Stepping into God's calling

Dear Fellow Believer,

          The Lord has done many incredible things in my life over the past several years, and each of you has played some role in that.  I have been blessed with countless opportunities to serve, grow, and lead, and have been driven by the calling to spread truth and light amongst the nations.  I'd like to share with you a wonderful opportunity God has opened up for me through a program, known as Summit Oxford, dedicated to training Christian scholars to engage the battlefield of ideas currently at war in our culture.  Summit Oxford is a study abroad program at Oxford University available to a limited number of Christian college students across America.  The program leads students through a rigorous worldview analysis, leadership, and apologetics curriculum in addition to a world-class education from Oxford University.

          Summit Oxford's mission is to help raise a generation of young adults as Christian scholars and is particularly dedicated to training Christian leaders to be secure in a defensible faith before an increasingly secular culture.  This vision has never been more critical to the future of Christianity than in our present age where ideas and beliefs define the times.  Summit Oxford hopes to equip a generation of Christians as ambassadors of Christ and to promote God's truth throughout our culture.

 

          This program accepts a maximum of twenty five students, world-wide, per semester, and I have been chosen as one of the twenty five to attend Summit Oxford in the spring 2012 semester.  I am thrilled at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand my knowledge of God's truth, and am excited to use the knowledge and training that I acquire at Oxford to engage our culture once I return home, and as I embark on new adventures in the future.

          America’s education system increasingly yields generations of learners and followers rather than thinkers and leaders.  As Christians, we also far too often focus on only the heart while ignoring the mind.  In order to redeem our time, we must redeem our beliefs.  Beliefs are promoted by people of courage and conviction.  Christian scholars should be among the ranks of those with courage and conviction.  Now is the time to redeem our culture -- a vision that Summit Oxford will help come to fruition by equipping a new generation of leaders ready for this noble calling. Of course, this means not only learning but outreach.  We’ll also be engaging in ministry and evangelism while there.

          Naturally, the expenses of travel and education at a world-class university are more than most people can afford to pay out-of-pocket.  Even though those accepted to Summit Oxford have received a tuition scholarship to Oxford University and my parents have committed to covering travel expenses, the remaining costs for the Summit Oxford program will total nearly $20,000.  So far, I have about $8,500.  I have a long way to go financially, and I hope that you will consider contributing to help me engage in this important spiritual need in our society.  Since ideas and beliefs shape our culture, we must redeem truth based beliefs if we want to redeem our modern condition. 

          My financial need can be met if 200 people give $58.00 or if 100 people give $115.00.  However, any assistance you can afford will be deeply and humbly appreciated. Checks can be written out to me. I have an account set up where I will send the money, from which I will pay Summit Oxford.

          If you would like some more information on Summit Oxford, I would love to discuss it with you, or if you are interested, you can visit their website at www.summitoxford.org.  I would also very much like to ask for your prayer support from now through the completion of the program.  As excited as I am about this opportunity, I realize the immense difficulties that lie ahead and ask that you would pray for wisdom, understanding, and boldness.  Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you and greatly appreciate your prayers!

          May the Lord bless you mightily,

Catherine

      

The Lord is my strength

 My heart has been heavy lately, mourning the loss of a very dear cousin and friend.  She brought such joy to so many.  We all loved her so much.  It’s been heartbreaking, especially watching her husband and two little kids suffer through such pain.  The absolute most heartbreaking moment of the whole thing was when my little cousin found out that her mom had died.  She was wailing in absolute terror.  I had just gotten home from church right after she was told, and she came running out to me, grabbed on to me and screamed that “Daddy just said Mommy died.” All I could do was hold her and cry with her. 

I’ve never seen death so closely before.  It still seems unreal.  Something will come up that makes me think of her, and then I remember...  This came at the heels of the death of a close friend this summer, which I don’t know that I ever completely came to grips with.  But I was further from the situation.  All I can really do in these times is trust God, trust that He’s in control and has a purpose for everything.  Sitting in that hospital room was definitely a wakeup call for the fact that God is in control.  At that moment there was nothing anybody could do to make her better, no matter how much we wanted to.  All we can do is lean on Him for comfort and strength, and believe that He is going to bring good out of the pain.  

I thank God for the many dear friends He has placed in my life to bless and encourage me and my family during this difficult time.  I cannot express how grateful I am for all of the prayers and words of encouragement. 

Divided

"As you look on the church landscape, youth are leaving the faith in droves. The modern church, overall, is struggling to reach the next generation with the gospel. What has happened? Whether for good or bad, men, for many years, have been inventing solutions or brainstorming ideas without fully relying upon the foundation of God’s Word. God, however, is greater than man, and as the heavens are above the earth, so are His ways higher than ours and His thoughts than our thoughts (Is. 55:8-9). We have substituted the greater for the lesser – God’s wisdom for man’s ideas. Jesus said that he who hears His Word and does it, is like a man that built his house upon a rock, and when the storm came, it stood firm. On the other hand, he who rejects His Word, is like a man who built on the sand and when the storm came, the house fell (Matt. 7:24-25). Shouldn’t the church, as a whole, abandon the sandy ideas of man and shamelessly return to the firm rock of the Word of God? God’s Word sufficiently identifies how youth are to be reached. For more information on this issue, please see the film Divided, which is a documentary on age-segregated youth ministry in America. Watch it for free (for a limited time) at www.dividedthemovie.com. For an in-depth study, the book A Weed in the Church delves into the topic and more thoroughly handles the Scripture passages that address ministry to young people. For other details or to help spread the message, visit www.dividedthemovie.com."

