Less Than One Day!

Friends and Family, As I am writing this, it is Tuesday, May 25th, and I move into my room at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest TOMORROW, May 26th! I am genuinely so excited, and I have truly felt your love and prayers that God would steady my heart before I leave. When I arrive, I will be rooming with a girl named Hannah, who is also from UNC. We were able to meet over coffee last week, and I just feel so blessed that she is going to be my roomie for the first portion of the trip--she has already been so loving and welcoming! Please pray that both of us would hold one another accountable and live in unity the way that God has called us to through his Word. I spent all day yesterday packing and getting things ready for this adventure. I had a lot of time to just be still in God's presence and to simply draw near to Him. Every few hours, I would start to get a bit anxious about leaving my comfort zone, or I would start to feel as if I was not equipped enough to go. However, over the last few months, I have started to genuinely understand how to distinguish all the good that comes from God vs. the lies that the enemy tries to feed me. Recognizing what my identity is in and the new creation that I am, through the Lord's strength, I have been able to pull myself out of those challenging moments that I find myself in every now and then. I just started doing some work for my summer course yesterday as well. As I mentioned, I am a bit uneasy about taking this course, but, when I started it today, all of my nerves just melted away. I am realizing that God is in control of every moment of every day, and He already knows how I am going to perform in this class--He is fighting this battle for me! I am excited to see how I will be able to glorify Him through my studies as well. For those of you that know me, you probably know that I am a detail-oriented person. I like to know all the ins and outs of things and I am not naturally a spontaneous human being. However, in just these last couple days, I have felt challenged in ways that I never have been before. I am learning what it looks like to have faith in God and rest in the fact that He genuinely will take care of everything. Again, since I have never done something like this before, this is all so new to me! I felt silly as I was packing not really knowing specifics of what I needed to bring with me to the dorm we'll be staying in, or what I needed for the flight to Nashville. I want to know what each day is going to be filled with, yet I have no idea. I want to know all the little details of things, yet I. Have. No. Idea. I've been getting questions like "Where will you be staying when you're in Nashville?", "What airline are you flying with?", "What are they going to feed you?", and "Does the dorm need a toilet brush?", and all I have been able to say is "I don't know," and I am learning to be okay with that and what it feels like to just be in His presence and not worry about everything else! The fact I am already getting a taste of how He is moving in my heart before I am even there makes me hungry for more, so here I go! Love and Blessings, Katie Parler