MOVED!!

HEY!

Here is the link for my other blog:

http://kelliecovert.blogspot.com/

More recent, better design, includes all the posts on this site as well.

An Idea

The small beginnings of an idea....

   

Anxiousness

PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

~NLT

Don't fret or worry.  Instead of worrying, pray.  Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.  It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. 

 ~The Message

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  

~NIV

...Just keep telling yourself this...

GO

"Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God our Father." 

James 1:17 (NLT)

Let me tell you 2 stories.  Well, essentially, they are the same story.

Story #1

A long time ago, the Israelites were being led out of Egypt by Moses.  They were in the wilderness between Elim and Mount Sinai and they were hungry.

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Look, I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you.  Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.  I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.'"

To make a longish story shortish, when they first saw the food that God had sent them, they had no idea what it was or what to do with it.  They had to be told that this was the food that God was providing for them.  So some did as they were told and went out and gathered up just as much as they needed and 'when they measured it out, everyone had just enough.  Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over and those who gathered only a little had enough.'  Whatever wasn't gathered up that day disappeared from the ground.  Morning by morning, the people were able to gather up the food that God provided and have just what they needed.

Exodus 16

Story #2

Not so long ago, there were these two guys, Mike and Sam, who decided they wanted to live the life of a homeless person for 5 months.  (There's a lot more to this story but that's pretty much all you need to know for this story to make sense).

Mike and Sam were in San Francisco and they were hungry.

A man walked by them with a box of leftover pizza and Mike shouted out and asked him if he was going to finish it.  The man looked at the box then back at Mike and Sam and said, "No" and he gave them the box.  Mike and Sam had the pleasure of finishing off half a pepperoni pizza.  And it was just what they needed.

Under the Overpass - Mike Yankoski

It's easy to see how these two stories are similar - some people were hungry so God gave them some food.  But the author of Under the Overpass, Mike, takes it one step further:

After they had finished eating the leftover pizza, Mike said to Sam,

"What do you think would have happened if the Israelites hadn't gone out and picked up the manna God sent?  I mean, don't you think they would have starved if they never actually went out and picked the manna off the ground?"


When I read this, I had to reread it a few times for it to sink in a bit.  After some sinking in time, I began to see it more and more in my own life.  When I got home from England, an opportunity literally fell into my hands.  What an opportunity that was.  When it was over, I didn't know what to do next.  I'll be honest, for a while, I was just waiting for someone else to offer me something.  Well, it doesn't always work like that.  Sometimes it does.  But sometimes, well more often than not, opportunities present themselves in ways that I may not recognize.  Just like the Israelites, at first glance, I may not recognize what or how God is providing, how He is working.  But that's just it, He is still providing, still working.  I just need to go pick it up.

"God answered our prayers for provision, but we still had to ask these guys for it.  We still had to 'pick up the manna.'"


Here is the point of me telling you these 2 stories - the message is the same now as it was then.  God continues to provide exactly what we need when we need it.  We just have to go out and get it.

These two stories have been such a challenge and such an encouragement for me recently.  It's given me a new perspective on things.  It helps me to have that attitude of going out and picking up whatever God throws down - church, jobs, volunteer work, the next steps.  Sometimes it's good, other times it may not be so good and that's ok.  The point is simply to go out knowing and trusting that God knows what He is doing.  He knows what I'm thinking and feeling, He knows my worries and doubts and He sees when I go out.  "You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head." Psalm 139:5 (NLT)  Everyday, EVERY day, God is providing, God is showing His love and it is there for the taking.

"I wonder how much we miss because we're unwilling to pick it up."


God is providing.


Don't miss it.


Go pick it up.


Go.

   

Truth

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But how can they call on Him to save them

unless they believe in Him?

And how can they believe in Him

if they have never heard about Him?

And how can they hear about Him

unless someone tells them?

And how will anyone go and tell

without being sent?

