When I was first accepted to LCU back in the summer, I went on the LCU website and saw a post from a German student named Katharina. I was excited that she was my age and an international student; I messaged her and asked if she wanted to be roommates. She agreed and we started to Facetime to get to know each other and pray together. I posted for us in the Facebook group, to find somewhere to stay. I was messaged a short time later by a sweet lady; she and her husband’s main ministry right now is a girls’ house called Sacred Haven and a guys’ house called Wisdom House, specifically for LCU students to have a safe home and vibrant community to live and grow in. After video chatting, they accepted both Katharina and I as a good fit for Sacred Haven. I was touched that God had provided so beautifully for things I hadn't even prayed for yet – I knew that when I came down to Texas I would have a beautiful house to live in, a wonderful international roommate to live with, and a strong community to grow in. However, there was a lot of uncertainty with COVID about whether classes would get to be in person or have to be only online; additionally, borders have been closed and visas have been hard to obtain, and the registrar told Katharina and the other European students (one also from Germany and two from the Netherlands) that it would be impossible to come and they shouldn’t attempt it. When I packed up all my stuff and drove down to Iowa on September 1st, I still didn’t know if Katharina and the other students would be coming or not. While considering my options for driving down to Texas, it seemed like Kansas City would be the perfect stopping place – and who did it turns out lives in Kansas City, but my favorite of all time camp counselor Katie Northey and her husband Eric! While staying with them, I got to hear about their story, their work with their missions organization Cross World, and their future plans to go back to Spain, and we got to share testimonies of the Lord's faithfulness since the last time we saw each other in 2011. We went for a run in the morning before I headed out, and I was blessed to hear her share her experience on how to live the season of singleness to its fullest. I also stopped at IHOP (International House of Prayer) on my way out of town; between worshiping with the believers there and my visit with Katie and Eric, I couldn't think of a better way to transition from my season in Minnesota to my season in Texas. When I got down to Texas, I met my roommates in person and saw our home for the first time. Four of my roommates--Katharina, Hannah, Anna, and Nini--are going to LCU with me; our sixth roommate, Jessika, works at a church nearby in their kids' ministry.
Katharina and the other European international students had decided that rather than give in to fear and doubt based on human reasoning, they would walk by faith with only God’s promises to lean on. They spent two weeks in Serbia, ministering and doing outreach while there, and then made the flight to America and were allowed in. They made it down to Texas and safely to the homes they’re each staying in. PRAISE THE LORD that what is impossible with men is possible with God (Luke 18:27), and praise Him that when we step out in faith to follow where He’s calling us, He opens the way and goes before us!
0 Comments
First up: PRAISE JESUS for His faithfulness! 🙌 Since this blog will be focused mainly on what God is doing with me through LCU, I'm going to start by sharing the testimony of how He 1. Prompted me to uproot my life to attend LCU and 2. Guided me through the process and brought me safely here! Have you ever heard a word for most of your life, but still only have a vague understanding of what it actually is? If you feel that way about the word "testimony," here's a few quick things about it! Testimony Means: Do it again, God! Sharing something God has done in your life instills faith in the people listening that if God did it for you, He can do it for them too. A Testimony Can Be: The time you accepted Christ as your Savior, a specific type of brokenness or bondage He brought you out from and the freedom you now have from it, a situation where the Lord showed up in your life, or something the Lord has been teaching you! Who Has a Testimony: YOU! If you have accepted Jesus as Lord of your life, YOU have a testimony! Even if you haven't, you might still have a story about a time something happened that you couldn't explain. Think back to that - it might have been the Lord! That said, here's my testimony about how the Lord brought me to LCU! While I was living in SE Asia working with TeachBeyond, I was hearing a lot of different perspectives about a lot of things, and I reached a sort of crisis point in my faith, asking, "Lord, how do I allow myself to be open to new things that are different than I've learned before, without blindly accepting just anything and everything?" His answer, over several months, was, "Keep Jesus the center, and if you're doing that, you can trust Me to help you discern what new things to keep and which to toss out." Once I got to this point, I was able to start really growing in a way I hadn't before. A friend shared some videos with me of a guy named Todd White preaching. I had never heard of Todd before, but as I listened, the Holy Spirit was pointing things out to me and saying, "This is important. This is for you. Keep this and press into it." One of the things I appreciated about Todd's preaching is that even though he didn't necessarily say, "Such-and-such Scripture passage says...", I began to notice passages I had memorized from Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians interwoven into what he was teaching - and those are just from the three books I've memorized and am most familiar with, not to mention the other 63 books of the Bible! As I listened to different testimonies from Todd's life, I began to be challenged about whether I was actually living a 24/7 lifestyle of being a Christ follower, and if I was actually stepping into the most that the Holy Spirit had for me. Many other things happened in the next year or so, as I was learning and growing, but in the spring of 2018 I got the opportunity to attend a conference in Tokyo, put on by Todd White's ministry. The conference, called Power & Love, was like an acceleration of many of the things I had been learning and starting to step into over the previous year. You can read more about Power & Love here. We spent time together in prayer and worship, listening to teaching, and going out on the streets in groups of 3-4 to talk with, pray with, and share Jesus with the people the Lord put in our path. Coming home from the conference on the subway one night, I had my first experience of praying with someone and having them get healed! Another precious experience from this conference was getting to see Japanese believers worshipping in their heart language, and seeing how the Kingdom of God is truly a global Kingdom to which He calls people from all nations, tribes, and tongues (Revelation 5:9-10).
Since then, it has been on my heart to attend the training school version of that conference: 1-3 years of being trained and equipped in our identity as redeemed sons and daughters of God. Although it was on my heart, I always held it as a "sometime in the future" thing, and coming back from SE Asia, I immersed myself in music, teaching, and Mandarin opportunities that I thought I needed in order to keep "my life" moving forward. When COVID hit the US back in March, and all of those things got stripped away, I realized that I had not been living with open hands to the Lord, to allow Him to lead me in the plan HE had for my life. I applied for LCU in the late spring/early summer, still dragging my feet and not wanting to let go of my own plans, but deep down knowing that's what the Lord was calling me to. I just kept taking one step forward at a time, and with those steps of obedience, the Lord met me there. The first few weeks of school so far have been completely MIND-BLOWING - but that's a story for next post! |
AuthorI'm Katie Daugherty. ArchivesCategories |