So. I've decided to make some changes.
Admittedly, I had to come to terms with my multiple cases of denial. However, I felt that as a traveler, I would leave De-Nile to Egypt so I could visit the real thing later instead of dwelling on what not real now.
"Denial about what?" you may ask?
Well, you know that little bit of information on all social media sites that says: Location? That was the downfall of my pride. I realized this and had to come to terms with myself and God about it all last night.
I realized I took pride last year in living somewhere "different". I went so far as to moving states,countries, and even hemispheres last year in my pursuit of God and travels.
And now, this year, I've reversed everything from that- moved back to the northern hemisphere. cool. Moved back to 'Murrica. God bless it. But then I moved back to Louisiana---errrrmmm, not what I had in mind.
I was born and raised in Louisiana! Where is the adventure in moving back here?
and intro the little pride demon now.
I didn't realize that this was really what wasn't just my "adventurous spirit" or "travel bug" within me.
It's just plain old pride that needs to pack it's bags, not me.
So,That all aside:
Like I said in my last post- I am so genuinely happy with my life right now. I feel so blessed.
I am currently in Lafayette, Louisiana attending University of Louisiana at Lafayette (meaning yes, I am indeed a Ragin' Cajun'). I am majoring in Vocal Music Education. Yes, I'm doing the classic college student thing and live in a dorm and all that jazz. (The dorm part of life is DEFINITELY not my favorite---I really miss my kitchen.)
I am stationed here for the next 4 years as I pursue my degree. In the mean time, I am so blessed that Andrew (my beyond wonderful boyfriend!He's from Iowa, so he's far from home all over again.) made the brave move straight from Australia to Louisiana to be with me! (He is definitely a keeper! He's just the best.)
So together, we have officially found a new home church down here! http://mlclafayette.com/ Metro Life Church! We've been attending here since the first weekend we've been in Lafayette and feel absolutely beyond blessed to be a part of a church with such an incredible vision to reach people for God!
(You should check them out wherever you are! They have sermons online, resources on their website, and even an app for you mac or android products!)(shameless plug.)
Well folks, that's all for now, that is my update on life. But here's to my New Discoveries, with each new day. God unveils and reveals more and more of His character as we seek fully after Him. He opens our eyes to New Discoveries all the time that we may see more of Him.
“You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want."-John 5:39-40(Message)
-Let's not be so focused on our futures that we miss all that God has for us now!
Love,
Kaitlyn Wheat
Friday, October 12, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
It is well.
I am so happy with my life.
He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. No matter if our circumstances were different from yesterdays and if tomorrow nothing will ever be the same as it has been today and before-- He will remain. He holds it all, because He remains.
When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say: It is well, It is well with my soul.
I know it sounds like such a simple thing to say, but none of us say that too often, now isn't that right?
I'm not exactly sure why, but I feel so overwhelmed at the fact that I am contented.
I had a nice,quiet conversation with My Lord last night:
"Wow God, I'm so surprised everything is coming together so well! I was so worried things might not come around so well, but has fallen into place!"I must say it felt a bit like being scolded, but also a bit like being hugged tighter. Because He loves us, oh how He loves us.
"Why would you worry that I wouldn't make things work out? When do I not take care of the things I have my hands on?"
He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. No matter if our circumstances were different from yesterdays and if tomorrow nothing will ever be the same as it has been today and before-- He will remain. He holds it all, because He remains.
When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say: It is well, It is well with my soul.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
You prepare a table before me
The daughter is following along. Holding her Daddy's last two fingers in her tiny, little hands, she is jogging along trying keep up.
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!Where are we going? Where are you leading me?"
He tells her simply
"Follow along dear one, I've got your hand."
Confused and still wondering about their journey, His daughter holds tighter to His hand. He picks up speed. It is now more difficult for her little feet to jostle alongside Him. She picks up her pace but instead of feeling like she's running with Him, it is as if He is ushering her forward.
"Dad..Daddy.. why, why are going so fast?"
