Heaven on Earth

Hey Friends and family!!!

As we enter these next few weeks before Christmas I felt it on my heart to write you and let you know what has been going on here in Southern Illinois and to SHOUT a BIG THANKS for all the support over the years but especially this past year. I could not be doing what I am able to do here without your prayers and financial support. Neither of which goes unnoticed by the Lord and me. May you be blessed for your giving and obedience to our Lord.

The lives that God has put me in the path of have been touched with the Light of the world. The young and old have allowed me into their lives and homes to speak the truth and disciple them in the Way. I have made great friends and long lasting relationships here that are ordained by the love of the Father and His desire for Kingdom Community to expand in the earth in the vision of Acts2:42-47  “42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”  This is one of my greatest desires on the earth. To create an environment of community where anyone in any state of life is welcome into a loving and Word spoken reality of life where we can all encounter the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and be changed by His unfailing, unrelenting vehement love!

The past number of months I have had the privilege to work closely with the leadership of Crossroads Bible Church where I attend church and volunteer daily.  This church has a big vision for local/global missions and for people to know the wisdom and revelation of Jesus the Savior and who they are IN Christ as sons and daughters (Romans 5-8). I get the awesome opportunity to help develop up and coming worship leaders and musicians. I also get to pour into our worship team members lives the reality of a life of worship and the depth of knowing the Christ beyond a Sunday morning church service but to go after the daily encounter of Jesus. I have many opportunities to work with the youth group and lead prayer meetings. It’s a great refreshing to work with the local Bride of Christ in such a kingdom minded community. Many lives are changing by the choice of loving and encountering God!!

With that it is my hope that this season and the new year to come you to will find and dwell in the place of rest with Jesus by encountering His presence everyday in worship and in reading the bible. As David said in Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.”  I pray that this prayer of king David will also be yours this Christmas as you and your family reflect with thankful hearts all that our Great and Glorious King Jesus has done for us and all of humanity! Salvation has come and now the Spirit and the bride say come, Lord Jesus Come! 

(Rev 22:17)

Again, I can’t say thank you enough for all the love and support you have sown into my life and calling in spreading the gospel and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. I greatly appreciate your gifts of finances. If you would like to send monthly or a onetime offering you can send checks or cash to The House of Prayer Springfield, c/o Greg Dukett. The address is below. Please attach a note that’s says ‘Support for Katie Temple’. All your gifts sent to this address are tax-deductible. You can also go to my PayPal account which is a safe and secure way to give online.

If you have any questions or would like to hear more of what I am doing in ministry please send me a message or call. I would love to hear from you! May God bless you with His rich love! Have a very Merry Christmas and joyful New Year!

To Jesus be the glory,

Katie Temple

Send Tax deductible Support Checks to:

Greg Dukett

624 South 4th St

Springfield, IL 62703

Letters, packages and non tax deductible support:

Katie Temple

303 North Powell St

Norris City, IL 62869

My view from the hammock

The other day I was lounging in my hammock under the shade trees outside of my Norris City home and thinking to myself of the wonders and plans that the Lord has for this season.

My hammock wonderings lead me away me to a place of vision and prayer for this region of Southern Illinois. As I looked out at the surrounding houses I imagined people coming and going full of joy and life because they knew they were loved by the Creator of Heaven and Earth, God!

This has become my prayer for my city. That Holy Spirit would send forth wide spread revelation of Jesus and the Father. That my neighbors would know the power and testimony of Jesus in my life and get wrecked by His love for them. In turn giving their lives in complete surrender to following Jesus. 

Take a look outside, up and down the street or hallway you live on. Ask the Lord what His heart is for those that live near you. He will answer because He loves them and that you want to know and partner with Him to see His desires come forth in others.... that they may know Him, the one true Living God. 

I am officially living in my house alone now! Well for a few months that is. My awesome roommate Abbie headed off to serve at an orphanage in India and a ministry that helps to rescue and bring healing children and adults who have been sold into human trafficking in Thailand.

Please join me in praying for Abbie while she is on this journey as a missionary over the next few months. She returns September 13. If you would like to find out more about here and hear of what God is doing while she is gone check out her blog. She is one of the best blog writers I know and is pretty faithful about posting cool stuff that happens in her days....although she will be more limited to internet access while overseas but none-the-less check it out! She posted a few blogs in the past couple days that are very encouraging!!

God Bless y'all!

God is doing great things!!

Below is a video update of what the Lord is doing in my life. Watch and enjoy dear ones!

Expect Bigger and Better!!!

So last night I came home after being at a friends birthday party. Rewind... While at the party I was asked again about my deer (see previous blog post) by some folks. Fast forward...When I got home I was checking my email and lo and behold I got an email from Illinoisbucks.com that said I was the 2011 winner for firearm buck of the year!!!! This surprised me exceedingly! My buck won!!! God loves me so much! I give all the glory to Him! He is good!!!! Hallelujah!!!

Let me tell you a story of God's provision...

