Kansas City living- where do I begin? Well the electricity was only out for 3 days and then we were all able to move back in. I’ve really enjoyed my time with my new roommates. Our schedules are kinda funny because they both work mornings at coffee shops and I am doing nights so they are basically getting up and leaving when I am coming in in the morning and they go to bed when I’m getting ready to go to the prayer room. So far it has actually worked out really well. It’s really fun when we are all 3 home together at the same time. However it looks like that’s pretty temporary. In August I was supposed to move out with the two girls who live in the basement with me into one of their friend’s houses. Well as it turns out, the girl overbooked and asked too many people thinking not all of them would say yes and unfortunately there was not room for me =( I was really bummed because I was really looking forward to living with them but tis life. Now I have to find new living arrangements. I have a couple of options. Student housing has a list of people who have rooms available in their houses and I a have emailed a few that sounded good and will see what happens there. The house I am currently in I can stay till November and one of the other girls is staying till November and if worse comes to worse I can just stay and then in November get an apartment with the other girl. It’s not my first choice though. Not because of the girl, just because I would like to be settled sooner than later. Currently I haven’t really unpacked anything except my clothes because there’s really no point if I’m just going to pack it all up again and move. I’m just ready to be settled and know that I can stay there for a significant amount of time. I swear I’ve moved more in the last year than I have moved in my entire life! But I’m not worried. It’s not looking the way I thought it would but what does these days? God knows where He wants me and who He wants me to live with and I trust that He will help me to make the right decision. Prayer for that would be great though!
Since I have a lot of free time I have been doing a lot of exploring the area. It’s really cool because we’re basically just right on the edge of Missouri and if you drive not far at all then you are in Kansas. There’s literally a street called State Line that separates them. So there’s a lot of options. Praise the Lamb for my GPS! Best birthday present ever! I would have gotten so lost around here without it. When I came with my mom and we were driving around just checking stuff out I got really excited about a new place to explore with new people and making new memories with those new people. My whole life has been in Katy and there are so many memories attached to that place. I’m ready to put the past in the past and move on with my future. Meet new people and make new memories.
I got more information about school and orientation and stuff and it looks like my whole first year I don’t get to do nights =( I thought it was just the semester but they revamped stuff this year and I guess that got changed. But after that, 2nd year through 4th year classes are from 3-5pm so it’s totally doable. Classes aren’t too early either. My first thing I have is 10-12 so I won’t have a big problem with that. The schedule is really packed out though which is good because I definitely appreciate the structure, but at the same time it’s really packed out. I think I'm gonna have to pack my lunch. My schedule looks like this:
Monday: 10-12 Class, 2:30-6pm Prayer Room
Tuesday 10-12 Class, 12:30-2pm Chapel, 2:30-6pm Prayer Room
Wednesday 10-12 Class, 12:30-2pm Discipleship Groups, 2:30-6pm Prayer Room
Thursday 10-12 Class, 12:30-2pm Practicum, 2:20-6pm Prayer Room
Friday 2-5pm Class, 6-11pm Awakening
Saturday 6-11pm Awakening
Sunday 6-8:30pm FCF (Church)
This is all I know right now. More to come after orientation...
New City, New House, New Season
Posted by
Amy
comments (1)
So I officially made it to Kansas City. It has been quite an adventure already. My room is in the basement and a couple months back they had found a leak and had to rip out a section of the wall. So we arrived here on Wednesday night and we were supposed to be able to move in Thursday but they weren’t quite done yet so we actually had to wait until Friday. But finally Friday evening we got everything moved in and I slept in my new room for the first time. So weird! So that was fine but then Sunday morning a wind storm came through. I don’t think it was officially a tornado but there was a lot of damage. I actually slept through it. I heard it but just figured it was a normal storm. The funny thing is though since my room is in the basement and doesn’t have any windows; it’s the safest room in the house to be. So if it happens again, even if I’m asleep, I don’t have to worry because everyone will just pile into my room and wake me up! Well one of the trees in the backyard behind us blew over and fell into our yard and in the process fell on a power line which knocked the meter box completely off the house! So needless to say we are officially without electricity for a few days. It’s cool though because I was able to go to my friend’s house to take a shower and charge my phone and computer and all that stuff. And on the plus side, two huge trees fell down and blocked both entrances to the neighborhood so now I know every back way in the neighborhood. But last night was really fun. My roommates and I needed to eat all the food in the fridge before it went bad so we had kind of a pot luck feast last night. We lit a bunch of candles and stuffed ourselves until we could eat no more. We ate and talked and just sat around with the candle light and it was so much fun. One of my roommates said she knew a couple of people who fasted electricity for a couple of weeks and basically just used candles. I don’t know if I’ll do it on purpose any time soon, but it’s totally doable.