She said still running while trying to catch her breath. She is wearing down, trotting along with her Daddy.
"Here, Sweetheart, come inside with me"
He says as they approach an unfamiliar home. This house is surrounded by fields of grain along the roadside. The bumpy gravel path leads them to the door as he urges his daughter along, walking even faster and faster to go inside.
"Daddy...Dad..we've never been here before, what's going on here??we've never been here before..where are we goi..."
Before she could finish her sentence, He opens the door for them. The house looks dark and empty, but there is a warm ambiance about it despite the unfamiliarity. Maybe it's because Daddy's here that she feels safe anyway. But still confused.
No longer holding hands, no longer keeping pace, they stroll further inside into a grand room;a very open and bare room, but somehow still grand. For a second, the girl loses sight of her dad and begins to panic:
"Where did you go Dad? I can't see you! Why did you leave me in here? I don't even know what's.."
She catches His eye through the crack in the door. He swings the door wide and approaches the long table in the middle of the room. Her Dad, with purple cloth in hand, rubs her back and stoops to tell her
"Sweetheart,you're okay.See, here I am! Hey!watch me closely now, see what I'll do with this room for ya!"
As he gives her a quick smile and rub on the shoulder, He makes His way back to the table and extravagantly tosses the opposite end of the amethyst cloth to cover the table. His daughter watches wide-eyed, as if this is all unfolding in slow motion. He then goes to the cupboard, and pulls out the finest dinnerware she has ever seen. Fine gold china, with gold utensils and gold rimmed wine glasses- how exquisite! She watches intently as her Daddy continues to prepare the table for her with impeccable precision and design.
"Here,My Daughter! Come dine with me! This is for you My Love! I've prepared a place for you!Here we shall stay and remain together always My Darling!"
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Summer in Sydney
After a fantastic Christmas Break back home, full of getting to spend time with my family, friends, youth group, church, band, and hometown restaurants, I flew back to my other home here in Sydney. I landed pretty early in January (the 8th I think), I still had about a month of summer before school starts back and schedules/ routines return. While school is back in full swing already, and there are many more adventures to be had on days off, here’s a peak or recap into summer:
Weather: Rain… all the time. Just, all the time. BUT it’s fine, because when it rains, that means my roommate Tyler and I’s feet aren’t on fire when we wake up from the sun beaming through the windows! And there’s lazy movie days galore because of the poor weather. So not always is bad weather bad! There was a really nice, sunny week the week I first was back in Sydney, and then God blessed Summer Camp up in Newcastle with unbelievably great weather! But alas, it’s been rainy and I’ve been going barefoot (classic Australian style) and not even bothering with my hair lately because of it.
FUEL SUMMER CAMP!!!: favorite summer memory for sure! I am a year 8 Leader (8th grade), and had my RDG(stands for radical discipleship group…kinda like a miniature connect group of students) of 4 amazing girls at camp with me. I had never been camping-like in tents and stuff- in my life before, so this was DEFINITELY a new experience for me. I shared a tent with 3 other leaders, and it turns out-(thought I’d never say it)—tents aren’t so bad! I actually slept really well every night with just my sleeping bag and blanket. (I’m assuming I slept so hard because of how full the days were? ha, I dunno!) The only thing that really freaked me out a bit was that there were only 8 showers for 600 people(fuel groups from city, hills, Brisbane, southwest, and extension service churches)…. I showered on the first day… and then there was an abundance of wet wipes for the rest of the week. Yuuucckkk. So since everyone smelled so lovely, it was just ignorable by the end of the week. It was rank. It didn’t even matter how nasty you were, because when it came to tribal wars twice a day- you were always about to get MUCH more gross.
We had tribal wars where our 4 teams would compete in physical challenges, dance competitions, cheers, chants, presentations, you name it. Not braggin’ on my team but…. Brave did win :) and it was awesome!
