The End of a Season

About two hours ago I got a call asking if I wanna go to Guyana to help with follow-up for the new believers who gave their hearts to the Lord this weekend... I'll be leaving in about 7 hours! Be praying for me please this next week that God works through me and the team and that we are effective in discipleship!

My time at the kindergarten has come to an end. I can safely say it was the hardest, and the best experience I've ever had in my life. I loved those children more than I knew I could ever love anyone, and I did my earthly best to show them God's Love, which is infinitely deeper than my own. I succeeded at times, and failed at times, but either way, He was there to push me foreword. It's surreal to have gotten into such a routine and a schedule… And then suddenly, it's over! The year is finished and I'm heading home in two weeks! This have been such a life changing year, and my roots in Trinidad have become much deeper than I realized. I'm going to be facing all of those tearful and heartbreaking good-byes, which have made me realize how many people really do care about me and how many I've impacted. It's touching and moving, yet gives me such a feeling of loss when I think about leaving. 

Still, despite all of these roots now being uprooted, I feel at peace. I feel that God has taught me everything I was supposed to learn for these last two years here in Trinidad. He's used me in ways I didn't know I could be used, stretched me, matured me, strengthened me, enlightened me, challenged me, and changed me. I'm a different person than I was when I first stepped off United Airlines in 2012. I have a deeper trust in God's care, and His concern for the good of me than I ever have before. But most importantly, I love Him so much. I love His plans for me so much. I love His calling so much. I love His peace so much. I love His anointing, His presence, His power, His faithfulness, and His hand. I love everything about the God I know, and I have a strong pull to continue growing in Love for Him, and Love for the souls He created. 

Now let me thank everyone who supported me this last year. More than just "I couldn't have done it without you." I needed you and your prayers, God used your financial and emotional support to carry me through the hard days and weeks. I love you all so deeply, and the thought of seeing all of the people who were there for me via Facebook, phone call, letters and prayers, makes the thought of coming home so much easier. I'm blessed beyond words-- I'm thankful for each of you. 

That being said, this is not the end of me as a missionary. I have many plans to continue growing in missions and putting everything I've learned here to good use on the field. My next missions trip: Cambodia! And who knows what will come after that! I love the whole lifestyle of missions, I love being able to trust in God's provision, and God alone for security. My confidence is in Him, and I'm so looking foreword to see where HE takes me next!

Love you, thank you, may God always bless you! 

Karen

I'm sorry for the lack of hundreds of pictures this whole year. My camera broke about three months in. So here are some low-quality photos taken on my not-so-fancy camera phone. Just to give you an idea of how my life here has gone. 

New Things Ahead

CAMBODIA! 

Now that everything has been confirmed, I can officially say, I'll be taking another missions trip this October. This time I'll be heading to Cambodia for two weeks! EEEEEEEEEPPPPPP! 

I'm really excited. 

Alongside the Director of Open Bible Missions Vince McCarty, and a very close friend of mine, we'll be working in a school in Cambodia that was started by an Asian OB church in Des Moines, IA. The school was started as a ministry and service to the Tamada Village of Cambodia and I can't wait to see this country and everything the Lord is doing there.

In the Kindergarten..

Children will get the best of you if you let 'em. 

Praise the Lord for His strength and Love. I know I can accomplish whatever He has called me to. I'm so thankful for the things He is working out in me. He is good and faithful and He stays close even when we don't. I just love my Jesus. 

With Mother's Day coming up it's time to start focusing on flower pot crafts and the letter "M" with the kindergarteners. They're all bundles of energy. We only have ten students and somehow I'm exhausted by the end of the day. Nonetheless, I'm so thankful for the opportunities HE brings into my life. 

I got to speak to about 200 high school students on Friday about the Lord and His plans for them

It was beautiful, they seemed to be very engaged and open to what Pastor Mike and Pam and I were saying. Afterwards about 60 came forward for the alter call. 

Now, with only a month and half left of the year I've spent here in Trinidad,

Let me just say THANK YOU

God has used those of you who have been so faithful in financial support, encouragement, and prayers over these last nine months. I'm just so blessed by my support system; my friends and family back home. Although it breaks my heart to say good bye to Trinidad, I am so looking forward to seeing you all again. 

That being said, PLEASE continue praying that I finish Strong! I still need that constant encouragement from you all especially since I just have a month and a half left here. I don't want to miss out on a thing, please be praying the Lord does everything He needs to do in this last season here. 

If you'd like to support me financially

You can message me on Facebook for my home address where a check would be deposited into my account, or you can Email me at karenburke1111@yahoo.com.

Thank you again! 

