4 days, 5 hours, & 15 min....

...I'll be taking off from Weno island in Chuuk state part of the Federated States of Micronesia or, more lovingly known as, the uttermost parts of the sea.

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR BACCALAUREATE! The day before I had an, uh well, emotional breakdown during practice - yup, didn't even make it through the first verse without uncontrollably sobbing. The poor guys I was singing with didn't know what to do and I think it sort of freaked them out about the possibility of me doing that during the service. But thank you, my most gracious God, that I didn't cry, I didn't faint (it was a sweltering day), and I hit the high note. More than that, the truth of God's grace was proclaimed.

"Your grace still amazes me!
Your love is still a mystery.
Each day, I fall on my knees,
Cause your grace still amazes me!

Oh, patient Savior,
You make me whole.
You are the Author and the Healer of my soul.
What can I give you?
Lord, what can I say?
I know there's no way to repay you,
Only to offer you my praise!"

One of the ladies that greeted me at the end of the service said, "Jesus shines through you!" If this is true it is by God's grace alone and the words that I have sung are all the truer!

Continue to pray for Graduation... that more than anything else the grace and love of Christ is proclaimed and extolled!

And, please, continue to pray specifically for me as I wrap things up here. Pray specifically for strength (spiritually, emotionally, and physically) and boldness and eagerness to continue loving these precious people and always acknowledging the name of Jesus Christ.

Praising Jesus Christ for His amazing grace!!!
Katie

One other thing...
As you all have so faithfully loved and prayed for and supported me, I would like to let you know about another precious servant of the Lord, saved and sanctified by His grace - my sister, Emily. The Lord has overwhelmingly blessed her and given her many opportunities to serve Christ and praise His name. Last winter she went on a mission trip to Bolivia. Now, the Lord has raised her up to head up a team to Cambodia. First, I ask that you pray for her and her team - that God would protect them from attacks against the enemy and that they would be encouraged through our Victorious Savior. Second, she needs some support. Her team has been doing several fundraising activities (out in KS where she lives) but she also has found a way to use her God-given talents to help support herself. http://www.cafepress.com/studioe If you go to this website you will find most beautiful note cards and postcards created by Emily. All earnings will go directly towards Em's God-given ministry in Cambodia. If you would like more information you can e-mail me, talk to my mom, or e-mail Em at e10em@juno.com.

Schedule

Friday, May 26 - Senior Banquet
Sunday, May 28 - Baccalaureate (Manvis, Franky, Ds, and I sing)
Tuesday, May 30 - Staff Picnic (Out on my first Chuuk reef island!)
Friday, June 2 - Graduation
Monday, June 5 @ 2AM - Fly to Guam, 2 hour layover, fly to Hawaii, 2&1/2 hour layover, fly to Los Angeles, California!

Please, keep praying! I am in desperate need of your prayers throughout these final activities. Today some staff had a meeting about the English program at Mizpah and Director and I have continued to discuss what I'll be teaching next year. Pray for my requests from the previous post and pray for God's grace to reign and smother me (and us all).

God's choosing me for His ministry here has been... overwhelming. His grace is sufficient. Your prayers and participation and interest and kindness and love towards me have been extremely encouraging. You, through prayer, have been part of God's tools for the working out of His plans. I continue to be in desperate need of your prayers more than anything else. They work because He works. His grace His sufficient. Yes, His grace is sufficient - for all of us.

Swimming in grace,
Out in Truk Lagoon,
Katie

Blue but Buoyant

I love these seniors (and the rest of my students) and will be truly truly sad to have them go. At the same time, I am so super excited to go back to CA - especially to my family, friends, and church family! Woohoo!

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I last posted...

First day of finals is over. Second day of finals is tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I will be failing some of my students.
Fortunately, by God's grace alone, most of my students will be passing!
Junotte informs me, "That's what happens when you teach."
She's been teaching me a lot, so have the freshmen.

I've been hanging out a lot at Mizpah when school gets out lately. You have no idea how much God has given me this amazing love for these kids. I call Manvis "mi hermanito" or little brother. Franky's been asking for advice. Teisy had her mom come meet me. We hang out, we laugh, we play fight, I try to make them finish their work, they distract me from trying to make them finish their work...

And...

We sing. Yup. Manvis, Franky, DS, and I will be singing "Your Grace Still Amazes Me" either at Baccalaureate or Graduation. Please, pray for us - I'm scared out of my wits!

The Lord continues to be sooooooooooooooooooooo unbelievably gracious to me, to my students, and to all those participating in His ministry here in Chuuk. He is so kind. He's gentle and hangs on to us whether or not we want to hang on to Him! Oh, how good!

