Canada, eh?

April showers bring May flowers...except in Minnesota.

It's another dreary and snowy day here in the Land of 10,000 lakes...a more fitting name would be "The Land where it never stops snowing!"

Oh well, I am slowly learning to be thankful in all things, even in the midst of never-melting snow and constant cold.

The Lord is still good even when the weather is not. :)

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to inform the world of the goings on in my life. I am three weeks away from being done with my first year of college. It's crazy how quickly time has flown this year. I started out last fall feeling like I would be in Minnesota trying to get my degree for eternity. But four years has somehow managed to turn into three, and I have to say that I am really okay with that. Freshmen year has been challenging to say the least. It all started with me switching from YWAM to BCOM. This last fall I encountered a new ministry, a new set of rules, values, expectations, faces, relationships and classes. EVERYTHING that could be different was. Everything has been new this year. New is good, but it's also hard. It means growing and relearning, and reevaluating the way that I've done things in the past.
I'm also learning so many new things about myself and about God. I've really seen Jesus in a different way this year. It's been really cool and really good. God has been incredibly faithful during this new season of my life. He's been so patient and gentle with me and I think that's exactly what I've needed during these past months. It's been a season where I have felt particularly weak and helpless, but it's been so beautiful! In my weakness Jesus is made strong. He's my strong tower and I'm really aware of how much I need His strength. As the school year comes to a close I am beginning to prepare for the next page in my chapter here at Bethany.

In three weeks I am going to be embarking on a new journey...to Canada.
Actually, I'm going to Mishkeegogamong Ojibway Nation to be exact. This is located out in the middle of nowhere Ontario. Me along with 9 of my fellow BCOMers are going to be ministering at a Native reservation there.

The Native Americans in Canada are often a people group who are overlooked and forgotten about. Thankfully we serve a God who will go out of His way for even one lost sheep. Jesus is radically pursing the Ojibway people! The primary focus of our trip will be toward helping single mothers and loving on their children. Alcoholism is very prominent there and has resulted in a lot of fatherlessness. There is a great need for the love of Jesus in this community and I am excited our team gets to partner with the Lord to see Him change the lives of these precious people.
Three weeks is coming up fast and I know my team and I would appreciate as much prayer as possible.

Some prayer requests are:

• Continued financial provision for my team
• That the hearts of the Ojibway people would be open to the love of Jesus and the Gospel
• Team unity
• Safe travels as we make the 12 hour car ride up there
• Supernatural boldness

I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve and love in Canada! I am also thankful for all of the supporters and prayer warriors in my life. You all are so awesome and I have been incredibly blessed by you! You are in my prayers and I'm excited to share with you everything that God does in the coming weeks.

Kate Couey

King's Banquet

Well, my first semester of college is over half way done. I have really enjoyed my time here so far. My classes are awesome and I am learning so much about missions and how to study the bible in context and with correct hermeneutics. It's crazy to see how often we misinterpret Scripture and I'm really learning the value of taking time to study the word.

Every Saturday I go to this outreach called Trinity Works. We have a short teaching, then we spend about an hour in the prayer room seeking the Lord, and then we go out on the streets of the U of M campus and do evangelism. It's really awesome!
Last Saturday I participated in an event called King's Banquet that was put on by Trinity Works. The idea of this event came from the Scripture found in Matthew 22 about the parable of the Wedding Feast.

“Then he said to his servants,‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests." Matthew 22:8-10

For the past several weeks we have been handing out invitations to this event during our weekly outreach. The banquet was geared toward "the least of these" in the Twin Cities area. We invited the homeless,the lonely,and the broken (or anyone else God put on our hearts). The morning of the banquet several hundred volunteers hit the streets of downtown Minneapolis. We evangelized and handed out more invitations(people couldn't get in without one). We also gathered in an open area in the city and worshiped together. It was ridiculously beautiful and it felt so good to worship together as a body in public.

After evangelizing we went back to the room where the banquet was being held and prepared for our guests to start arriving. The banquet hall looked SO beautiful and extravagant. We had about three believers at every table so that everyone would have someone to talk to about Jesus. I was sitting at a table near the entrance of the room so I was able to see the expressions on the guests faces as they walked into the hall. I have to say that was my favorite part. Their countenance's were filled with awe and delight. It was beautiful. We had a time of worship before the meal. Everyone was dancing and many had tears streaming down their faces as Jesus was impacting them through song. We then got to fellowship with everyone at our table over a beautifully prepared meal. After dinner was over there were several powerful testimonies and the Gospel was preached. Finally, we washed the feet of the guests our table. What a beautiful and humbling experience that was. So many people were impacted through that simple act. At the end of the night each guest was presented with a Bible, information on different churches, and some other practical items.

In the end, we had about 400 volunteers and 600 guests packed in the banquet hall. Over eighty people committed their lives to Jesus and about 26 healings were reported! God loves His kids so much and He delights in healing and giving good gifts! It's wonderful to see people getting their lives transformed by the love of the Father, but even more importantly Jesus was able to embrace eighty of His beloved children whom He's been longing for. The is what life and missions and evangelism is all about. It's about giving Jesus the reward of His sufferings. In loving others we are loving Jesus. In washing people's feet, we are washing our Savior's. It's all about Him and glory be to to His name for the marvelous wonders He did last Saturday.

