the entire preschool. Meaning this prayer has been going on since September, if not before. Yet he hasn't given up hope. He is persistent in prayer, not giving up because it hasn't happened yet. How often do we give up on a prayer because we have been praying it for a month, and nothing has happened? I feel like all too often, we think that God isn't going to answer simply because He didn't answer right away. Yet this five year old boy has been praying for the same thing every single day for the past five months, and he hasn't given up hope. He believes that God will answer his prayer! I want that kind of faith. Faith like the little children, just like Jesus said we need.
Blessings,
Katie
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Change
This morning I am sitting in Cool Beans, my favourite coffee shop here in Madison. Kenzie and I have come here for the morning to work. It is nice to get out and work in a different environment; so much easier to focus here, even though there are obviously quite a few people. Its not the preschool room, where I usually do my work, so that's all I need!
Yesterday was a fun day in the YWAM preschool. Following our typical schedule, as the children arrived, they played while waiting for everyone to show up. I usually let them play for the first ten or so minutes after arriving. Then we have our circle -er, our OVAL, as the kids always correct me. I read a Bible story and have some sort of discussion. Yesterday was about obeying our parents, and God. How Jesus obeyed His Father, God.
After this, we went outside. It has been quite cold here for the past four or five days, usually reaching a high between -15 and -20 (Celsius, because I still haven't got this Fahrenheit thing down), but yesterday it reached a mild -13! One of the kids had brought two sleds, so the kids had a blast taking turns sledding down the hill in our yard. That has been something really awesome- even though the YWAM preschool still has no sleds in our possession, it seems that every day one parents brings one or two sleds. Never the same parent on the same day, though. But I'm pretty sure they don't discuss who is bringing it on what day. So God has been faithful to provide sleds every day!
After about twenty minutes outside, we head inside to eat snack. After this, the kids get to play again. After maybe fifteen minutes of play, I gather them together for our other activity of the day. On Thursdays, we have a craft/art activity, on Fridays we learn something academic, like something with the alphabet or numbers. On Tuesdays, we always had music, but our music teacher, Lucy, who was so good with the kids, cannot come anymore. Now I have turned Tuesdays into Science day.
So yesterday, I took small cups of ice and put them in a muffin tray. We had five different things to pour on different ice blocks: hot water, cold water, oil, sugar, and salt. We talked about what we thought would melt the ice fastest. Then we poured the different things on the ice.
It was really fun! The kids loved it and after I dismissed them to play again, I left the tray of ice on the table. Two of the kids spent the rest of the day touching it and pouring more water and salt on to melt the ice more.
So that was our day yesterday. It was great!
On Monday, my friend Kenzie and I moved out of the house we were living in into the house of another YWAM couple. I will be living there until my time in Madison is done. It is such a blessing to be living there, especially since the cost is significantly cheaper than I was anticipating paying. As in less than half the price! The couple, Kelly and James, are leaving tomorrow on a three week trip to Asia, so Kenz and I will have that time to settle into the house, which we are quite grateful for! Right now, I am staying upstairs in the guest room, but for reasons that are currently not public knowledge, once they come back from Asia, I will be moving downstairs and sharing Kenzie's room with her. The only reason I am able to stay at their home for the rest of my time on staff is because Kenzie likes me enough to be willing to share her room. Something she didn't have to agree to!
So that's my update. Tomorrow, I will be driving to Milwaukee to bring Kevin, Tiff, and Micah to the airport; we leave at seven in the morning. Yikes! They are going home for a fundraising trip for three weeks, so I will have one less preschooler for that long. We will definitely miss him!
Blessings,
Katie
Yesterday was a fun day in the YWAM preschool. Following our typical schedule, as the children arrived, they played while waiting for everyone to show up. I usually let them play for the first ten or so minutes after arriving. Then we have our circle -er, our OVAL, as the kids always correct me. I read a Bible story and have some sort of discussion. Yesterday was about obeying our parents, and God. How Jesus obeyed His Father, God.
After this, we went outside. It has been quite cold here for the past four or five days, usually reaching a high between -15 and -20 (Celsius, because I still haven't got this Fahrenheit thing down), but yesterday it reached a mild -13! One of the kids had brought two sleds, so the kids had a blast taking turns sledding down the hill in our yard. That has been something really awesome- even though the YWAM preschool still has no sleds in our possession, it seems that every day one parents brings one or two sleds. Never the same parent on the same day, though. But I'm pretty sure they don't discuss who is bringing it on what day. So God has been faithful to provide sleds every day!
After about twenty minutes outside, we head inside to eat snack. After this, the kids get to play again. After maybe fifteen minutes of play, I gather them together for our other activity of the day. On Thursdays, we have a craft/art activity, on Fridays we learn something academic, like something with the alphabet or numbers. On Tuesdays, we always had music, but our music teacher, Lucy, who was so good with the kids, cannot come anymore. Now I have turned Tuesdays into Science day.
So yesterday, I took small cups of ice and put them in a muffin tray. We had five different things to pour on different ice blocks: hot water, cold water, oil, sugar, and salt. We talked about what we thought would melt the ice fastest. Then we poured the different things on the ice.
