Days 10-12

Blessings!  I have great news, but first...

Items 8-12 on my list of 21 significant events must be explained!  
8-9: I said that I became friends with Sarah Kovar.  Sarah is an amazing godly woman that was talked about to me by friends in Intervaristy last semester while she was abroad in Israel.  She was brought up when I had crazy stomach pains on the IV retreat, because apparently she has crazy stomach pains all the time as well!  She was also brought up when I talked about Jacob being a Messianic Jew and how NO ONE here in DC understands me when I talk about the Jewish heritage of Christianity.  She was brought up because she is a Jewish believer and was studying abroad in ISRAEL of all places.  Furthermore, apparently we went to the same church and we both went to JHOP and so forth...  At this point, I HAD to meet this girl.  So on the first day I got back from winter break, I met Sarah Kovar!  And she told me that everyone was telling her about me the whole time she was in Israel.  And so she said "I don't want to sound super creepy but I already know so much about you hahaha".  So inevitably, we became super awesome BFFs in a matter of a day and I slept over her dorm within 48 hours of meeting her.  She is a really encouraging sister in Christ and I love spending time with her <33   During that first time meeting her, she held a Shabbat Dinner on a Friday night.  It was super awesome and she showed me all her awesome Israel stuff - branch from Mt. Olives, map of Israel and where Bible stuff happened, a key chain for me!, a Biblical candle, and pictures of really awesme places!  To facilitate this perfect night, I leaned over on the table to get a piece of Challah bread, when all of a sudden the girl next to me shouts "YOUR SHIRT!"  And I look down and what do you know?  Burning shirt!  Thanks Sarah's Shabbat candle, you're the best.

10: Weekly discipling with Donna is awesome!  She encourages me so much.  I mean when we tell each other how our week was, the little things become so important.  Like, "oh I totally have this midterm tomorrow!", and "Well I know God is with you at all times and will give you his peace and strength of mind, especially in your midterm!"   And any time God gives us a vision for something or a word, it is super important, like the end all!  And we pray for each other, oh boy we do pray.  I can't even begin to explain how much this girl has impacted my life here at GW.  She is one of the most incredible people I know.  Words wouldn't even begin to describe, so I will just leave it at that.  I love discipling with Donna McDonald <3
11: Started cooking my own meals!  Yum yum.
12: Weekly prayer group in Thurston - a group of girls who live in my building and I get together in the middle of the week to pray over things in our lives and the people in Thurston (our building).  I stopped doing it a few weeks ago because I got busy. Conviction in action! God convicted me this weekend at IV retreat to start up my weekly prayer group in Thurston again -So I started it up tonight and it was amazing!  I am really really blessed by their hearts and the love we share for God and the love he pours out on us. 

Woohoo.  Time for Jacob-Katrina Bible study; Romans 3.

Go Jesus!
Katrina



1

Days 8-9

WOW!  Retreat was awesome.  We meditated on giving Jesus Lordship over every area of our life, evangelism, and the wisdom and understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit.  A fun weekend of smores, bonfires, worship, arts and crafts, lack of sleep, dance party at 1 am, tons of friends, and tons of Jesus brought me to four different convictions:

1) To start up my weekly pray group in Thurston again (been lazy about it and it is way to important to put off)
2) Giving Jesus lordship over my things (I lose and break things constantly)
3) Giving Jesus lordship over my studies (curiosity, humility, praying over the things I learn and hearing what it means for the Kingdom, honor my professors by being on time)
4) PLUNGE into a Christian community, stop being on the fringe and just maintaining individual friendships but actually be part of a bigger picture

It was a wonderful weekend and I thank the Lord for it!  And it snowed!

Thanks for friends and laughter and knowledge, God.  Amen :)

Day 7

I feel as though making each day correspond with a certain pivotal event this semester from a list I made makes my blog quite sporadic. It's not on the same timeline as I am now, so it seems kind of confusing.  Nevertheless...