That is why the Scriptures say,

'How beautiful are the feet of messengers

who bring good news!'

~Romans 10:13-15 (NLT)

  

Remember, Life is Funny

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,"

declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways

and My thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is My word that goes out from My mouth:

It will not return to Me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;"

Isaiah 55:8-12

So I'm living up here at Camp Redwood Glen in the Santa Cruz mountains, coordinating 2 outreaches.  

How crazy is that statement considering I was on the other side of the world just 2 weeks ago?  

Yep, life is funny.

I have been realizing more and more of how much I love my life right now.  I have just come back from an incredible adventure full of amazing new relationships, life changing experiences, learning more about myself and who God is and just so much more.  Now here I am with the opportunity to take all of that, take all that I have learned and all I have become and continue to put it into practice here.  In my wildest dreams, I could have never imagined that my life would be like it is at this very moment.  I love it.

On graduation night of my DTS, we were told how important it was going to be to do just one thing:

REMEMBER

As simple as that one word may be, there's a whole lot to remember from the last 6 months.  At first, I was a bit worried that it would be so easy to forget everything that I have learned and everything I have done and just go back to how my life was before I left.  As I was traveling around Europe (no big deal) I was reminded that God won't let me forget.  That He would be there to help me remember.  And He is indeed doing that.

As I have said, I will be doing a week of training for the people that are going one these 2 outreaches.  So in preparation for that, I have been going through my Jotter Pad full of copious notes from lectures and attempting to condense 3 months worth of notes into just a couple days.  (A bit of a challenge).  In reading through my notes and just thinking and praying, God has continued to remind me of so many of the incredible things He did in me and through me the last 6 months and even before that.  I am remembering the person that I was before DTS and seeing how that has changed and seeing the person that I am now.  And to be able to share these with someone else, well that's just a big bonus.  I would love to go into more detail about everything that I keep being reminded of but that would just take forever.  But one thing I will say is that I love the person that God has made me to be and I want to continue to be that person.

One thing (among others) that I have been challenged with is simply to trust God.  I was recently reading a friend's blog and at the end of one of his posts he said,

"But I trust Him to finish the work He began.  I trust Him with my forever."

That just really got to me and got me thinking a lot about how I just need to trust God with my future and stop stressing myself out and trying to make my own plans.  I'm so impatient when it comes to figuring out life but I have been reminded over and over that God knows the story of my life better than I do because He is the one writing it.  And the stories that He can write are far more creative and more incredible then I could ever write or even think to write.  At the beginning of lecture phase, they gave us a verse for our school:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

God has shown me over and over that He knows what He is doing and His timing is perfect.  

Now is just another time that I really need to put my trust in that.

                   Put my trust in Him.

                                         Trust Him with my forever.

"God has wisely kept us in the dark concerning future events and reserved for himself the knowledge of them, that He may train us up in the dependence upon himself and a continued readiness for every event."

~Matthew Henry

   

Jet Lag and Speeding Tickets

What a week.  To say the least.

I've been home for almost 2 weeks now.  Being home is a bit strange but I'm enjoying it thus far.

Jet lag - I'm not so much a fan of it.  It's pretty interesting to leave one country at 2 in the afternoon and after 10 hours in the air get to another country at 4 in the afternoon...on the same day.  A little weird.

This past week I have just been doing lots of visiting people.  Visiting family, friends, camp, etc.  It's definitely good to see everyone again and catch up a bit on life.  As well as eat some of this delicious food...

It's official - After 6 years of having a license, I no longer have a perfect driving record.  Sad day.  I was on a long 3 hour journey home the other day and at one point in the drive I decided to jinx myself and say that one of these days I'm going to get a ticket for driving a 'bit' over the speed limit.  Well, no joke, an hour later, I come to the bottom of a hill and who should I see but a nice California police officer get into his car.  I knew he was coming after me.  Which he was.  Awesome.  Welcome home.  But to my surprise, I didn't cry.  But I might cry later when I find out how much I will have to pay...

