Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Something to update you about...

Today was like living a day in Michigan. Only we have mountains in Utah. The weather was cloudy, but it hot warm and humid and breezy. It was amazing.

Lately my days have been great and let me fill you in on what’s going on:

I got a new job. So I still work at the church. I still work at P.F. Chang’s. And now I work for an organization called Calcutta Mercy Ministries that runs schools, orphanages and hospitals in Calcutta, India. They provide free medical care for children undergoing leukemia treatment and thalassemia. They also send out short-term volunteers from all over the world. These are a few of the many things they do. Check it out here. I do administrative work about 8-10 hours a week. It’s honestly an answer to prayer because I was getting pretty burnt out working at Chang’s because even though I think it’s a great place and I can do ministry there, I feel like I’m only being monetarily fruitful when my heart wants to be useful for the kingdom. I was asking God to help open doors if he wanted me to work somewhere else and a few days later Robyn asked me if I’d be interested in taking another job. This is perfect because I can keep my job at Chang’s (the breadwinner of the three occupations), but still do something that is making an impact.

Last night I had an amazing time with my students at K2. We did an exercise last week that placed the students in different classes (upper, middle, lower class) and wanted to show them the injustice of how people all over the world live. They walked away with tangible ways they could make an impact. Last night when they returned they had all sorts of stories of what they did in the past week that helped make a difference. I was incredibly proud and felt like it was something that really stuck with them.

This past weekend was the Dreamcenter Gala and it was a complete success! The Gala raised probably around $60,000 that will go directly to the Dreamcenter. The Dreamcenter offers after school tutoring and activities, meals and groceries, compassion and care, and so much more to the refugee communities in Salt Lake City who would go mostly unnoticed without them. (Another highlight: after I left set up crew in the morning we passed the entire Houston Rockets team as they were walking into Salt Lake’s only 5 star hotel. It was incredible! I touched Yao Ming.)

Travel plans:
- California July 2 – 5. This is going to be a short trip and really compacted so I’m not sure if I’ll get to spend time with any/all of you. Please don’t hate me. I’ll make a longer trip sometime in the end of the summer.
- Michigan July 20 – 27. (Woohoo!)
- Oregon. August (sometime). I’ll be hangin with the sis, hopefully visiting Jo and Todd, and checking out Portland State for a potential grad school.

Thanks for all your prayers and love. It’s so incredibly appreciated as I try to figure out what is next in this season of life. Miss and care about you all!

Peace,
Cat

2 comments:

Nicole said...

I have definitely heard of the ministry you work for! That is SO AWESOME!!!! Um...too bad you're going to be in Michigan when we drive through Utah...*cries*

I'm so proud of you, Cat! So is Jesus!

Ashley Owlita said...

Cat!

I didn't know you had a blog- doooooope. I am going to add you to my blogroll- great talking with you last week! Looking froward to kickin' it this summer.

Also, the lik you have to my blog is old...my new blog is at rongp.blogspot.com

Mucho peace..

Ron