A month ago when we first got back to our dorm, we found mold growing all up in our bathroom.  We were freaking out and calling FixIt (the campus repair people), and eventually they covered it up and solved the problem!  It took them long enough (a week after our call). 

NOW (Today, February 24th), it is the seventh day of my 21 days of prayer/ facebook fast.  I am going on a retreat with Intervarsity this weekend to grow in the Lord and get in the word.  No computer for a few days, so it should be pretty awesome.  Also, Jacob says I say DUDE a lot.  o_0

Bye dudes,
Katrina

Day 5 and 6

Busy, busy, busy.  Swamped with homework, studying for midterms, financial aid mishaps, work, and the tedious list of things piling up that is the essence of college life.  While on the verge of tears Wednesday at the news of a $700 mistake on my college bill, I started to sing the song my mom texted me - "And if our God is for us, than what could ever stop us, and if our God is with us, than what could stand against?"  and praying Phillipians 4 over me - "Be anxious for nothing...make your requests known to God...peace of God that transcends understanding...guard your heart and mind..."  And at 10:58pm tonight, I see now that He really did take care of everything.  I had favor with multiple people in this situation which ended up getting solved, and furthermore, my two mid-terms were pieces of delicious cake.

I forgot to talk about Urban Plunge on Day Four, but it is what I'll be doing with my Spring Break.  I'll be serving in Anacostia, the poorest area of DC, with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, meeting needs and sharing Christ.

So Lou Engle.  WOW.  This was literally the coolest thing about this semester.  If you don't know who Lou Engle is, he is the founder of TheCall, a major speaker at IHOP, and founder of Bound4Life.  If none of that rings a bell, go to his website, check out a YouTube video of him speaking (he has a ridiculously disctinctive voice), or better yet -

This is a picture of the LIFE tape, the most recognizable legacy of Lou Engle as it is everywhere in the media.  Read about it for yourself.  Or read about TheCall or just read about Lou.

Anyway, the gist is he is a huge figure in the Christian community, a revolutionary in the pro-life movement, and an all around really awesome prophetic dude.  I have known about him, read his stuff, and heard him for the past 5 or 6 years.  Some of my best friends are TheCall veterans and Bound4Life activists in Tampa.  So when I met him in late January, you can imagine it being a pretty big deal for me.

A guy at my church, Billy, was discipled by Lou Engle.  He is his spiritual father.  This fact alone made me jump on Billy the first time I met him at GW and order him to take me to his church, the very church I go to and grow in now.  It just so happened that JHOP, something I wanted to be apart of way before I got accepted to GW, is the same place that Billy and many many people from my church go to and the same place that Lou Engle came to visit in late January. 

We had to use an actual church's building for the event to make room for all the people. Lou's words were as always convicting and inspiring and the Holy Spirit tore the place down.  Afterward, Billy asked me if I wanted to meet him. So I did!  Lou told me, "You have a voice that will bring justice to the nations!"  ASDKHASLKDJHLKJHLKJDAHFLIUYWHLKJ!  I was flipping out and still am.  This is the very calling God put on my heart 2 years ago and the reason I'm here in Washington DC.  And Lou saw it!  So THEN, me and the few other friends that came from GW to hear him got prayed for.  And I was right next to him!  So he laid hands on me!  HE LAID HANDS ON ME.

Okay that was all.  And of course I'm making this more dramatic than it need be, but I mean HEY. The guy is cool.  But he is just a man, like the rest of us.  Lou doesn't have any special power.  God has the real power.  But Lou chooses to be used by God and is a superinspiring and influencial individual.  Thus, I got stoked.

Afterward, it SNOWED.

What a night.  YAY SNOW!

Day Four - UNITY

Wow!  God just loves unity.  He has really been tearing down walls lately! 

In my fast for the political sphere, he has been showing me visions of Bob Casey - leader of the pro-life wing of the Democratic Party - and Marco Rubio - my Republican Senator who is super pro-life and a fellow Life band wearer - taking off their party badges in tears and saying "I just want life!  End Abortion!" 

