blog

blog. that word reminds me of b-l-y-t-h-e. (hehe, rth)

anywho! hello blog followers! all 3 of you! its great to be back in blog-land.

so when i started this blog, i wasn't very educated about blogs. i have now been enlightened by julie hayslip (facebook her, she's a wonderful human being) and i will begin to actually add structure to my blog. imagine that, me & structure, a happily married couple! ha!

so, i will start to label blog postings with [likely] one of the following topic headings: Jesus, HandPrints, PAL Mission, Life!, Adoption and Missions. these are areas of my life that i'm most passionate about and i feel i can blog on at least one of these topics, once per week. (phew, that's quite a commitment seeing as my current frequency is quarterly, at best) indeed there are other things i'm passionate about, but the aforementioned topic headings seem to have developed as long-term passions in my life, as opposed to passion-trends that i pick up and put back down. my current passion-trend is encouraging 20 and 30 - something women. we'll see what God chooses to do with that. perhaps it will emerge as a long-term passion. all this talk about passion makes me want a grande sweetened iced passion tea from starbux...

some basic info about my NEW topic headings:

Jesus: here it is, i'm gonna go all CMA on ya [www.cmalliance.org]... He's my savior, sanctifier, healer and coming king. my cat is snoring beside me as i type. she's not exactly tactful. so back to Jesus... now my cat is licking her... ugh. told you she's not tactful. attention span of a gnat - back to the blog! though the "savior...etc." is my denomination's 'tag line' or whatever, at some point i had to examine each title given to Jesus and see what they mean to me. over time i have learned to begin to embrace these names given to Jesus in my own life. i should stop now because each title could be a future blog post in and of itself. i will mention that sanctification is one of my favorite christian concepts.


may i focus for a moment on two key phrases i just typed: over time and begin to. my relationship w Jesus is just that, a relationship. it has ups and downs, ebs and flows, good and bad times, communication issues, jealousy, anger, emotions, love, patience, grace and forgiveness. over time my relationship w Jesus has grown and developed. i don't think i can speak of my relationship w JC without bringing the word commitment to the forefront. the word is essential for any relationship that we actually give a hoot about - especially a relationship w Jesus, whom we can't see or text.

HandPrints: is a sign language choir made up of adults with various [dis]abilities. so my buddy roxanne and i started this group about 2.5 years ago and i'm not gonna lie, i straight up love them! i think i did an earlier post on them, so read that for more info. HandPrints also has a facebook page. be our friend!

PAL Mission: is my current place of employment, but oh, so much more than that. i quit my job at DD about 6 months ago to follow God's clear calling to work at PAL. http://www.palmission.org/ and PAL also has a fb page. right now, my job is to work with 18 - 25 year olds that are certifiably homeless, no permanent address or place to call 'home.' from where i'm sitting in my house i glance up and see the words "home sweet home" stenciled on my wall. this job is humbling, frustrating, hilarious, unpredictable and totally rad all at the same time! now that i've been there a few months, i feel like i've gotten my feet wet a little and i'm starting to see why God has me there. cliff hanger!

Life!: not the youth group event... this section will likely be filled with just random stuff i see, hear or do. for example, i l o v e the fact that i know my pets love me. perhaps if you don't have pets, you'll think i'm a bit coo coo... but i was outside raking leaves yesterday in the front yard, about 10 feet from my front door. i turned around to see my 2 pets, that don't get along, both sitting at the front door, staring out at me raking leaves. it was hilarious!




sorry about the reflection. its a little tough to see my cat because of the glare. they indeed are the cuter 2/3 of the yates family.


Adoption: i feel called to adopt a baby some day. please pray for me about this. lots of issues surrounding adoption. more info to come on this topic so near to my heart.


Missions: we are all called to be missionaries. perhaps not to uganda or russia. i think all he wants us to do is start by sharing your story. the story of life He's given you. if you can't come up with something to share, perhaps your story sucks and you need to spend a little more time with Jesus. Julie Hayslip is saying "hell ya!" right about now... anyways... so missions is apart of my every day life. you'll read much about how Jesus speaks into my life, and i'll let you specifically make the connection of how it relates to living a missional lifestyle. a brief but proud moment happened recently. my older brother, yes, i have an older brother, sent me a message that said his daughter, my niece, recently got a new bike, in addition to the one she already had. soon after my family learned of a family in need and my niece suggested they help the poor people like aunt sara does. she wanted to give away the new barbie bike.

pass your faith on to the next generation.


i'll be back next week. and i'll be praying for you in the meantime!