I’m slowly getting into a routine and schedule. I decided to start doing the prayer room from midnight to 4am. But sadly, I think that once school starts first year classes are in the morning and I won’t be able to do the nights, at least for the first semester so basically until January. I know they are changing some stuff this semester so I’m praying that this might change too but somehow I doubt it. So I’m trying to think positive but honestly I’m totally bummed that I won’t be able to do nights for a while. So I’m taking advantage for this month before school starts and doing nights. I am going to need a lot of prayers and grace if I have morning classes though. I am so not a morning person! This transition time before school starts will be interesting because I have nothing to do so I will probably spend a lot of time in the prayer room and awakenings. My roommates are all really excited to have me here finally so I feel really loved and that’s been helpful for the transition. I won’t really know a whole lot about school until I go to new student orientation on August 10 so I can’t really answer many of ya’lls questions about my classes or schedule until then. But once I find out, I will let you know.
So what is the Lord talking to me about these days? A couple of things that I will share more on next time but right now- money. When I first got back to Katy I was kinda feeling things out job wise to see if there was anything for me there. I tried like 3 or 4 different things that should have been fool-proof and nothing happened with any of them. One day I was praying about it and asking the Lord why it hadn’t worked because I really needed to make some money. I felt like He said because you’re not supposed to get a job. You’re supposed to write a support letter and trust me to provide for you. So I did. Raising my own support has been an interesting journey so far. It’s a total pride killer and I think that’s a part of why God does it that way. To kill our pride. I have always loved being an extravagant giver. I loved being able to bless people when they needed it. But now the tables are turned and I am the one that is in need. I quit my teaching job like 3 years and it was super scary but I had almost $20,000 in savings so I knew I would be ok. Then I got a job at my church that was part time and paid $12/hour so I basically made $12,000 that year and lived perfectly fine off of that and only had to dip into my savings a little bit. Then I quit that job and did the internship. I could have raised support for it but in my pride decided against it and knew I had enough in savings to cover it so I did that. Quite frankly I just did not want to raise support. So I did the internship and towards the end of track 2 I noticed that my money was rapidly depleting and I started to get anxious about it. I heard a teaching once about how the amount of anxiety you get about not having something is the amount that it’s an idol in your life. It turns out I never knew money was an idol because I always had it, but once I wasn’t comfortable anymore, I became very anxious. Since the one area that the Lord says to test us in is money I decided I had nothing to lose. I love hearing stories from other people of how the Lord provided for them when they really needed it. I call them God stories. I was talking to the Lord one day and told Him I wanted a God story. So I decided that I was going to give away everything I had before I went home. Well, that was the plan, but of course I chickened out and reasoned my way out of it. Then I waited until Christmas and bought all my presents and by February still hadn’t gotten a job so finally in February I paid off all my bills and then kept what I needed for bills for the next month and then gave the rest of it away. I didn’t tell a lot of people either because I didn’t want people to feel like they needed to give me money. But here’s the kicker, literally two days after I gave it all away, I had to have my appendix out. It happened out of nowhere and there were no complications because they caught it before it burst, but now I have a $2,000 hospital bill. So I’m still trying to figure out what that was all about and the timing of it all. But I totally have a God story now! Some of ya’ll have heard this but I know some of ya’ll haven’t. My pastor did a sermon on the story in the Bible of the talents. Jesus gave 3 people money and told them to invest it in the kingdom. So my pastor decided to choose 3 people from each service and give them money to invest in the kingdom. He gave them 2 weeks and then they were to come back and tell the congregation what they did with the money. Well one of the ladies that was chosen is a lady that I had only