Karen

Alabaster Jar

Good Friday is one of my favorite holidays

For me, it's usually a day of reflection and meditation on what Jesus did for me over 2,000 years ago. I'll always love Him for it, I'll always love Him for His selflessness and humility. His death on the cross was no doubt the most beautiful, heroic thing ever done, in all of history.

But yesterday, instead of focusing on the death of Jesus during my reading, I was lead to read the whole precession of how He got to the cross, from the last supper all the way up to the tomb.

The Alabaster Jar

As soon as I read Mathew 26:6-13 I was struck with conviction. The  unnamed woman with the alabaster jar of perfume, wasted all of it on Jesus. Just poured it out, dumped it over Jesus's head. The perfume was worth a 'year's wage.' In today's world that's roughly forty thousand dollars.

Forty thousand dollars just poured over Jesus' head with no expectation of return. I assume this bottle of perfume was her most prized possession, she probably had it hidden away in her house somewhere. It probably brought her a great amount of peace and security knowing that she had the equivalent of a year's pay tucked away in her cupboard somewhere in case she ever needed it. 

But suddenly her security wasn't important anymore. This woman, who will be remembered through all of history, was so overwhelmed with love for Jesus that her most prized, most loved possession was worthless in comparison to Him. She poured it out. All of it. She no longer saw her earthly prize as valuable.

 He was now her wealth, He was now her security, He was now her prize.

It really hit me. For obvious reasons like the fact that the thought to just drain out my most prized possessions before Jesus has never even occurred to me. I have thought of giving them to the poor, or to my church but never just to seemingly waste it on Him and Him alone. 

So last night I asked Him to fill me with that kind of love. A love that says all earthly wealth is completely worthless in comparison to Jesus.

Learning to Learn

I'll never be one of those people like..

I'M JUST HIGH ON LIFE, BRO! 

...Every time you ask them how they're doing.

But right now, I'm doing pretty well. Cause I learned this key to being at peace that I've never known before.

I've been asking God what He's trying to teach me every time a problem, stress, or challenge presents itself. Beyond that, I've been asking Him to help me learn it as fast as I possibly can. Because the thing is, sometimes we have to go through things over.. And over.. And over again, before we actually LEARN. And honestly, I'm tired of getting worked up and bothered about the same situations.

So last week I prayed the prayer, "Lord, please help me learn what you're trying to teach me in this season, as fast as possible."

The cool thing about this is that I realized when I'm really looking for whatever I'm supposed to learn, my heart just gets a lot softer toward God. Like, yes, there is a greater plan in all this. Yes, God is working it together for good. Yes, I am going to be better when this ends.

The Kindergarten's still going strong! 

We're going to some kind of horse ranch tomorrow for a field trip which should be extremely fun!

Keep praying for me and for the children. The Lord is faithful!

Trust

Recently in the School

We've been growing in number as we've had two new students begin over the last few weeks, which is a huge blessing from God! The children are still a challenge but I love working with them! 

Over Valentine's week we learned the letter "L" for "Love" and the number two. We came up with some fun craft ideas and ended up making a "Valentine's Hug" for the children to bring home to their parents. 

Basically it's a lot of paper stuck together, but I think they're pretty cute! 

Please continue praying for us here as the teachers! We need it more than anything! 

Pray for wisdom in lesson plans, grace, and patience for every one of the children. 

Lately I'm just being reminded that God is trustworthy and reliable

He has provided for me in every form of the word, my entire life. Not just 'this year' or 'this month,' but literally for as long as I can remember He has kept me and proven Himself to me over and over again. Now, I'm only nineteen, and I know that I don't have an incredible amount of life experience, but as I've shared in previous blogs, I've been through some testing things this last year. Even recently, I've seen some things that most people don't see up close, potentially traumatizing things, but God has kept me, and believe it or not, I'm fine.

This is what's so shocking. If anyone knows me, they know how much fear has ruled me in the past. My lack of trust in God has always kept me so bound and so nervous. But after actually going through some scary things, I don't know. God just showed me that I can deal with them through Him. My outlook is completely different than it used to be. I trust God. 

Everything about my life is different than it was, my focus, my fears, my view of myself, but more than anything else, I'd have to say the major difference is that I've gained a tougher skin spiritually and emotionally.

 By no means have I become calloused, but I've definitely gotten stronger. And I have no one to thank but the Lord. 

Never before have I been able to look at a seemingly hopeless situation and shrug my shoulders saying, "I know God's gonna work it out somehow." Do you know what a blessing it is to really TRUST Him for the first time in my life? I mean He's really there, and He really takes care of His children, like any good father. I can now look at the giants of life and believe that God is going to defeat them. I've never been able to do that before.  

