I Can't Wait

The journey of planning this trip has been ridiculous. So many ups and downs, so many twists and turns. Our current focus has by necessity been fundraising, which can be really difficult. And with a to-do list that is a mile long, as I am still in school that's going full swing, things have been pretty crazy.

Tonight, in an effort to focus my heart,  I was browsing some Zambia pictures and this one jumped out at me:

I caught sight of the sign. Shop Rite. oh joy of all joys. I was overcome with an ecstatic joy that soon I'd be in Shop Rite again. (There is one in Kampala I got to visit several times and it was like a magical wonderland. It's just a normal grocery store.. but when you've been living in a smaller town with only supermarkets, it's overwhelming.)

And then I was flooded with reminders. And I just can't wait.

I'm excited to hear Mzungu! Mzungu! everywhere I go (Or perhaps a different word for white person. I'll find out quickly I'm sure. haha)  I can't wait for crowded taxi rides, eating chapatis, and MTN signs everywhere. I want to buy some Omo washing powder to wash my clothes with (it smells the best for sure!) I'm excited for the ever-changing plans and the steady rhythm of the Zambian day, run more by relationships and less by the clock. Bring on the mozzy nets, the squatty potties, and the Ugali (Posho). Oh my heart is leaping at all of these things. I cannot wait. Fresh pineapples, mangos, and passion fruit. YUM. People whose hearts are huge and smiles are as big and warm as the sun. Jajas wrapped in their colorful clothes. Goats. Chickens on the taxi. Having a million reasons to shrug it off with "T.I.A!" Life in the bush bush. I cannot wait.

And yet, these memories are all from far away lands. Zambia will be similar to Uganda in many respects. And yet, I cannot wait to see the differences. Zambia, I cannot wait to meet you. To learn your phrases, names, places, sights and sounds. I'm excited to meet your people, hear your stories, and sing your songs.

Then there's South Africa. Ahhh. Words fail me. I seriously can't even wait. Dear ZA, I've been dreaming of you for more than four full years now. I've heard so much about you, I've basically already fallen in love with you, I can't wait to meet you for real. The anticipation? Be still my heart. I just might jump out of my skin. :D

My first trip to the beloved continent found me an 18 year old, bright eyed optimist ready to change the world for Jesus. I had great intentions but was so clueless as to where I was really going. Not only that, passion & good intentions will only get you so far. This time, I'm 23 and I definitely don't even remotely have it figured out. I've realized that while Jesus lives in me, He also lives in you. And we can help each other see Him even more clearly. This time I don't just come with passion, I come trained and equipped to serve you. I have gifts to give you, beloved ones, and I can't wait to give them!

Oh, beloved continent, I've been waiting a long time to see you again. :)
and I'm overjoyed with anticipation!
See you soon!
Love,
Kati Rose

Winning.

Today was a day of winning.

FINALLY.

As a first year teacher, teaching a subject I didn't even know before I started (8th Grade Latin?!)
it's been a rough year. I've been chained to my book. Students would ask me if they had done a translation right and I would have no idea. I'd have to look up the answers. It was hard.  I made mistakes all the time. We were learning together and I was only one step ahead of them, if that, most of the time. And yet, slowly by slowly, I have been getting better. My understanding of the subject has grown. (And amazingly, so has theirs!)  So today was full of winning. I  was book free. I only has to check one answer, and it turns out I was right all along. Today I could look at the sentences my students were translating, and I could translate them in my head! I could tell them they were right, or wrong. And the amazing thing is that they are getting it too! Some students have done great all year long, while others have REALLY struggled. And today, in another big "win" of a moment, one of my students who had struggled all year, asked me to check a sentence he had translated, and it was PERFECT! He did it right, on his own, on his first try. And it was a little bit tricky. I was SO proud! They are getting it! It makes my teacher heart so happy! Granted, this is super basic Latin, but this is an incredible victory for all of us. Joy, oh joy! Not to mention, today was Friday, and a beautiful "spring" day. Oh, goodness, I've been in Texas too long, this is summer weather in WA for sure. So, today I am celebrating the goodness of God and His grace to us.

So, this is me, and this is what I do. 

My name is Miss Johnston, and I am an 8th Grade Latin Teacher, who, by the grace of God, wins.

Dusty Barren Land

Rain.
It is good for my soul.
I love it.
It feels like home.
It puts a smile on my face.
Yup, even in the perpetually rainy Pacific North West.

