I have a Sonlight assignment to keep a journal for the next couple of weeks, so I thought I'd also post that on here. Technically I'm supposed to write every day, but in reality it's going to be about every other day.

This entry is primarily about the Kingdom Assignment, so let me give you a bit of background on that. This is from the card we developed to advertise the project:

"In January 2006, ACTION Impact Missions (AIM), a nationwide creative evangelism and discipleship ministry, gave $100 to each of the 14 AIM teams across the country and issued a challenge: to use the money to further the Kingdom of God (Matthew 25:14-30)! The local AIM Branson team has taken its $100 and converted it into 10,000 pennies, which the team is distributing throughout the community, requesting a $1 donation for each penny.

"7 million tourists visit Branson each year. These tourists think they are coming to experience Branson's shows and entertainment, but we believe that God has brought them here to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ! Our goal is to get the Gospel into the hands of each of these tourists. When these tourists return to their hometowns, they will share the Gospel with their friends and neighbors. Through this ripple effect, Pennies for Heaven has the potential to affect lives all across the country!"

Now that you have the background, on with the entry!

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Monday, July 24 (Week 28, Day 2)

The past couple of days have been busy… in a good way. Busy doing things for God. I haven’t been quite this excited about doing something for God in a long time.

Kingdom Assignment is really picking up. Ever since Amber got back, she’s been really spearheading the thing. It’s kind of like, after months of relative inactivity, we need to prove ourselves – prove that we’re committed to the KA. That’s what Mr. Rolf challenged us to do last week. In fact, he said we wouldn’t discuss KA anymore until he saw someone demonstrating passion and commitment. I think I’m committed, I just don’t do a very good job of showing passion and excitement. I think he understands that. He singled me out as the one that was probably closest to being committed. He praised me for getting my homework done and being diligent to bring ideas every week. That was a nice atta-boy, but I still felt bad for the other three – Ben, Cody, and Amy – who were getting quite a tongue-lashing. Mr. Rolf is also really trying to figure out how to improve PTM, but that’s a challenge for another week. This week, it’s been all KA.

It all started on Thursday at the Rotens’ game, when Amber talked to Amy a bit about her secret plan: to prove to Mr. Rolf that we were committed to the KA. I must say, she’s done a fantastic job of getting us all off our you-know-whats and making things happen. I have been totally blown away by everything that she’s doing. I need to take lessons!

Then on Saturday (or maybe Friday; I don’t remember) the wheels really started turning. Amber called me about the magnets and shared an idea she had for lenticular magnets (you know, those things that you get that change the image when you hold them at a different angle). I did some research that night… yes, it must have been Friday night, now that I think about it… and found that we could get small lenticular magnets custom-made for 44 cents each. That’s over twice the 16-20 cents we were going to be paying for larger regular magnets, but we decided that if they’re going to be twice as effective (and I saw a stat somewhere that said they were 4-6 times as effective), it’s worth paying twice as much. Plus, we can put more information on there because we have several frames instead of just one.

So the next order of business was to figure out what would go on the magnets. Thus began an endless cycle of phone calls to Amber, phone calls to Amy to relay information from Amber, phone calls back to Amber to tell her what Amy said, phone calls three hours later to remind her to do something or other…yeah. It’s been cool working as Amber. She is so busy that you have to call her every ten minutes to remind her of stuff, but that just makes her all the more fun. It’s really nice for someone to see my as an equal in a project like this – which I really am. She and I are basically co-leading it, with the other three SALTeam members just following our lead. She’s always saying things like “You’ve done most of the work” or “You’re really awesome, Katie!” She does a great job of being encouraging and letting me know I’m appreciated, and I totally bask in that (words of affirmation being my primary love language).

So right now the plan is to have a three-frame design. The first frame has a picture of Jesus in heaven, looking really heavenly and glorious, and it says “Why would someone like this…” Then the next frame has a collage of Branson that says “Come to a place like this…” And the last frame has an image of Jesus on the cross, and it says “And do this? For you. Visit (website) for more information.”

Another problem we’re working on is how to get the magnets distributed to the tourists. There are 7 million tourists that come to Branson every year, and we want to reach as many as possible – theoretically, all of them, but I’m not sure yet if that’s going to be possible. Well actually, I know right now that it’s not, but God could something that makes it possible! The main obstacle in our way is cost: raising $3 million is not exactly something the five of us can do on our summer vacation! It’s going to have to be a total God thing. We’ve discussed this a little bit, but right now we’re focusing on distribution – how to get the magnets to the tourists.

