final report :)

I am so very grateful for all that God has taught me through this mission trip that I recently returned from. Thank you so much for all of your support, whether in prayers of finances. God certainly used you in my life to pour His love on me and over 5,000 people with whom my team and I shared the gospel. There is so much to share with you, and if you would like to hear more than what I share, please email me or call me and I would love to tell you more stories of how God worked in my life and the people around me. In this email, I highlighted the basic details of what we actually did and an event in which the Lord greatly opened my eyes to His love. You can read simply that and basically understand what happened or you can read the details which I have added. Again, thank you so much for your support!

My trip was actually two parts. The first three weeks, I was in the Rio Grande Valley which is by South Padre. There, my team of 21 and I were divided in half. The first week, we were all together doing a Vacation Bible School in a “colonia” and 2 church services. The second week, we were split and had an equal amount of work to do. My team visited Buckner’s Children Home in Harlingen and a Children’s Hospital, held 2 VBS (one in a church and one in a neighborhood), and participated in 2 more church services. The last week, we were all together again. We partnered with a local church called “Casa de Oracion,” which means “House of Prayer,” and held 2 worship nights in the surrounding community and one college seminar at their church.

While I was in the Valley, God showed me:

· That He gifted me to work with children and music. The second week when we went to one of the church services, my team thought that we were simply going to participate in the service; however, when we arrived , they told the congregation that we would be leading music and preaching the sermon. Wow! In thirty minutes, my friends Denise and Cheko and I prepared to sing. I had been in choir for 12 years and never sung a solo in English on stage, but my friends and I sung in Spanish in front of the congregation. Through that, the Lord showed me my passion and gift of worship through song. I am not sure how He is going to use that in the future, but I am pretty sure that He will.

· That He has for sure given me a passion for the Spanish people.

· More of how to relate to non-Christians.

· Many more things, but these were the big ones.

The second part of the trip, I went with a different team of 11 to Nicaragua. Although my mom joked that I was going there to be on the show “Survivor” (they are in Nicaragua this season), my team and I partnered with a local church and went door to door passing out discipleship books one per family. Most of us were in teams of 3 or 4 Americans and 3 or 4 Nicaraguans; however, I was only partnered with the pastor of the church. In total, the whole team passed out over 5,000 books and walked over 72 miles (This averages to 8 miles a day, which was a lot compared to my normal of 0 miles a day. Lol )

While I was in Nicaragua, God showed me:

· that He desires for His children to follow Him close enough to be in constant communication with Him. It is not about making the right decisions or going in the right direction. Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Through walking with the pastor every day, I learned what it means to truly walk with someone instead of just walking the same path. Many days, I was too tired to keep up and wanted to simply sit down, but by walking with pastor I was able to learn so much more and enjoy it more also. It is the same way, with our walk with God. It is not just about walking in the right direction on the right path, but truly walking with our God daily in prayer and reading our Bible. As cliché as that sounds, this was a huge lesson for me.

· Love has no boundaries. Despite my inability to speak Spanish and communicate with the Nicaraguans, I was still able to love them in action by praying for them and serving them in whatever way I could.

· That everyone is poor in their own way. Although the Nicaragua people live on less than $1 per day, their love for each other and their family shines brightly. They are willing to work hard for the gospel to be spread because their passion for God is built around Him. They love God for who He is, not for the physical provisions or simply because everyone else is worshiping God. They are also extremely servant-hearted. Many days, they would carry our bags without us even asking. One lady got up a 3:30 every morning to clean her house, make food for her family, and then be at the church to clean up our mess and pass out books with us. Nicaraguan love is extremely genuine, selfless, and rich.

· To be thankful for all the provisions I have in America.

· How to simply rest in Him and trust Him instead of constantly being busy in service. Despite our discomfort and lack of “necessities,” the hardest part of the trip for me was the fact that I wasn’t busy doing something at every moment. As many of you know, my normal life consists of 3 jobs, 2 ministries or organizations, and a lot of hanging out with people. I love everything that I do and in which I am involved, but God showed me that I was loving to serve Him more than simply loving Him. It was so hard for me to only pass out books in the morning and have the whole afternoon and evening to relax. At first, it frustrated me that we weren’t doing more, but then I just started sleeping 5 hours when we would get back every day. I felt extremely guilty for not doing something and sleeping instead, but then God showed me that He was only providing me with a time to rest and read His word which is equally as important as acts of service.

· Every individual that has ever lived on earth, that is living on earth, and that will live on earth is made in God’s image. We all, no matter who we are, have His fingerprints on our character and lives. Sometimes I have a hard time seeing this in people, instead I see their sin. The Lord definitely challenged me to start looking for His character in every individual that I meet and know.

