Obedience.

On March 21st, Chris received an email from our good friend, who is also the Children's Director at our church. This email stated that internships were changing (Chris was currently an intern in Children's Ministry) and that we needed to pray about whether or not we wanted to accept the new internship which included things like more hours and more training among other things.

We prayed and both felt the Lord pulling us in the direction of accepting the new internship. This meant a few things for our family. Part time work for the Church. Part time work for Chris' current job as he basically would demote himself to a lower position to continue to provide for our family. This also meant trying to find a family to house us for this season so as not to put an unnecessary burden upon Chris to work more than he should (a recommendation for anyone accepting these new internships).

A little back story. Since we met, Chris and I have both felt that obedience would look a little crazy for us in the eye of the typical person. We felt that the Lord would call us to do some pretty abnormal things for the gospel. It makes sense doesn't it? Jesus did a pretty abnormal thing, in laying his life at the cross, paying our penalty for our sin? In light of that crazy, amazing, act of a blessing - our lives should imitate his and be abnormally different to share the good news of a savior with the world. Right? Right. Because we knew that the desire had been placed in both of us, we were prayerfully considering every opportunity that came our way since being married. At the end of last year, a few came up, but I didn't feel peace about any of them. So we continued to pray and wait.

After we prayed, talked, and decided that we would accept the internship more began to change. The Lord began tugging at my heart to raise funds for this season. He helped me remember my previous three stints in raising support and how his name was glorified and how he provided every penny that I needed. The next day another one of our friends mentioned Great Commission Ministries and how we should consider raising money through them. Then we received more news to pray about.

We were asked to pray through accepting a full time unpaid staff position for our church. We prayed and talked and decided. It was so peaceful. Is raising your salary 100% peaceful? Is moving two times into two different families homes 100% peaceful? Is quitting your job that is providing money for your family 100% peaceful? Is telling your family and friends of this crazy opportunity 100% peaceful? In the world's standards? No. It's not. But it has been! Gloriously peaceful. Every decision that we've made has been laced with Jesus' peace and for that I am SO grateful. I know this is his plan. His will. His timing.

Of course, you may have questions. That makes sense. We want to answer them the best we can. But we don't know everything. Just like four months ago we had no idea that any of this would be happening. But the Lord slowly revealed it and it is good. So, if you have questions please, please ask. If you need clarification - I will do my best! And, if you support the gospel going out and want to support us you can go here and type in Chris Knight. But truly, we covet your prayers for Jesus to do work to allow us to work and serve him.

Here is the letter that we sent our a few days ago.

I'm grateful to be able to finally fill you in on the details.

We are SO encouraged, SO excited, SO ready to continue to be obedient to the call on our lives.

bed.early...

Bed. Sounds good right now. This has been a long day.

At about 3:30/4ish I fed Siena, layed her back in her crib, and came back to bed. Soon after I could tell something was wrong with Chris. Ugh. No! He was JUST sick. He JUST got better.

He got up quickly and went to the bathroom and that's when I knew. My poor husband who was sick for a long time was now sick again. For some reason I just figured he would beat this.

So, we missed church again. It really kills me. I love the community we have here. I love the family that I have in the church. I love how refreshing most Sundays are. But today my call was to love and serve my husband at home while he lay on the couch. I couldn't do much for him except grab him an extra blanket, throw away tissues, make a smoothie, and run my fingers through his hair. Poor guy.

I will be starting up my thankfulness posts again. Hopefully tomorrow. I need to catch my breath from all this sickness. Thats just what it has been. Sick. So.. check back soon for some encouragement from the Word. Because today, I am getting it from other people & I don't have much strength to give it out.






At least I threw in some cute pictures of my sweet mama and her first grandbaby!

earplugs.

You probably will think this is really strange. But it's basically survival mode turned daily routine. When we were living with my in laws for the first two months of Siena's life our little "suite" was on the main floor of the house. So, when I was exhausted and my 17 year old brother in law was watching Cougar basketball I could not sleep. He is THE Cougnumberonefan. My father in law had the idea to grab me a pair of ear plugs and see if that worked any wonders.

Truly, I say thank you Jesus for ear plugs.

Well, ever since... I have used them for all or part of the night. With a young baby you ask??? Yes. I know. My mom also thinks it is very strange. I just feel at peace with Siena's life and these little plugs have helped me get some much needed rest. So, when we moved into this house and our lovely neighbor's owned a rooster with a very messed up internal clock (meaning he goes off from 3am-4pm & is going off right now at 9:19am) my little friends came in VERY handy.