In my school, we had our monthly Jubliee meeting - a time of prayer and worship where all of the campus fellowships are asked to join.  It is brought on by Sons of Issachar 21, an org where two missionaries come to GWU and try to bring all the christian orgs together for a like-minded prayer meeting.  For the longest time it has only been Intervarsity and a few curious straglers from other groups.  But TONIGHT, it was half Campus Outreach and half Intervarsity PLUS a couple from Agape.  We were so enthralled by the fulfilling of God's commandment for Unity in the church, and breaking down the spirit of division.  It was an honor for me to lead the group in worship and prayer, and kind of scary!  What a big responsibility, to pray for revival and God's glory to fill the room.  Hahahaha.  Shekinah.


Praise the Lord!  He just loves unity!  Amen.

Day Three

Leading worship at Intervarsity feeds my spirit.  It was such a natural thing for me to fall into.  Now, I am honored to have the ability to praise God in the middle of my campus with twenty other hungry students.  Singing, dancing, clapping, and melodies fills the room as Jesus fills our hearts with his love. Oh Praise Him.

I have facebook urges, but I will keep fasting it and seeking the face of Christ.  The book Nazarite DNA by Lou Engle has so much rich scripture and prophecy about what it means to consecrate yourself for the Lord.  I read it on Saturday - the first day of the fast - in one sitting, and it still resonates with me. 

Jesus, you are good and mighty.  I'm glad I follow you.

Day Two

I was encouraged today as I had the opportunity to talk with my Catholic roommate about the Health Care Bill requirement for all institituions to provide health care funding for birth control.  At mass today, her priest broke the normal routine and shared the event with everyone in the church.  No matter their political belief or stance on birth control, he encouraged them to think about this being an infringement on religious rights.  In fact all priests broke their normal routine, as asked by the archdiocese.  This isn't a small thing.  This is big, as everyone is starting to realize.  And so I continue to pray for this. 

Today is my mom's birthday!  So if you read this, mom, know that I am still praying for you and pleading the blood of Jesus over our family.  May you have an amazing, blessed, joyful, and majestic week. 

So I suppose thing 'two to catch e'ryone up on is my schedule craziness!  Before the semester started, I was spending hours & hours just looking at all my possible courses and switching back and forth so I could somehow get my classes to all be on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  It took about 18 re-dos and three classes that I sat in for the first two weeks that I didn't end up taking, but I got lucky (or God helped me) and a spot opened up for the class that would make my schedule do-able a couple days before the last day to change our schedules.  And here I am happy as I can be!  I'm taking Jazz lessons and ensemble on Monday nights, and Spanish, International Affairs, Macroeconomics, and US History since 1945 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Yay!  Amanda, this is what you have to look forward to.

"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Galations 5:26)



DAY ONE

Friends and Family,
First and foremost, the most important thing I'll be praying for in the next 3 weeks is my family.  I won't go into details, but we are on the verge of breakthrough.  Let God arise in my family, Amen.
Second, I will tell you about Fojol Brothers!  In DC, there are tons and tons of food trucks - unique, fun little trucks that sell unique, fun food all around the city.  My second week of school, I heard the song "Ghostwriter" by RJD2 blasting from a colorful, silver truck.

I was like, WHAT IS THIS?!?!  Because I loved that song which was super underground at the time.  And a bunch of crazy fun and hip kids chilled and talked with me for an hour after giving me a free Lassipop - Indian ice pop from their freezer.  We sat on blankets in the awesome weather and spoke of life's treasures.  Less than a month later, I become good friends with a British chap, Jeremy, I met on the truck that first day.  I love the truck and all the people on it!  So after months of them asking me to join their crazy lot, I decide - YES.  Now taking on the name Jamboja Fojol, I dress up every time I work in a funky costume and partake in DC's most renowned and media-hogging truck, or should I say TRUCKS since they have built up so much revenue that they now have four different trucks.  Check us out at fojol.com.  Oh, and this is the Fojol family dog, Eleanor:



