Hello! Thank you for checking out my ministry blog!
Feel free to browse through previous posts and contact me if you have any questions at all. If you are interested in partnering with me in ministry financially this year - either with a monthly commitment or a one time gift - there are directions for how to do so under the "Partnership" tab at the top of the page.
The link to give online is: give.cru.org
Thank you so much! If you're interested in receiving monthly prayer letters via email, just send me an email at kailene.power@cru.org and let me know. I look forward to sharing this experience with you & celebrating all of the ways that God moves in the lives of college students in Russia!
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Visa Update -
My teammate, Mike, took all of our visa applications and necessary paperwork to the consulate in Seattle yesterday and we will find out tomorrow (8/27) if they have been officially approved!
Please pray for a smooth & quick process. We are all very eager to leave for Moscow sometime next week. I have one suitcase packed and working on a second one today! :)
I'm also still working on the very last little bit of my financial support this week, too. I still need about $400/month to complete my budget. I feel a little discouraged as my "plans" keep falling through... but even as I write this I'm reminded that God's plans exceed my plans and His ways are higher than my ways. I just need to trust.
Please pray for a smooth & quick process. We are all very eager to leave for Moscow sometime next week. I have one suitcase packed and working on a second one today! :)
I'm also still working on the very last little bit of my financial support this week, too. I still need about $400/month to complete my budget. I feel a little discouraged as my "plans" keep falling through... but even as I write this I'm reminded that God's plans exceed my plans and His ways are higher than my ways. I just need to trust.
Thank you all for sharing your support & excitement!
~~~
Both Moscow teams at the STINT Briefing Commissioning night - such a fun group!
Friday, August 8, 2014
He's Got Us Covered!
I am so excited to announce that my WHOLE team hit 100% in our one-time gifts goal! It has been quite a week. God is so good & faithful to provide... He knows the best time to provide, too.
Most of my team, while still confident and positive, has felt the struggle of raising support pretty acutely the last couple weeks with a lot of unanswered phone calls, unresponsive emails, and stagnant numbers, as well as several very difficult personal things going on as well. We were doing our best to stay focused and motivated, but it's just been hard.
On Wednesday night I received a text message from one of the team leaders from the other Moscow STINT team who lives in Texas. She said that she had $5,700 EXTRA in one-time gifts and wanted to give that to spread among our team! I was blown away; what a significant number!
I immediately got a hold of Taylor, my co-leader, shared the news, and we began to put together the numbers and figure out exactly how much each person on our team needed to be meet the 100% goal... It was not too little or too much, but JUST the amount we needed to cover everyone's one-time gifts for the year! Praise God!
This sweet gift was just the encouragement we all needed to finish. It came at just the right time when God knew we needed to see a BIG reminder of His faithfulness - and what a faith-builder that is for each of us! It was clearly nothing that we could have done on our own and was too exact to blame on "coincidence" -- just a reminder that God is in control and He has a plan to provide. We just need to keep TRUSTING.
I feel like I have a renewed sense of confidence and faith in moving toward the finish line of this marathon in preparing for a year of ministry in Moscow, Russia!
While my one-time goal is complete, I am still in need of a little less than $1000 per month. This is equivalent to just TEN people who would commit to give $100 per month or TWENTY people who would commit to $50 per month. God has already provided in ways I did not expect, so I'm believing that this goal will also be complete very soon!
Thank you for your partnership in ministry this year! I look forward to continue sharing this incredible experience with you!
P.S. - FOUR days until STINT briefing in Chicago! I'm so excited to see my team and prepare for this year. :)
Most of my team, while still confident and positive, has felt the struggle of raising support pretty acutely the last couple weeks with a lot of unanswered phone calls, unresponsive emails, and stagnant numbers, as well as several very difficult personal things going on as well. We were doing our best to stay focused and motivated, but it's just been hard.
On Wednesday night I received a text message from one of the team leaders from the other Moscow STINT team who lives in Texas. She said that she had $5,700 EXTRA in one-time gifts and wanted to give that to spread among our team! I was blown away; what a significant number!