Not only have they helped me sleep, they have also given the hubster and I a few laughs together. I couldn't find one of my favorite pair for days. This was extremely frustrating to say the least. I went out into the living room one day and the other one was sitting there. I got so excited and told Chris, "Yay!!! I found my other ear plug!" We laughed and laughed at how excited I was.

It seems like it has been forever since I last posted. Life has just been busy and yesterday I was sick all day with the flu. Very icky stuff. This weekend was supposed to be filled with three birthday parties and lots of fun stuff. Now I am just queasy and tired and won't be going anywhere today. Oh well, God's plan is better than mine.

loveyou.



Cindy,

You were born on October 17th, 2010 at 2:31 in the afternoon. That time was so easy to remember because I was born at 2:32pm. We are one minute and a whole bunch of years apart. I was pretty nervous going to the hospital because I wasn't sure what to expect. But the whole thing was an amazing experience. Jesus was there for us the whole time and helped me to relax and get excited to meet you. The entire lobby was packed out with people to meet you when you arrived. Family and friends who are like family... It was amazing. Miss Heidi was in the delivery room to take sweet pictures of you when you were born. Grammie was there too to support me and of course daddy was too. Our midwife was amazing. A midwife is a person that specializes in labor and delivery. Her name was Debra and she went to Mars Hill and was such a support and help. We also had amazing nurses and one in particular, Kimmie, was a Christian too and so sweet. Debra asked daddy if he wanted to deliver you and he surprised me by saying yes. So the first person who held you was your sweet daddy. We stayed at the hospital for one night and then went to Papa and Grandma's house. I was very tired, sore, and a little stressed. Taking care of a little, precious bundle was a new job for me! You ate every two hours all day long for the first four weeks of your life. You and I would get up in the middle of the night and go into this special little room that Papa and Grandma set up for us. It had your changing table and a rocking chair. I would change your diaper every time (I didn't want it to be the reason you woke up) while you screamed very loud. Then I would nurse you and rock you until you fell asleep. Many many times you would spit up so much after eating that I would have to change you and swaddle you again when you were sleepy. This would wake you up so it would take about an hour to put you back to sleep. Thank you Jesus for my iPhone. I used it a lot in the wee hours of the morning to pass the time. If only I knew how short that time was. Daddy finally taught me how to put you to sleep more quickly. We would hold you upright on our chest and bounce around the room. I would do this for at least ten minutes. Sometimes back and forth through the laundry room and sometimes through the entire downstairs. We did this about five times a night. Sometimes I would think you were asleep but you weren't. Right when I layed you down you woke up and cried and I would do it all over again. There were times in these first few weeks that were very hard. We were just getting used to each other and feeding you was especially hard. A lot of times you weren't able to eat because there was too much milk. You would cry and cry and then I would cry and cry. Daddy would help me to calm down and explain to me that you knew that I was upset and so you didn't want to eat. Eventually we got the hang of it. Baby bell, you are the sweetest gift (apart from knowing Jesus and marrying daddy) that I have ever received. I will love you forever. I am praying that you meet Jesus at an early age and live your whole sweet life praising and glorifying him and making his name great.

Mama

**Cindy is Siena's nickname from Chris off of the nickname Cinderella.... yes we have nicknames from nicknames :)

11

A large part of where I need to be more thankful is in the hidden blessings. Many times these can be disguised as hardships, failures, or frustrations. But when we choose to look beyond the momentary trouble, God can reveal to us the immense blessing that pours from them. Sometimes this can be a trouble that we have in our own lives and other times it is when we witness someone else experience something which leads us to thankfulness and gratitude.

An example in my own life is CK's Papa Lee. I only knew his Papa for a short time - about two and a half years and met him around five or six times. But something in me was drawn to him. His nature to me was sweet, calm, and attentive. Although I am sure that other family members could tell me things that I wasn't aware of, this was my breakdown of the older man. He battled years and years of a few types of cancer that wore his body down from I'm sure what used to be a strong and able bodied man, to a weak and frail one. Two months before Chris and I got married Papa got very weak and we knew that it would only be a short time until he passed away. For years family members had tried telling Papa of Christ's love for him but he would look away and never understood it deep down.

It was getting close to the end so his children and grandchildren made the trip to Gresham, OR to tell him goodbye and have some good last memories. One afternoon Chris and his brothers and dad went through the Four Spiritual Laws booklet with him. If you don't know what this booklet is, it's the gospel in a few pages, a way to share Christ with someone. After they were finished the family headed outside for a walk, all but Chris and Papa Lee. Papa looked over at Chris and told him that what they just read he believed for the first time. A few days later, Papa went to be with Jesus.