I love the sound of rain.
I love falling asleep to it. Or waking up to it.
I love hearing it on a metal roof.
I love a glorious torrential downpour.
I love the warm rain in Uganda.
I love that magical misty rain in WA.
And puddle jumping? OH SO MUCH FUN.
Especially in my cute polka dot rain boots!
And dancing in the rain? it's the best.

See, what's fantastic is that rain brings life. You can see it in the incredible green-ness of western WA.
And thus, lack of rain brings death. As I see daily in dry, dusty, drought-ravaged east Texas.
You see, here we haven't had enough rain in a looong time. Dead trees. Dead leaves. Dead Cows.

but do you know what else is utterly amazing about rain?
God says that is what His Word is like!
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." -Isaiah 55:10-11

Now, when it rains, things always get wet. Everything. The ground soaks up the water, the plants drink it, and everything turns lush and green and happy. Why? Because we need water to have life!

Do you know what else is true? We need God's word to have life! We need Him, desperately. He is our love, He is our life, He is our Lord. Without Him we are dead. And so, when I don't have enough of Him in my life, when I am not spending enough time soaking up in His word, I start to see dead patches in my heart. The leaves turn brown, the grass gets crunchy, and I start to look and feel haggard. God's word brings me life, it reveals to me more of what He is like, so I can fall more and more in love with God and know HIm better and better. Which the Bible says is life in John 17:3.

Also, God says His word is like snow.
Snow inspires wonder. It makes us giddy with delight.
We love snow. We sing songs about it. We pray for it at Christmas. We make paper cut-outs of it and tape them to our windows.
God's word is like that too.
It should inspire wonder. not just at the words, but at the Speaker, Himself.
Seeing who God is, hearing what He's done, and how much He loves us, should make us giddy with delight.
In Psalm 119:103 it is declared that God's words are sweeter than honey!
I want a love like this. I want to love God and His word this way.
It's not always easy.
Believe me, when reading the Bible is your homework, it can sometimes be difficult to engage your heart.
I want to declare that I love you, Lord, and this love is worth the work and the fight and the everyday ordinary moments.
So...
"Let it rain, let it pour, what we have is worth fighting for!"

Constant.

This was one of my homework questions today. And I was overwhelmed by it. So I thought I'd share my answer.

48. Discuss the interaction you've had with the providence and sovereignty of God in your life. How has God directed you, how have you responded? If you feel you screwed it up do you believe God is creative enough to use it in the best way?

My lanta. Uhh.. I wasn’t aware you wanted us to write an autobiography for a homework question. ☺
Welcome to my life. God’s providence and sovereignty? Constant. Everywhere. In Everything. In the face of the darkest darkness I could ever imagine? Absolutely.

Honestly, I could write for hours, hundreds of pages. God is faithful; He never abandons me. I could talk for hours about everything I have seen God do in my life. Just thinking about it is moving me to tears. He is so good.

I have seen God’s providence in the little things, like cars.
I have seen His providence in the big things like family and guiding me all over the world.
I have seen it in terrible tragedy.
I have seen it in glorious joy.
I have seen the providence of God in more incredible friendships than I can number.
I have seen it in financial provision, in His comfort on a rainy night.
I have seen it in the moon and the stars and felt in the joy of a smile that just can’t stop, a heart that is overflowing with joy that moves me to do happy dances all over the place, and the kind of laughter that you just can’t stop, and leaves you with sore abs afterwards.
I’ve seen it in a taxi that came along in the middle of a monsoon on a random dirt back road in the middle of a Ugandan village.
I’ve seen it in a kindergarten class in a small Christian school in East Texas that once terrified me, who ended up stealing my heart.
I’ve seen it everywhere: in my life, in the lives of friends & family, in the lives of random strangers.
All in all, I can say this: God’s providence is constant.

up to date!

Oh me, oh my.
Once again, I have completely neglected this blog.
My apologies.
Life has been crazy. If I ever thought it was crazy before, I had no idea!
Let's see...
I am 3 days and 1 exam away from being a Latin teacher for an entire semester.

Some of my students performing a skit in Latin. It's about beards. :)

Which is crazy. I am so stretched and challenged in more ways than I could ever imagine, every single day in the classroom. It is a time for me to learn grace, to learn to lean on God, and to walk humbly before everyone, including my students. I feel like I am constantly making mistakes, some with the actual language work, and some with the teaching, which is hard. However, I am definitely learning 1,000 ways NOT to teach Latin, as well as few ways to actually teach Latin. I do have some consolation in that my students actually know more Latin than they did at the beginning of the year, so we are actually learning! Yippee!

