The miraculous in the mundane

Mornings are kind of like a chaotic machine in this house. Everyone already knows what has to happen between 6-6:45 but somehow they need the gentle reminders from mom to feed the animals, get their lunches, brush their teeth etc... Normally after everyone leaves I like to try to get an extra 30 minutes of sleep in before I start my day because I already feel like I ran a mini marathon just getting them out the door. ha. But, for the past week the water has been shut off every day around 8:30 am-7pm more or less. I think it has something to do with preparations for el Niño since that is the reason for everything lately but I knew this morning that if I wanted to take a shower and do more than one load of laundry I had to get up to the roof (where our washing machine is) and do some laundry. So I said goodbye to my kids kissed my husband and gathered all our dirty clothes on my way up. I picked the most important stuff (school uniforms or Jose's stuff it's always a gamble) and prayed as I started that the water would stay on at least through the end of the rinse cycle. A couple days ago I tried to wash our sheets and the water cut off about 20 minutes in the washing machine paused but it didn't automatically restart and when the water came back on 9 hours later it was brown...It's really dark upstairs and I didn't realize it when I restarted the washer. I didn't know until I got back inside and by then the damage was done. The sheets aren't really stained but they smell so weird, I don't know if it's from sitting wet.but.not.washed.for.9 hours or from being rinsed in brown.for.unknown.reasons.water or a mix of both. So that's also in my pile of things to wash again today to try to get the funk out of the sheets. (thank you God we have 2 sets of sheets)

I had a long list of things to accomplish using water so I wanted to try to get them all done before 8
Take a shower. check
wash dishes. check
do another load of laundry. check
By then it was actually 9 and Jose showed up he needed to shower then we had some errands to run. I  thought we would be out of water for the day but when we got home I had water to do everything else I needed to. More cleaning, more laundry, and every time I turned the water on I held my breath expecting the sputtering sound of air escaping from empty pipes. And every time the water came out I said a quick "thank you Jesus." It might sound silly and some I know are used to it. I'm almost there. It's kind of just a part of life now that we may or may not have water or electricity or either and we may or may not know in advance if they will be cut. But I never would have dreamed that would be a part of my life or a part of being a missionary. Sometimes we think that miracles are only things like walking on the water and forget that there are so many miracles that happen every day and we are just used to them so we don't recognize them. So for right now a day of running water so I can catch up on housework was the miracle for me. But sometimes getting through homework with Tim (or him doing it with minimal help and understanding what he's doing) is the miracle. Or having a conversation with someone who doesn't speak any english is my miracle.

We have some friends who hashtag everything life is an adventure and I love that because that's kind of perfect. You never know what will happen in life no matter where you live and every day you have a choice to see it as an adventure or travesty. Sure there are frustrations. Sometimes you might feel like the person on the other side of the counter is trying to make sure you have a bad day. (Sometimes I feel that way) But only you have the power to let them ruin your day.

This verse usually only gets pulled out at the end of November as everyone is preparing to eat Turkey and gather with family. But I feel like it should be posted on the desk where you pay bills. Maybe in the car where you might deal with other people cutting you off. Personally I think I'm going to hang it on my kids doors so I can see it before I walk in and see what their rooms look like ;)

The more we begin to thank God for everything. The more we will see the miraculous in the mundane and the more we will see God using the little things in our lives to shape us into the finished product. 

Where does my help come from?

Sometimes I like to just open my bible and read the first thing my eyes land on. I have a reading plan that I stick to (It's the one year bible in case you are wondering lol) I think there are several good reasons to have a plan when you read the bible but I'm not going to get into that here. Today I opened up my bible to Psalm 121 this is what it says
I will Lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand
The sun will not smite you by day
Nor the moon by night
The Lord will protect you from all evil
He will keep your soul
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever

It just struck me as so beautiful and so comforting. (I almost always think beautiful things are comforting)

This year has been amazing and wonderful and incredibly hard. It was full of great things we weren't expecting and difficult things we weren't expecting. Along with all the great and difficult things we were expecting. But in the end it's always a great encouragement to know that my help comes from the Lord. He never sleeps or misses a thing, He guards my going out and my coming in and he will do it forever. Who else could promise you that?

So I just want to remind any of you that read this. Whatever it is in your life that you need help with. Let your help come from the Lord.

And now, what we've all been waiting for

I just spent about 2 hours researching some stuff for a video I'm making for the conference next week. I never, ever thought a phrase like that would be coming from my mouth...er, fingers?
I am now very tired of research and ready to be done with it.
Today is September 30th which means I am leaving in 5 days to visit my family and have a blast at "This is the Real Me" I have been looking forward to this conference for awhile and I can't wait to be there! Plus, bonus: My sister seems to have been blessed with the ability to have a baby girl which so far has been un-attainable for me. (Pray for me ya'll, I have been out numbered for years. This house needs some estrogen ;)
When I go to Houston I get to see her for the first time. Ya'll better believe I'm not letting go of her until I leave...if then. :p

Anyway, the next several days will be busy for me getting ready to go etc... Then I will be in Houston so I may not blog for that time but I get make a special announcement today!

JOSE IS BLOGGING! Prepare yourself for the awesomeness! He will be sharing his daily thoughts right here on our little blog. Now we can finally live up to our name (joseandkat.blogspot) so with out further ado I will hand you over to my very capable husband.

See you in a couple weeks
Kat ~*

Peruvian Children

I've been working on a few projects in preparation for our trip and some exciting things that are coming up.  I came across a bunch of statistics that are really heart breaking. While I don't put my trust in statistics these are a good indication that we live in a hurting and dying world. I wanted to share them so those of you that are interested and/praying for us can have an idea of what we will be working with.

