About Me

Hi, I'm "Katherine".  Welcome to my blog! I have been blogging for 2 years now. I started over at homeschoolblogger.com and decided to try Blogger to see if it would be easier to use.  I enjoy writing about anything and everything.   I'm fairly eclectic in my choice of topics.  Most of my posts are about my relationship with Jesus, social/Biblical justice, poverty, addictions, the America church, missions, theology, homeschooling, homemaking, ministry and my family. 

Let me tell you a little bit about myself, my journey, and my current ministry.  I came to know Jesus as my savior 28 years ago, when I was a freshman in high school.  My husband, "Eric" and I have been married for almost 20 years.  We have three beautiful daughters whom I homeschool.  I have been homeschooling for 10 years now.  I started when our oldest daughter, "Emma" was in Kindergarten.

After graduating from Biola University and completing graduate school at California State University, I worked for 10 years as a speech-language pathologist in the public school system (grades K-6).  Once we began to have children, Eric started working from our home so that he could take care of them while I was at work.  As my children got older, I felt a strong call on my life to be home with them and to homeschool my oldest.  I switched from working full time and shared a contract with another speech-language pathologist for 5 years in the district where I worked.

During this time, Eric and I also served as administrative missionaries with a missions agency that facilitated short term trips to the border regions of Mexico.  For the first 15 years of our marriage, we spent between 8 to 14 weeks out of the year in Mexico.  Because this schedule was difficult to maintain with small children, and because we were not able to raise the amount of support we needed to earn a living, we made the transition to a salaried position in pastoral ministry back in 2006.

Upon making this decision, we moved several states away from our home, I became a full time homeschool mom, and my husband served as assistant pastor at a church for a little over 3 1/2 years.  To be honest, this was one of the most difficult times in my life.  It was hard to transition from a missionary mindset to a pastoral one.  We felt very stifled at times by church politics, programs, and the pressure to perform and maintain a certain image (whether this was real or imagined I'm still not certain.  I just know that is how I felt).  Many times my husband would come home frustrated, and say "I feel like I am just playing church.  I don't feel like I'm doing anything that is really making a difference in God's kingdom."

Looking back, we both wish we would have handled things differently.  God revealed to us areas of sin in our lives that were contributing to the problem.  Sins such as arrogance, pride and self righteousness hindered our ability to "roll with things" and try and work within the system.  God forced us on a path of humility that neither one of us was prepared to take.

During this time, I entered a time of depression that was very significant in my life. I had never experienced this before and I felt very, very alone.  I was in a new place, in a new ministry, and felt new expectations placed on me.  One of the pastor's wives told me we were to be Proverbs 31 women at all times.  Talk about pressure! 

Throughout this period, I cried out to God continuously.  I wasn't prepared for the amount of spiritual warfare I would need to engage in.  In my time of despair, He revealed to me several areas of my life that needed to be adjusted.  I mentioned some of those areas above.  He also showed me that I was becoming a very resentful and bitter about situations and relationships I couldn't control.  He showed me that I had been relying far too much on my friendships for support and comfort rather than seeking to develop a closer relationship with Him.  He showed me that I had been pursuing safety, comfort, and pleasure over living a life of radical obedience to Him.  He showed me I basically was caught up in a Christianized version of the American dream and that I lived far too much in this world rather than living in light of eternity.

After wallowing in a depressive state for about 2 years, God began to bring me out of it through a series of events.  In addition to leaning into God through personal Bible study and prayer, I started a homeschooling moms Bible study that became a significant source of encouragement and support for three years.  I also began to fill my mind with content found in Christian podcasts from Oneplace.com (we don't have a good Christian radio station where I live).  Furthermore, I was able to begin connecting with some Christian ladies outside our church, in whom I could confide.Most importantly, my husband and I began to minister, through Celebrate Recovery (CR), to the children of those caught in chemical dependency addictions.

Through CR, we became friends with several of the kids' parents who were recovering addicts.  Being around these new friends was like a breath of fresh air in our lives.  In them we found an absence of pretense; they brought a spirit of authenticity we were longing for.  These friendships also gave me an attitude of gratitude and contentment for things I had always taken for granted.  Things like a two parent, abuse free, drug and alcohol free home; a Christian upbringing; educational opportunities; a spacious home with a yard; a functional car; heat; and electricity were amenities in my life that, up to this point, I hadn't thought very much about.

Around this same time, we had also begun busing kids from a local trailer park to various programs at the church where my husband worked.  In addition to busing kids to activities, we would host special events in the trailer park a few times a year, like having a BBQ and bounce house set up, partnering with a local non-profit to do backpack distribution, etc.

Eventually, our bus driver mentioned to us the idea of  using a trailer as a ministry center so that we could better serve the people God had called us to in the trailer park. We began to pray about this idea and really felt God leading us toward making it happen. We initially were planning to do this through our church, but it became apparent that in order for this kind of ministry to be successful, it couldn't be attached to any one "name brand".  We needed the benefit of all the spiritual gifts available through the larger body of Christ, "The Church", in our community.  So we resigned from pastoral ministry and formed a non-profit organization that is a partnership of 8 different protestant churches in our town.  Click here and here to get an idea of the kinds of ministry activities we do in the trailer.

We have never been more satisfied in ministry than we have been since we began this new adventure.  We have had to rely on God's provision for everything from our daily bread, to wisdom in ministering to friends whose backgrounds and lifestyles are vastly different from ours.  We have made some great friends, and have heard one heartbreaking story after another of  childhood abuse and neglect.  Above all, we have had more opportunities to share the Gospel than we ever had in all our years of ministry.

More and more God continues to reveal Himself to us as we take each step of faith. This has been so stretching, but very satisfying as God continues to reveal Himself to us through answered prayer. Our trust in Him through this process continues to build, giving us more courage to take more risks.