Hi there, everyone!
It's Kathryn Hodges. Some call me Ruby (my first name), but that's mostly friends in New Zealand.
I was the previous Office Assistant helping Sam starting the fall of 2010 through August 2011. Many of you found out last summer, during the 2011 season at Cherokee Cove, that I was going with Youth With A Mission to New Zealand! I appreciated all your support and prayers, and even though it was hard to leave CC and the Stephens family, it was really good timing for me and God to have some good talk times together.
From October 2011 through February of this year I was a part of YWAM's Back Packer Discipleship Training School, based out of Oxford, New Zealand. For three months, 40 of us students from all over the world studied certain characteristics of God. Each week we learned from a new speaker who was brought in to teach about topics like the Lordship of Christ, the Father Heart of God, the Holy Spirit, Calling and Destiny, just to name a few.
This was a very informative time, and it stretched my thinking. I found out a lot about myself, and God broke down walls I had built up from my past. We received the equivalent of 5 years of Church Sermons in 3 months! So much rich information! During this "lecture phase" we were also preparing for our "outreach phase." Outreach is designed to allow all of us students, led by a staff student leader who already completed the DTS, to go into various countries and put to action our new revelations from and about God; to share about God and go love on people from all the Nations.
YWAM's moto is "To know God and make Him known." I love that! I felt God calling me to go to Morocco and in December my little family of 5 other Americans were commissioned and blessed to go out into the North African (Muslim) nation of Morocco! God is so creative when He puts together outreach teams. We had 7 other teams going to India, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Israel, Laos and New Zealand.
Because we are a backpacker school we spent some time reaching out to backpacker tourists in Morocco. That was an incredible ministry because you meet young people right where they're at, befriend them, share your food, games, and time with them and let the Lord lead discussions. We were able to give out 5 Bibles and speak openly about our faith to the Western back packers. We also worked with long term workers in Morocco and encouraged them, worked along side them in their clinics and businesses and did lots of prayer walking.
This time was really incredible for my heart. God had been affirming me and building me up in my identity in Him during the lecture phase. Once we started working in Morocco, I felt a total shift into confidence to reach out to people in the unique way God has gifted me. I was able to draw and paint pictures for people, which God gave me to speak into their lives. So many experiences confirmed how much I love comforting people, living in new cultures - and I love hospitality...that was, of course, previously affirmed from volunteering at Cherokee Cove!
There are so many stories and pictures and testimonies I've acquired from this trip that I could go on for days - However! This is just a little overview to share briefly where I've been and announce I'm back at Cherokee Cove for a season! Yay! I do love it here. I know you do too. This year I'm assisting Sam with marketing and will also be assisting Stu with kitchen management this summer. New positions, new challenges, should make for some good stories and fun times!
John, Libby and I will be keeping you updated through this blog over the spring and summer. Get excited, they are good writers, and there's never really a dull moment at Cherokee Cove.
"Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!" - Psalm 96:3
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