10-4

Emmanuel, God With Us

amidst all the great fun that summer brings, the reality of the struggles of life are unavoidable at times. a reality that i've both observed and experienced over the past few weeks is that people are hurting. deep down, people are hurting. relationships are drowning, not growing. hearts are easily pulled away from one another. even we christians forget that we belong to The Almighty God. what is wrong with us? why do we so easily get distracted? how did the stupid little details of life creep in and turn our eyes away from Jesus?

God carried me through the last few weeks when i felt He was distant. it takes me feeling lonely, dumb, frustrated, hurt and at a loss for the next step before i purposefully get myself away from the mundane crap of life and, this time, take my butt to starbux for 15 minutes. that's all He needed - was for me to show up and give up - so He could pick me up. i popped open a book i bought a few weeks ago. not gonna deny it, i was a little hesitant to pick it up. after feeling desperate and lost, i opened the book and started reading. His love came pouring out. it wasn't long before i realized He'd been carrying me. it wasn't long before my heart softened again... which of course means tears to follow. later that night i heard chris tomlin's song unfailing love. ok, i've heard this song 1,000 times, but this time, i listened.

i'm typically not a fan of copying/pasting lyrics, but read these words. can you sing them with an honest heart? do you believe them? can you trust them? i pray you find comfort in their truth during your time of need.

you have my heart
and i am yours forever
you are my strength
God of grace and power

and everything you hold in your hand
still you make time for me
i can't understand
praise you God of earth and sky
how beautiful is your unfailing love
unfailing love

and you never change God you remain
the Holy One
my unfailing love
unfailing love

you are my rock
the one i hold on to
you are my song
and sing for you

and everything you hold in your hand
still you make time for me
i can't understand
praise you God of earth and sky
how beautiful is your unfailing love
unfailing love

and you never change God you remain
the Holy One
my unfailing love
unfailing love

i was humbled by not only the reminder of His unfailing love, but the reminder of how stinkin selfish i can be. i'm worried about this or that and i'm not getting this or that and s/he's not treating me blah, blah, blah. stop. turn your eyes upon Jesus, yates! He's been standing with you the whole time. sometimes i beat myself up for not being able to do the right thing 100% of the time, or not being able to pull myself together or not being able to act the way i want to or be as nice as i know i can be. why? because i'm trying too hard. i made myself a note while on a mission trip last year: "you don't 'got this one.'" i often think i can handle what seems like even the easiest situations on my own. nope. but i don't have to. Jesus is there to guide and help. when i remember simply and ever so slightly to turn my eyes upon Jesus, i'm melted by his grace. my heart is immediately transformed and doing the right thing, being the right me and feeling confident in the woman of God that i am just comes [super]naturally.

i think for many years i got stuck there. i think many christians do... get stuck. they believe the story of Jesus. they go to church. even bought a christian cd or two. pray for sick people, etc. but their hearts are never transformed. what's it going to take? He's standing right there. He's been trying to get your attention. what's getting in your way? you? your sin? pride? life? you want to be a person that's close to God? genuinely loves God with all your heart? you want to be a Godly leader? who is it that God is calling you to be? oh, you're not equipped for the job? probably not. now He's got you right where He wants you, turning to Him, depending on Him...

every

step

of

the

way.

layna made me sing 'leaning on the everlasting arms' to her in church today. ha.

ok, You got my attention.

ok God, ok!

ok, so God has been calling me to blog for a while now... ~~does He really do that? He's so high-tech. i wonder if blogging existed in Paul and Timothy's day, if He would call them to blog, too.~~ i digress....

so, now that i've repented, i'll get on with the blog. lonette is going to AMEN this one.

isn't it amazing how God just swoops in when we need Him the most?! He just loves us so much!! sometimes, probably most of the time, we don't even know He's swooping in!! i've been smacked in the face with this reality several times this past week. of course, He's with us always, but after i was literally caught off guard and immediately brought to tears with God showing me something this week, i then had to ponder, how many other times in my life can i recognize the swooping in at potentially disastrous times.