THIRD,
Matt Lockett, the spearheader of JHOP - Justice House of Prayer - where I spend my Friday nights, challenged us to fast for four specific things.  Normally, I don't heed to a challenge to fast and pray unless I feel REALLY REALLY called to.  I mean, God has to have me on my knees basically crying like a little lamb.  So, that's what happened.  He struck us all with an arrow of conviction, that in the charismatic and evangelical church we are always so concerned with our individual selves, our spiritual well-being.  It's true, that's my main focus.  Me me me.  Which we all, Matt included, believe is vital.  However, when are we going to stop looking at ourselves and turn to God and allow him to use us for his kingdom?  That's the heart behind JHOP, to raise up those who are in hot pursuit of the Father and his work only because he is first and foremost in hot pursuit of us.  Not only was I moved by this statement, but I felt a strong stirring in my heart when he started sharing with us the current events going on that he and the house have been in prayer for.
In case you don't know what's going on with Obamacare and birth control, read up.  It's very interesting, and hazy enough to make you a little bit unnerved.  In fact, Matt Lockett said "It took me a week to finally get enough information about this thing to understand what was really happening!"  A couple of sources, liberal, centrist, and conservative will hopefully balance the unavoidable bias in news media.  Regardless:

NY TIMES: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/us/politics/birth-control-coverage-rule-debated-at-house-hearing.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=birth%20control&st=cse

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/birth-control-compromise-still-presents-grave-moral-concerns-to-catholic-church/2012/02/16/gIQAwpTtHR_story.html

FOX/AP: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/17/states-attack-obamacare-with-birth-control-bills-would-allow-insurance/

Basically, there was a mandate that all institutions have to be able to provide health care for their employers, including birth control coverage.  This did not set well with a lot of people, as it infringes on the teaches of the Catholic faith.  I mean, think, how many Catholic schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, shelters, thrift stores, etc. do you see on a daily basis?  They're everywhere!  Their funds must go to health insurance that includes paying for something they deem as a sin.  So the compromise was made last week, and it was this: the Catholic institutions must send money to private health insurance companies and those health care plans must include birth control coverage.  This way, as Pelosi puts it - Catholic organizations don't have to directly compromise their faith.  No, rather, they can just funnel money into something that mandatorily provides something they deem as sinful.  Something that goes directly against their faith. 

This is not a woman's right issue, Democratic Representative William Lacy Clay shot at his own house leader, Pelosi - "This is a religious rights issue."

This is neither a partisan issue or a woman's health issue.  This is a religious rights issue.  I personally think there is nothing wrong with birth control.  Neither do most Protestants.  Matt Lockett jokes - "I'm not about to share with you the benefits of birth control.  However, the real issue is...."  But when I see the government becoming a stumbling block for the righteous, I am shaken.  This is a direct infringement on their First Amendment rights, and a doorway into something much worse.  We have already legalized abortion for 39 years.  What's next?  Not trying to be melodramatic.  I know that this is not the end all to the end all, but I will stand with my brothers and sisters in Christ in protecting their right to practice their personal convictions.  This is serious.  And now that the current issue has been explained, I will explain each of the four prayer points we were challenged to pursue last night at JHOP.

1) President Obama - we are to pray for our authorities, not curse them.  So I am committing to pray for this man, my president
2) Amendment to the Bill to pass - there needs to be a breakthrough in this Health Care bill.  I don't think that an infringing birth control requirement like that would pass in our country, but we can't just stand by and not pray.
3) Truth, clarity, and transparency in this whole debate until it is decided on March 26th - there's a lot of behind the scenes talk and misguided information.
4) The prophetic voices of women to rise up this year - something Lockett might not have known actually was asked for by a Democrat in the debate after he called us to do this.

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, asked: “Where are the women? It’s outrageous that the Republicans would not allow a single individual representing the tens of millions of women who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning.”         - NYTimes

With two bishops, a Lutheran priest, a rabbi, and a few other men being the sole opponents against this, there is a symbolic image of what is going on in issues like this: Where are the women?  You and I know that there are PLENTY of women, who are actually more often than not the sole leaders of anti-abortion movements.  Although this isn't an abortion issue, there is something to what Maloney said that struck a note in me.  We need the women of this nation, pro-life and religious rights women to speak up and contend in Congress.