It was really fun! The kids loved it and after I dismissed them to play again, I left the tray of ice on the table. Two of the kids spent the rest of the day touching it and pouring more water and salt on to melt the ice more.
So that was our day yesterday. It was great!
On Monday, my friend Kenzie and I moved out of the house we were living in into the house of another YWAM couple. I will be living there until my time in Madison is done. It is such a blessing to be living there, especially since the cost is significantly cheaper than I was anticipating paying. As in less than half the price! The couple, Kelly and James, are leaving tomorrow on a three week trip to Asia, so Kenz and I will have that time to settle into the house, which we are quite grateful for! Right now, I am staying upstairs in the guest room, but for reasons that are currently not public knowledge, once they come back from Asia, I will be moving downstairs and sharing Kenzie's room with her. The only reason I am able to stay at their home for the rest of my time on staff is because Kenzie likes me enough to be willing to share her room. Something she didn't have to agree to!
So that's my update. Tomorrow, I will be driving to Milwaukee to bring Kevin, Tiff, and Micah to the airport; we leave at seven in the morning. Yikes! They are going home for a fundraising trip for three weeks, so I will have one less preschooler for that long. We will definitely miss him!
Blessings,
Katie
The view out of the front window of our old house, looking at another YWAM family's house
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
God Loves Bad Guys
I have been back in Madison for just over a week now (although it kind of feels like it has been forever), and I'm pretty much back into the rhythm of things. Now that the fall DTS is on outreach, I am living in town with my friend Kenzie. Next week, we will be moving from the house we are currently in to the house of another YWAM couple, where we will be living for the remainder of my time here. Its really good to have that settled, because up until Monday, I knew that I had one week left here at the Applegates, and I had nowhere to go after that.
Preschool is totally back into the swing of things. Last week, it was a fairly mild day, and we had access to a sled for once, so we spent quite awhile outside, sledding on our backyard hill. The kids had so much fun! I'm hoping to be able to buy a few cheap sleds, rather than having to depend on parents bringing one in for the day. Even if I have to pay for it myself, I think it would be worth it.
On Tuesday, I talked to the children about how much God loves everyone. It is something that I was pondering on my own during quite time the past few days, and so I thought maybe I should talk about it again. I read about King David and how God loved him very much. "Do you think that David was God's favourite?" I asked the kids. They all chimed "Yes!" :) So I told them that God loves all of us, and He doesn't have a favourite person who He loves more than anyone else. Then we talked about who God all loves. "Do you think that God loves someone who is a robber?" I asked (one fairly consistent prayer request is that no bad guys or robbers destroy our city). They all shook their heads, emphatically saying "No!" So I told them that God definitely does love the bad guys and the robbers, He just doesn't love what they DO. This apparently kind of blew their minds, because today at our staff meeting, we were telling each other what God had said to us while we were thinking about what 2016 holds. The father of one of my students went, and he started by saying "Well, my son just told me that God loves bad guys but not the things that they do."
It made me laugh a lot :) And it reminded me again that the children are learning things!
I love preschool. And I am so excited to hear where it will go even after I leave. On Mondays mornings, I will be meeting with a few other staff members to pray about the preschool and where God wants to take it.
One other thing -something I never thought I would have to do!- that happened today. Tiff, my one-on-one, came to pick me up to go to Starbucks. They don't own a car right now, but one of the staff who is on outreach is letting them borrow hers. So Tiff doesn't usually drive around in the winter. When her car pulled into my driveway, the front windshield was totally covered in frost still (she lives just down the street, so I guess it wasn't THAT unsafe...). "I was running late already, and I didn't realize I had to defrost the car," Tiff said, "So I figured we could wait here until it is defrosted." Then she looked behind her and saw the brush "Oh, maybe I could try the scraper thing!" she said. She grabbed it, very lightly tried it on the window, and then shook her head, "Nope, I guess we will have to wait." I laughed and held out my hand. I scraped the windshield. Tiff was like, "Oh! It doesn't scratch the glass?!"
Yes. Today I had to teach a nearly 29 year old woman how to scrape the car windshield...
It isn't her fault, I suppose. She is from Mississippi.
Blessings,
Katie
Preschool is totally back into the swing of things. Last week, it was a fairly mild day, and we had access to a sled for once, so we spent quite awhile outside, sledding on our backyard hill. The kids had so much fun! I'm hoping to be able to buy a few cheap sleds, rather than having to depend on parents bringing one in for the day. Even if I have to pay for it myself, I think it would be worth it.
On Tuesday, I talked to the children about how much God loves everyone. It is something that I was pondering on my own during quite time the past few days, and so I thought maybe I should talk about it again. I read about King David and how God loved him very much. "Do you think that David was God's favourite?" I asked the kids. They all chimed "Yes!" :) So I told them that God loves all of us, and He doesn't have a favourite person who He loves more than anyone else. Then we talked about who God all loves. "Do you think that God loves someone who is a robber?" I asked (one fairly consistent prayer request is that no bad guys or robbers destroy our city). They all shook their heads, emphatically saying "No!" So I told them that God definitely does love the bad guys and the robbers, He just doesn't love what they DO. This apparently kind of blew their minds, because today at our staff meeting, we were telling each other what God had said to us while we were thinking about what 2016 holds. The father of one of my students went, and he started by saying "Well, my son just told me that God loves bad guys but not the things that they do."