i'll start with the occurrence that caught me off guard. well first, divorce sucks. i could do another whole blog on that but i won't. so i must have been praying about something relating to divorce... when God reminded me that both my mom and i came to know Him after my parents got divorced. ~~when i do this ~~ it means what i'm thinking in my head~~ ~~ok God, i guess that's good, that we found you, after the divorce. so 1 good thing came from a divorce. what else you got?~~ that's when the smack came. before i could become a complete disaster of a human being, God swooped in at age 12 and called me to be His. up until this smackdown, i have openly claimed my testimony to be a boring one. i had no idea what i was getting myself into when i said yes to God at some church, during some youth group service, with a friend i haven't seen or known for nearly 10 years... my heart was tugged and i responded with yes. that's it. i was "saved." whatever that meant. just 2 years prior to this "saving" event is when my dad left. shortly after, my grandpa left my grandma after 42 years of marriage. no other men were stepping up in my life to be a leader. God swooped in. this hit me huge. He knew the timing was crucial. had He waited a few years, who knows what sort of mess i would have made of myself. how many years prior was he tugging and i didn't see, didn't hear or chose to turn my head? i mean, even though i now claimed God at age 12, i still fumbled through the next 10 years of life trying to figure out exactly what that meant... to be wanted and loved and dare i say it, used by God, the God of the universe. even now, how often are we tugged? how often do we listen? are we in fellowship with God?

a few weeks ago i had to read a brief description of the crucifixion in a book for class. we've heard it 1,000 times. i then had to reflect on it for a journal that was due. woah... God slowed me down and honed me in on the fact that Jesus never broke fellowship with His Father. He constantly got away to be alone with Him. He prayed often and was never outside of God's will. so the crucifixion... cross... died... took on all our sins... willingly went to hell for 3 days... was separated from God... receiving the wrath of His father... now wait a minute. think of the person you love to be around the most. your adorable bubbly child? your strong and loving spouse? your favorite sweet old grandma? Jesus would have picked his father, with whom He NEVER broke fellowship with while he was here on earth, and then He was s e p a r a t e d from Him for 3 days while He endured hell. alone. a p a r t from God. i praise God that after 15 years of following God, He's continuously tugged on my heart to the point that i, too, don't want to go 3 days without my Father. when it happens... it has happened and it will happen again (i'm not unrealistic here people), i get a little cranky, the people around me sense my crankiness, I begin to not like myself very much... its just all bad. you been feelin cranky lately? not feelin real great about yourself? feelin tugged?

i had a conversation with a friend recently who in trusting honesty shared that they've only been applying them self to life at about 30%, maybe 60% at the max. this person knows of their potential, of which this person (i feel) operates more around 90%, but within their heart, they know there is more. shortly after i was of course praying for this person, as i often do, and recalled the verse in 1 thessalonians 5:19 that says: "do not put out the spirit's fire." another translation: "do not quench the spirit." and one more [of course the message likes to expand a bit]: don't suppress the spirit, and don't stifle those who have a word from the Master. on the other hand, don't be gullible. check out everything, and keep only what's good. throw out anything tainted with evil." when i read this verse several weeks ago now in Francis Chan's Forgotten God i had to stop. oh crap. me. guilty. stifler. suppresser. quencher. i had be done with that stuff. now that God brought me that verse i don't have the excuse of not knowing, not being aware that i'm a quencer!! but oh... oh, oh oh... God is Good! to the tune of big punisher... i don't wanna be a quencer no more... =) because...

where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom

bring the sprit of the Lord into your family, your workplace, your marriage, your parenting.

be free.

Victory in Jesus!

sing it with me! (you know you want to!)

ok, almost DAILY over the past 2 weeks God and I have celebrated hidden victories of my heart. (more details on that later)

through much prayer, i experienced a victory today that i'm choosing to make PUBLIC!! =)

over 2 weeks ago i was issued a traffic ticket for "running" a red light. the date was 2/9 and the weather was horrible. i chose to coast through the yellow/orange/red light instead of slamming on my brakes. to my surprise the police officer issued me a ticket! $125!!!! one-hundred AND twenty-five dollars!!!

1 week later, i plead not guilty and was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing. it was at this arraignment that i learned that court costs are $138. one-hundred and thirty-eight dollars!!! so if i lose, i end up paying more than double what i would have paid if i would have just paid the ticket!! eeek!

i began praying and gathering data and information on the weather conditions of the day. many canton area activities were cancelled that evening b.c of the snow. almost the whole county was shut down the next day b.c of snow. i gathered all this info. finally i wrote a letter to the judge explaining the situation, asking the charge to be dropped and to be freed of any court costs.