After all this I should say a few things.  I'm not against birth control.  I'm also definitely not a Republican either.  This is not a partisan issue.  I'm more of a liberal than anything as I share many commonalities with the Democratic Party.  But I will fight in prayer and fasting to end abortion and protect religious rights as long as God causes me to.  How long will we continue to push the boundaries of sin, turn a blind eye to the shedding of innocent blood, and a deaf ear to the crying out of the oppressed?  Revival begins with obedience, as Finney put it.  Friends if you want revival in your school, work, family, city, country, you need to pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  This is his call for us. 

In conclusion, I work on a traveling culinary carnival, I'm fasting facebook, and praying for my family and four other seemingly inconsequential things.  God moves.

Blessings,
Katrina Doyle

21

21: What a great number!  It's the number of days Daniel fasted, and it's the number of days I'll be fasting facebook (as a college student this will be hard haha) and praying for four things - President Obama, the religion rights Bills in Congress regarding mandatory birth control support in Health Insurance to pass, truth and transparency in this issue for the next month of debate, and a raising up of the prophetic voices of women.  I'll explain in due time - because I know a lot of that sounds jumbled and confusing. 

I will hopefully be updating every day in this time of prayer and fasting, talking about what God has been doing in the prophetic and the four current events.   Another thing I'll be doing is explaining one of the 21 things I'm about to list for each day.  Since I haven't updated in almost 3 months, I will list 21 things that have happened since my last post.  There are so many!   And each day, I'll tell a story - alongside the updates on my fast.  I typically hate saying that I'm going to fast, because I think it takes away from the whole point of it, that it's between you and God and not for your own status.  But understand that I'm not saying this to sound holy or anything, but to invite you into prayer alongside with me and read about me because you apparently love me enough to care!  haha!

Here are 21 tidbits of information that has occured in my life in the past couple months.

1. Job at fojol bros.
2. Schedule craziness
3. Became Worship Leader of Intervarsity
4. Signed up for Urban Plunge
5. Lou Engle speaking at JHOP
6. SNOW
7. MOLD
8. Became friends with Sarah Kovar
9. Shirt caught on fire at Sarah's Shabbat dinner.
10. Weekly discipling with Donna :)
11. Weekly prayer meetings in my dorm
12. Started cooking my own food!
13. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan
14. That really bad week
15. Had a birthday
16. Had a sweet Valentine's day
17. School got hit with a Contagion-like virus - Neural virus.
18. IJM
19. Rooming with Franny and Rohita
20. My awesome classes
21. My awesome friends

 God has been stirring my heart for over 24 hours.  I could barely get 4 hours of sleep last night, and couldn't even nap today after forcing myself.  He has been calling me into allignment with his work, and this includes utter communion and dependence on him.  My mom even said that God is starting something, and stirring us all, and today He is revealing something new, before I shared this with her.  All sorts of weird coincidents happened today.  Like, as I was telling Donna this crazy story about a guy who tried to make the most expensive Starbucks drink by using all sorts of add-ons because he got a coupon for any free drink (and it turned out to be $23!), I get the same exact coupon!  It is supposed to be very very random and a small chance, like winning the lottery.  What??!  And then, the very friend that shared that crazy story with me walked into Starbucks in that moment.  All too weird.  Throughout the day, me and Donna would be about to text each other the same things at the same time.  Also weird, I LOVE SLEEPING and I can't freaking sleep.  THANKS GOD.

Lord, you are doing something new and I so am leaning upon you.  You have captured my attention, and invite you to share with my the riches of your glory.  Please, disrupt my day and pour your spirit onto your people.  Be my rest.  Help me control my facebook urges and cause me to pray without ceasing for your kingdom to come and will to be done.  The fast starts now.
Amen.