This story, although heartbreaking because of disease and suffering, is joyous. If we were to focus on the loss of Papa, his years of debilitating disease, or the fact that he wasn't able to celebrate with us at our wedding or the birth of Siena... we would miss it. Because he was led down a hard road, his family members knew that time was short. They didn't have forever to share Christ's love and they took a step of faith - a hard one to take. But Papa is in heaven now, praising and glorifying God forever.

JOB Day 11 - Write down one of the blessings God has revealed to you through a painful trial

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**If you desire to cultivate a heart of thankfulness & are willing to try it for 31 days (give or take - there is always grace here) - post a comment during any of my blogs that relate to thankfulness.
I will send you a gift at the end to show my thankfulness for you. If you are curious what the JOB is read my post here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The List:

1. Your name and your blog's name

2. Your blog's url

3. Write "A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."

4. Favorite Quote

3. Favorite Song

6. Favorite Band/Singers

7. Something you want to say

8. Tag Friends

Whiny Highlander

What a week. Actually, it's been a pretty crazy month. All I can say is thank you Jesus for good family and friends - and complete strangers (who are praying for me & mine ;). I am so grateful. It has been hard to get on my computer in the last few days as we have been super busy. Days filled with lots of craziness.

Wednesday we got to sleep in. If you know about my sweet Siena Joy, you know she has been an amazing sleeper from week four. We had a few hard weeks in the midst of moving and the holidays but she got back on track and was sleeping ten hours straight through. Well, the last two weeks have been a back to newborn stage as she is constantly starving. She has been eating every three hours through the entire day. So... in spite of what others may think (fear of man is really an issue here) we are going to be giving her rice cereal soon. She needs more calories and we want to see if it will help her last longer through the night. I know that many people have differing opinions but I think if it may help, why not try?

Back to Wednesday - we slept in. She actually woke up at 6 to eat and seemed wide awake but boy was I not ready to get up... So, I laid her in her crib and miraculously (Thank you Jesus) she fell back asleep about ten minutes after talking to herself. We all got up around nine and a real evidence that Chris may be on the mend is his desire to go adventure is back. We decided to drive to Snoqualmie Falls to get out and see something in God's creation. I also have a favorite Irish pub in Snoqualmie that I was happy to get to go visit. We got sidetracked with the beauty of the falls and ran into a college friend while looking at Salish Lodge sooo we didn't get to eat the yummy food. We then hurried back to drop Siena off with a sweet friend and get to Chris' dr. appointment. The dr. told us after many questions and an examination that one of two things were true. Chris was either getting over a nasty virus or he may have an issue with his liver. So, please pray & thank you because I already feel your prayers in the way that my hubster is acting and feeling. That night we had community group, which was amazing as we haven't been to church in four weeks...

Thursday, thanks to my amazing husband for a great birthday gift (Yes, my birthday is in April & yes, I just got to use my gift) and for another sweet friend who watched my daughter, I was pampered. I had a facial (delightful!), an eye brow wax (not so delightful but the outcome was very necessary), and a pedi (simply divine). Afterwards I got to stay and hang out at my friends and have dinner with our families.

Aaand... today we had mom's group at my house. I made scrumptious blueberry muffins while I got SJ to sleep in just like the other day... till 10:30! Then, ANOTHER amazing friend watched Siena while I got to pick up my highlander. Ohhh haha. Can't believe I forgot to add that part of the post and it's the title I chose for it. If it's not your baby waking you up every three hours, or your sick husband every few hours, it's your highlander. The alarm went off about 20 times Wednesday night in increments of 5 mins, 20 mins, and sometimes it would wait 2 hours just until you fell into a good and deep sleep. Anyway, I took it in and they can't even figure out the problem. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.I got to spend the rest of the day with a friend who is becoming very dear to me. She is so real, welcoming, warm, and fun to be around. I'm excited to get to spend more time with her!

Very short summaries of the last three thankfulness days...
Wednesday (Day 8) - Being there: Sometimes we need to show our gratitude for people by being physically present for them in a time of need.
Thursday (Day 9) - Involving yourself: Investing your life in small and big ways in other people's lives. Caring for the orphans and the widows. Feeding the homeless. Bringing your sick neighbor a meal.
Friday (Day 10) - Grieving with Gratitude: When a hard thing happens, instead of being angry with God, be thankful for the time that you did have that person/place/thing. Be grateful for the behind the scenes work that he is doing in your life.

