Thursday, May 27, 2010

Far, Far Beyond Me

This blog is a warning. If you ask God to use you to help the hurting, He will.

Yesterday I was invited to a meeting with four other women to discuss the problems we are facing concerning the human trafficking happening right here in our surrounding area. We each shared about the burden we have and all agreed that God is ready for us to do something more than we currently are and we need to pray. So we decided to meet every Thursday night during the summer to ask the Lord for direction on how we will make a difference.

I left that meeting excited about a new opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus, yet overwhelmed by the need that is so far beyond me.

Then, just a few hours later, I was invited to have dinner with a young woman that is a counselor for women rescued from the Red Light District in Mumbai, India. I was heartbroken as she told me story after story of girls being kidnapped and abused.

Once again I left that meeting excited about the connection God made, but overwhelmed by the need that is far beyond me.

And finally today. About four o'clock, we got a phone call at work that the police in a near by city had picked up a 24 year old prostitute and were asking us to find a place for her to go. Excuse me? I work at a church... in women's groups. Well apparently that now fits in my job description.

This young woman had been praying that the police would find her for two days in this motel because she had no where to go and didn't know what to do. So today, when the police picked her up, she told them her story and ask for help to get out of this life. (This is were the women's department comes in.)

So the police call us, and after about and hour or so of calling people and making arrangements, we got the next few weeks of housing lined up for her and made a plan of how to help this woman long term.

It was pretty unusual for a Thursday afternoon but what I kept thinking as I drove home was; we asked for this. I know that every one of us who were working to help this hurting young woman have said "whatever it takes, Lord, to make a difference, I will do it."

And now, the opportunity was brought to us, and all we had to do was choose to step into what God had divinely put together and trust that He would make it work.

Though that situation was overwhelming and far beyond us, it was never far beyond God.

- Katy

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

One Small Victory

In an overwhelming world of injustice and brokenness, I am going to celebrate every small victory!

Sunday afternoon I went back to Family Video (you may remember by blog "Blurred" about the inappropriate movie I found there), and went straight to the terrible movie I found on my last visit there. I picked it up and took it to the counter where a different woman was working than before, and handed her the movie. I said "I would like for you to explain to me how this movie is appropriate for Family Video." She looked a little stunned, saw the video I handed her and said "Its not." She said its not!! I was overjoyed that someone working there actually understood what I was saying!

So, after talking to her a minute about it, I said that since she agreed that the erotic film was not appropriate I would like for the movie to be removed from their shelf and..... she said it would be removed that day! Praise the Lord!

Now, you know I will be going in there every few weeks to make sure it doesn't find its way back on display. :) But I am celebrating this tiny victory because if everyone of us fought for a tiny victory, they would add up pretty quickly.

- Katy

Friday, May 21, 2010

The Mats We Carry

Mark 2:11-12

11"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

In this story in Mark, Jesus heals a paralyzed man. That is all I had ever seen in those verses, but T.D. Jakes taught on this parable last week at a conference Kyle was at and revealed a whole new meaning.

Jesus said "take your mat", not "your healed so leave your mat because you don't need it anymore" like I would assume. Jesus said "take your mat" because he was teaching the healed man that although you no longer need it, others do. People need to see your mat so that they can find freedom from their own mats. I had missed an incredible part of the story by overlooking this because when God heals us, it is our responsibility to take what once controlled us and share it with others. We are to take the mat that held us down to impact those who are still on theirs.

Some people are ashamed of what once controlled them and kept them in bondage, but the Lord wants us to pick it up and carry it, because we now have control over it. This is our greatest tool and testimony. Your "mat" that paralyzed you is your story, your experience and what you have to offer hope and freedom to others.

There is a saying that people at my church say often "Hurt people, hurt people. But free people, free people." When you are still controlled by your "mat" you are a hurt person still hurting others. But once you have found freedom it is now your duty to help others find freedom.

This makes me wonder if there are many Christians who have been healed and are not "paralyzed" anymore, but are still laying on their mat. They have seen the power of God but are scared to take the needed step to get up and walk. Or others may have jumped off their mat and walked out, but left their mat and story behind because of the shame of their past.

We lose so much ability to help others when we leave our mat behind or try and hide it so that we can forget about where we came from.

A mat that once controlled me was the fear of rejection. I made every decision based on that fear and operated daily so that I would be accepted. I had no idea that I was doing this, but saw the fruit of this lie when I would be offended easily or be crushed when I was not validated or included. I believed a lie that I would never be good enough or valuable enough and in turn needed every person's acceptance.

