We're Here

Our first day has been so full of crazy adventures... meeting people, praying for people and being engrosed in the beautiful city of history and light!

We had an adventure including a lost wallet that was found by the grace of God... a fire alarm scare sending us all outside in our pajamas... a run in with a real British pirate (who was 5 years old with ice cream running down his chin)... great food, including lamb pie with mash, gravy and mushy peas... beautiful graveyards full of the saints... wooden toilets and marble urinals. Hmmm, we haven't seen much of historical London yet, but we will in good time.

We are getting lots of time to pray over the city, and God is good. We have had many divine appointments and have been blessed by our time here! I just bought tickets to see War Horse with some friends =) Genevieve, Mitch and TJ Jan, Cassie and I are going... I can't wait!!! London theatre here we come.

Here are just a few prayer requests:
-Please continue to pray for my stomach... I just had a hard night with digestion
-For energy in the heat, and good sleep through the night... no more 5am mornings!
-For focus in prayer and for discerment within our team to the leading of the Holy spirit
-That the eyes of the people of London would be open to the truth and that the Lies would be torn down. We had a prayer go up tonight that our prayers would be like the final shout around the walls Jerico and the walls would fall. It was a great word, and we all feel that to be true. We feel the spirit mounting to do a great work here!

Thank you so much for praying alonside us!!!
Love to you all!
-K

Kate Louise is Going to London!

Dear Family and Friends, Well, I am off on another adventure, one that is leading me to London of all places! I have been accepted as a team member from Reality Carpenteria (my home church) to take part in the launch of Reality’s first church plant overseas, Reality London. Our team will be partnering with Reality missionaries, Mark and Lizzie Dyrud, who have been living in London since July 2008. Through much prayer and preparation they will be ready to start Sunday services on August 23rd, 2009. Our team will be leaving August 16th and returning August 26th. While we are there, our primary objective is to be praying over the city as we will be touring around various districts of London, visiting many of its historic churches, learning more about the history, culture, and current spiritual climate of the city, and helping they Dyrud’s prepare for the first Reality London service.

I would very much appreciate your prayers as I prepare to leave and especially while my team is London.Here are some specific ways you can pray alongside me:

- That God would use me to serve and minister to the people of London, and that Hi s light and love would shine through me

- For unity in the team, that we would support each other for the glory of God - That God would give us love for one another, that we would care for each other and the people of London unselfishly

- Humility and accountability in the team

- God’s provision for all the details left to be sorted out

- Safety in travel to and from London, and transit about the city. We are using public transportation, I am praying that no one gets lost

- To give rest and peace to Mark and Lizzie as they prepare to open the doors of a new church

- For our leaders, that they would tune their ears to hear the leading of the Lord

I can’t wait to see what awesome things the Lord is going to do in London. Thank you so much for your love and prayer support! If you want to know more details or would like to ask questions, please feel free to give me a call or send an email my way to KateLPaulsen@gmail.com. I will also be updating my blog regularly as I prepare to go and while I am in the city. Thank you again for your prayers!
With much Love in Christ,
Kate

CAI Day

Hi Friends!
I know I have been totally lax about writing these past few months.... ok, since February, but life got a bit too crazy at Providence Hall. Now that I am finally into Summer vacation, I hope to update you a bit more regularly about what is going on.
First off, God has been changing my perspective. What I thought would be a summer trip has turned into much more than that... and He has me waiting. More than once I have tried to jump the gun, and I have been asked to wait... By the Lord, the sending team and others.
I just signed on for one more entire year at Providence Hall. I have been feeling my heart change on this decision for the past month, and the school is still in such a precarious position, so fragile and new. I really felt like God was asking me to give it one more year, to help establish some stability in student life and the arts program... So I am being faithful in what I heard and taking a step in that direction.

However, I just got back from the introduction to Christian Associates and I must say that I really feel led to this group of people. I feel like its mission is to establish churches that are dedicated to being spirit led and reaching the people of Europe. I spent a whole Saturday in Thousand Oaks learning about their mission organization and in the process met two wonderful young women who are going to the Aix en Provence church! We got along so well that we spent 3 hours having dinner together after the all day conference just to get to know one another better. They are "merveillieux", sweet, kind lovers of the French people!
Its so amazing to already have friends who will be in France, serving, while I am preparing to serve.

So while I feel as if I have had a minor set back in actually getting to France, I feel like God is preparing me here, step by (sometimes slow and painful) step.

So there is the quick update. More to come soon! I have to go prepare for Prayer tonight! (yeah Monday Night Prayer Warriors!) and get ready to leave for Denver.

More when I get back. Thank you for reading and for all your support!

Bisous!