JOB Day 8 - List people who have showed you gratitude by being a part of your joys and sorrows
JOB Day 9 - List three ways that people have been kind to you
JOB Day 10 - Write down some things that you are grateful for as a result of a loss you've suffered

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**If you desire to cultivate a heart of thankfulness & are willing to try it for 31 days (give or take - there is always grace here) - post a comment during any of my blogs that relate to thankfulness.
I will send you a gift at the end to show my thankfulness for you. If you are curious what the JOB is read my post here.

His Name is Exalted

The Lord Is My Strength and Song
You will say in that day:
"I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
And you will say in that day:

Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.

Sing praises to the Lord,
for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth,
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
~Isaiah 12:1-4

Reading this last night, I realized that what he is saying is very true. God was angry with me! My sin angers him, and it should. But that isn't the final statement. He knows how sinful I am and he looked on me and changed that anger into comfort. Jesus is the propitiation, the reconciliation between myself and the Almighty God. Because of Jesus, I am able to have a relationship with the one who created this insanely beautiful earth and who created each of us. It truly is unbelievable! Jesus is my strength and my song... without trusting in him I become an anxious, fearful, scared little girl. But through him I can be a trusting, victorious, liberated WOMAN! Because of this, I have to make known his deeds, I have to thank him for what he has done, and I have to exalt his name to the people.

1) He has been drawing my dad nearer to himself. Jesus is THE only hope for turning that & all life around.
2)He has drawn Chris and I closer to himself and each other. We are ready for crazy, adventurous life through Jesus. Every day we have been given another little glimpse into it. It's so sweet!
3)I have joy going into my classroom now... HALLELUJAH!
4)We are about 5 days from being members at Mars Hill Church, where the bible is preached & my heart is being utterly transformed!
5)We have awesome community through our church. It is an incredible gift to live life with these people... you know who you are!
6)We are healthy... I completely take for granted the fact that my husband, family, and I are for the most part completely healthy in all ways. I am reminded of this when I look at these two people... who are either victoriously praising Christ through their battle or have a family that is...
www.prayforkate.com
http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/


I praise you Jesus.

I AM free, happy, and liberated.

Jesus,

Thank you for hope. Thank you for pursuing my Dad even when I feel like it is hopeless. You are the hope Lord, you are sovereign. Thank you for using Pastor Mark's words to impact my family's lives. Thank you for using death, bad, and ugliness in the world to bring ultimate life to people, grace, hope, and healing. I pray that you would continue to do amazing things... things we would never be able to imagine.

amen


Today's sermon was INSANE. I have been quietly, subconsciously waiting for the day that Mark would preach on Jesus being tempted by the devil (whose name does not deserve capitalization). I was curious how it would pan out and what I would learn. This past year has been one of the hardest I have ever had and I couldn't wait to really think and dwell upon the way that Jesus perfectly responded to the devil's lies. I feel like I learned so much this morning. I know that I can read scripture and that the Holy Spirit can reveal things to me. But today, I am especially thankful for those that Jesus teaches with exactly the right words to reach into my soul and twist and turn until I really and truly understand certain concepts that are really prevalent in my heart.

The sermon came out of Luke 4:1-13; Jesus without sin.
Satan is the ultimate liar, deceiver, and tempter. We do not have a God who cannot sympathize with our tempation, he was tempted for 40 days in the wilderness! How amazing is that... In these 13 verses the main thing that Satan does is attack Jesus' identity. He uses phrases like IF you are the son of God... etc. The most helpful part for me in this time is knowing that Jesus was tempted to believe satan's lies just like I am. However, he never once gave in and I have millions of times. I hear those attacks on my identity and begin to dwell and let myself suffer in those thoughts. This is what I say: ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so sick of his dirty, dishonest, sickening lies that creap into my each and every day. I have a new identity in Christ... and I do not need to dwell upon these anymore.
1. Satan is a real enemy.
2. Satan will H.I.T. you (Hungry, Isolated, Tired)
3. Jesus Christ is your victorious Warrior King
4. The Holy Spirit is your power
5. Biblical truth is your counterpunch
6. Christ is your Identity
7. Escape is always possible
8. Satan eventually taps out
9. Repent when you tap out and fight another round
10. Life is a battle with many rounds.The hope: Knowing, TRULY knowing scripture; it is our only true spritual authority on satan. So, I need to prepare myself for war & that is what I am going to do. Know the Word, Know Jesus, Know how to defeat the enemy for the glory of my Father in Heaven.



I AM free, happy, and liberated.