Please, be praying for the following things...
...for all the students as they finish up their school - that they finish well and really feel a sense of accomplishment.
...for all the students as they begin to head out to do things for the summer - that the seed of truth from God's Word will be engraved on their hearts and they will choose, by God's grace, to do good and that which pleases Him.
...for these precious seniors, most who don't know where they'll be going or what they will be doing.
...for the teachers and staff to continue serving these students in love despite the students' work ethic.
...that I will have peace about flying back to CA for the summer.
...and that the Lord in His abundant and enduring love will continue to be gracious to me - He chose me, He saved me, He sanctifies me, and He continues to teach me more about Himself.

If I could give you each a hug, I would...
May the Lord be as gracious to you as He has been to me...

Love, Katie

Oooh Oooh!

I forgot to tell you that God, prayers, and salt water do amazing things for skin infections. Praise God for healing!

Senior Retreat

I'm sitting on my sofa right now still feeling a little nauseous from the boat ride back from Falos. The boat landed two hours ago. Blah.

But...

PRAISE GOD the senior retreat was wonderful!!!

The boat ride over was super smooth on Friday. The island was just as beautiful as I remembered it. The schedule was meetings in the evenings and mornings and free time on Saturday afternoon.

Principal Elvis spoke on Friday night. It was in Chuukese but there was an outline in a book they had printed up that was in English. Ultimately, it was on eternity and where your hope lies. Perfect for these graduating seniors. Saturday morning Pastor Bruce spoke. He is an awesome speaker and I think I have blogged about him before. He spoke from the text in 1 Samuel where the Philistines fight Israel, win, and then steal the ark. The message was one of living without the glory of God. It was very convicting. Sometimes disobedience doesn't always seem so bad... but it is!!! Es horible! Saturday evening Vice Ste spoke. He also spoke in Chuukese but just from his presentation and the number of times he used the name "Jesus" I knew it was good. He looked at the passage in Mark where Jesus asks, "But who do you say that I am?" It was powerful. At the end they asked anyone to stand who wanted to commit their lives from here on out to living for Jesus, the Son of the Living God. This wasn't necessarily first-time commitments but still an impactful and decisive choosing to seek to obey Christ for the rest of their lives. I don't have an exact count but I think about 7 kids stood up. They were so sincere. It was really awesome. Afterwards the kids were encouraged to come and pray and talk to the staff if they had questions or just wanted someone to pray with them. Two girls came to me. Both are already Christians but God gave me the wonderful opportunity to pray for them as they want to reach out to their friends and not be a part of the world. It was so great. Afterwards, another girl came up to me and pretty much wanted to know how to be a better Christian. So... I asked her the diagnostic questions (EE) and she responded with "unsure" and "good works" answers. Although I felt like I was rambling and jumbling and doing a horrible job of presenting the Good News of Jesus Christ to her, when I asked if she understood I was surprised to hear her say, "Yes." She prayed to receive Christ!!! It was amazing. Praise God for His grace towards her (Teisy) and His grace towards me for allowing me to be a part of it! It was awesome. ... Sunday morning Director Pat preached. It was a perfect ending for the retreat. He went through and talked about one of the greatest kings of Israel - King Josiah. It was really really good and at the end he had them pick a shell to take home to remind them of the commitments that they had made this weekend. All of it was just so awesome.

So thank you sooooooooooooo much for praying! May God bless you richly because you are also a part of this good work that happened! Thank you! And praise God, praise God!

One other thing I have to tell you... oh, two, I guess. First, I had a great time hanging out with these kids. I love them. God has given me this love for them that seriously makes my brain go into over drive thinking how it could be possible. I swam with some, played volleyball with others, and last night learned a fun new card game that kept us roaring with laughter until 2 o'clock in the morning! Praise the Lord that Director was kind enough to cancel classes tomorrow! The other really awesome thing I wanted to tell you was about my snorkeling experience. When I was at Falos for Easter I had swam on one side of the island so this time I wanted to go to other side where it was deeper. We had to swim pretty far out in two feet deep water with sharp coral beneath us. I got some cuts but they're not too bad. All of the sudden, the coral ended and it was like (ah - how do I explain it!?) you could dive about 12-14 feet under where it was sandy and all up and down and around you was coral and fish and other interesting sea life. It was so beautiful. At first, I didn't really want to dive down. It was pretty intimidating. Then when I did it once it was amazing. I loved it. It's just absolutely breathtaking. You would never even know it's there unless you dive down. God must have had so much fun creating this beautiful earth. And if His creation is just a small representation of Him then... Wow! I mean - WOW!!!!

