In Memory of.

Brandon Garcia March 13, 1984- June 16,2007

Brandon was an amazing man of God, he loved everyone and completely devoted his life to serve His Lord. He was killed in a motorcycle accident but his funeral service was a sight to see. The church was packed, people enjoying the service outside in the parking lot. Hundreds of people went to bring memories and stories of how Brandon had touched his life. He was also an amazing salsa dancer, and I had the privilege of dancing with him countless number of times. Every time I go dancing now, I always think of him and the great life that he lived. I pray every day that I can live my life according to the faith and touch people in ways that Brandon touched hundreds of people. Thank you Brandon for living a loving, devoted life. See you in Heaven one day!

learning a little

I am part of this home church called Remnant Community, and it has been amazing. First to grow alongside people and friends of my own age, but also be challenged by questions and my walk with God. As one of our weekly devotions, we were challenged to go on a walk/ or to the beach by ourselves and be still in the presence of God and listen to His quiet voice. I was in awe of the beauty of the ocean and the scenery around me and was quite thankful for the nature that He created. I was also reminded that we walk past His most prized creation (human being) and we don't even think twice about giving Him thanks for what He cherishes most. I was humbled by that fact and forced to look around at the different people surrounding me and thought that each person here was created in the image of God. It was a crazy thought and it still blows my mind. I then thought about the fact that loving people is what I love to do, and I think I have been given the gift of serving/loving people, because it comes naturally to me. And as I was thinking about this, a guy with dreads past his butt walked right by me and I thought to myself, oh hey, that guy is probably a pot-smoking, loser guy that doesn't know anything about God or want to have anything to do with life, and that's when God told me, Katie did you really just say that. Here you are thinking that you are good at loving people and you take one look at a person and immediately judge him. I was completely shocked. At that moment God told me that I still have some working to do in regards to loving people, and accepting them for who they are. I mean, I have dreads and that guy probably thought the exact same thing of me, so who am I to judge? God you always keep me in check!

not just the "newest kick"

Seoul, South Korea will be my home for a year starting in August. I applied to be an English teacher over there recently, and was offered a job as an English teacher. I don't have the specific job yet, however I was accepted into the program and will have different job availabilities given to me and I get to choose which one I prefer. I already have a friend over there to help me through the process and a few other friends are applying with me! I am so excited for this change and new phase in my life!

newest kick...

My newest kick is to go to South Korea and teach English. It is through a reliable program that will allow me to teach the age of my choice conversational English. I am in the process of applying, we shall see where this goes!

life in a nutshell...

To this day, I feel that I have a specific purpose for being here on earth at this time. With a very slim chance of living at birth, I pushed through and am now a healthy, growing, and God loving 21 year old girl. I was born in Southern California into a family that believed that knew a God existed but did not actively seek after His will or guidance for their lives. My parents loved me and continued to be active in my life. After a few random coincidences (my dad losing his job and a bullet going through my room), my family (dad, mom and sister) decided to up and move to Northern California. This was a big move for all of us, for we had to start all over. With this, my mom encouraged my dad to go to church on Sundays, for she could feel the presence of God and wanted to know more. With a few months of my parents being active in a weekly bible study, I started to see a difference in their lives even though I was only 7 years old. My parents weren’t fighting as much, we started to pray before our meals together, we weren’t allowed to watch/read some of the movies/books that we previously were allowed, we had to go to church every Sunday. I believed that because my parents were so involved in church and this new group of people that it must be a good thing. One night my parents came home after Bible Study and sat me and my sister down telling us that they had both made a personal decision to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. My parents told me that they recognized the sin in their lives and how much they were in need of a savior. At the time, I didn’t completely understand but because my parents had prayed the “prayer” why shouldn’t I; for why would they tell me to do something harmful or wrong. So that night I accepted Jesus into my heart. My family and I continued to attend church, we just went to more services (big church and our Sunday school classes). It wasn’t until I was in Jr. High that I realized that my parents had different morals/standards for me in comparison to my friends’ parents. I noticed that my standards and morals were much higher and that my parents continued to challenge me in my daily actions, encouraging me to seek after God and not of my friends’ approval. Jr. High and High School were hard times for me because of peer pressure, etc; but mainly realizing that being a “Christian” just didn’t mean going to church on Sundays, but rather an everyday commitment to living more and more like Jesus Christ who gave His life for me. I continued to be very active in my church and just living my day to day life at school; not conforming to the world and my friends’ expectations of me but not telling them of God’s love (just kind of going through the motions). I graduated high school with close friends but excited to get out of my routine life style and go to college and start completely over. I chose to go to Biola (Bible Institute of Los Angeles) and was amazed by the fact that in my first class we prayed before we took a test. I was in shock (for going to public school, I was not used to being like minded with my fellow classmates). I grew a lot at Biola, in my walk with God, for not only was I able to grow alongside of my friends in a deeper more foundational faith, but to also encouraging others to do the same. I have realized that God truly has given me a passion for serving others and to look to other needs above my own. I have not discovered God’s path for my life, but know that without a doubt He has something great stored up for me and it is only because of Him and His perfect will that I am even here on this earth. I need to give all my glory to Him and all that He has done.