THIS MORNING i went to court prepared for battle! i met w the prosecutor and explained what happened. she said she would recommend the ticket be dismissed, but couldn't make any promises about the court costs.

i went before the judge. he read my letter. smiled at me. read more of the letter. smiled at me again. asked me where i worked. i responded. he told me i wrote well. i said thank you your honor. he said, this charge is dismissed, have a good day. i looked at the clerk and whispered "what do i do now" she said "you can leave." =)

i didn't have to pay for anything!! AND the ticket was dismissed without prejudice!

i, of course, cried in awe and adoration of my KING! you see, God taught me about the opportunity i have to tithe a few years ago. (thank you pastor taylor for our small group lessons) i typically have about $5o or less in my checking account after first tithing and second paying bills (and third buying myself a coach purse 1/2 off for valentine's day). last month, i figured out that i was somehow a month ahead on my mortage so i was able to skip a payment, leaving me with an extra $500. i was prepared and had enough money to cover the cost of the ticket and fines if i needed to. instead, i was able to leave the sweet, friendly waitress at lunch today a big fat tip, pay for my friend's meal and make a love offereing to a new favorite ministry i recently learned about! palmission.org check it out! pal mission is also on facebook!


we no longer fight FOR victory, but FROM victory! thank you Jesus!

HandPrints Sign Choir

some of you may be familiar with my [i'm quite possessive] sign language choir, HandPrints. it was the last practice we had that inspired me to finally get my butt in gear and start my blog.

history: the stark county board of developmental disabilities had another sign language choir called Sounds of Silence from 1983 (the year i was born!) to 2000. they were freaking awesome and even performed for billy clinton. i have/had an aunt w down syndrome that was involved w stark mrdd during this time period, so my family would go to many of the choir's performances. maybe i shouldn't admit this but i always stared at the director and was simply in awe of her the whole time! [so funny because now i know her and she's such a sweet lady!]

2003 - 2004: i took 4 semesters of sign language in college and loved it! i'm not fluent or anything, but it sure is fun, fun, fun! jay mimics me signing in the car quite often. we laugh together!

fast forward to 2006: i have known and loved roxanne korte (missy's mom) for many, many years. we, together have a dream of starting another sign choir. we approached mrdd and got turned down.

2008: we tried again with a written proposal and a team of supporters. score!! in the fall of 2008 HandPrints Sign Choir began. we started with and remain around 20 members. initially my biggest goal for the choir was to have a cool logo (thank you jason nemeth for sharing your awesome techy skills with us) and matching shirts!!! (thank you stark dd for financially supporting us)

how it works: this [totally rad] group of adults with disabilities meets weekly for practice. we pop a cd and i teach them the signs to the lyrics of the songs. i mess up, we laugh together. i act like a lunatic most of the time, we laugh together. jay tells the whole choir that my feet stink right in the middle of a song, we all laugh together. such a good time! i haven't even mentioned the completely AWESOME group of parents and staff people that faithfully bring the choir members each week. without them, i honestly don't think i'd have the energy to do it. they are so helpful and inspiring and affirm that this choir is a true blessing straight from God himself! ok back to the how it works... so after we learn songs, pretty much by word of mouth we book performances at local nursing homes, community events, churches, etc. we go perform and they give us $$, if they want. we don't care about the $$ so much. if we get $$, we usually spend it on important things like pizza parties.

through the choir my love for roxanne has grown! she is our manager and keeps us all, including me, in line and organized. it is super cool that my brother jay is in the choir and my mom helps out every week and at every performance! such a family affair. i have met some awesome people along the way... already mentioned the parents and staff, rebecca cole (shout out!) the director of s.i.g.n. ministries, another sign choir in the area, of course the choir members themselves! and many, many more! it fills my tank to look around at the end of a performance and see the choir members bowing with pride (and usually clapping for themselves) and the audience (and roxanne 99% of the time) in tears as our little group with a smelly-footed director warms the hearts of many!

i have to believe that experiences that purify our hearts in this way can only come from God

post #1

goodie! it only took me 2 1/2 weeks to figure this out!

i'll start with mentioning why i'm 'doing' [is that the correct verb?] a blog in the first place. i know about 6 people with blogs. several of them are young people that live outside the united states, serving Jesus in some capacity. when i get down on my life, feel cranky or selfish or just in a funk, i get online and read of the ways God is working in their lives. it puts my crankiness into perspective. most of the time their words bring me to tears and the experience ends up being such a blessing to me! so, i figured it was my turn to start sharing with the world how God is working in my life, too. i have a feeling this blog is more for me than for the readers. hopefully you might remember to check it occasionally read of God's transforming love in my life and perhaps be challenged as i was to be encouraged and recognize that God is alive and longing to be the center of your life! HE alone is the reason i sing.