So what am I up to now?  Well, first of all, this is my new room for the next couple weeks:

Just before I left England, I had my first week back all planned out with who I was going to go visit and when I would go visit them and all that.  I realized a bit later - "Ok, that's great for the first week back but then what?  What's going to happen after that first week?"  But I was once again reminded that God provides:

I am currently coordinating 2 different outreaches for the summer staff at Camp Redwood Glen.  Yep.  Crazy.  I will be contacting the churches that are hosting the 2 teams and coming up with a schedule for different outreach opportunities in the areas.  I am really excited about this.  At first I had my doubts but I got over that real quick.  It is so incredible that this opportunity came up just 2 days after I get home.  Seriously.  How do things like this happen?  Not only will I be planning the outreach itself, but I am also going to be doing some training for them to get them ready to go on an outreach.  I am so excited to be able to share some of my story of the last 6 months by bringing things that I have learned and experienced and what God has done in my life back here.  This is something that I never would have thought I would or even could ever be doing but here I am doing it.  

   

Graduation and Goodbyes

21 June 2011 - DTS Graduation

Welp, we did it.  We made it through the last 6 months together.  It's so crazy to think that it's over right now.  We graduated and celebrated and then cried and said our goodbyes.  We have all definitely become such a close family.




What a week.

Tuesday, 21 June 2001 - I graduated DTS.  Crazy.  Where did the last 6 months go?

While the night was great - full of pictures and stories and praise to God for what He has done and of course a diploma of sorts and a little trip to the pub afterwards - the morning was not. Goodbyes are no fun at all.  It didn't start hitting me that it is over until about half way through the long 22 hour day of periodic goodbyes.  I won't go into detail about how many tears were shed but it was a rough day for everyone.  Though as hard as that day was, I would rather have a day like that, a day of heartbreaking goodbyes, then to have missed out on this incredible opportunity.  It is when your heart just breaks for something that makes you realize just how much it means to you and that it was real.

Over these last 6 months, we really had become such a tight family.  That's what tends to happen when you live with each other every single day for that long.  It's so crazy to think back to the first day that I was here.  I came to the airport not knowing anything, just looking for any sign that said YWAM and so began my crazy adventure.  How was I to know that the people I met there would become family?  How was I to know that all those awkward ice breaker games in the very beginning would lead to great friendships?  Just thinking about things like this just bring up so many more memories from the beginning that have led to where I am today.  Again I say - Crazy.

DTS is over.  Now what?

What do you do with your life after something like this has happened to you?  It's a tough question.  I don't know yet.  I wish I did.  I wish I could tell you all my elaborate plans for what to do with the rest of my life but I can't.  I barely know what I'm doing to be doing the next couple weeks or months let alone years.  I'm just taking it one step at a time and being patient that the right opportunity will present itself in God's perfect timing.  It happened that way when I decided to come to the other side of the world for 6 months, it can happen again.  But here's the beauty of it - I can pretty much do anything I want.  So many doors have been opened for what I could do and what I would want to do.

"being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion."

The one thing that I do know is that God will not leave me hanging.  He's not going to put me through something like this, something that brought so many close relationships and amazing experiences and joy and then just make me fend for myself.  He will continue to lead and guide me as long as I keep seeking His leading and His guidance.

Welp, I'm seeking.

New Stories Pt. 2

WORCESTER

First of all - The name of this place is most definitely not pronounced as it is spelled.  Silly, I know.

Here is where I will go into a bit more detail about what we did in Worcester, South Africa during outreach.  We were staying at this place called Kibbutz El Shammah which is right next to the neighborhood knows as Roodewal (I think that's how it is spelled).

There were about 4 or 5 of these circles of flats in the area.  One of the first days we were there, we were just walking through the community and we most definitely attracted quite the crowd.  And by crowd, I mean over 100 children.  Seriously.  We were surrounded.  They fought just to hold our hand and wanted to know our names and they just wanted to be with us.  After a couple days, whenever we would walk through the flats, there was always at least 5 kids who would yell out your name no matter where you went.  