I immediately got a hold of Taylor, my co-leader, shared the news, and we began to put together the numbers and figure out exactly how much each person on our team needed to be meet the 100% goal... It was not too little or too much, but JUST the amount we needed to cover everyone's one-time gifts for the year! Praise God!
This sweet gift was just the encouragement we all needed to finish. It came at just the right time when God knew we needed to see a BIG reminder of His faithfulness - and what a faith-builder that is for each of us! It was clearly nothing that we could have done on our own and was too exact to blame on "coincidence" -- just a reminder that God is in control and He has a plan to provide. We just need to keep TRUSTING.
I feel like I have a renewed sense of confidence and faith in moving toward the finish line of this marathon in preparing for a year of ministry in Moscow, Russia!
While my one-time goal is complete, I am still in need of a little less than $1000 per month. This is equivalent to just TEN people who would commit to give $100 per month or TWENTY people who would commit to $50 per month. God has already provided in ways I did not expect, so I'm believing that this goal will also be complete very soon!
Thank you for your partnership in ministry this year! I look forward to continue sharing this incredible experience with you!
P.S. - FOUR days until STINT briefing in Chicago! I'm so excited to see my team and prepare for this year. :)
Monday, August 4, 2014
The Beauty in My Messy Transition
My reaction to change/transition (used interchangeably in this post) is generally the same: a little fear of the unknown, a nostalgia in remembering and missing the past, and excitement for whatever lies ahead. It's a jumble of usually healthy, sometimes excessive, emotions. As I reflected on the process of change this morning - and read a very timely article from Revelant Magazine - I realized that, while it still makes me jumpy and emotional and anxious, I've experienced a plethora of change in the last seven years.
Here's the list I compiled off the top of my head: worked for two different ministries, traveled several times a year, my parents got divorced, my brother got married, lived in 3 different states and 7 different houses, and been in 2 serious relationships. That's just the major stuff. But my goodness, what genuine growth happens as we experience change and are continuously trained to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus rather than the chaos around us?!
The stretching and pulling and prodding is a learning process that teaches us to be more like Jesus and walk more closely with Him. What a blessing!
I am so thankful for you all who have chosen to walk with me through this transition and into the next big adventure that God has in store. It's exciting! But I'm grateful that I don't have to do it alone. This support system we're building is an incredible encouragement, and often it is YOUR voice that reminds me to keep persevering and press in to what God has called me to. THANK YOU for those reminders of truth!
Here's the list I compiled off the top of my head: worked for two different ministries, traveled several times a year, my parents got divorced, my brother got married, lived in 3 different states and 7 different houses, and been in 2 serious relationships. That's just the major stuff. But my goodness, what genuine growth happens as we experience change and are continuously trained to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus rather than the chaos around us?!
The stretching and pulling and prodding is a learning process that teaches us to be more like Jesus and walk more closely with Him. What a blessing!
I am so thankful for you all who have chosen to walk with me through this transition and into the next big adventure that God has in store. It's exciting! But I'm grateful that I don't have to do it alone. This support system we're building is an incredible encouragement, and often it is YOUR voice that reminds me to keep persevering and press in to what God has called me to. THANK YOU for those reminders of truth!
***
Quick Update:
- This is my FINAL week of building my team of people to partner with me in ministry by giving financially! Please pray that this week will be fruitful and that God will provide every last penny needed to go to Moscow with my team this year.
- I am at about 75% of my goal, which means I still need about $2000 to meet my one-time gifts goal and about $1000 in monthly commitments.
- Please pray for my TEAM -- there have been so many hard things going on and my heart is heavy for each of them. (death in the family, death of a family friend, relational stress, financial stress, etc.) Pray that each one would be comforted by Jesus and that the enemy would not be successful in stealing their JOY or VISION in ministry for this year.
- Please pray for our VISAS -- we're still awaiting information regarding when our visas will be ready so we know when we can leave. Pray that the details would all fall into place and the process would go smoothly for the missionaries in Moscow who are helping us get what we need.
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