Last summer I went to an intense freedom weekend at my church called KAIROS. At this event the Lord showed me the place where I first believed this lie and it was shocking how long ago it was. At that moment I believe the lie that I would never be good enough and began a journey of perfectionism. I thought that if I could be perfect in every way, eventually I would be worth accepting.

It was such an overwhelming experience to have God gently show me where this started in my life and how it affected me daily. I now call mayself a recovery perfectionist. It is not easy because I was bound by my perfectionism mat for a long time, but my God said to me that I am valuable and accepted and released me from my mat. So now, I take what controlled me everywhere I go because there are so many people in bondage to this same lie and it is my responsibility to point them to The One who heals.

Every person's mat is a little bit different and the more freedom we find the more mats we carry. I image that the mat we are bound to is heavy and filthy but as soon as we are freed from it and it has no power, it is light and easy to throw over our shoulder and carry without burden. I hope you too, will grab your mat before you walk out the door so that you will be ready to tell how this silly old mat controlled you, but now God controls it for you.

- Katy

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Blurred

I was casually wandering up and down the aisles in Family Video tonight when I saw a movie that shocked me. It was called "Sinful Desires" with a picture of a naked woman on the cover. Her private areas were just barely BLURRED, as if that made it ok to place between your everyday "S" titled movies.

After Kyle paid for our movie and started to leave, I went and got that movie and took it to the counter. I let the woman working there know that this movie was just sitting on the shelf for anyone to see. She seemed confused that I had a problem with that, so I explained to her that it was very offensive to have such a movie in a Family Video and I would like for her to know that there are people who are not ok with that. (You do not have to worry, I was very polite and said that I know it is not her decision to have it)

When we left I was sick. Sick that a place that rents children's movies for free would put that kind of movie in plain sight. Sick that most people walk by with no clue the damage it is causing. Sick that a girl is being wrongly looked at everyday by hundreds of people.

I began thinking, has everything become blurred? Is it common thinking that as long as some areas of sinful behavior are blurred it is ok? I am overwhelmed with sadness realizing that most people's lives are filled with blurred areas.

Will you join me in being a person that is opposed to blurring injustice?

Purity is right, perversion is wrong.
Honor is right, exploitation is wrong.
Acceptance is right, abuse is wrong.

The world is full of people who say maybe to everything and every issue. What they don't see is that when a wrong, black and white issue becomes grey, it causes death. It isn't simply right and wrong, it is life and death.

Please choose to be uncomfortable by standing up and being a voice for what is right. To tell the world the Christians care and will stand for was it right and pure and true.

I am NOT promoting stoning people who support pornography, actually the opposite. Think of the women posing for those types of movies as the daughters of a King and the men who walk by that movie and allow their thoughts to wonder as sons of a King.

It is time to fight back, against the kingdom of darkness that is taking captives everyday, one movie at a time.

Katy

Sunday, May 9, 2010

To Our Mommas

Our moms are not forgetten and definitely not unlovable but it is Mother's Day and they deserve to be honored. They deserve much more than a blog but that is all we have so here are our thank you's to our mommas.


Jeannette:


You are over the top. Fun, creative, out of the box, exciting, devoted, giving, accepting, inspiring and much more. That is why "over the top" is the perfect way to describe you. When people are with you, you bring out the best in them. Make them dream and think of themselves as valuable because how you see people has impact. When I talk about you and tell stories of my childhood people always say "I've got to meet her" because your a people magnet. Your heart for the Lord is magnetic even through stories. I am grateful for the confident yet servants heart you have passed down to your girls. You and Dad have raised a generation that is not content with lukewarm lives. I am humbled that the Lord chose you as my mother.

- Thank you for sitting on the porch swing watching me tumble and cheer and dance in the yard who knows how many hours and days.
- Thank you for taking me shopping when my heart was broken by a best friend or boyfriend.
- Thank you for coming to every pep rally and football game.
- Thank you for cooking dinner every night so we could sit at the table as a family.
- Thank you for listening to me as I told you about... everything!
- Thank you for putting my hair up in pink rollers hundreds of nights.
- Thank you for comforting me when I wasn't invited to the cool girl's sleep over.
- Thank you for planning my entire wedding.
- Thank you for still being my momma even now as I am married and live 2 hours away. I know that you are still always there.