Haha, anyways, so those were always right before we went into worship-which was also so moving and touching. The coolest thing to witness and be a part of was watching leaders encourage, prophecy, or pray over each other and over students…but the even more touching part was watching the students step out in faith and do the same for one another and even for us leaders. I’ll tell ya, one of the most amazing worship experiences I had during the week was this 12 year old Fuel girl praying over me and speaking the words from God that was exactly what I needed in that moment. God is so faithful, so amazing.
As far as recreation goes, Glenrock Scout Camp in Newcastle (obviously, where the camp was located) was the PERFECT set up. It had space for a ridiculous amount of water bomb wars (boys vs girls…of course), a giant hill that served as the perfect slope for a MASSSIIVVEEE slip n’ slide (I never found the guts to do it and shred my knees/back into oblivion, but it looked fun!) The best part was that the camp had both a lake AND a beach!!! What a great location! We actually had some girls that would just swim the lake to get back to the tents instead of walking to them! Crazy kids. Lake Franklin and the beach were set between stunning cliffs and the gorgeous blue sky overhead. While the beach was nice looking, it wasn’t so kind. The waves were more massive than anything I’ve ever personally seen or been in, was a bit too much for me to swim in! As soon as I got out of the water, they had to rescue 2 kids who had been caught in rip tides! That was scary! So of course, they then closed the beach for the afternoon. The second day went about the same way as far as the dangerousness of the water went. And the Third day the beach wasn’t even open because of the fact that there were 2 fatal shark attacks just 20 minutes away from where we were- water CLOSED for sure. BUT! The second afternoon of camp, there was a LEGIT food fight! It was so gross, and so much fun! Syrup, sugar, flour, honey, condiments, whipped cream EVERYWHERE! Then everyone washed off in the lake. Then the lake definitely smelled like ketchup. Yummmmm. *blech. One afternoon we had a mall excursion which was fun. Nice mall, cute little town. There were 2 dance parties and a movie night during the week after the night service! I always grabbed the glowsticks from the dance parties and brought them to my tent to use as a flashlight. Ha, worked pretty well! Anyways, I’m so glad I got to go because I feel like it definitely helped me not only grow closer to God but as well as to the students in Fuel and the rest of the leadership team!
Job searching: yuck. I’ve been doing heaps of job searching. Stillllll looking. Please keep praying with me that I’ll find one SOON!( and more specifically, close to where I live would be nice!)
Opera House: I have been blessed with the most amazing boyfriend who got us tickets to go see West Side Story at the Opera House! We got to dress up all fancy, then went out to eat, grabbed Starbucks, then went inside the spectacular Opera House! It’s as gorgeous and interesting looking on the inside as it is on the outside, if not more so! The show was phenomenal! The film version of West Side Story was shot on a massive screen, and the Sydney Symphony played all of the music for the film, every sound, every note—so incredibly precise. All the instruments so remarkably in sync with one another- it was captivating to watch their movements as a group and to hear which instruments exactly made what sound effect in the movie. The sound in the concert hall was like none other. It was an experience I’ll never forget. After the show, Andrew and I walked around the harbor a bit and got ice cream :) I am blessed.
Weather: Rain… all the time. Just, all the time. BUT it’s fine, because when it rains, that means my roommate Tyler and I’s feet aren’t on fire when we wake up from the sun beaming through the windows! And there’s lazy movie days galore because of the poor weather. So not always is bad weather bad! There was a really nice, sunny week the week I first was back in Sydney, and then God blessed Summer Camp up in Newcastle with unbelievably great weather! But alas, it’s been rainy and I’ve been going barefoot (classic Australian style) and not even bothering with my hair lately because of it.