4 weeks and about 6 hours I'll be on my way to California.
His grace still amazes me...
Katie

Praise and Prayer Requests

Less than two hours after I wrote my last entry the power came back on. We were singing and shouting so loudly it was hilarious. A few minutes later we got into the car and the radio was on playing the "Hallelujah Chorus" - haha! "And He shall reign forever and ever!" How inexpressible!

I also forgot to mention a couple of things that I need prayer for my physical body. First, I'm being eaten alive here and because my skin is so sensitive here I have acquired some small infections on the skin on my legs. Second, (I know this may sound ridiculous) one of my finger nails, specifically my left hand's ring finger, is having really weird issues. Without prayer, I might be without a nail soon. Third, I'm having some other weird problems physically. Please, pray for the Lord to heal. I would really appreciate it.

You know, after the power went on I told Junotte that maybe the Lord just wanted me to understand that I need to ask for prayer. Why? Because prayer changes things! None of you had even read my site and the electricity came on! I just think God truly has purposes for everything He does - even the little itty itty bitty things. Anyway, that's all for now. I did want to let you know about the praise and other requests though. I long for your prayers because I know that you pray them to the most powerful, loving, and active God ever! So I thank Him for you and I praise Him for Him!

Keepin' My Cool ...well, trying to...

The electricity has been out for three days now. I took my computer down to the school so that I could get it charged up again. Please, pray for it to come back on. It's obviously not necessary for life, but it sure does make things a lot more comfortable. Praise the Lord for all the rain we've been getting though. It does cool things off and, of course, fills our tanks!

The junior retreat was this past weekend at Mizpah. We gathered together and had dinner (white sticky rice, grilled hot dogs, and grilled Chuukese chicken [it's the best!]). Then we all went to Building A together and had worship and preaching from the Word. The youth pastor at Logan (Keloah) was the speaker. It was in Chuukese. 8 students accepted Christ! Please, pray for them as they start a new life in Christ. Pray that a thick line is drawn from their past lives and that the Lord continues to open their minds and hearts to His truth. Also, please pray for the kids that did not accept the Savior. Pray that the Christian kids at Mizpah would be a good testimony to them and pray that the Lord would have mercy and pour out His grace on them. The retreat was supposed to be over Saturday midday but I ended up coming back down to the school and spending the night again with the girls. Yes, I'm pretty pooped.

The senior retreat is this weekend. Unfortunately we were unable to go to Tol and Pacific Island Bible College. We will be going to Falos (the island I was at on Easter) which I am excited about. Please pray for this weekend to have beautiful weather, mainly so that the boat rides will be possible there and back. Pray that the Word of God is communicated clearly and passionately. Pray for the seniors who do not know Christ as their Savior to come to a saving knowledge of Him. And please pray for those who do know Christ as their Savior to understand a little bit more that life is all about eternity and proclaiming Jesus Christ and living for the glory of God.

School seems so rushed. I still want my kids to learn so much more!! Ahck!! Ah, well. I put 16 kids on detention this week. Unfortunately it's more because my patience is getting thin and not because they were being oh-so-nukumach (naughty), I mean they were but no oh-so. My speech kids are in the middle of their second speech. Honestly, I feel like a complete and utter failure. These kids are smart and capable, they just don't realize their smart and capable. Pray for them! And me!

I also met a new friend who teaches at PIBC on Tol. She was on my island for the weekend and so we had dinner on Sunday night together. She's 23, just graduated from a small Christian college, and is from Tennessee. God gives so many unexpected blessings and she was definitely one of them.

So pretty much I'm hot, sticky, smelly, and tired but... God loves me sooooooo much... therefore, I'm okay out here in the uttermost parts. He's with me and that's just great.

Oh, also, I watched a movie today called Behind the Sun about this guy who becomes a Christian. It was really good. But also there was this part where it showed different churches from all around the world praying for this Christian that was going to get executed and the last church they showed was Grace in Sun Valley and Johnny Mac was praying!!! Yes, I was freaking out!! Haha!! It was pretty darn neat-O.

Thank you for your continued interest and prayers. We studied Hannah this morning in staff devotions. She prayed, she promised, she prayed some more, she had faith, she worshipped, God answered her prayer, she kept her promise, she praised God, God blessed her with more sons and daughters, and Samuel became one of the greatest men ever in Israel! How awesome is that?!?! So keep praying, my faithful fellow soldiers! God loves being intimately involved in our lives!

And pray especially as these last few weeks are making me very eager to go back to Cali.
Thank you!
Katie