"O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods..."

Psalm 95:1-3

He is worthy of it all!

A New Season

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens..
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Summer is almost over, and with this approaching end, I find myself stepping into a very new and exciting season of my life. I have decided to move to Minnesota(if the picture wasn't evidence enough)! I will be attending Bethany College of Missions in Bloomington, MN. This has been a REALLY big decision for me because it means leaving a lot of stuff behind. I've been with YWAM for the past year and I have loved every moment of it. Going to Bethany means saying goodbye to YWAM(at least for the next four years) and it's easier said than done. As hard as it is for me to move on, I KNOW that I am making the right decision. God has been speaking to me about attending Bethany for almost a year and I know that His ways are higher than mine; this makes me very excited!

During my DTS we had this special time where we relinquished our rights to God.I remember very specifically relinquishing my right to go to college and further my education. That act of surrender was a really big step for me. I had never even considered not going to college before; it had always been part of my plan. I had always been excited about furthering my education, but I had to come to a place where I was okay with the idea of not going. Though it was hard, we serve an incredibly faithful God! When I came to a place of complete surrender, I really believe that God honored that and gave me back my dream of going to college. He's a really good Dad and He loves to give good gifts to His children.

The program I'll be in is really awesome! I'll be majoring in Intercultural studies with a minor in Kingdom Justice. The first two years there are pretty standard. I will be learning a lot about missions and theology. After I've completed my sophomore year, I will be going on this trip called Global Internship. Basically I will be spending 16 months overseas living in another culture and putting everything I learned in the first two years into practice. It's so very exciting! The first four months of the internship are dedicated solely to learning the language from the locals. Once the internship is over, I will go back to Minnesota for a final semester of debrief/re-entry.

Classes start on August 20th, so the date is approaching fast! As I embark on this new journey, I ask that you would please pray for me. I don't know anyone at the school, so I will be starting completely over. Some specific prayer requests would be: peace as I try to get everything ready for the move, protection as I travel and that I would have an open and willing heart, ready to receive all that God wants to do in and through me. I am so thankful to have all of you in my life. God has truly blessed me with a great community of friends and family! I pray you are all blessed in the Lord!

In Him,
Kate

SSJ and Brazil Update

Greeting Friends!
I jut wanted to update all of you on everything that has been going on in my life for the past six months. I hope this update finds everyone well and blessed in the Lord!

From September 26th-December 15th 2011, I participated in a YWAM school focused specifically on issues of injustice that are currently raging the world we all share. Our speakers covered topics such as: human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, refugees and immigration, prostitution, FGM(female genital mutilation), community development, and many many other topics. As you can imagine, these are very heavy topics and it proved to be a very intense quarter. Throughout the twelve lecture weeks God began to show me His heart for justice and for those who seem to be the most forgotten in our world. Through many tears, prayers, dreams, and laments I know that God is calling me into the world to love these precious people. Not simply at a distance, but up close and personally. My motivation in doing so is not simply to be a humanitarian and help people, but to love Jesus through serving His beloveds. I also want to serve to alleviate some of the pain He feels when He looks at His children...He's so worth it. I have no idea at the moment what that specifically looks like for me, but I know that during this next season of my life God is going to reveal what that entails exactly. I am so very thankful that I have been given the opportunity to be educated on things that are so very dear to God's heart. I am also thankful for the support that you all have shown; I do not take any of it for granted. If any of you have questions, please feel free to ask. Also, if you want to know more about a specific issue I'd love to share what I learned!

As many of you know, after SSJ God called me to go to Brazil on a two month outreach. Our team left in mid December to serve in three different locations while there. Our team had a unique dynamic because we had students from two DTS' with us, as well as six secondary students. Our team was led by a married couple(accompanied by their three little children) who are on staff at YWAM Denver. Also, the secondary students served as “student leaders” so we were involved in may different areas of leadership. We ran small groups, ministry times, church services, and many of the every day activities. Our first location was at a YWAM base in Curitiba, Brazil. We were there for the first two weeks of our trip. While there, we served in a local church, picked up trash, did some door-to-door ministry, performed skits, bar ministry, and several other things. This was probably the most mellow part of our entire trip. The second day we were in Curitiba, I found out that the local bar across the street had a brothel in the back. That was hard news considering the school I had just graduated from. We decided to do ministry there after hearing that no one had ever tried to before. We found out that it was a “neighborhood” bar so they usually didn't let people in who were not from that area. We actually saw them kicking people out. A small group of us would go over there, order cokes and just try to love the people there. At first it was awkward because we couldn't speak their language and we didn't really know how we were supposed to act. It ended up to be a total God thing. We didn't see any crazy things happen, but they told us that we were now friends and that we were welcome any time. I never did get to go into the brothel, but I feel so at peace about it. We had some really powerful prayer times over that building, and I know that God is doing something amazing there.

