End 2015 Update

Dear Friends and Family,

As we wrap up yet another year I find myself grateful....grateful for my healthy and delightful family (details below), for the privilege of continued service with World Orphans (details also below), and mostly for Jesus.

As we prepare to celebrate His birth my heart is freshly encouraged by the fact that He came, ultimately gave His life for us all, and that He ever lives to intercede for us all.

And I've been thinking about the fact that scripture does not call us to celebrate His birth. Jesus said, "the work of God is this, to believe in the one He sent." (John 6) Before he was crucified he broke bread with his disciples and said to do that in remembrance of Him (Luke 22). But he doesn't mention celebrating His birth.

Historically Christians started celebrating the birth of Christ about 300 years after he died, and what a rich tradition! I'm so thankful for a yearly opportunity to stop and remember the magnitude of the fact that Jesus fulfilled God's promises to send a savior.

But what has struck me most in all this is that we celebrate His birth because it was the beginning of Him being Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). We celebrate His birth, remember His death, and celebrate the resurrection because He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1) and because it is our joy to reflect His love as we wait on Him to make all things new.

That's a bit of my heart these days. Quick updates below. I pray this finds you resting and hoping in Christ.

Know that we miss you, think of you, and would love to hear how you are.

Until They All Have Homes,
Kate


Ministry Highlights:

Curious about what keeps me busy? I oversee our Mobilization department, which means....

• In 2014 we sent 300 people (almost 30 teams) to nine countries.
• I have lots of help! At the moment my team consists of two other (amazing) people and that may (hopefully and prayerfully) be three or four other people in 2016.
• World Orphans ministry of equipping the church to care for orphaned and vulnerable children is very relational, which means our trips have a lot of variety. In general my team and I are oversee the details and logistics as well as the relational/heart aspect....I'd love to tell you more if you're interested!
• One of my co-workers represents our department on the World Orphans blog, you can read all her posts HERE.
• I was in Colorado for meetings twice in 2015 and was in Nashville and Raleigh leading breakout sessions on Mobilization at the yearly CAFO and T4A conferences. My hiatus from international travel to stay close to my girls may be over one of these years, we'll see. Although I am about to renew my passport....see below.
• I'm really looking forward to being with the rest of our leadership team at our home office in Colorado at the beginning of January as we plan for 2016.

Want more about World Orphans? Read our most recent (2014) annual report HERE (2015 report will be out probably the 2nd quarter of 2016).


Family Highlights:

• Jazmine is four years old. She is very excited about learning to read and her current phase is constant questions about how to spell words - it's so fun. She breaks into song all throughout the day about whatever is running through her little mind. She goes to pre-school two days a week and loves it - she was very distressed about the occurrence of fall break. She loves spending time with her friends and can generally be found reading, making crafts, playing outside, or on literally any adventure her imagination takes her on.
• Nadra is one year old. Her clearest word these days is "boo" while playing peek-a-boo. She's been walking for a few months and can be found doing pretty much whatever Jazmine is doing, or at least trying to. She has very firm opinions and loves trying to communicate them even though she can't speak yet.
• Chris still enjoys his job as a PA at a walk-in clinic. When he's not there he can be found playing with the girls or working on a project, for us or a friend. The definition of project includes vehicles, house, yard...pretty much anything. He just built us an incredible screened-in porch - come visit and we'll enjoy a meal out there, it will be delightful.
• Chris and I will renew our passports and the girls will get theirs so we can travel to Senegal to visit Chris's sister and her family who live there - we're very excited to spend the time with them. 

but we see Him...

If you happen to read this, you'll know that I don't do a lot of writing these days.  The privilege of directing the World Orphans Mobilization Department and the honor and delight of being a wife and mothers to two little girls...keeps me pretty busy and doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging :)  

But I digress...  I have these words floating around in my head, "...but we see Him".

Our church is embarking on teaching through the book of Hebrews (which I'm super excited about - all the sermons can be found HERE.  We're only on Chapter 2, so you can catch up and listen along :)

The sermon this morning was on Chapter 2:5-9

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

My paraphrase... The writer is quoting from Psalms, and when he talks about Jesus being made a little lower than the angels, he's referring to Jesus becoming a man. But even though Jesus became a man, he was still fully God, so everything was in subjection to Him, AND His perfect life allowed for His death to serve as the final sacrifice, making us right with The Father.

Our pastor spent a while talking about the verse that says, "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him." It only takes a glance around our lives and/or around the world to see the evidence of sin and brokenness. It may be on the tip of our tongue to ask, "Where was God when...." You fill in that blank. That person got sick. That child died. I lost my job. The wars rage on. The earthquakes and floods destroy lives. Those children are suffering....

BUT....

But we see him. In the midst of the pain and suffering, by the grace of God, we see him, namely Jesus, who tasted death for everyone. That is the hope of the Gospel, that Jesus made a way for us to know the Father. We can know Him now, in the midst of this life and for eternity.

And as I think about my heart and my life, I find myself thinking about my co-workers and all our church partners. But we see him. That is why we do what we do, because we see him. Raising support to be in ministry is hard. Cross cultural partnership and long-distance relationships, are hard. Spending your life pouring into hurting families, is hard. Caring for children who have been orphaned, is hard. BUT, we see him. It is the hope of Christ that compels and brings joy.

In the peaceful moments where we get a glimpse of how He intended for things to be...we see Him and praise Him. And in the hard moments where we only feel the brokenness, we see Him. He was broken for us, to meet us in our brokenness and make us whole.