Monday, September 28, 2009

A snapshot of training tour






Ahhhhhhhhh.
We are back in Willmar (as of two hours ago) and are about to embark on a week of training for our overseas adventure starting next Monday (October 5th). Training tour was absolutely fabulous while it lasted, and now we are pumped for a week of overseas preparation and then leaving again! A huge thank you to all of our hosts, contacts, schools, churches and gazebos: we love you all and we can't thank you enough. You gave us amazing memories and inside jokes that we will be using for the next month at least, I'm sure :)
Here are some pictures from the past three weeks! Enjoy :)


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Our Hosts, Thank you!

We are really grateful for all our hosts, and we are very thankful for all their hospitalities. I (Kylie) personally feel so blessed that we get to meet new people everywhere we go. The stories we have heard from our hosts and the relationships we have built are so valuable and precious.

So, thank you so much our host families!!! You are amazing!

Picnic with the hosts at Pella, IA.

We girls with our host at Milwaukee, WI.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

SEEK HIM... FIND HIM

Last night we had the privilege of for playing at Ascension Lutheran in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. Now we had driven from Pella, Iowa after leading Pella Christian High School in a time of worship and came into the evening a bit tired from the 6 hours in the van. But we loaded out and set up ready for action. Julie, who is the youth director, asked us to be a part of the youth group's time before the concert and wanted us to share about ourselves. We answered the question of which animal we would choose to be and after many laughs and such answered a bit about why we were with CTI. When we had each finished answering the questions Julie hit us with a deep question. "You all shared about how God made it clear to you that CTI was your next step, but HOW does God make it clear to you?" Whoa, how to answer that one. Chris stepped up to the plate and shared the verse, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). Then shared with the kids how we need to first seek God and in the end His desires will be planted in our hearts and our "fleshly" desires will fade. When we seek God with all we are His desires becomes our desires and we will be able to follow God as He leads because when we seek Him with all our heart we will find Him. (Duet 4:29)

Now you may be wondering why I'm sharing this but it just hit me last night how often I just say things like "God made it clear" or "I just followed His call" without really thinking through HOW I know that or WHY I follow His lead. So I've been thinking more deeply about the whys and hows of following and listening to God's leading. Sure it's not always clear as day, but I am learning what it means to seek Him with all my heart and the joys that come when I am able to find Him and make His desires my own. I have a ways to go, but don't we all??

So thanks to Julie for prompting me in this thought and may we all begin to SEEK HIM with all we are so that we will be able to FIND HIM and follow those desires that will be planted within us.

Learning to Seek,
Carrie Joy :)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Go Bulldogs!

1421 takes in a high school football game in Boscobel,WI before playing an evening concert sponsored by Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

In His freedom

well hey there (:
We are officially in Wisconsin at this very moment. And I say officially because for the last couple of days we have been border hopping between Iowa and Wisconsin to find meals or a cherished cup of coffee. We've been playing in the curious little town of McGregor, Iowa, since Saturday and we moved on to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, yesterday. So far, life on the road is wonderfully sweet and we are enjoying it very much. Not to say that it hasn't come with lessons and craziness also, because it definitely has. We got the privilege of spending four days in McGregor, being able to minister to two churches, a happy group of people in a park (while we played from a gazebo, of all things!) nursing home residents and several other individuals. God is so good to us and we can't express that enough and how thrilled we are to be meeting all these wonderful people who have blessed us so much. Many of us have already expressed certain lessons that God has been embarking on us in the short time that we have set off on this journey, and already we can see similarities and bridges between these new changes that are happening inside of us. I think one of the main prayers of our team is that God would become more in our lives, our devotions, our ministries, our van, our conversations and our music, and that we would become less. I find myself being too much in my own life; trying to pour out love without being filled or having nothing to pour outside of myself, is impossible. We as 14:21 have a desire for the knowledge of God and how to be models of Phil. chapter 2. So while some of us are very far from home and others are just a few states away, God has been imparting huge lessons on us of worth and of breaking strength. In Christ we are finally satisfied and ready to pour out from His love. Christ's love has completely and utterly overwhelmed us and takes away any scars we might have had before. As one of songs states, we have "received another name" and are worthy to receive Christ's love. Knowing that we are free and that the lie of guilt has been cast off is one of the biggest freedoms I've ever experienced. In turn His love empowers us to go out and pour His love into other people's lives. In His freedom we choose to live, and our prayer is that this year He would fill us up, ready to pour us out and that we would make Him everything in our lives, diminishing ourselves to absolutely nothing without Him.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Ahh, the road...

Day one, on the way to Iowa...