Christ Fellaship Luv

One week from RIGHT NOW, I will be in-flight to Thailand!  Can't believe it!

SUPER BLESSED by my Christ Fellowship family this morning.  I just love them.  Sunday mornings are one of my favorite times of the week - here's a culmination of why:

1. Jesus (le duh)
2. Spirit-filled worship
3. Genuinely loving community 
4. Awesome Hospitality Team (shout-out!) 
5. I love being around lots of people 
6. Making people feel welcome and connected is one of my FAVORITE things

*SIDENOTE - it really IS one of my favorite things.  I got a little teary-eyed when I left the lobby to join the service as worship was beginning.  I know, weird.  This is like my dream job, though.  Just looking to do it on a bigger scale someday, if that's in God's plans for me.  And yes, I do plan on being back in a year and I know I'm being a little melancholic about leaving (soooo not my personality but I am a musician so I guess I have it in me).

There are many more reasons why I love Sunday mornings, those are just some!  So thankful for Christy & Yvette for planning a send-off for me & Nellie, and for the AMAZING CAKE FROM SAM'S (loved the purple, rah rah TCU), Justin for introducing us and James for working out so many details for us.  My family came to CF today, it was so fun to have them there!  Wonderful to hug so many dear people.  

Then I got in the car after church, and Sister Golden Hair was playing on 91.7.  It was just a great morning.  :) 

Had a productive afternoon & finished the day with Babe's Catfish and time with my grandparents.  =)   *WAITING on this pic from mom, I'll post it when I get it, Mamie & Papaw!  :)  

I've been thinking a lot about the direction I want my blog to take... the voice I want to write in, the tone I want to set, the information I want to share/not share.  I decided to go ahead & share some things that are significant, and realized it's hard to write any way except how I usually write - which is how I talk.  Of course when I need to be professional, I will be, but for blogger, it's much easier for me to just write like I talk.  May be an ENFP quality?  

And so, here's something pretty significant that I've only shared with a few people - 

Right before I clicked "send" to inform my principals that I'd been accepted to CRICS and planned on resigning from my job, I checked with God one more time just to make sure, "Lord, am I really making the right decision here because this is a really big deal right now...quitting my job..."  

Clear as day I heard Him say, "kt, I've been waiting for you to get here."   

Here may be Thailand, it may be CRICS, it may be with the church plant, but I also think it's to a place of surrender, adventure, of allowing Him - okay EXPECTING - Him to show His faithfulness in working out His purposes for me, in fulfilling desires He's planted and nourished inside my heart.  "The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting."  Psalm 138. 

I have no doubt that I should be heading this direction.  NO DOUBT!  Read it again, Chris&Ami Burr!  =D

(now does that mean I have no anxieties or worries about being single and moving to a country where I don't know the language?  of course not.  But thankfully, I can cast my anxieties and cares upon the Lord, because He cares for me, and He will sustain me.)  Seeing, talking or planning with Nellie gets me more and more excited to be there - so thankful for her.  Plus, I kind of feel like I was made for this.  It's time for adventure :)  

Pics to come.... 

What I've Been up to

As I prepare to move to Thailand, here are some things I've been up to~

obvi. 

spent many evenings on my happy little patio 

lots of visits with dear friends, this is leah and yvette

of course continued to watch emily maynard's fairy tale love story, with the most dramatic ending yet because she put her heart out on the line.  

i added jef and arie to my list of potential baby names.

sean if you ever see this, holla 

said goodbye to my first classroom

enjoying the many charms and sights of Fort Worth

therapeutic exercise in one of my favorite buildings on 8th Avenue

girls' nights out, with Terra, Deanna & Whitney

family party for the Olympics

#London2012

awww moved out of my cute little apartment/happy little haven 

Nellie & I got our visas!

cherishing time with my 15 1/2 year old Simon

Great News!

I have great news!  My sweet friend, Nellie Lutz, will be going to Thailand with me!!!  