I love you.
Katy


Cindy:

Mom, what an amazing person you are. Your fun, giving, out-going, supportive, an awesome worshiper, a great wife to dad, and just a good ol' country girl. You know how to raise a family, have a job, do housework, yet, somehow you were always there for us, and you never complained along the way. You truly know the meaning of sacrificial love because you have sacrificed yourself for us boys (dad included). You are strong, have a passion for the Lord that is infectious, and the touch of your hand comforts my soul.

- Thank you for giving me a Ninja Turtles birthday party.
- Thank you for driving us across the state for track meets, and sitting outside in 100 degree heat.
- Thank you for being an example of a Christ like servant.
- Thank you for going to all of my football games, baseball games, karate tournaments, and basketball games.
- Thank you for making me feel like the most loved boy on the planet.
- Thank you for cooking some of the best food I've ever eaten.
- Thank you for loving my wife like she is your own daughter.
- Thank you for giving of yourself everyday, so that I could be comfortable and have everything I ever wanted and needed.

I love you so much, mom.

Kyle

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Greater is He

This past Saturday night Kyle and I stepped way, way, far beyond our comfort zone and saw a world that we had never seen. A group of people who are so hurt, confused and lost that it broke our hearts. This story is about the unlovable.

It is pretty easy to say that a man that goes to strip clubs and a woman that steps out on the stage to sell her body are pretty unlovable. Well, it turns out that when you give them a face and a name they are just like us. Yes, us. If Kyle's parents hadn't been wonderful and he wasn't saved at an early age, he could easily be a young man that thinks of strip clubs as normal weekend hang outs. And I, could have been abused, neglected and a few bad choices later being giving myself away to pay the rent. It is hard to comprehend how easily it happens, but the devil has evil motives from the beginning and preys on hurting young people.

So, Saturday night my friend Jessica and I went with six other women to a strip club to wash the feet of strippers. For 2 1/2 hours we sat in the dressing room and gave pedicures to the girls, talked to them, listened to their stories and just treated them like the valuable people they are. While we were inside, Kyle and Andrew (Jessica's husband) sat in the car parked far behind the club and prayed for us and the men going in the clubs.

For Jessica and I it was shocking, amazing, overwhelming, heart breaking, hopeless and full of hope all at the same time. And for the guys, it was somehow the same. Though they were far away and guarded from the evil that we were sitting in, they were just as much a part.

So much happened to our hearts that night that I cannot figure out a way to write it out. It was overwhelming to meet the outcast of society and discover that they are real people. My heart aches when I think of what those girls are doing right now as I sit here writing about them. I wonder what is happening to their heart as they are being taken advantage of and how the Lord is so grieved watching His precious daughter.

I decided not to write about the details of the night in this blog, because God hasn't even gotten there with me yet. I haven't even processed the conversations that I had with the women. I feel like I am still standing in the entry of the club, walking into every darkness you can image, asking the Lord "why?".

This was an eye opening experience that I will never forget and I am so humbled the Lord used me to love on His brokenhearted daughters. But, what amazes me the most is for the first time in my life I truly understand this verse:

1 John 4:4
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

The thickness of evil that filled that strip club could not penetrate or consume me... because He was in me. And I am in awe.

Katy

(We will continue doing this the first Saturday of every month at 8pm so please pray for us and the women that we going in there to rescue)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Teaching the Outsiders

Matthew 9:12-13 (Message)
Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders."

When I read that verse, I stopped to think about people that I know that invite outsiders and go to the sick and hurting. One person that stuck out in my mind is my sister, Emily. I know what your thinking, another sister story? Yep! Because they are awesome and do crazy things. And just wait because one of these days you will hear about my other sister, Libby, who may actually be the craziest one of all of us.

But today is a story about Emily because through her daily choice to demonstrate love and acceptance to a group of the forgotten, she is impacting many precious lives.

Emily is an art teacher at the high school in my hometown. She is very talented and God has given her amazing creativity. She teaches different ages and levels of art, but the most impressive part of her job is that she teaches art to special needs students.

She goes out of her way to assign them projects that give independence, freedom and excitement to their day. These students, if she was allowed to have favorites, would be her favorite. Her heart is specially crafted to connect with them and show them their value.

While most people have sympathy for those with special needs, Emily has compassion and sees the potential in each one of them.

What you don't know about Emily is, she has about 30 degrees and 60 certifications (I may have rounded up) and is qualified to teach almost anything at any level. She has studied multiple subjects, trained to write curriculum and could run a drama department, coach a debate team and organize prom all with her baby on her hip. But sometimes it is not about what we are capable of doing, but what we will humble ourselves to do.

My sister, Emily has chosen a small high school and a special group of teenagers, because teaching the outsiders is a high calling... and this inspires me.