The greatest thing that He showed me over the trip was that He loves me. Last semester, I was studying the gospels in which the major theme is God’s grace. I found myself unable to admit that God would love me. I have made so many mistakes and even when I try to right, I do wrong. I simply didn’t feel loved by Him. I knew what the Bible says and could tell anybody and everybody that God loves them, but telling myself that God loves me was extremely difficult. I daily prayed for the Lord to show me that He loves me. I did not know how He would or even if He would answer such a selfish prayer, but I prayed in the hope that He would. Oh how He answered this prayer of mine! Two nights before we left Nicaragua, we had a service with just our American teams. Our leaders read the passage out of Matthew where Jesus washed the disciples feet and then washed our feet. Next, the missionary that we had been working with noted how we were all sitting out on a patio in a circle of rocking chairs. In the middle, was a table with about 20 beautifully painted and polished miniature vases. In the center of all them, was a vase that was neither polished nor painted. Then Loren, the missionary, had us read Isaiah 53 which states:

¹ Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He asked for one volunteer to read each verse. I raised my hand first; however, I read verse five. Right before I read, the Lord almost audibly said, “Katie, I love you. I am about to amaze you and remind you how much I do. This verse is important.” I don’t remember any of the other verses being read aloud, but I remember reading verse 5 and word by word, God revealed to me personally His love for me. I thought He was done there, but of course the Lord always has more planned for ourselves than we do. After I read the verse, Loren asked me to come to the table which now only contained the unpolished vase. He handed me a hammer. He asked me to just like the verse said, crush the vase which represented Jesus. How could I crush it while it represented my Lord and Savior? I tried to smash it three times, all the while shaking my head no in my inability. Loren then whispered to me, reminding me that Jesus chose to be smashed and broken for my sin, for our sins. As my heart pounded and my hand shook with the hammer, thoughts ran through my head, “How could Jesus Christ choose that? And all that we can be with Him forever? We are so undeserving, we have turned our backs too many times to count. Why, why would He joyfully, die for me? Love. He loved me so much that He chose to die for my life and my sins. He took my penalty for my sin, for my brokenness.” Loren then helped me crush the vase, embraced me with encouragement, and told me to sit back down. Wow, how God answered my prayers and faithfully showed me that He loves me. I had wanted something tangible to tell of His love, and that is exactly what He provided. What an amazing God we serve!

Well, as you have read God did mighty things throughout the five weeks of the trip. Please continue to pray for the Nicaraguan people and the families in the Valley. Also, praise Him for all that He did for He was so faithful to answer everything that I asked for prayer about. Lastly, please take about five minutes to thank Him for His love and reflect on how He has provided for you in the past.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! They were greatly appreciated

Love,

Katie

my address :)

Many of yall asked for a mailing address so I am going to give yall the one I will have until June 18th.

email:kaitlin.hager46@buc.blinn.edu
address: Katie Hager
1601 W. Schunior
Edinburg, TX 78541
phone: I will be contacting yall if I can.

Love you!

Hey Everbody! Thank you so much for even thinking of supporting me either with prayers and/or finances. As a Christian, I believe that God calls His children to share the gospel with the people that we are close to, with the people in our nation or state, and with the people all over the world. This summer, He is calling me to specifically go with GO NOW Missions to South Texas along the Rio Grande River and also either to Cuba, Venezuela, or Mexico. The trip will be from May 31st to July 3rd. The first 3 weeks I will spend along the river, and I get to choose one of the three places for the next two weeks. Please pray that God shows me where to go for those two weeks. In the Valley, I will work on a team of 17 other student missionaries by serving with community organizations, local churches, and hospitals. We will be helping people of all ages and leading Christian youth to do the same through Vacation Bible School, Youth rallies, various service projects, community block parties, and several other opportunities that God will open up.
I would love for you to take part in what God is going to do on this trip. Although He is calling me to go, please pray and see if He is calling you to support me. Because I do need $2,300 to go, I need your help in any way that you can, whether that means a minute of prayer or an amount of money. I will periodically send out prayer requests before and during the trip through this group and keep you posted on how God is providing for it, but for now please pray that Lord begins to prepare my heart and the heart of the people in South Texas that my group will interact with on this trip.
I am super excited to go! Not only do I get the chance to share the gospel with others, I also plan to be fluent in Spanish by the time the trip is over. Because God has given me the direction to work with people of the Latin American culture, I am excited that He has provided the chance for me to learn their language. If you have any questions regarding my trip, how you can support me, or simply if you want to talk about our amazing and gracious Savior Jesus Christ, PLEASE message me.
If you would like to find out more about GO NOW here is there website www.gonowmissions.com.
If you would like to donate online, the website is http://www.gonowmissions.com/home/give-now.html. Simply fill in your information, click “Donation for a Student's Mission Trip”, enter my name in the blank, and enter the amount you are willing to donate. All donations are tax exempt.