Durning the morning we would split off into different groups - one group went and worked in the primary school teaching English classes.  Some went to help out in the preschool, and some did practical work around the area.

There were a couple days when I had the opportunity to go help out in a 2nd grade class.  The teacher's name was Vera and she is pretty much amazing.  Her class is full of 43 crazy 2nd graders.  There was one day in particular that I got to help a couple tables with math.  It was so much fun to be able to teach them how to do something and then watch them actually be able to understand it and do it for themselves.  Then they wanted to go help their friends do the problems.  It also helped me to learn how to count to 10 in Afrikaans real well.

When we first got there, we were asked if we could lead their church service that Sunday which was about 4 days away.  So we planned and put together a church service and everyone was able to be involved.  We had worship, testimonies, a drama, and a message.  It was the first time that I led a couple worship songs to a larger group of people like that.  It was so cool to be able to step out in that way and the whole service went really well.

Each day for a week we would go on a prayer walk through the flats.  One day, 3 older ladies waved at me to come over to them and they asked me if I could pray for them.  So I asked what they wanted prayer for and they told me simply for financial provision.  Nothing specific, just simply that.  So I did and then I went on my way.  The next day at the same time, we went on our prayer walk again and those same 3 ladies were sitting in the same spot so I immediately went over to them to say hello and they were excited to see me and they had stories to tell me.  One of them didn't have enough money for a loaf of bread (a loaf of bread cost about 7 South African Rands which is about 1 US dollar).  She was telling me that after I had prayed for them, her son came over to her and gave her enough money that she needed for a loaf of bread to feed her and the children she watches over.  Then another lady was telling me a long (and somewhat hard to understand) story of how she didn't have enough money to pay her electric bill for the month.  Long story short, the lady that was helping her as she was trying to pay offered to pay the rest of her bill for her.  So her electric bill was payed for the rest of the month.  God provides.

Wow, as I write all of this, so many more stories keep coming to my mind about what we did - we did a lot.

On one of our last nights there, we held an open air in the flats.  The stage was the back of a bakkie (aka - truck).  So we had some worship, some of the girls performed a dance which was so great and Helena and I gave our testimonies.  It was hard to speak to a group of people with a translator because you have to keep stopping and starting but I really liked it for how nervous I was about it at first.  I've never been the biggest fan of speaking in front of people but it wasn't so bad when I actually got up there and started speaking.

Even though it was a hard place to be, we were able to develop a lot of different relationships with the people at the schools, at the Kibbutz and in the flats.  There are so many more things that we did in Worcester.  One thing that was brought up here that we realized for each place we went was that our group was hand-picked to be in the place we were at that time.  God's timing is perfect.  As we were driving away, there was a huge line of little children screaming at us saying goodbye followed by the rest of the staff at the Kibbutz waving us goodbye.   

One of my favorite days was when we got to climb Table Mountain in Cape Town.  Even though I totally destroyed my pants, it was so much fun and it was so beautiful no matter how cold it was at the top.  We conquered that mountain together.  Definitely one of my highlights.

New Stories Pt. 1

Not everything you do will be spectacular

But everything you do will be significant.

As already stated, outreach has officially ended.  We are all finally back together here on the oval.  

Strange?  Yes.  

Great? Yes.  

Overwhelming?  Definitely.  

Now comes the time when I get to realize more about what the heck I just did the last 5 or so months.  So whilst I process things, I just wanted to tell some stories:

I'm going to go a bit backwards with my story telling and talk about our last outreach location first since it is freshest on my mind.  Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Overall - LOVED it.  Seriously.  I think all of us, to some degree, loved Newcastle.  Our first day there, we were all smiles and just really happy to be there. 