The Blog

I think I ventured into the land of blogging completely blind and am now in over my head.

I've just spent the last hour reading absolutely hilarious literary adventures from the fingers of my friends and am in complete awe. I had no idea that in order to have your own blog, one must actually be funny of clever or have something profound to say. Maybe I need new friends who are not such astute writers. Maybe I just need some practice. OR, maybe only the great writers blog, and I find myself among the cream of the crop... and I'm the sediment sinking to the bottom of the canister.

All this to say, in a very round-about-way, Taylor, Lara, Casey, Zak... you are all brilliant, wonderful, witty, intelligent writers and it brings me great joy to read your thoughts. (Especially in Study Hall ;) I aspire to be like you one day. Full of brilliant ideas and meaningful things to say.

I will now stop this post, as I have to prep for my "Introduction to Theatre" class in which I will try to introduce some of the basic ideas of Viewpoints while juggling classrooms (ours is being used for class photos today) and unruly teenagers at the same time! Then on to Alice in Wonderland rehearsal, so I will not see the light of day until 5:30pm-- but by then its dark, so I won't see any light but the one over my stove as I reheat leftovers for dinner.

Ahhh, the life of the High School teacher. So romanticized by television and modern media.

France!

So, all my lovely friends... I'm going to France!

Many of you know that I've had a heart for the French people for some time now, and I've had a desire to go back to France ever since I traveled their with some great friends in 2006. It was strangely one of the only foreign places I have traveled to and felt "at home". I can't explain it. I was just home!

So, after much soul searching, prayer, discussion, and coffee talks, I've decided to go. And that's all I know! I know I'm supposed to go, so now we will see what happens. =)

I'm truly excited for a new adventure. I've always been drawn to traveling outside of the US. I think this is due to the fact that my parents took us on family vacations around the globe... Thanks mom and dad! The prospect of again setting off into the unknown brings a thrill, a rush to my days... along with a lot of anxiety at this point. But, as I'm learning right now from Britt, I've just got to sit back, shut up and enjoy the ride!

I've thought about going for two months this summer (my dad calls this a shake-down sail in France). My theatre company is taking a summer break, and is discussing travel in October to Georgia... the country. The tour would include a piece that we have already performed, and without Erin and I, it would totally fall apart. If I did go for the two and a half summer months, came back, toured with the company and finished the season, I could sell my stuff, move and either go back to France or where ever the Lord would like me to go from there....

Basically, I'm trying to transition out of Santa Barbara, and I want to make sure I am totally in God's will. It's scary and thrilling to leave the place you've been living for 6 1/2 years! It's the first and only place in which I have lived on my own. Leaving it feels like I am leaving the nest all over again. I guess it has been a proverbial nest... a learning place... Westmont, Lit Moon, Reality, Providence Hall. I have learned more than I bargained for when I moved here from South Dakota all those years ago.

Hmmm, I still remember the day that I found out I was accepted to Westmont. I was in a hotel room with my friends Sarah VW and Janae in Boston, of all places =). We were on choir tour there when my mom got my acceptance letter. I remember Sarah encouraging me to got to CA instead of NY. If I had only known what would happen on the west coast at that point in time, I wonder if I would still have come.

But here I am. The person I have become from the choices I have made. Some were great, some not so great, and some were down-right terrible, but I am who I am. Praise the Lord that He shapes us into the people he wants us to be... even when we make mistakes.

And that brings me back to being in the Lord's Will. If you're checking this blog, it means that I love you and want/need you to partner with me in prayer. (This blog is my sneaky way of letting you know how I am doing and how you can pray for me!) Thank you for your love and support, I truly couldn't live this life without you!

Prayer support:
-I am currently praying for a specific city. Where specifically the Lord would have me go.
-How long? I've got some ideas, but I certainly don't want to get in the way if the Lord has something else in mind.
-What would I do there? I've got a few contacts from Emily Jillison, but really no idea what I could do or how I could help. (basically, i think I'm getting the "what could you really do there" attack. I need prayer about that too. Please pray that I would stand firm in the knowledge that God has already provided.)

Working in Study Hall

I just need to get this out there. Study hall sucks for the teachers just as much as it does for the students. Don't get me wrong. I am grateful for time to write to you all, but watching HS students work on homework is NOT the ideal way to be spending my day.

Maybe today is just a bad day... maybe I'm just feeling lethargic... or maybe I'm just getting sick... but today seems to just stink.

And I've only been at school for 20min!

My New Blog

So I've been inspired by my lovely friends Casey and Lara (who happen to be married) to start my own blog. So, here it is... my thoughts, struggles, mishaps and "Joie de Vive". (That's Joy of Life in French =)

And that's all I have to say right now.

Hello!