Hey friends! Its been a while!
Here's a bit of an update of what I've been up to since my June- update haha. And also a little glimpse into what's to come.
So, I got a job the first week of June and have been working since then until today. My life has consisted of work, serving at church, teaching dance and spending time with family and friends. Can't believe how fast time flies. However cheesy that may sound.
Life has been really amazing at times, yet some days have been really big lows. You might think that my life is all dancing on roses from my social media updates and mystories, or my smiles and laughter; but that's just me being optimistic and placing my hope and joy in Christ even in the midst of circumstances that seem really tough for me. Its genuine hope and genuine joy though. He really is Greater than my circumstances. No burden is too heavy to carry- with Him carrying what I can not.
My heart has gone through moments of disappointment after my DTS. The strong sense of community I learned to live and love and serve in during that season of my life is something I never want to let go of. I believe that is definitely what God intended fellowship to look like. We see a lot of examples of it in the Bible, but also the good fruit in general when relationships grow deeper, more vulnerable, more transparent; welcoming things into the light, getting out of our comfort zone, learning sacrificial love and just being moulded in truth and grace. And love. There is so much more I could say about this, but coming back to the moments of disappointment; I've been troubled by the excuses our culture and society give to distort this idea of fellowship, relationship and community. (or whatever you want to call it). There's always a reason to be too busy or to just get your social satisfaction out of instagram or whatsapp or snapchat or another such as. (I admit I have my moments of that too.) Then it gets easier to make more compromises in life, to get to a point where you don't get into conversations or friendships where you are challenged to grow and to be transparent. These same excuses come along when it comes to spending time personally with God. I don't know if its a discernment of some kind on my end, but I definitely get spiritually frustrated when a fellow christian starts telling me that I'm over spiritualising something or talking "too much" about God or what He's done in my life. These are things that have disappointed me, yet opened my eyes to see even more of this broken world and the enemy's schemes within the body of Christ. (=the church, for someone not understanding the terminology). There's a lot of good that God is working in me through all of this. I definitely know what I desire when it comes to fellowship and I know I desire to share that desire with others and hope they get that same revelation. Its scary to be transparent and vulnerable. But that's us stepping out of our comfort zone, out of shame and more into looking like fools in this world. Because we aren't of this world. I for sure believe I am a new creation in Christ and we most definitely shouldn't be conforming to the patterns of the world. Love should be evident, it should look different, it should be seen more, spoken of more and the definition of it should be unwrapped even more. I am not perfect. Honestly, quite often I suck at it. I get disappointed in myself all the time, but I find peace, forgiveness, new opportunities, truth about my identity and my purpose and my future (and so any more things!) in my King. In His Word. In His Presence.
I've beaten myself up so many times overthinking that I'm doing things the wrong way or am indeed overly spiritual or talking about God too much etc. But I've realised that there is nothing wrong about any of that. I recently had a really good heart to heart conversation with a good friend; really a sister, about this subject and my disappointment attached to it and she spoke such good truth over me. I felt like God opened my eyes to see His good work in me even more. He showed me his heart about all the things I've felt and experienced.
Honestly I think a lot of people are struggling with a lot of the things I've mentioned. And I definitely still do. But it needs to be spoken of. Disappointments should be shared, but shared alongside Truth and our hope in Christ.
I enjoy the fact that I can keep growing as a person, I can keep pursuing to know God more and see His love being so evident in my realizations of how small I am and how weak I am being the sinner that I am, yet Him choosing to use me for the glory of His Kingdom! I've seen so many answers to prayer this year, so many great things God has done in me and through me, in others around me and through them as well. Seeing bits and pieces of His Kingdom here on earth. It ain't no cheesy quote or ideology when I say that there are things in all of our cultures that are not of the Kingdom Culture, yet a lot of things that are and do most definitely glorify God. My prayer is to be able to discern the good and the bad and pursue to live according to the example of Kingdom Culture that Christ showed us.
I kind of feel like I'm jumping from this topic to another in this post, but that's okay. This is just an outpour of whats going on in my head right right now.
But as I said earlier, "Life has been really amazing at times, yet SOME days have been really big lows" So its not like its all been downhill haha even though it may have sounded like that for most of this. I have a lot of reasons to be thankful. A lot of good conversations with amazing people I cherish. A lot of reasons to celebrate and praise God for. A lot of great things happening in my friends' lives that make me feel so so happy and excited!
A lot of new great people stepped into my life this past year too and its been so nice! So refreshing and interesting. So many new personalities and perspectives on life that I haven't seen or interacted with before. My prayer is for my eyes to be opened to see people the way God sees them, to hear them how He hears them. To feel for them like He feels for them. Its quite a scary prayer to pray really. But I most definitely want to grow and to grow from a place of intimacy with God. For my thoughts and actions and the words I speak to come from a genuine place. Just to glorify Him instead of myself.