It made me laugh a lot :) And it reminded me again that the children are learning things!
I love preschool. And I am so excited to hear where it will go even after I leave. On Mondays mornings, I will be meeting with a few other staff members to pray about the preschool and where God wants to take it.
One other thing -something I never thought I would have to do!- that happened today. Tiff, my one-on-one, came to pick me up to go to Starbucks. They don't own a car right now, but one of the staff who is on outreach is letting them borrow hers. So Tiff doesn't usually drive around in the winter. When her car pulled into my driveway, the front windshield was totally covered in frost still (she lives just down the street, so I guess it wasn't THAT unsafe...). "I was running late already, and I didn't realize I had to defrost the car," Tiff said, "So I figured we could wait here until it is defrosted." Then she looked behind her and saw the brush "Oh, maybe I could try the scraper thing!" she said. She grabbed it, very lightly tried it on the window, and then shook her head, "Nope, I guess we will have to wait." I laughed and held out my hand. I scraped the windshield. Tiff was like, "Oh! It doesn't scratch the glass?!"
Yes. Today I had to teach a nearly 29 year old woman how to scrape the car windshield...
It isn't her fault, I suppose. She is from Mississippi.
Blessings,
Katie
Before Christmas, the children decorated snowmen. They loved it!
For our Christmas party with the DTS, we had "waffle doughnuts". I ran out and bought all 60 of the doughnuts. I have never felt more American in my life!
One day we were hanging out at the TC when someone told us all to go look at the rainbow that was over the TC. It was directly over it, and so cool!
Being home for 2 weeks at Christmas was great! I love my family! Kyle with his mathematical equations trying to figure out how a game was made, and Joel with his Star Wars kid puzzle!
It was a long drive back to Madison last Monday. I stopped at the Oasis just past Chicago, as I always do. The sunset was super pretty!
My dear friend and housemate (to be roommate), Kenzie. She had never had jello before, so we made some in a mini-muffin tray. She decided to try and slurp the jello out. So much laughter that night!
My friend Keisha is crazy talented at drawing and (especially) writing. I bought this plain brown notebook, and she decorated it for me. After 23 years, I still can't draw a good maple leaf. Keish can first try! Sheesh! She's in Latvia right now, on outreach, so keep them in your prayers!
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Back in the Groove
I'm back in Madison! Christmas break is finished. I was home for only 2 weeks, but it was a great time, and felt much longer! I had so much fun with my family and friends back home, but it is also good to be back in Madison with my community here.
Preschool started up again today. It was so good to see my kids again! They were all excited, talkative, and full of energy :) Micah's mom told me that he was so excited to go back that he was asking at like 9:30 this morning to go. Tiff told him that no one would be there yet, and he said "I'm sure T will be there!" (I'm T).
He's so cute :) They all are!
Now that it is past Christmas, my life here in Madison looks a little bit different. I am no longer living out at the TC (County Road N address), although I still will go out there to visit the winter DTS staff who are out there. The school that I was living with in the fall are all on outreach now. We have three teams in Asia and one in Latvia. I love seeing their pictures and can't wait to hear about what God does with them! I miss them, but they will be back in March!
So I am now living in town, though not at the GMC (the base in town, where preschool is). I am living at the house of one of the YWAM families, the Applegates, for the next 2 or so weeks, with my friend Kenzie who rents the room in their basement. The Applegates are on vacation until mid January, so I am living with Kenzie and keeping her company. After that, I will probably move to another YWAM family's house for another 3 weeks, again with Kenz, while they are away. After that, who knows! :P
Anyway, I will write more another day, but I just wanted to let you know that I made it back and... well, life goes on as normal!
Blessings,
Katie
Preschool started up again today. It was so good to see my kids again! They were all excited, talkative, and full of energy :) Micah's mom told me that he was so excited to go back that he was asking at like 9:30 this morning to go. Tiff told him that no one would be there yet, and he said "I'm sure T will be there!" (I'm T).
He's so cute :) They all are!
Now that it is past Christmas, my life here in Madison looks a little bit different. I am no longer living out at the TC (County Road N address), although I still will go out there to visit the winter DTS staff who are out there. The school that I was living with in the fall are all on outreach now. We have three teams in Asia and one in Latvia. I love seeing their pictures and can't wait to hear about what God does with them! I miss them, but they will be back in March!
So I am now living in town, though not at the GMC (the base in town, where preschool is). I am living at the house of one of the YWAM families, the Applegates, for the next 2 or so weeks, with my friend Kenzie who rents the room in their basement. The Applegates are on vacation until mid January, so I am living with Kenzie and keeping her company. After that, I will probably move to another YWAM family's house for another 3 weeks, again with Kenz, while they are away. After that, who knows! :P
Anyway, I will write more another day, but I just wanted to let you know that I made it back and... well, life goes on as normal!
Blessings,
Katie
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