known couple of months because we worked in the call room together. She was given $200 and decided to make and sell cakes for $25 and use her mother’s recipe. Well as it turns out she took like 96 orders and some people even just donated money to the cause and she made $2,600 and decided to give it to me! It was such a blessing and total confirmation that I was doing what I was supposed to and that the Lord was going to provide. I loved it too because she got to bake cakes which she loves to do and opened her windows in the kitchen and got to enjoy her garden while she was baking and communing with the Lord. I was talking to one of my friends afterwards who is kinda in charge of the call room and we were just talking about how it all came together and how there were so many small acts of obedience leading up to it that didn’t seem like a big deal at the time but if one hadn’t happened then none of this would be happening. What if she had never asked me to go to coffee once I got back. What if I hadn’t agreed to do the call room? I would have never met this lady. It was just really cool to look back over the way that it came together and see how the Lord had been orchestrating something that wasn’t even on my radar and completely blew my mind. I love that I am starting to have God stories now. One day I was out shopping with some gift cards and I was telling the Lord that I really wanted a new purse since mine was sort of falling apart but I didn’t have the money for one. The next day I got a gift card in the mail for $25 to Target and I went and found a perfect one for 24.99. Isn’t the Lord good? So anyway, raising support has been an interesting journey and I’m sure will continue to be. I have received about 250 in monthly support and then received a lot of one time donations. All of which is a total blessing! I guess I thought that I would just automatically get the monthly support though. But even in that I feel like the Lord is teaching me to be completely dependent upon Him. If I got the monthly supporters and knew I had 850 coming in each month then I wouldn’t have to trust the Lord as much. This way I am fully trusting in the Lord which is unbelievably scary but I know it’s the place the Lord wants me. It’s funny too because at the last monthly prayer meeting we had for the Katy prayer room people were talking about money and just how the Lord’s timing is always perfect and often will come at that very last moment before the bill is due. One of the guys up here says that God is never early but He’s always on time. As one lady was telling us her God story of what the Lord was doing in their lives financially and talking about how the Lord always seems to show up right at the last minute, another lady said that when she was listening to her story she felt like the Lord said because it’s more romantic that way. Think about all the cheesy chick flicks and how the couple finally comes together at the very last moment. It’s more exciting that way. That’s how God, the ultimate romantic, wants to come to us- at the very last moment, because it’s more romantic that way. I may be wrong, but I feel like the Lord is doing it this way because He wants to surprise me at random times. Plus this way I’ll have more God stories. (At least that’s what I’m telling myself right now to keep from becoming anxious =P) So as with everything with the Lord, I’m going on another journey…but I’m not going to be anxious about money anymore and I am going to know God fully as my provider.
I’m slowly getting into a routine and schedule. I decided to start doing the prayer room from midnight to 4am. But sadly, I think that once school starts first year classes are in the morning and I won’t be able to do the nights, at least for the first semester so basically until January. I know they are changing some stuff this semester so I’m praying that this might change too but somehow I doubt it. So I’m trying to think positive but honestly I’m totally bummed that I won’t be able to do nights for a while. So I’m taking advantage for this month before school starts and doing nights. I am going to need a lot of prayers and grace if I have morning classes though. I am so not a morning person! This transition time before school starts will be interesting because I have nothing to do so I will probably spend a lot of time in the prayer room and awakenings. My roommates are all really excited to have me here finally so I feel really loved and that’s been helpful for the transition. I won’t really know a whole lot about school until I go to new student orientation on August 10 so I can’t really answer many of ya’lls questions about my classes or schedule until then. But once I find out, I will let you know.