Mission trip orientation

This weekend was the orientation for all the GO NOW Mission trips this summer. What a blessing it was to be around such awesome people and get to meet some of the people that I will be serving with on my trip. God revealed so much to me over such a short weekend.


First off, I wanna say how interesting it was because it was held on the DBU campus where I used to attend but I was with my A&M family. Through this, the Lord reminded me why I had transferred schools and that different simply means different. Both are awesome schools full of awesome people and God is active on both campuses; however they are each different in their own ways. God reminded me that although DBU has awesome qualities, it is not where He has placed me for now. I need to not look back at the past and wish I was there, but accept the current calling He has placed on my life and serve Him wholeheartedly wherever I am.

Secondly, He taught me what an underground church looks like and how uncomfortable they are compared to our churches in the states. On Friday night, we had a mock underground church. A secret invitation was passed to random people at dinner with a password to get into the service. We were not allowed to speak of the service so that we would not get caught by "security." There were no lights at the service, but there were lots of mosquitos unfortunately! We couldn't have our Bibles out nor could we be loud in fear of being caught by the "security." Through this mock church, Father taught me how grateful we should be as Americans for the comfort of our churches and the ability to gather freely with other believers. I feel like alot of times, I just take for granted the opportunity to meet with other believers and worship/talk about God. I take for granted the fact that I have 5 Bibles when some people around the world have 0. I certainly take for granted the ability to share the gospel and be loud about my faith. Yes, there is fear in sharing the gospel with our friends or family that we see daily, but I should be more bold to share because I am not limited by anything but my fear and Father can certainly conquer that fear!

2 Timothy 1:7-12 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day."

Thirdly, right after I left the service, I ran into the "security" with three other girls with me. They questioned us about the service, like if we had gone, if we were Christians, and why we believed in the "crazy religion." God also used these mock discussions to increase my faith and humble me. I can now understand more of what people all over the world deal with in nations where Christianity is illegal, and my heart goes out to them in prayer and love. In order to answer questions concerning God and why I believe, I had to pull up all the truth I know and formulate an answer on the spot. Because I was pretending the situation was real, I was ashamed that I did not have a perfect answer right away. Having grown up in a Christian school for ten years and going to thousands of church services in my life, I had almost gotten to the point where I thought I knew the majority of the answers about my faith. O how wrong I was! I do know what I believe, but being able to share my faith when someone is unwilling to understand and believes something completely different was incredibly challenging and encouraged me to search the scriptures in order to be prepared to share the gospel at any moment. I certainly have a lot to learn, but the biggest lesson I took away from that discussion is the fact that I will never have all the answers perfectly but praise Him because He does! I realized that I should have more of those discussions with the people around me daily who really do have different beliefs and the importance of prayer in those moments. I learned that the biggest thing that I can do is pray to Father. How humbling it is to realize that by myself I am nothing, but through Him I can face anything that comes, yet how powerful at the same time!

Well...I could go on and on about what Father taught me over the weekend, but I just wanted to share with yall the highlights and hopefully yall can learn about what I am learning. I also want to ask for prayer in conversations while I am in Texas and Nicaragua. Pray that God will bring many conversations and that He will give me the words to say in each one. Pray that He will be opening eyes, hearts, and ears all over the world this summer to receive His truth. Pray that we as a body will continually be willing to serve, love, and learn in any circumstance on our trips (whether that means my trip to Nicaragua or your trip to the pool or grocery store.) I know God is going to be doing a lot of molding and cleaning of my heart, and I greatly want to be willing to follow Him whatever that means. Please for discipline in prayer and reading of the Word for me. It's really easy for me to be others motivated, but I want to follow God to follow Him and not do it because it is what "I should do" or because "It looks good." He has taught me a lot in this area this past year, and I only want to learn more while I am on my trip.

Also, please praise Him for all these things He has shown me and taught me! Praise Him because He is a mighty, powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, and intimate God. Praise Him in advance for all the individuals that are going to come to know Him this summer through mission trips or just the daily living of His followers! Praise Him that we have an opportunity to partner with Him to accomplish the purpose of His creation -- worshipping Him and teaching others to do the same. Praise Him for the fellowship that we have with other believers and all the people He has placed in our lives to help us grow in our faith in Him. Praise Him for all the little blessings that we take for granted, because many around the world do not have even the simple things of our life.

Thank you so much for praying for me and taking time to see what God is doing in my life and the lives of those around me! I greatly appreciate it! If you have anything that I can be praying for you about, please message me on facebook or send me an email. I would love to pray for you about anything!

Love,
a daughter of the King