When we got there, we had a little meeting with the pastors of the church we were helping out - Tyneside Vineyard - and talked a bit about their story and how they came to be up there planting this church and we looked at what our schedule was going to be like during our time there.  It was all pretty exciting stuff and we were going to be doing things that were completely different from everything we did in Africa.  We did a lot of flyering, as it was their big invite week, we passed out chocolate bars in the busy streets, we passed out free water on the street out by a row of night clubs (some very interesting and entertaining stories came out of that), and we helped out twice with a big craft event for kids.  I loved how every singe day we were there, we were able to do something totally different.  No day was ever the same.

One day, long story short, we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and went around and passed them out.  Our group split up a bit and Duane and I ended up walking through the streets basically looking for homeless people to give a sandwich to.  We had no idea where we were walking but the streets just looked cool so we went exploring a bit and stumbled across a homeless man sitting against the wall.  So we gave him a sandwich and some candy and just sat and talked with him.  He was definitely under the influence but he was hurting.  He has been on the streets for the last 7 months, he had been to war in Afghanistan and had gotten shot, and both his wife and daughter died in a car crash.  He felt so guilty and so hopeless.  It's hard to find the words to say in that situation but sometimes, people just need someone to care and to listen to them.  So after talking with him for a bit we prayed for him and went on our way.  His name was Max.

The church runs this compassion ministry called Storehouse.  At Storehouse, homeless and needy people can come on a Saturday morning and get a cup of tea and biscuits, a sausage roll and some pot noodles.  They will also get given a couple articles of clothing or anything else that they might need.  It is also just a really great place for people to come and just have good chats with people in a good environment.  So this one morning, a new lady came in so me and another volunteer chatted with her and filled in a form for her.  As we were talking to her, she was saying just how sick she felt and she looked sick as well.  She had an alcohol problem and she had been on the streets for almost a month and already couldn't take it anymore.  I had no idea what to say to her so I just stayed quiet and listened.  So we brought in another volunteer to come over and talk with her too because he had been in her exact situation not that long ago and was able to change his life around.  So he was telling her what she could do to change things and as he was talking, she just had a bit more hope in her eyes and would look up occasionally and just smile and you could see the hope.  And I just loved it how the other volunteer I was sitting with kept telling her to make sure she comes back to Storehouse because they wanted to watch over her and help her and take care of her in any way they could.  Her story and her situation just broke my heart and I just couldn't help but cry.  Her name was Sam.

HOTS - Healing On The Streets.  The name alone sounds a bit crazy.  Af first I was a bit worried about it but when the day actually came to do it, the same day I met Sam, I was excited, nervous, and a bit anxious but not as worried as I was before.  I actually really liked how it was set up and how it was run.  We went to the monument which is basically one of the main centers in Newcastle, set up some chairs and a big banner that said "Healing" and waited for people who wanted to get prayer for healing or just for anything really.  Crazy, I know.  I was teamed up with one of the people from the church so I was actually able to pray for quite a few people, 8 or 9, which was really cool.  What we do is when they sit in the chair, you kneel down next to them and ask a bit about them and start off by telling them how much God loves them, then you start praying for whatever it is they wanted prayer for.  But the thing is, when you are praying for them, you don't take your eyes off of them.  It definitely can be quite awkward when you are praying for someone and they are looking right into your eyes as you are speaking, but I discovered something about that.  Usually, I would always pray with my eyes closed because that is just what you do.  But praying for someone as you are looking directly at them changes things.  I was able to feel so much more compassion for them and actually see them as a person who just wants to know that they are loved.  It was cool to be able to help someone have that moment with God where they really do feel just how loved they are.  One lady we prayed for, it was so cool just be praying for her and to see her just smile because she really knew that God loved her.  If my eyes had been closed, I wouldn't have been able to see that. We may not have seen spectacular miracles that day, but I know that it made a significant difference to those people's days.

I hope these couple stories will suffice for the time being.