Kathleen’s Insights

Thankfulness

Thankfulness is the theme for iheartfaces.com Wow, what a huge question..what am I thankful for?  The list is unending.  But the one thing I am MOST thanful for is the love that the Lord has for us.  And the fact that because of His love we are forgiven and can live eternally!

I’m thankful for what Christ’s death on the cross means for me.  And I’m thankful for the ability to be renewed and restored by the Lord.

I’m am thankful for the ability to pray with others.  God has blessed me with wonderful friends that love the Lord with their whole hearts and live each day to serve the One who saves.

I’m thankful for the ability to minister to others and to be able to minister with my fellow believers.

I am thankful for my family. I have been ever so blessed by God with a family that is loving, caring and forgiving.  We are continuing to grow closer to the Lord together and for that I am encouraged.  I am so blessed to be able to call them my family.   We’re silly, and crazy and goofy all the time and it makes for great family gatherings – and THAT I am thankful for!

I’m thankful for my parents.  They have been such a blessing in my life and I couldn’t ask for anything more.  They have been everything from love, caring, supportive and more throughout my life.  They encourage me to continually grow and challenge myself.  They are my supporters!

I am thankful for my community.  God has blessed me with wonderful women who love Him with their hearts and want nothing more than to glorify Him.  Though we may be apart most of the time, when we get together it’s as if we have been together the whole time!   That was the biggest blessing at SMU – definitely thankful for these women.

And I’m thankful for my roommate!  She has been more thank I could have ever asked for as a roommate.  And I am so blessed to know her!

I am thankful for my boyfriend, Len.  He has been such an awesome person to be around, and continues to encourage me.   I am thankful for being blessed with such a gentleman, and someone who encourages me in my spiritual journey.  It’s great to be around someone and know that I can be my silly, crazy self and it doesn’t matter!

And again, I wanted to speak about how thankful I am for my family.  My family has been such a HUGE blessing in my life and I am soo thankful! They have been my supporters, my cheerleaders, my team and I am so blessed to know each of them.  (FYI…I’m missing my sister, Caryn, and her husband, Austin, in this picture!)

All in all, I am extremely thankful for the things that the Lord has blessed me with.  He continues to give me more than I ever could deserve and for that I am grateful!  When I sit back to think about what I am thankful for I am overwhelmed by the things that God has blessed me with.  He continues to provide for me each and every day of my life and I am so thankful for His presence in my life each day.  I am thankful for His strength and His love.

I am thankful for my Rock.

Sorry World

I had an epiphany today at work..

Sitting here thinking about how much of a hypocrite I must be to a lot of people who knew me in high school.

I’m sorry to you who knew me before I knew Christ.  I wasn’t living a life that was glorifying Him and I surely wasn’t living a life that was lifting anyone up.  I was so selfish back in my high school days.  I was so focused on myself and pleasing others around me instead of pleasing my Creator.

I had a conversation with a fellow alumni of Plano and I was kind of giving advice in a way.  And then it dawned on me…why woud this person (say his name is Joe) listen to anything I have to say when I made more mistakes than I can count on my fingers and toes?

So to that I say I’m sorry to you all.  I’m sorry that I wasn’t lifting my brothers and sisters up and encouraging you all.  I want to live a life that glorifies our heavenly Father EVERYDAY.  I want to live a life that puts:

CHRIST first

OTHERS second

MYSELF last

If there is ever a time where I’m not doing that, then please let me know.  Encourage me to live a life that glorifies our Heavenly Father.  Help me to live a life that shows love to our Father and love to you!

 

All for Him.

What is Twestival?

What is a Twestival?

A Twestival or Twitter-Festival is a global event series that brings people offline for a great cause. It is a Twitter organized event in were volunteers come together and organize a fundraiser event bennifiting a charity.

What is the difference between the Twestival Global and Twestival Local?

The first Twestival Global happened on 12 February 2009 with 202 cities around the world hosting events and rallying fundraising efforts around one cause, charity: water. Twestival Local takes the same international approach and momentum, but hopes to inspire cities to look a little closer to home and support a local cause.

- Twestival Chad

Vote City House for Dallas Twestival Charity – Sept 12

Okay..the reason I’m blogging about this is because I’m passionate about the mission of City House.children, youth and  families resolve physical and emotional crises. We provide a complementary suite of  intervention and prevention services at no cost to our clients.