It was November 11, 2011. I was staying the night with my very good friends Andrew (Big) and Jen Beauchamp cuz me and Big were going hunting in the morning with his dad Scott (the director of the HOP Springfield). I was telling Jen that if it was cold and I don’t see anything in the morning I was done hunting for the year and maybe forever. (Just a little dramatic haha). We got our gear all together and I laid on the couch to go to sleep only to wake up in 4 hours to get dressed in EVERYTHING I owned that is warm.

It is the first day of shotgun season (my first gun hunt) and it is freezing! We piled into Scotts truck and headed up the highway to some land we got permission to hunt. I was directed in the direction I should walk to find the tree stand I would be in that day. Its pitch black and unfamiliar and cold…just like I like it! I find my stand and climb up about 16 feet. The sun was just making it appearance to us so I could make out my surroundings so I got settled in for the day. I got a text from Scott saying a nice 8 point deer was heading up the creek my way and I should take a shot if I can. I keep looking to the left and it comes but I don’t have a shot so I had to pass. About 30 minutes later it shows up in the cornfield to my right. I thought, “this could be my only chance at a 8 pointer of this size!” I was nervous…my heart was racing and my knees were weak. This is the biggest deer I have ever seen in shooting range. At this point its about 35 yards away (a perfect distance for a good kill shot) so I put the sight of my 12 gauge on his shoulder and fired….nothing..the buck looks around takes a few steps and keeps eating. I thought “what just happened?” So I put another round in the chamber and aim again…shoot and again… nothing…he looks around takes a few steps and eats…at this point I am mad and frustrated at myself. I am a really good and accurate shot normally so I’m not sure what’s happening. I shoulder my gun with one more round in the chamber, aim and….NOTHING!...again…he looks around and takes a few steps then jogs off. I missed three times. I felt like a huge failure. How do you miss with a gun??? I called Scott and told him I was mad cuz I missed. He said “don’t be mad. Now you know what its like to miss and you got that out of your system so the next one that comes along you’ll get.” I thought “yeah right scott” but I said “ok” I got off the phone with hime and called Big and told him I missed. He was surprised. So for the next 20 minutes I sat in my stand eating powder donuts and drinking dr. pepper thinking I ruined all my chances of getting a good buck in my life. I saw a buck chasing a does out in a field about 200 yards away and it was the one I missed. Lame. About 30 minutes later I saw a big deer walking towards us from the corn field. It was about 150 yards out and I sent the guys a text saying “there is a huge deer coming our way. The way it was walking in it could have gone towards any of us. But it came towards me!! This was the biggest deer I have ever seen and I was beyond nervous! I had ranged some points out for distance earlier. it came in at about 100 yards away and walked up the hedge row to my right. At one point I thought it was going to go back out to the far cornfield but it kept walking up the hedge row by the corn field that I had missed that 8 pointer in earlier. it was about 75 yards away from me which is within gun range but I thought I have to wait to see if it comes in closer. I didn’t n to risk it on this monster. Sure enough I came in a little at a time and at 65 yards out it turned broad side and I had my gun up and on his shoulder. I prayed to the Lord that this would work this time and fired! He jumped up ran right past my stand and I blindly took my last shot not aiming anywhere close to him and about 3o yards past my stand he fell…DEAD…!!! I did the hunters silent fist pump/yell and praised the Lord! I called Scott and told him “I just shot the biggest deer of my life!!!!” he replied with “Katie, it’s the only deer you have shot in your life.” true story. But I told him it was huge and he’s dead and I shot him!! We decided to wait about an hour to let him expire fully then we would go down and get him. I called Big and said “I just shot the biggest deer of my life!!!” he replied “it’s the only deer of your life…” (like father like son.) But then he said he saw it fall and he was stoked and wanted to get down and go get it right then but we waited. That was one of the longest hours of my life…no joke. I called some of my closest friends and family and told them that I got a monster deer. Some were more enthusiastic than others but they were all happy for ME! Finally I saw Scott coming through the woods towards me so I got down and we three went looking in the direction it fell. I saw a huge rack sticking up tall above the grass and freaked out! It was huge! We took about 30 pictures at that moment and the guys were crying and I was in shock! Big went up to get the truck and Scott guided me through the field dressing the beast. It was one of the best experiences ever. When Big came back he and Scott drug my deer out of the field for me about 60 yards to the truck and we loaded him up, tagged him and took off to the homestead. Satisfied and wide eyed at the goodness of God. When we got to Scotts we took another photo shoot with my deer and I cleaned him up real good. Every once in awhile saying “I shoot this huge buck. He is all mine. Thank you Jesus!!!”

The Lord showed me the prophetic picture He painted before me that cold brisk November 12^th morning.

“Expect bigger and better cuz I’ve got bigger and better to give you my dear.”

To be continued with the bigger and better stories…

Weakness

God is desiring us to be weak. If we are not weak but are moving in our own strength He cannot move us in His divine way. Only when we are leaning on our Beloved (song of song 8:5) can He in His great strength position us with His plans. His ways and plans are higher than ours. They are better and more exciting!!! We most likely will not understand His way (Prov 20:24) but we can understand that He is good and only has good things for those who trust in Him. He is the Faithful Witness (Rev 1:5). He is the Father of lights who only gives good gifts to His sons and daughters (James1:17). That I may decrease and He would increase.