I am SO THANKFUL to have a buddy to experience the new culture with, to travel with, to have a little piece of home and Christ Fellowship there with me.  We don't know each other that well right now, but people have described her as "delightful," and that's exactly how she seems!  She will also be working at the school and will serve in a few different roles there.  And, we'll be living together!  Based on the time I have already spent with her... I anticipate much laughter.  :)  She won't be traveling with me TO Thailand.  I leave about a week before her - I have to be there by the 16th for teacher orientation.  She'll arrive on the 18th or 19th.

Anybody have connections in Dubai???  I have a 10 hour layover...

One good story before I go to bed -

God speaks to me in dreams every now and then, and I love it.  A few nights ago, I dreamt that it was the first day of school, and I had that anxious feeling of "oh my goodness, I don't have anything prepared," the kind that makes your heart race, not in a good way.  But as the day started, turns out, I DID have everything planned and ready to go, and as the day went on, I asked God, "Ok what do we do now??" And He directed every moment of the day, with all the materials already there and prepared.  When I woke up, I realized that all of my regular "first day of school" routines had showed up in my dream - things I hadn't thought about in a year.  I normally have those written down and in a "First Day of School" file, but I haven't looked through those plans yet.  I wondered... is this how it could be all year??  Why haven't I called on the name of the Lord to direct my lesson plans before??  Keep these ideas coming, Lord!  When kids' needed counseling or disciplining in the past, yes, I said a prayer for guidance, but I just thought it was awesome that I had a step-by-step picture of the ROUTINES for the first day at CRICS.  Pretty cool, Go God.  Always surprising me.

Busy & Blessed

BIZZY BIZZY BUSYYYYYY.  But very blessed in the preparation for my move.  I need to journal it and honor some people.

Why do we spell it "busy" anyway?  First graders sound it out "bizzy" because that's what should follow the language rules.  Crazy English.

Although I'm going to teach 2nd grade in Chiang Rai, I'm essentially assisting in a church plant.  The Penningtons (more info. on them in post soon...) are hoping for their school to be a platform for the Kingdom of God to enter into the city of Chiang Rai.  The presence of God is already affecting families in the school, and I am thrilled get to be a part of it.

God is fulfilling some of my dreams, and I'm only 26 years old.  *thankful*

But today I just want to give honor and shout-outs - I'll expand on the mission of the school, the Penningtons, etc. later.

Mrs. Mollie Newcom, who calls me her "other granddauRghter" (she's so southern and fantastic), invited me, my mom, Aunt Cindy, and her own dauRghter Nancy to attend a luncheon today sponsored by the Fort Worth Christian Women's Connection.  Mollie regularly attends, but this was my first time.  We enjoyed a delightful, girly afternoon with pretty food and presentations made by a lady named Dana from Girls 'n Grace  and Jana Vick from Stonecroft Ministries.  (Jana, if you see this, check the link and let me know if it's the right one...).  I've been so bizzy recently that I haven't had a lot of time to spend in prayer like I want to before I prepare for a big change.  But, God knows my every need, and He used Dana and Jana to speak life into me today through the messages they gave.  I shared a bit of my story with Jana, and she even prayed with me.  So sweet.  She mentioned Psalm 139 verses 17 & 18, "How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand...."
God thinks about me...He is thinking about you.  He knows, and He will be there, always - His presence is REAL. Just step into it!  
It was a happy time getting to see Mrs. Mollie and Nancy, too.  Love them.


Also super blessed by my co-workers April & Camilla!!!  Camilla took down EVERYTHING off of my classroom walls, and April put every single teaching document that she owns onto a flash drive for me to take to Thailand.  PLUS, they make me laugh from my gut, and you know I think the best thing is laughter from your gut.

Suuuuper thankful for my family, too!  Mom has helped me clean out and organize my classroom AND my to do list (she thinks I have ADD, I don't, she says "I know you don't think you do"...and really, sometimes I think I do) =/  Haha.  I like to attribute it to my ENFP weaknesses WHICH I really do try to work on.  