I could say a lot more about all of this haha, but lets move on to what's next for me. (I think you kind of see what I've been thinking about these past months and what are some of the prayers and desires of my heart.) Thought this was a good share.
So to speed things up here, I'm leaving for South Africa in exactly 4 days. I leave on the 3rd of January and arrive on the 5th. Today was my last day at work, tomorrow we celebrate the New Year and then I have a few get- togethers, photoshoots and other fun stuff planned for my next days at home and then boom, I'm on a plane on my way back to this beautiful country and its' rich culture.
I'll be serving with YWAM Muizenberg. Mainly with the base Media Department, doing a lot of photography for sure, but a lot of other stuff too I think. The head of the department wants to talk with me about it all more specifically once I get there and that just adds to my excitement really; not knowing exaaactly what it will look like for me and what God has planned for my time serving there. Steps of faith and steps out of my comfort zone for sure, once again. I'm so thankful for everyone walking this journey of life with me. For everyone that has supported me in prayer and financially as well. I feel so blessed. I especially have my heart jumping for joy whenever I speak to someone who gets all excited about the steps I'm taking with God along with me. Its always fun to get excited and celebrate together! I would love to hear more of your stories and dreams and prayer requests, yet answers to prayer as well. We need more of these to be seen and heard and shared. No prayer is empty, no dream to big or small for Him who makes ALL things possible. He knows best and there's peace in trusting Someone greater than myself. He is good and His perfect plan and His goodness might sometimes be misunderstood by us when we fix our eyes on our bellybutton (tried translating a Finnish saying there haha) or our circumstanses. I say this a lot, but I'll say it again; I want to learn how to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in, taking Paul as an example as he worships God while in prison. That always inspires me.
I'm excited for this next step. Excited to use my passion for photgraphy to glorify Him. Excited to meet new people, face new challenges and to learn a lot from amazing personalities and gifted people. I'd love it if you would support me in prayer about all of this. I have a lot of things that make me feel a bit nervous, but mostly I'm excited and ready. (haha at least I think I am.)
2018 has been quite the year. 2019 I wonder, what you have to give?
With a lot of thank you's, smiles and curiosity- thanks for reading!
Until next time!
- Katarina
(p.s. Kaikille suomikavereille, jos oli vaikee ymmärtää jotain, niin pistä toki viestiä!)
Here's a bit of an update of what I've been up to since my June- update haha. And also a little glimpse into what's to come.
So, I got a job the first week of June and have been working since then until today. My life has consisted of work, serving at church, teaching dance and spending time with family and friends. Can't believe how fast time flies. However cheesy that may sound.
Life has been really amazing at times, yet some days have been really big lows. You might think that my life is all dancing on roses from my social media updates and mystories, or my smiles and laughter; but that's just me being optimistic and placing my hope and joy in Christ even in the midst of circumstances that seem really tough for me. Its genuine hope and genuine joy though. He really is Greater than my circumstances. No burden is too heavy to carry- with Him carrying what I can not.
My heart has gone through moments of disappointment after my DTS. The strong sense of community I learned to live and love and serve in during that season of my life is something I never want to let go of. I believe that is definitely what God intended fellowship to look like. We see a lot of examples of it in the Bible, but also the good fruit in general when relationships grow deeper, more vulnerable, more transparent; welcoming things into the light, getting out of our comfort zone, learning sacrificial love and just being moulded in truth and grace. And love. There is so much more I could say about this, but coming back to the moments of disappointment; I've been troubled by the excuses our culture and society give to distort this idea of fellowship, relationship and community. (or whatever you want to call it). There's always a reason to be too busy or to just get your social satisfaction out of instagram or whatsapp or snapchat or another such as. (I admit I have my moments of that too.) Then it gets easier to make more compromises in life, to get to a point where you don't get into conversations or friendships where you are challenged to grow and to be transparent. These same excuses come along when it comes to spending time personally with God. I don't know if its a discernment of some kind on my end, but I definitely get spiritually frustrated when a fellow christian starts telling me that I'm over spiritualising something or talking "too much" about God or what He's done in my life. These are things that have disappointed me, yet opened my eyes to see even more of this broken world and the enemy's schemes within the body of Christ. (=the church, for someone not understanding the terminology). There's a lot of good that God is working in me through all of this. I definitely know what I desire when it comes to fellowship and I know I desire to share that desire with others and hope they get that same revelation. Its scary to be transparent and vulnerable. But that's us stepping out of our comfort zone, out of shame and more into looking like fools in this world. Because we aren't of this world. I for sure believe I am a new creation in Christ and we most definitely shouldn't be conforming to the patterns of the world. Love should be evident, it should look different, it should be seen more, spoken of more and the definition of it should be unwrapped even more. I am not perfect. Honestly, quite often I suck at it. I get disappointed in myself all the time, but I find peace, forgiveness, new opportunities, truth about my identity and my purpose and my future (and so any more things!) in my King. In His Word. In His Presence.