Last month I went on a week-long pastoral outreach in Michigan!

Jess & I at an amazing coffee shop called Lemonjello! :D
It was amazing. I got to visit my lovely lovely friend Jessica and work with her church. Having been on staff at a similar-size church previously, it was very cool to see how another church did things. I learned a lot and got to work with amazing people! And on either end of this outreach, I got to stop in Chicago and spend time with my wonderful friend Brian who is attending school at Wheaton College. The whole thing was amazingly divinely orchestrated and filled my soul to the full. Oh, it was glorious. :D


Brian & I at the Bean in Chicago!

School of the Bible itself has been great. We have excellent teaching and I am learning to see God in a whole new way. He is so incredibly gracious and loving and kind.
Last week and this week we've been tackling the Nature of God, which primarily has had to do with God's foreknowledge. It's intense to say the least. We've been examining different views of what it means that God is all-knowing and the implications of each view. My brain hurts constantly. But it's been a time to really ask the hard questions and find out if my thinking lines up with what the Bible expresses on the issue.
Looking Ahead:

OUTREACH!
We've got two more outreaches in this school! And I am excited for both of them.

THe next one is coming in March. We'll spend a week doing teachings and working with local ministries.
We were just presented with location options yesterday, so I am still praying through them.
our choices?
-Houston, TX
-Florida
-Mexico

And... our main outreach in July?

I am going to ZAMBIA! That's right, folks, my return to Africa is imminent!
:D
Also, I am tacking on a 2.5 week trip to South Africa to visit a friend and check out ministry opportunities.
Hooray!!
So.. I'll be spending 6.5 weeks in Africa this summer. Woot Woot!

And...
We'll be doing the Proverbs Project
which is a scientific inductive study of the book of Proverbs.
Before Christmas break.
Oh my.
I am excited.
It will be crazy.
But I know I am going to learn heaps!

Hooray! Christmas Break! I CANNOT WAIT to come home to the glorious PNW and see my wonderful family and friends. :D

A Tail of Two Goats

We were given an assignment to tell the events of Leviticus 16 (The Day of Atonement) in story form.

Behold, I give you:
A Tail of Two Goats By John Martindale, Rachel Kelley, & KatiRose Johnston
*Note: this story may be a bit irreverent at times, but we believe in a God who laughs :)

Once upon a time, in a land sort of far away, there lived two goats: Mahli and Mushi. These were no ordinary goats, pecked at by chickens or chased by the dogs, they were pampered goats, who oft lunched on their master Aaron’s linen underwear.



Mahli & Mushi were not the only animals of the house; they had a good friend, Bartholomew the bull. He loved to eat grass, swat flies with his tail, and in his eyes there dwelt a certain type of rage and fire, more blazing than Bob the other Bull. One day Mahli & Mushi observed something most disconcerting: their master came out, quite in a tizzy, and took Bartholomew the bull away. They heard him murmur under his breath, “Lest I become BBQ, like my sons became BBQ, I will take the bull instead of me.”



Many minutes passed restlessly, until Aaron, their master, returned. Bartholomew was nowhere to be seen, and Aaron’s previously spotless white garments were stained a shocking shade of crimson. Suddenly, Mahli had an epiphany. He turned to Mushi and eloquently waxed: “Roses are red, violets are blue, our master came home without Bartholomew.” Mushi responded, “What could this mean? What did he do? Could this be the end of me and you?” Then Aaron walked to the corner of house, and away scampered a scared little mouse. With one fell swoop he grabbed the dice. The goats mused, “this could be nice. Perhaps, this could mean games and fun.” But his face turned solemn and he said, “My dear little goats, come.“ 


He lead them to the Tent of Meeting where scared little sheep could be heard bleating. And he took up the dice in his hand, and let them fall into the sand. As they fell, and he saw them lay, his gaze turned Malhi’s way.


As they trudged along, something frightening came into view: a bull roasting, it looked like a giant BBQ. Petrified, he wondered within, could this be Bartholomew, who paid the price for my master and his kin? And onward his master walked, until at the Ark of the Covenant they stopped.