Our second destination was Barao de Cocais,”which literally means “the Godfather of the Coconuts”. We spent about three weeks there participating in an evangelistic crusade called Impact. A local church in the city puts this on twice a year. We partnered with about 300 other people. Some of them were from a Brazilian YWAM base, a local Methodist church and a Christian rehabilitation center for youth. Every day we would go out to a different neighborhood in the area and start with door-to-door evangelism. We would also invite everyone to a program that we would put on somewhere in that neighborhood. Then all of the different teams involved in Impact would perform dramas, preach and evangelize. We did this about every day and it was INCREDIBLE. We saw so many lives completely transformed by Jesus' love and in the end we counted about 600 people who got saved! The really cool thing is that every person who accepted Jesus was put in contact with a church for further community and discipleship. Our Father is so good! I have many beautiful stories of how faithful God was to our team and to all the Brazilians.

Our final location was Rio de Janeiro! We stayed on the outskirts of the city in a large warehouse-turned-church. We were there for the last 10 days of our Journey. We did ministry for children, preached and ran church services, worked with a YWAM base, Bible distribution, did work projects, and did ministry in the flavellas(slums). We saw many of the head drug lord's come to Christ, and we saw communities touched so evidently by Jesus' love! We were also able to see the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the entire city. It was glorious. All in all God moved so mightily in and through our team. For me personally, He taught me so much about what it means to truly be a servant leader. I learned that it doesn't always mean being the first to step out , but it also means to step back and allow others to learn. I learned what it means to be radiant for Jesus, to let my actions speak so much louder than mouth ever could. To love with all that I am even at the risk of getting hurt. And finally, to always be aware of what is going on. As my DTS speaker Dudley Weiner said, “Be a student of everything”. God challenged me, taught me, and revealed so many things to me in Brazil. I feel like He is starting to treat me like an adult and it's a little scary, but very exciting! Brazil is beautiful, and God is even more so. I hope this gave you a little glimpse at what God is doing in my life, and in the world internationally.

Though the road ahead may seem blurry, God has us in His hands. All we need to do is trust Him. He satisfies and He is enough. “ I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good.” Psalm 52:8-9
My email is:katecouey@gmail.com If you need prayer, have questions or just want to talk, please email me! I love you all and I hope you are blessed in Jesus' name.

In His Service,
Kate Couey

Outreach

Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to update everyone on my upcoming outreach to Brazil. Originally I had intended on going to Africa on outreach, but God has been speaking to me a lot lately about going to Brazil with a DTS team. I arrived in Denver four days before SSJ started and was staying with a friend of mine. One morning as I was having my quiet time, I got my iTouch out to listen to music. When I turned it on, there was a zoomed in map of Brazil on it. I had only used the map app one other time, and it was to look up a place in my hometown. The search bar even said, "Siloam Springs, Arkansas". That was the first time I considered going to Brazil, and God has confirmed it several times since then. Our team will be flying to southern Brazil to a large city called, Curitiba. We are partnering with YWAM Brazil to launch an evangelistic outreach in a city to the north. We will also have many opportunities to serve in other areas like street ministry, sports ministry and campus ministry. I am so excited to be able to serve in Latin America, and to use the Portuguese I learned while in Mozambique. God is so faithful, and I know that He will provide for all of my needs. The outreach is $3,700, this includes all airfare, food, lodging...everything. The payment plan is split in two, meaning that the first payment($1,850) is due on Tuesday, October 18. The second half is due three weeks later. I already have about $1,000 saved for the first payment, but I still need $850.00 by tomorrow. I have sent letters out already, and am prepared to do whatever God leads me to in order to go. I ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting me financially. Any amount that God lays on your heart helps. I am so thankful at what He has provided already, and I am excited to see Him continue to move. If you feel led to support me, you can call: 303-424-1144 and pay with a credit card, or you can send a check. Please make all checks payable to YWAM Denver. The address is: 12750 W. 63rd Ave
Arvada CO, 80004. If you have any questions please email me at katecouey@gmail.com. I love you all, and I hope you are blessed.

In Christ,
Kate Couey

School Of Social Justice

Hey Everyone!
I have officially been in Denver for about three and a half weeks now. So far it's been a pretty crazy ride. The first week was the ever fun "Bonding Week" which consists of testimonies, introductions and a lot of other basic information about the base and the schools. The second week, we dived head first into a week of teaching on God and Suffering. It was about God and His control, specifically related to issues of injustice. It was really interesting to hear about this, because I often hear people ask the question, "Why does God let bad things happen". I never know how to answer this, but our teacher Peter Warren(the leader of YWAM Denver) gave us a lot of Scripture and useful information to help answer these difficult questions. This past week our entire base went to Colorado Springs. We joined together with the four other YWAM bases in Colorado for a conference called Acts 1. The focus of this conference was revival. It was so amazing to see how God moved. The leaders of each base would get together each evening to pray and seek God on what He wanted to do each day. We did not follow a specific plan, but rather opened it up to allow the Holy Spirit to do exactly what He wanted to. God met us there, His Kingdom invaded that conference and lives were radically changed. God has been refining me in the fire of His love these past few weeks and He's been so faithful to show me His heart. I am excited to see what these next few months hold! I am praying for you all, and I hope you have a blessed day.

In Christ,
Kate Couey