So what is the Lord talking to me about these days? A couple of things that I will share more on next time but right now- money. When I first got back to Katy I was kinda feeling things out job wise to see if there was anything for me there. I tried like 3 or 4 different things that should have been fool-proof and nothing happened with any of them. One day I was praying about it and asking the Lord why it hadn’t worked because I really needed to make some money. I felt like He said because you’re not supposed to get a job. You’re supposed to write a support letter and trust me to provide for you. So I did. Raising my own support has been an interesting journey so far. It’s a total pride killer and I think that’s a part of why God does it that way. To kill our pride. I have always loved being an extravagant giver. I loved being able to bless people when they needed it. But now the tables are turned and I am the one that is in need. I quit my teaching job like 3 years and it was super scary but I had almost $20,000 in savings so I knew I would be ok. Then I got a job at my church that was part time and paid $12/hour so I basically made $12,000 that year and lived perfectly fine off of that and only had to dip into my savings a little bit. Then I quit that job and did the internship. I could have raised support for it but in my pride decided against it and knew I had enough in savings to cover it so I did that. Quite frankly I just did not want to raise support. So I did the internship and towards the end of track 2 I noticed that my money was rapidly depleting and I started to get anxious about it. I heard a teaching once about how the amount of anxiety you get about not having something is the amount that it’s an idol in your life. It turns out I never knew money was an idol because I always had it, but once I wasn’t comfortable anymore, I became very anxious. Since the one area that the Lord says to test us in is money I decided I had nothing to lose. I love hearing stories from other people of how the Lord provided for them when they really needed it. I call them God stories. I was talking to the Lord one day and told Him I wanted a God story. So I decided that I was going to give away everything I had before I went home. Well, that was the plan, but of course I chickened out and reasoned my way out of it. Then I waited until Christmas and bought all my presents and by February still hadn’t gotten a job so finally in February I paid off all my bills and then kept what I needed for bills for the next month and then gave the rest of it away. I didn’t tell a lot of people either because I didn’t want people to feel like they needed to give me money. But here’s the kicker, literally two days after I gave it all away, I had to have my appendix out. It happened out of nowhere and there were no complications because they caught it before it burst, but now I have a $2,000 hospital bill. So I’m still trying to figure out what that was all about and the timing of it all. But I totally have a God story now! Some of ya’ll have heard this but I know some of ya’ll haven’t. My pastor did a sermon on the story in the Bible of the talents. Jesus gave 3 people money and told them to invest it in the kingdom. So my pastor decided to choose 3 people from each service and give them money to invest in the kingdom. He gave them 2 weeks and then they were to come back and tell the congregation what they did with the money. Well one of the ladies that was chosen is a lady that I had only known couple of months because we worked in the call room together. She was given $200 and decided to make and sell cakes for $25 and use her mother’s recipe. Well as it turns out she took like 96 orders and some people even just donated money to the cause and she made $2,600 and decided to give it to me! It was such a blessing and total confirmation that I was doing what I was supposed to and that the Lord was going to provide. I loved it too because she got to bake cakes which she loves to do and opened her windows in the kitchen and got to enjoy her garden while she was baking and communing with the Lord. I was talking to one of my friends afterwards who is kinda in charge of the call room and we were just talking about how it all came together and how there were so many small acts of obedience leading up to it that didn’t seem like a big deal at the time but if one hadn’t happened then none of this would be happening. What if she had never asked me to go to coffee once I got back. What if I hadn’t agreed to do the call room? I would have never met this lady. It was just really cool to look back over the way that it came together and see how the Lord had been orchestrating something that wasn’t even on my radar and completely blew my mind. I love that I am starting to have God stories now. One day I was out shopping with some gift cards and I was telling the Lord that I really wanted a new purse since mine was sort of falling apart but I didn’t have the money for one. The next day I got a gift card in the mail for $25 to Target and I went and found a perfect one for 24.99. Isn’t the Lord good? So anyway, raising support has been an interesting journey and I’m sure will continue to be. I have received about 250 in monthly support and then received a lot of one time donations. All of which is a total blessing! I guess I thought that I would just automatically get the monthly support though. But even in that I feel like the Lord is teaching me to be completely dependent upon Him. If I got the monthly supporters and knew I had 850 coming in each month then I wouldn’t have to trust the Lord as much. This way I am fully trusting in the Lord which is unbelievably scary but I know it’s the place the Lord wants me. It’s funny too because at the last monthly prayer meeting we had for the Katy prayer room people were talking about money and just how the Lord’s timing is always perfect and often will come at that very last moment before the bill is due. One of the guys up here says that God is never early but He’s always on time. As one lady was telling us her God story of what the Lord was doing in their lives financially and talking about how the Lord always seems to show up right at the last minute, another lady said that when she was listening to her story she felt like the Lord said because it’s more romantic that way. Think about all the cheesy chick flicks and how the couple finally comes together at the very last moment. It’s more exciting that way. That’s how God, the ultimate romantic, wants to come to us- at the very last moment, because it’s more romantic that way. I may be wrong, but I feel like the Lord is doing it this way because He wants to surprise me at random times. Plus this way I’ll have more God stories. (At least that’s what I’m telling myself right now to keep from becoming anxious =P) So as with everything with the Lord, I’m going on another journey…but I’m not going to be anxious about money anymore and I am going to know God fully as my provider.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)