Big News!

I have been blessed with many incredible opportunities, but I wanted to tell you about the most recent one.  I found out last week that I was accepted to Summit Oxford.  Summit Oxford is a study abroad program at Oxford University for a select number of Christian college students.  Although it involves studying at a world class university, the main focus is a rigorous worldview analysis, leadership, and apologetics training program.  In a world where fallacies permeate, it is critical to understand truth and stand firm in a defensible faith. 

I'm thrilled about this amazing opportunity to learn and grow as a Christian leader, and to kind of be thrown out into the world.  But alongside that I really need prayer, because I know that there is absolutely no way I can do this in my own strength. I ask that you would keep me in your prayers as I prepare to leave in January.  Aside from all the logistics of moving overseas, I will need to raise funds, as well as prepare mentally. I ask for prayers for provision, wisdom, guidance, and that I might be salt and light to the nations.   But I also ask for prayers for understanding, as I begin digesting the required reading materials. These are books that I will be analyzing and discussing in the worldview intensive, such as the Quran and “Life at the Bottom.”

I’ll be writing more about it later, and will also post updates leading up to and throughout my time in Oxford.  Thank you for your prayers, they are greatly appreciated!! 

10 years ago

I sat and watched the television in terror at what was unfolding on the news.  I was only 11 years old, and didn’t know the extent of what this would mean.  But I honestly don’t know that anyone else did either.  What I knew was that thousands of people were being killed.  I watched the news over and over, wishing it would go away, wishing it was only a movie, wishing those people could be saved somehow.  It was like some sort of horrible nightmare that just kept replaying on TV and in my head.  As much as I tried, I couldn’t get the tears to stop rolling down my face, and I was in a state of absolute shock.  I don’t know what scared me more, the fact that hundreds of innocent people were being killed, the fact that our country was under attack, or the fact that I had absolutely no idea of where in the world my dad was.  I knew this meant war was imminent, and I knew that my daddy had just been deployed.  What I wasn’t sure of is quite how much danger he was really in.  My ignorance protected me from even greater inner turmoil.  You see, If I didn’t know what my dad was actually doing, I didn’t know the danger he was really in.  All I really knew was that he was in a warzone working 18hr+ days, and would be gone for long periods of time with absolutely no contact.  Even when he did have contact, it would be a 5 minute phone call here, or a short email there.  In all honesty, I was scared to death.   I would cry and cry as I watched the horror on people’s faces on television, as they fell out of the trade centers or ran down the streets where I used to spend many happy moments.  But as much as I possibly could, I bottled it all up inside. I always felt like it was a sign of weakness to show emotion.  I also knew that I needed to try my best to be strong for my family.  I really wished I could go back to New York and do something, or even just see it, so that it could become reality in my mind.  I had a hard time believing that these buildings I used to see every week were just destroyed. 

As I prepared for Sunday’s preschool lesson, I realized that none of the preschool kids had even been born yet in 2001.  And I began to remember what life was like before 9/11.  It was easier. It was more comfortable.  There wasn’t nearly as much worry about foreign conflict, economy, national security, etc. I’ll never forget what it used to be like, and I’ll never forget how it changed our country forever.  One thing that was amazing was how Americans everywhere, regardless of political views, bonded and were filled with patriotism that day and for months to come.  When remembering 9/11 we should remember the incredibly valuable lessons our country learned that day: lessons that brought people together and reminded us of the important things in life. These were lessons that taught us to be strong, to love others, to trust, and to have faith in our God, who is always there.  We should also remember to pray for those who lost loved ones that day.  I’m sure the memories are as vivid as ever…and there are still emotional scars that will always be there.   

9/11 memories for the newspaper

I was 11 years old and sitting in the vet clinic on Maxwell Air Force base in Montgomery, Alabama.  With my mom and little sister by my side, I watched the TV in horror as an airplane crashed into one of the towers.  I had lived in New York a few years before and frequently saw the towers.  This didn’t seem real.  It was too much like a movie. Besides, why would something like this happen? I looked at the people around me and saw something I had never seen before.  What I saw that day were looks of pure fear.  Time stood still. I watched as tears rolled down shocked faces, and phones began ringing from the calls of loved ones.  Little did I know that this day would change our country, and change my life, forever.  The base was locked down. There was no way to get back home to my sisters and brother, which worried mom tremendously. About a week earlier my dad had deployed to Saudi Arabia, but we had no way of expecting something like this, that he would soon be so heavily involved in. There was much opportunity for worry.  We didn’t hear anything for weeks on end: no emails, no phone calls, nothing.  My life was wrapped around war, and could have been wrapped around fear.  Instead, through the horrific acts of terrorism, and knowing that my dad was in the middle of immense danger, I finally learned what it meant to trust God.