A year ago...

Wow...so tomorrow (Thursday, 2-5-09) will be one year since the tornado hit campus. I can hardly believe it's been a year. God has been so good to have blessed Union since that night.



Everything about that night still seems like it just happened yesterday. I can still hear the sirens and remember how it felt, the insane amount of pressure in my body and my ears popping, when the tornado was on top of us. The chaos after of being rushed from building to building for fear that the next set of storms would bring another tornado. The overwhelming moments when I finally saw Hurt and Watter's dorm...or what was left of them. The feeling I got when I saw one of my closest friend's dorms with a truck sitting on top of it still makes me sick to my stomach. Everything is still so vivid.

Looking back, I still can hardly believe that everyone made it out alive. God definetly had his hand over our campus that night.
This is a picture that a guy I knew took from his dorm when he saw it coming... (crazy photography major) To this day it's the only picture I've ever seen of the tornado that hit our campus, partially since it hit at night, mainly though...because no one really expected it.
My downstairs neighbors pre-tornado :) We didn't think a thing of it and decided to take some pictures.

One of the dorm buildings... I still can't even figure out which one it is....geez.

a UPS truck was picked up from the lifeway parking lot on campus and thrown at least 500 yards with the driver inside. luckily he was not injured at all.


More dorms.... the truck is leaning against the wall of friend's dorm.



Helicopter View of Campus...You can see the path of the tornado.
Danny being rescued from underneath a concrete slab. This guy has an amazing story.

Dr. Dockery, our university's president. This man is one of the most godly men i think I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. The way he handled the whole situation and eveything he has done for Union over the past year has been truly astounding.


Another friend found this in his dorm when he went to get his stuff. It was not his and he has no idea where it came from...I think I do.


And last but definetly not least....one of the best video's i've seen about that night. I just watched it for the first time in almost 5 months and bawled like a baby all over again. God was so so good to us that night...

2-5-08...the way we remember it.
^watch it!^

And with that I'm off to bed.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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Sweetly Broken; Wholly Surrendered

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered
What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

-Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle

We sang the song above and church this morning. Maybe I've heard it before or maybe not...not sure. But I've had it stuck in my head since then. Along with the message this morning, everything just kind of fell in place for me. Here's what I'm thinking...

The phrase "broken" by God makes sense to me but has always made me cringe a bit too. Broken just isn't something a normal person would say that they want their life to be. I kept wondering what an unbeliever thinks when they hear someone say they were "broken by God." Does it make them want to run in the other direction, scared that this God we speak of will break them too?

That was until this morning. During the worship time, a man was on stage with a potter's wheel and some clay. During all of the singing he worked the clay and eventually made it into a beautiful piece. Pastor Brady then brought an amazing message and in it used the potter's wheel and clay sort of as a visual about our time with God. The very end of the sermon stuck out to me the most. It was 4 points he entitled "Lessons's From the Potter's Wheel". The first point it what really got me thinking. It was....
1. Recognize Your Role- (The Clay)
-When you buy an unique piece of pottery, the price is usually quite expensive. The funny thing about it is that clay in and of itself has no beauty or value (about 28 cents a pound). It is not until the Potter takes the clay and works with it, gets out the impurities and makes it until a beautiful creation that it becomes something of value.

Reading that was kind of a smack in the face, ya know? Actually realizing that I am nothing until God puts me on his wheel and molds me into what He wants for me.

Mk...time to "bring this full circle" and back to the "broken" thing. The sermon combined with the song and personal experience really showed me that being broken by God is not as harsh as it sounds. I look that the song says "Sweetly broken". It really speaks to the point that when God takes us and breaks us, it's with love, compassion and a plan. Not to say that it's not hard at times...afterall...it's still called being broken, but in the end, He molds us back into a beautiful piece for His glory even better than we were before.


Jeremiah 18:3-6
So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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Hello All :)

Hello, Hello! :)

I finally decided to get myself an "official" blog. I've blogged off and on for a while on myspace. but what good is it if I hardly use myspace anymore? So here I am.

I figured with all the changes going on right now, God is trying to do something big in my life. It was hard to accept at first and I simply did not want any part of it. Slowly and surely though God has showed me that His hand is in all of it. As a way of helping out with it, I figured I'd have a place to write about it regardless of if people read it or not.

I believe that is all for now. Hopefully a more detailed post tomorrow :)

Love. Love. Love.
Katie

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