Finally, I'm thankful for the everything I've gone through. So thankful that God didn't spare me from such blessings in disguise. He used all the darkness to show me that He's trustworthy, and there was no other way I could've learned that. Now I can honestly say, if I had a choice between learning what I learned, and experiencing these things, or not experiencing them, and not learning, I would still go through them a second time.

He truly uses everything for the good of those who love Him. 
Romans 8:28

There is so much beauty and hope in struggle. 
If you're going through fire right now, hang on. Because God is faithful even when we're not.

Also, here's a link to a short video of what goes on in normal day for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o0u25wlimw

If you would like to support my ministry financially, you can always send a check to my home address in the States. If you don't have the address, message me and I'd be happy to give it to you! 

Thank you for reading, love you and God bless! 

The Strength of Being Weak

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness."

As I was praying today, I started just confessing all of my bad attitudes, iniquities and short-comings to the Lord, and eventually the list got so long I was overwhelmed. I know I'm prideful, I know I'm selfish, I know I'm not everything I was created to be. That's just the bottom line  and the ugly truth. If people heard everything that runs through my mind every day, every rude complaint about whoever is getting on my touchy nerves in that moment, and every time I feel like getting up and leaving what God has called me to do, they definitely wouldn't still love me the way that Jesus does. Which I think is why Jesus' love is so unique and beautiful. 

I can't hide anything from God, He knows every single thought, every single ugliness in my heart, every attitude. God knows it all and sees it all for what it is. But the amazing thing is He still calls me His bride. 

Paul said he had some "thorn in the flesh" that he couldn't get removed. He had some kind of weakness that was actually NECESSARY for his relationship with God. It's just amazing to me that God doesn't pressure us to be perfect, He allows us to be weak. Not to go on sinning, but to let His strength and not ours overcome it. 

I'm just so thankful for a God who lets me, and actually encourages me to be weak so that His power can be made stronger. I know that as I continue to give Him my weakness, I will move toward becoming the woman I was made to be.

Also, did you get your tickets to the gun show?    

The Kindergarten: 

Last week I started to understand a lot of what my students go through when they're outside the school, and it broke my heart.

They're such beautiful children and it's an honor for me to help with their education, I love being with them, I love holding them when they cry, I love giving them big hugs in the morning. But please don't be misled in thinking I could emotionally handle this job on my own. I need so much prayer and support from you all and I can't imagine doing something like this without knowing that God is sovereign and has a plan to use every injustice and wrongdoing for good. I know that God loves them so much deeper than I or their parents ever could. And I find so much peace in that. 

If you would like to support my ministry

Please message me for details like my address where you can send a check.

Click the link below to give to my plane ticket home:

http://www.gofundme.com/63wuq4

The Faithfulness of God

2013 has been one of the best, yet one of the hardest years. 

If that makes any sense at all. It's amazing to me that I could have experienced the highest highs of my life, and the lowest lows, all so close together.

This year I've been happier, I've learned more, experienced more things, sorted through more issues, and felt more loved than I ever have before. But somehow, at different points in the year, I've had the worst anxiety, the most gripping fear, the deepest sorrow, and the most terrifying loneliness that I've ever experienced. But through the best and the worst parts of it, God has been faithful. Undeniable, unmatched, unchanging faithfulness, is all that I know when I think about God being my best friend in the entire world. From country to country; good point to bad point; hight to low, God has been there. He's been there when no one else could be. When the people I normally turned to couldn't help, when they were too far away to hold my hand through anxiety attacks and confusion, when they just didn't understand what I was going through, God was there, and He understood.
I always used to tell people "God is faithful." I used to say that like a catchphrase, but it was just Christianese. I didn't know His faithfulness before this year. I didn't understand personally the goodness of the Lord, or His loyalty. But now I've seen it for myself and I can't even begin to describe how thankful I am for the difficult seasons that showed me this.

I hope you'll all continue praying for me! 

Christmas break has been well spent with my dearest friends and "family" in Trinidad. I've been blessed with so many great "Aunties and Uncles" here, and though I'll miss my own family and hometown over the Christmas season, I know this family is one of the greatest blessings from God.
Pray that God keeps me close to him and that homesickness will not be an issue.

Pray against spiritual attack and discouragement.

Please be praying for financial provision as well! A few weeks ago I dedicated my finances to the Lord, and I've been amazed at how every need has been provided for since then. Come June, however, I'll need to purchase a plane ticket home. It costs about $700 and to this point I haven't had the extra finances to start saving for it. I also still owe about $400 on my tuition from the School of Global Leadership, which I completed last year and need to pay off.

If you would like to help me purchase a ticket home or pay for some of my tuition, please message me or leave a comment and I'll let you know how you can help!

I love you all very much, and I'm blown away by the support I've received from my friends and family in the States.

God bless,
Karen