One distribution idea we had was to have the magnets handed out in the packets that the tourists get when they come to Branson. Amy is currently checking on that because she has a friend at the Chamber of Commerce. Amber had the idea to try and set up in ticket outlets and Branson welcome centers and places like that, so I looked in the phone book and found about 40 different places under “Tourist Info” or “Ticket Outlets.” I weeded that list down to the 20 most promising ones and each SALTeam member was supposed to call four of them today and find out about how many tourists they get in there every day so we can know which ones are getting the most traffic and are therefore most worth pursuing.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely LOATHE talking on the phone, especially to strangers. And calling a ticket office and asking, “Hey, how many customers did you have today?” is certainly not my idea of a good time. But I figure, OK, God wants to stretch me, pull me out of my comfort zone, so I take a deep breath, whisper a prayer for the right words to say and, oh please God, let the person be nice. So I call the first one and after about fifteen rings, I decide that nobody is going to pick up. I hang up more relieved than anything else. But then I have to go on to the next one. Deep breath, quick prayer, dial the number. After a few rings, a machine picks up. If I’d like to receive a Branson show schedule, leave my name and address and they’ll mail it out the next business day. I don’t think I need one of those, thank you. I call a third number. “We’re sorry. The number you called has been disconnected and is no longer in service.” Whew! Three down, one to go. I can do this. But then Jessica comes up. We need to do today’s grammar lesson together. Now I was on a roll, but I was also happy for any excuse to get off the phone. So I did the grammar lesson, ate lunch, and have been doing academics all afternoon. It’s now 5:30, so I don’t think that last call is going to get made today. Nobody else got their calls done today, either, so I don’t feel so bad. Good ol’ peer pressure…

So at 7:30 tonight I’m calling Amber to remind her to call Amy to tell Amy that she gets to do the honors. What honors, you ask? The honors of calling Mr. Rolf and telling him about what we’ve been doing. I had assumed Amber would do it, but she says she and I have been doing all the work (true), so she wants someone else to do it so they can also feel involved in the project.

I realize that some of the people who read my blog don't really know me, so I thought I would post something telling a little bit about myself. My Sonlight writing assignment last week was to write a two-page autobiography, so I thought that fit the bill. So without further ado, here is everything you need to know about me... almost. :)

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The Hats I Wear

I’ve never liked wearing baseball caps. I don’t know why, really; for some reason, I just find them uncomfortable. Same with other types of hats – cowboy hats, beanies, bandannas (not really hats, but close enough), and even winter hats. I try to get out of wearing hats whenever possible. There are, however, some hats that I can’t escape. Let me tell you about a few of them.

One hat I wear is that of “student.” But not just any student – I’m a homeschooled student, which means that this particular hat is very unique. I’m the oldest of four, so I get to be the guinea pig for all of Mom’s homeschooling experiments. Sometimes it’s cool being the first person to do everything… but sometimes it’s not so cool. Right now I’m doing an American history/literature/composition course (cool), Spanish, algebra II, and chemistry (not so cool).

I am a good student, and when I was 12, my score on the standardized test qualified me to take the SAT early. I did well on the test overall, but better in the math section than in the English section. This surprised me because I abhor math and science, but I really enjoy reading and composition. This leads me to another one of my hats: “author.”

Mom is a very good writer, and I suppose I have inherited that gene from her. I especially enjoy combining my interests in composition and history by writing historical research papers and essays. I won my first writing competition at the age of 13, with a paper on a 17th-century shipwreck that I wrote for the Missouri Archaeology Challenge competition. Since then, I have entered just about every writing competition I can get my hands on. This year, I entered a research paper on Elijah Lovejoy, an 1830s abolitionist, in the National History Day competition. During the course of my research, I discovered many interesting facts about Lovejoy that I could not fit into my paper, and I came to admire Lovejoy for his courageous battle for freedom for the slaves. I decided to write a biography of Lovejoy. This book is currently a work in progress, but I am hoping to finish the first draft by the end of the summer. I am very excited about this, and I wear the “author” hat proudly.

Another hat that I wear is that of “leader.” I have been involved with a ministry called ACTION Impact Missions (AIM) for almost a year. AIM is composed of local teams all across the country that use mime and drama to share the gospel. AIM emphasizes maturity and excellence among the students on the team. Each team has a student leadership team, known as the SALTeam, which is responsible for helping teach songs, leading Bible studies, and mentoring students. I have been a member of the SALTeam for six months, and I have loved (almost) every minute of it. It’s been a great experience.

There are two more important hats that I wear: “daughter” and “sister.” My family is immensely important to me, and after the Lord, is the number one priority in my life. I was born to Scott and Patty Roberts on May 21, 1990. Our family lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, until 1996, and it was there that two of my younger siblings – Jessica (now 14) and Josiah (12) – were born. We moved to Branson, Missouri in the summer of 1996. It has taken me ten years to completely discard my distinctive Arkansas accent.

Dad pastored a church in Branson for several years. Then that church merged with another church in town. Less than a week before the planned merge, Mom miscarried what would have been her fourth child, a 14-week-old baby boy. Just days later, we received a phone call from an adoption agency that we had previously tried to adopt with, asking “Are you still interesting in adopting?” Were we?!?! Two weeks later, we met our new brother, a biracial boy whom we named Andrew Alan Roberts. He is now a handsome, stubborn, seven-year-old bundle of joy (and testosterone). He has forced me to start wearing one of my newest hats, “babysitter.”

Space does not permit me to discuss “chauffeur,” “webmaster,” “tutor,” and many of my other hats. Suffice it to say that I am never bored, and I have a hat to go with every outfit.