I've beaten myself up so many times overthinking that I'm doing things the wrong way or am indeed overly spiritual or talking about God too much etc. But I've realised that there is nothing wrong about any of that. I recently had a really good heart to heart conversation with a good friend; really a sister, about this subject and my disappointment attached to it and she spoke such good truth over me. I felt like God opened my eyes to see His good work in me even more. He showed me his heart about all the things I've felt and experienced.
Honestly I think a lot of people are struggling with a lot of the things I've mentioned. And I definitely still do. But it needs to be spoken of. Disappointments should be shared, but shared alongside Truth and our hope in Christ.
I enjoy the fact that I can keep growing as a person, I can keep pursuing to know God more and see His love being so evident in my realizations of how small I am and how weak I am being the sinner that I am, yet Him choosing to use me for the glory of His Kingdom! I've seen so many answers to prayer this year, so many great things God has done in me and through me, in others around me and through them as well. Seeing bits and pieces of His Kingdom here on earth. It ain't no cheesy quote or ideology when I say that there are things in all of our cultures that are not of the Kingdom Culture, yet a lot of things that are and do most definitely glorify God. My prayer is to be able to discern the good and the bad and pursue to live according to the example of Kingdom Culture that Christ showed us.
I kind of feel like I'm jumping from this topic to another in this post, but that's okay. This is just an outpour of whats going on in my head right right now.
But as I said earlier, "Life has been really amazing at times, yet SOME days have been really big lows" So its not like its all been downhill haha even though it may have sounded like that for most of this. I have a lot of reasons to be thankful. A lot of good conversations with amazing people I cherish. A lot of reasons to celebrate and praise God for. A lot of great things happening in my friends' lives that make me feel so so happy and excited!
A lot of new great people stepped into my life this past year too and its been so nice! So refreshing and interesting. So many new personalities and perspectives on life that I haven't seen or interacted with before. My prayer is for my eyes to be opened to see people the way God sees them, to hear them how He hears them. To feel for them like He feels for them. Its quite a scary prayer to pray really. But I most definitely want to grow and to grow from a place of intimacy with God. For my thoughts and actions and the words I speak to come from a genuine place. Just to glorify Him instead of myself.
I could say a lot more about all of this haha, but lets move on to what's next for me. (I think you kind of see what I've been thinking about these past months and what are some of the prayers and desires of my heart.) Thought this was a good share.
So to speed things up here, I'm leaving for South Africa in exactly 4 days. I leave on the 3rd of January and arrive on the 5th. Today was my last day at work, tomorrow we celebrate the New Year and then I have a few get- togethers, photoshoots and other fun stuff planned for my next days at home and then boom, I'm on a plane on my way back to this beautiful country and its' rich culture.
I'll be serving with YWAM Muizenberg. Mainly with the base Media Department, doing a lot of photography for sure, but a lot of other stuff too I think. The head of the department wants to talk with me about it all more specifically once I get there and that just adds to my excitement really; not knowing exaaactly what it will look like for me and what God has planned for my time serving there. Steps of faith and steps out of my comfort zone for sure, once again. I'm so thankful for everyone walking this journey of life with me. For everyone that has supported me in prayer and financially as well. I feel so blessed. I especially have my heart jumping for joy whenever I speak to someone who gets all excited about the steps I'm taking with God along with me. Its always fun to get excited and celebrate together! I would love to hear more of your stories and dreams and prayer requests, yet answers to prayer as well. We need more of these to be seen and heard and shared. No prayer is empty, no dream to big or small for Him who makes ALL things possible. He knows best and there's peace in trusting Someone greater than myself. He is good and His perfect plan and His goodness might sometimes be misunderstood by us when we fix our eyes on our bellybutton (tried translating a Finnish saying there haha) or our circumstanses. I say this a lot, but I'll say it again; I want to learn how to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in, taking Paul as an example as he worships God while in prison. That always inspires me.
I'm excited for this next step. Excited to use my passion for photgraphy to glorify Him. Excited to meet new people, face new challenges and to learn a lot from amazing personalities and gifted people. I'd love it if you would support me in prayer about all of this. I have a lot of things that make me feel a bit nervous, but mostly I'm excited and ready. (haha at least I think I am.)
2018 has been quite the year. 2019 I wonder, what you have to give?
With a lot of thank you's, smiles and curiosity- thanks for reading!
Until next time!
- Katarina
(p.s. Kaikille suomikavereille, jos oli vaikee ymmärtää jotain, niin pistä toki viestiä!)
Soooooo wonderful to read of all this. Thank you so much for sharing! I love your heart Katarina! I will be with you...sitting on your shoulder :) through my prayers. Be blessed, be excited, be surprised by God's amazing plans in your life. Use your talents and learn something new every day. Enjoy every minute of South Africa!
VastaaPoistaKiitos Titta!!! Amen to everything you said! I receive 😍❤️
Poista