<3 you momma.  :)

Dad is helping me get the confusing things sorted out like International Insurance, plus he and mom cleaned out a storage space for some of my things when I move.  Also thankful for the fun times with Whitney, listening ears of Ami, a night out on a downtown rooftop with Cindy, and MANY more.  MANY, many more.

I may be bizzy, but I am blessed and thankful. 

Yes, I'm moving to Thailand.

You know I LOVE COWTOWN, love love it, but it's time for a change of pace for awhile.  And so I'm moving here:

At the tip top of that map is Chiang Rai where I'll be living for the next 10 months.  I'll be teaching 1st or 2nd grade at Chiang Rai International Christian School (CRICS), and I'll be living in a little apartment there near some other teachers/missionaries.  I'M. PUMPED. 

Here's how this all happened:  

I had been considering getting another job for awhile (had some health problems, I'll save that for another post), but hadn't considered going overseas again until later in the Spring.   *SIDENOTE - if you're thinking "wait, overseas AGAIN??" read the rest of my blog, it'll clue you in*  I was also open to staying at my school for another year if that's where God wanted me to be, but I juuuuust wasn't feelin' it.  Things even started to point toward closure within my classroom and the school, but, still didn't want to close that chapter of life until I was certain about it.  Actually, the decision was made when I ran out of Expo markers MAJOR BUMMER.  "No more Expo markers?!?!  THAT'S IT! I'm outta here! BYEzzzz."    

Kidding... that's not how it happened.  Although I did run out of Expo markers.  =]  And my projector broke. and my printer. and my school ID.  yada yada yada (who got that reference?).

We had to lose a 1st grade teacher at school due to numbers decreasing, so my team all applied within the district for another job.  The day before my first interview, I texted my sweet friend, Ami, :) asking for prayer for wisdom.  I was uneasy about the interview and was beginning to think more seriously about living somewhere else.  She sent me a sweet reply and that was that.  The next day (the day of the interview), she texted again and said, "You're not going to believe who just emailed... The Pennington's in Thailand still need 1st and 2nd grade teachers for this next school year and asked if I knew anyone interested."  

Ok I didn't credit it as God's divinity JUST YET.  ;)  I was sort of hoping for a completely different turn, maybe something outside of teaching.  However, it made so much sense, and it got my heart excited.  

• I wanted to try living in Asia at some point in life. 
• I left Kenya thinking, "I need to do this again...but in Asia."  
• I wondered if the reason I felt so uneasy about traveling to Haiti this summer was because God was POSSIBLY sending me out in the Fall.  
• God knows my heart.  He gave me a desire to work with international students.  He has ordained my days and knows each one of them before they come to be.  
• And considering the rest of this crazy year, of course I would move to Thailand, right??!  ;) 

After thinking, praying and researching, I decided to apply for the job and was accepted.  I feel so peaceful.  

I am a volunteer teacher so it is an unpaid, support-based job.  How humbling.  It will be good for me to sort of "detox" from worldly things and live in simplicity again.  I'm looking forward to it.  

I am sad to leave Cowtown YOU KNOW I LOVE IT, but thankfully it will still be here when I come back.  And maybe with some of the construction finished?  Have to admit, I kind of like seeing the construction - change is good.  :)  

I will try to update frequently so check back soon!  

it gets in yur blood

Stuart Baliles told me the day I flew out to Africa, "I better warn you - Africa gets in yur blood." (he said it like that, yur, bc he's from north carolaihna.) =)

He was right, it did.

"May the peoples praise You, Oh God! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!"

Time Flies

This time last year I had just returned from Kenya.

It's fun to think about how much anticipation of the unknown there was when I came back, that's exciting.

It's strange to think that my experiences in Kenya are still affecting me in new ways all the time.

And so now I'm gonna leave you hanging bc I really need to go to bed. Why was waking up at 5:30 in Kenya so much easier than waking up at 5:30 here??

Back to blogger soon...fo rill this time.

kt