Many children in Peru are sent to work to support their families in spite of child labor being against the law. Two out of ten children ages 6-11 work and there are more than 3 million children working in Peru.1 Due to the high and persistent levels of poverty, Peruvian children are often sent out by their parents to earn money on the streets. This might be by selling sweets or crafts, begging, performing acrobatics, or in one of many other ways.


Studies show that 90% of street children come from rebuilt (with step-father or step-mother) or mono-parental families, or from rural families that had 'given' their child to other people (relatives or not) to be raised by the latter in the city. 2

Children are often blamed and at the receiving end of family disputes so much so that the streets appear as a better alternative than the family home. Too scared and afraid of another episode of violence, the children run to the streets for the comfort and refuge they so badly seek. One research project found that 73% of the street children they interviewed cited family violence and child mistreatment as reasons for taking to the streets. 3 The report also suggests that most street-living boys in Peru are children who had become 'scapegoats' in their family; blamed for causing conflict and stress, and maltreated when their families were going through a crisis.

These statistics illustrate not only the need for a safe haven for homeless children. They also illustrate the need to build godly men to reverse the curse of fatherlessness. Our desire is to teach these “men” that “Maturity doesn’t come with age but begins with the acceptance of responsibility” (-Edwin Louis Cole) and not just accepting responsibility for yourself but for those around you.



1 UNICEF (2008)


2 Bustamante, D., ‘Family Structure Problems, Child Mistreatment, Street Children, and Drug Use’, cited in Schraeder, A. et al, Prevention of Street Migration (1999)


3 Consortium for Street Children

Trust & Obey

Lately I've had so much I want to talk about that I get on here start writing and get distracted by my other thoughts. So I have to put the computer down and walk away to regroup. (I'm sure the 3 people that read this are very happy to know that lol)

Anyway I have really been thinking about obedience lately. I'm regularly finding myself telling Logan to do something simple like pick up his toys or put on his shoes or any number of random little things and coming up against the evil question"WHY?" not that I'm against telling him why his toys should be put away or his shoes should be on or he should not eat the thing he picked up off the ground. It's just that while I'm answering him he is not doing what I asked him to do, he usually has follow up why's and yes, it comes to the point that he forgot what I asked him to do. So once its explained I have to start the whole process again. Sometimes I wish I could explain to him (in a way he really would understand) that when I ask him to put on his shoes 9 times out of 10 his shoes need to go on so we can do something he likes. Go to the park, library, church, get a watermelon slush, something. If he would just obey me the first time I ask I would be so much more willing to take him places like the park or the library because he has proven that he can be obedient in the small things even if he doesn't know why.

I look at myself and my highly doubtful, questioning nature and I realize most of the time when God (or my husband...ouch) ask me to do something I want to ask them "WHY?" I'm a person who likes to have a plan and understand the reasons, the processes, the beginning from the end, all of it. I don't do well with reasons like "just because" or "just do what I'm asking you and you will find the benefits later" the phrase Obedience is better than sacrifice stings me almost everytime because I would rather make sacrifices than be uncomfortable or do something I don't understand or want to do.

 The other night Jose and I were talking with one of the guys he mentors. The guy asked why he needs to do something not in a rebellious way just in a "tell me again so I know why I'm working so hard for this" way. We gave him some answers and I just kind of blurted out "Really, you don't need to know why. You just need to do it." Yikes! I think back on some things I've said to people in moments of counseling and ministry and I realize it's all for me. God always gives me words for people that also apply to me even when it applies to me in a completely different situation.

I'm also learning that when you are obedient to God and the things he tells you there are always friends (sometimes...usually Christians) that don't understand and question you again and again. Making it even more difficult to do what God told you to do. I'll give you an example of something in my life right now. In our preparations for Peru we have been getting rid of *stuff* lots and lots of stuff (it's kind of a relief to be loosing so much clutter from our lives) Very well meaning friends and family have encouraged us to sell our stuff to pay for part of the trip or replace the stuff when we get to Peru something along those lines. We have considered it but we both know deep down that God told us to give it away. I'm not going to lie, my natural mind does start thinking "but if we sold this we could get at least $$$ for it which would buy xyz and that would be so much easier than just trusting God to provide it" Yes, it's easy to think that way and hard to explain the other way of thinking but in the end all God is asking us to do is trust Him and obey what he's asked us to do (hmm that sounds familiar)

So here we go. I'm trusting God and doing what he told me to do.

Thoughts on writing

Growing up in my house life was always a competition. I blame it on my sister. She wanted to do everything better than me. (I hear it is a second born tendency. I don't know.) Anyway like I was saying everything was a competition with her.

 So when it came to writing I didn't try to compete.

 I hated signing the same card as her because I would write something along the lines of "Happy Birthday, I love you!" She would write "Because of you I have breath in my lungs, you make the sun seem brighter, music seems more melodious and the air feels purer. Thank you for everything you do and are. I love you Happy birthday"

 I could have sworn she was meant to work for a greeting card company because the stuff she came up with was really, really sappy. And I couldn't compete so I didn't, I continued my course of action and eventually stopped going in on cards with her. I would buy those really sappy cards and write "this card says it all". I assumed writing was the problem but I've recently discovered that wasn't it. The book "The Five Love Languages" talks about what was happening there. She shows love with her words. That is how she is wired. That is so not me.

Imagine my surprise when I discover I like writing. I mean I guess it makes sense I am a girl and we have like 20,000 words a day that we need to speak. Writing is like speaking...so no wonder there are so many female bloggers! So if you have been following my blog you probably noticed the slight change that I don't only talk about Peru anymore. I will still be offering updates on our progress but I will be spending more time talking about other things too. I have given myself a goal to blog at least once a week this year. Your comments on here and face to face are encouraging and I appreciate them so don't stop!

And now a question. What are you doing for valentines day?

Do you have any traditions that you would like to share?