The mission of CITY House is to protect children and strengthen families by helping 

 Their Services include:

• an emergency shelter for the teens (10 to 17 years)

• an emergency shelter for the children (newborn to 9 years)

• family counseling

• life skills education

• parenting skills group

• crisis intervention

 Their goal is to enable families to function more effectively within the family unit and the
 community.

I’ve volunteered with City House over the past few years and it’s an amazing organization that has a passion for their mission.  This is a GREAT organization that would really benefit from being the Charity of Choice for this year’s Dallas Twestival on September 12.  So do the children a favor and go to the Dallas Twestival Site and vote for City House as their charity.  I realize the other charities on the site are good too, but City House is an amazing organization and they would benefit greatly from Twestival’s support!

 

You can click here for more information about City House and check out their website.

 

GO vote..what are you waiting for?  Use this opportunity to help our community grow into a community of active citizens!

You have until today at 5pm >to cast your vote! Be an active part of this cause TODAY.

Thanks for helping make a difference!

 

follow me on Twitter – @katfarmer

New TOMS are out!

Wow, I absolutely love these shoes.  When can I have them?

I’m ready to be in the sun…are those days over?  Sometimes I wish I was a little kid so I didn’t have to worry about paying bills and I could spend my summers wasting the day outside playing in the grass!!
Oh, what I would give to be a kid again….at times!

Wow…what a revelation!

So, we’re sitting in reflection last night talking about our first day of service and it was incredible!  Let me start from the beginning to explain a little bit of what we’re doing here.
I’m learning how to be an effective leader for the Alternative Breaks program at SMU (called – impact).

While learning how to be an awesome leader we’re also in the midst of our own little Alternative Break.  My group is working with an enterprise called Bosma. Which not only offers rehabilitation classes for those with visual impairments but also has jobs at their facility for those with visual impairments.

50% of Bosma’s employees are visually impaired.

It’s an incredible organization!!!  Check it out – www.bosma.org

So…yesterday..

We learned how to be sighted guides (which basically involves learning how to escort those with visual impairments around public places.

And while learning how to be an escort we also were able to participate as the one with the visual impairments (i.e. being blindfolded) and someone sight guided us.

THIS IS WHERE IT HITS HOME…
So, I’m being guided by an employee and I’m realizing…wow I have absolutely NO control over where we are going.  I don’t know how close we are to the walls or if there is a pole in front of us or anything.  I have to completely trust the fact that this guy is in control of my safety at this very moment.  Now, I could have reached out and felt the wall, but that’s cheating.  I had to really trust him.

Okay..now I’m in reflections and talking amongst the group.  I’m talking with Adam and Jamie (from other universities) about what that experience was like and it hits me.  That is how our relationship with God is.  We have to trust (without knowing the outcome) that God has it in control.  He is the one ‘sight guiding us’ we have to truly trust on FAITH that God has our best interest in mind, just like a sight guide.  He isn’t going to lead us into a situation that neither He or us cannot handle.  He has our safety in mind, and He is passionate about us and cares for us.

Why is it so difficult for us to trust not only someone guiding us, but also to allow God to truly guide is?

I’m not sure if I explained it the best way…but I have a limited amount of time to this and I really wanted to post.

Well, now it’s off to Bosma.  Today we’re in for another surprise! Cannot wait to learn more!

Thank you for following my journey…sorry that I cannot post so frequent, it’s really busy here.  I’m still here till Friday!

Alternative Breaks

Wow – the past two days have been intense and amazing at the same time.

We’ve spent a lot of time discussing disabilities and how the can affect people.

We watch a movie last night…My Flesh and Blood. It was very emotional and thought-provoking.  I definitely cried throughout the movie.  It just sparks compassion in my heart for those with a disability, especially children.

I really want to have a trip this year which focuses on a disability issue.  I think it will open a lot of eyes in the community.

Tomorrow is day one of service…more later!

Hello world!

This is the start of our year-long journey planning the alternative spring break trips at SMU.  We will blog along the journey to help YOU understand what goes on behind the sences as we plan these trips for SMU students.

This year we have high hopes for our program.  We’re wanting at least six FULL trips, hopefully more – with one going international.

I’m wanting to raise enough money to minimize the cost for the trips even more – including the international trip!

Welcome to the start of our journey.  And thanks for following along!

From the blog