FUEL SUMMER CAMP!!!: favorite summer memory for sure! I am a year 8 Leader (8th grade), and had my RDG(stands for radical discipleship group…kinda like a miniature connect group of students) of 4 amazing girls at camp with me. I had never been camping-like in tents and stuff- in my life before, so this was DEFINITELY a new experience for me. I shared a tent with 3 other leaders, and it turns out-(thought I’d never say it)—tents aren’t so bad! I actually slept really well every night with just my sleeping bag and blanket. (I’m assuming I slept so hard because of how full the days were? ha, I dunno!) The only thing that really freaked me out a bit was that there were only 8 showers for 600 people(fuel groups from city, hills, Brisbane, southwest, and extension service churches)…. I showered on the first day… and then there was an abundance of wet wipes for the rest of the week. Yuuucckkk. So since everyone smelled so lovely, it was just ignorable by the end of the week. It was rank. It didn’t even matter how nasty you were, because when it came to tribal wars twice a day- you were always about to get MUCH more gross.
We had tribal wars where our 4 teams would compete in physical challenges, dance competitions, cheers, chants, presentations, you name it. Not braggin’ on my team but…. Brave did win :) and it was awesome!
Haha, anyways, so those were always right before we went into worship-which was also so moving and touching. The coolest thing to witness and be a part of was watching leaders encourage, prophecy, or pray over each other and over students…but the even more touching part was watching the students step out in faith and do the same for one another and even for us leaders. I’ll tell ya, one of the most amazing worship experiences I had during the week was this 12 year old Fuel girl praying over me and speaking the words from God that was exactly what I needed in that moment. God is so faithful, so amazing.
As far as recreation goes, Glenrock Scout Camp in Newcastle (obviously, where the camp was located) was the PERFECT set up. It had space for a ridiculous amount of water bomb wars (boys vs girls…of course), a giant hill that served as the perfect slope for a MASSSIIVVEEE slip n’ slide (I never found the guts to do it and shred my knees/back into oblivion, but it looked fun!) The best part was that the camp had both a lake AND a beach!!! What a great location! We actually had some girls that would just swim the lake to get back to the tents instead of walking to them! Crazy kids. Lake Franklin and the beach were set between stunning cliffs and the gorgeous blue sky overhead. While the beach was nice looking, it wasn’t so kind. The waves were more massive than anything I’ve ever personally seen or been in, was a bit too much for me to swim in! As soon as I got out of the water, they had to rescue 2 kids who had been caught in rip tides! That was scary! So of course, they then closed the beach for the afternoon. The second day went about the same way as far as the dangerousness of the water went. And the Third day the beach wasn’t even open because of the fact that there were 2 fatal shark attacks just 20 minutes away from where we were- water CLOSED for sure. BUT! The second afternoon of camp, there was a LEGIT food fight! It was so gross, and so much fun! Syrup, sugar, flour, honey, condiments, whipped cream EVERYWHERE! Then everyone washed off in the lake. Then the lake definitely smelled like ketchup. Yummmmm. *blech. One afternoon we had a mall excursion which was fun. Nice mall, cute little town. There were 2 dance parties and a movie night during the week after the night service! I always grabbed the glowsticks from the dance parties and brought them to my tent to use as a flashlight. Ha, worked pretty well! Anyways, I’m so glad I got to go because I feel like it definitely helped me not only grow closer to God but as well as to the students in Fuel and the rest of the leadership team!
Job searching: yuck. I’ve been doing heaps of job searching. Stillllll looking. Please keep praying with me that I’ll find one SOON!( and more specifically, close to where I live would be nice!)
Opera House: I have been blessed with the most amazing boyfriend who got us tickets to go see West Side Story at the Opera House! We got to dress up all fancy, then went out to eat, grabbed Starbucks, then went inside the spectacular Opera House! It’s as gorgeous and interesting looking on the inside as it is on the outside, if not more so! The show was phenomenal! The film version of West Side Story was shot on a massive screen, and the Sydney Symphony played all of the music for the film, every sound, every note—so incredibly precise. All the instruments so remarkably in sync with one another- it was captivating to watch their movements as a group and to hear which instruments exactly made what sound effect in the movie. The sound in the concert hall was like none other. It was an experience I’ll never forget. After the show, Andrew and I walked around the harbor a bit and got ice cream :) I am blessed.
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