And his master slowly pulled from his side a knife. It glimmered in the candlelight. And upon the ground, he took a knee. And said, with tears in his eyes, “Malhi, I am so sorry. The Israelite people have made lots of mistakes. They’ve rebelled against the Lord and profaned His name. They have prostituted their hearts with idolatry to the golden calf, which “accidentally” came out of the fire I kindled; thus, the BBQ. So God has chosen you, to make these people holy, to wipe their slate clean, and be foreshadowing of the greatest thing mankind has ever seen. This is a picture of One’s who coming as a sacrifice once and for all. So that goats like you won’t have to take the fall. Then, grievously, Aaron put the knife to his throat. And that was the end of Malhi the goat. His blood was poured upon the alter, he paid the momentary price. But unfortunately there was more to this sacrifice.

Mushi, saw his master returned, and once again wondered what could be the meaning. Where was his friend? Would this bloodbath ever end? Bewildered, he looked into Aaron’s eyes, sure that his fate would soon include his demise. What happened next was much to his surprise. As his master laid his hands upon his head, the confessions he heard filled him with dread. Aaron spoke of every imaginable heinous, abhorrent, detestable, nefarious, odious, atrocious, flagrant, villainous and pernicious act that could be done. From the least to the greatest, sin was partaken in by everyone. What was to be done? Aaron lifted his hands and ushered him away into a room where the chosen man bathed. “Get out of the tub, there’ s no longer any need to scrub. You’re clean! Now take this goat far away to the wastelands, nevermore to be seen”. So they journeyed over the hills and far away, around the bushes, and past stacks of hay, until no house or vineyard could be seen, they even crossed a great ravine. With the chosen one no longer in sight, Mushi realized the magnitude of his plight. Forlorn, he wandered aimlessly, and turned and tossed, he knew that he was desperately lost. Thus he carried their sins far, far away, into the setting sun and the end of the day.

So, children, when you’re tempted to sin, remember the predicament Mushi the goat is in.

Why?

"I thought you wanted to go to Africa. Why are you going to spend another year in Texas?"

Good question.

"Those five reasons you're excited about SOTB sound great, but pretty personal-growth centered. How is this missions? Where does this fit into your vision for missions in the future?"

Also good question.

Answer:

First off, here's my vision: To disciple nations through the education of children
(Yes, those nations are hopefully African ones, but if God calls me somewhere else, I am not saying I won't go :) )

That's a big vision.

In Uganda the greatest need I saw within the church was the need for good discipleship. There are so many people who have such passion for serving and following Jesus, which is awesome! However, there is a HUGE LACK of good teaching, and of sound doctrine. Many pastors have never really learned how to study the Bible. Tradition, weird theology, and beliefs from past tribal religions have been mixed together. A Biblical view of God's nature and character is ESSENTIAL for right relationship with Him.

Children are the most receptive age group to the Gospel. 80% of people who come to Christ do so before the age of 12. Long-term they are the most effective to disciple as well, as they have their entire life ahead of them! They can meet Jesus at a young age and choose to follow Him, making wise decisions as they grow avoiding so much unnecessary baggage and heartache. Also, I absolutely ADORE children and have been blessed to already spend so many years teaching them about Jesus.

Education? Math, Reading, Spelling, Science kind of school? Yes! Why?
Do you know how many hours a week children are in school?
6 hours a day x 5 days a week = 30 hours of influence per week.
30 hours per week x 31 weeks of school = 930 hours of influence in 9 months.

Wohoo! Now can you imagine if children spent those 930 hours learning not only how to read, write, reason, do arithmetic, and science, but seeing God as the author of each subject? If each day, in each subject they saw how it revealed WHO GOD IS (aka His character and nature)? What if the motivation for going to school wasn't just so you didn't end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life, but to know God and love Him more and to be more like Him? Sound impossible? It's not. That's the kind of school I got to student teach Kindergarten in last year, and where I'll get to teach Latin this year!

So, how does School Of The Bible (SOTB) fit into all of this?
If I want to be a teacher in a school that aims to base every subject on the truths of God's Word, and reveals His character and nature, I'd better have a solid, Biblical understanding of God's nature and character, and a solid knowledge of how to study the Bible and interpret things IN CONTEXT!

If I am called to disciple others, I'd better make sure that my own foundation is secure and surely founded on the Word of God. I had better make sure that my vision of God is correct, before I say "follow me as I follow Christ".

Doctors need years and years of training before they fully begin their work. Why would missionaries, who are doing a job that is just as important, think that they need hardly any training? I want to be the most effective and successful that I can when I finally am back in Africa (or wherever). I want to be trained well, and this is an EXCELLENT place to be trained.

As a bonus, I get tons of extra teaching experience and an opportunity to put this whole Biblical foundation of education into practice!

Any more questions? I am happy to answer them!