New Snail Mail

Catalyst’s mailing address has officially changed in conjunction with the125 nearing completion in downtown Kent!

Be sure to update your automatic bill pay and/or contact books:

Catalyst Church
125 South Water Street
Kent, OH 44240

Also, THANK YOU for the mounds of water bottles today! Please continue to bring more water bottles to the125 this Saturday as you are able. We want to give away as much free water in the 90 degree this Saturday as we can!

Selah: Ministry

The notes for our final Selah are available for download…

The Latest: WATER

Having just returned from a week-long church planters retreat in Vail, Colorado w/Acts 29, I wanted to update the CataBLOG with what’s ahead at Catalyst. Here’s the latest from our weekly email, The Latest:

Couple upcoming things to put on your radar:
- This weekend we are wrapping up our Selah by unpacking the nuts and bolts of ministry at Catalyst.
ALSO, we are collecting BOTTLED WATERS for next Saturday’s Heritage Fest. We want to give away as much free bottled water in the 90 degree heat as we can. Bring H2O with you, 10:30am this Sunday at The Kent Stage.

- Sat, July 5th, Catalyst will have a strong presence at the annual Kent Heritage Fest. Free kids jumper, free bottled waters, free helium balloons, 2500 Invite Cards, and the unveiling of our new 125 S. Water Street outdoor facade! Sign up to serve an hour at our festival double-booth at Catalyst.

- Sun, July 6th – Invite your friends, family, & neighbors to Catalyst as we kick off a brand new series and special guest Jeff Lavalette of Indianapolis leads our (refreshed!) band.

- Sun, July 13th, the National Catalyst Conference is swinging by Catalyst in their Roadtrip Vanagon.
Yes, a vanagon.
Definitely something you’ll want to see for yourself.

Looking forward to seeing you this weekend. Know that you are prayed for and loved…

Jonathan

Heritage Fest Details

We still have some afternoon one hour slots available for volunteering at Catalyst’s Heritage Festival double-wide booth in downtown Kent on Saturday, July 5th!

We will have a huge inflatable bouncer decorated with Spongebob Squarepants for free kids bouncing, free bottled waters to hand out in the 90 degree heat, free helium Catalyst balloons, and new Invite Cards inviting people to our new fall teaching series, “Bringing Sexy Back.”

For now, be praying. Our goal is to begin new relationships and make the initial invite to add Catalyst to people’s fall schedules…

Also, we will begin collecting massive amounts of bottled waters on Sunday, June 29th, where you can also sign up for the few remaining time slots.

Thanks Alathia

Last week out of the blue, an Acts 29 Network church plant from Issaquah, Washington sent Catalyst a generous financial gift.

If you have 2 minutes, send a quick email to Alathia Church’s Paul Dean thanking him and the elders at Alathia for their Kingdom-minded generosity!

Save the Date: June 22nd

1) Field Trip! Instead of coming to Catalyst, go to a different church of your choice. Experience what it’s like to be a first-time guest at a church. Take notes on your experience. Learn from it. How can we better serve guests at Catalyst heading into this fall?

2) At Noon, join us for a Catalyst BBQ at Fred Fuller Park in Kent.

* * HOT DOGS & HAMBURGERS PROVIDED!

RSVP to sealsb1@gmail.com with your choice of an item below to bring:

- condiments & pickles
- cole slaw or chips or salad
- 2 liters of pop
- plates, cups, naps, sporks
- crazy good delicious desserts
- ice
- coolers

MORE INFO on our FACEBOOK EVENT page.

Thanks from the Choate Family

Dear Catalyst Family,

We would like to express our deepest appreciation for the meals, support and prayers you have provided for us surrounding the birth of Evan. We have really felt the love among this church family and the service of meals has been tremendous help. Thanks to all who provided some really great food over the last couple of weeks! We are all doing well, Evan is a sweet baby, and Jacob is adjusting well to being a big brother. We feel very blessed to have healthy children and a great church behind us. See you all soon.

God Bless,

Frank, Christine, Jacob and Evan Choate

Missiology Notes Online

They’re online! Go grab the Study Notes for this coming Sunday’s Selah session on Missiology :: Engaging Culture.

Attention Unemployed 20-somethings

A number of 20-somethings at Catalyst are job-hunting. Move fast on this (via Ben Seals of Catalyst):

Praxair has a Customer Service position open. I believe the position starts at $28,000 a year. They just need to go to Praxair.com to apply.

Update on Emily Colton in China

3 months ago Catalyst helped send Emily Colton of Akron off to China for a 6 month journey. While serving in a nation that tightly controls internet usage, Emily was able to email this update to us today:

Hi family and friends!

I’ve just past my halfway point here in Asia and I think it is definitely time for an update. I’ve been here almost 3 months and I’ve experienced so many amazing things. (Other than the things happening in my life personally, a lot has happened in this country recently and I want to encourage you to keep praying for the people here.) During my time here I’ve really been seeking to understand my role here, and how I can be useful in God’s plan. Even though I know our Father is using me whether I can see the tangible evidence or not, there are many times that I want to just make a big impact. So… what is my role here?

I am a teacher…
I keep busy by teaching 2 classes at the school, one with the beginner class and one with the advanced class. We are now only 4 weeks from the end of our semester, and I cannot believe that the time has flown by so quickly. At first this role really scared me, as I’ve never formally taught in a classroom before and or even had training in this. When I first arrived I didn’t even know how to make a lesson plan! I basically hit the ground running when I got here, starting just a week after I arrived, but slowly I learned with a lot of help from fellow teachers. I feel like I finally am getting used to teaching, even though sometimes I still feel like a novice. Truly the greatest part of teaching is my students. (as it should be, i suppose!) I have grown to love them and therefore love the role of teacher. I think I first started to feel comfortable teaching when I could finally joke around with my advanced class. We even had a “slang day” last week, when I taught them words like “dude”, and “sweet”. I had a lot of fun listening to them create dialogs with each other trying to use these words and phrases.

One of the biggest challenges I find with teaching, is the fact that I am a “teacher”, which is a highly respected role in this culture. In this situation, I want to be a friend to the students, but at times, the role of “teacher” feels restrictive, making a deep friendship hard to get to.

I am a home-school teacher & big sister…
I am also a home-school teacher to an 8yr old girl named Anna. We do Science on Wednesdays and Phys Ed on Fridays. I’ve been excited to teach her volleyball, but she is quite injury prone and has already suffered a fractured wrist, a sprained ankle and plenty of cuts and bruises. Thankfully I just bought a volleyball and we are starting to practice in the park (while many on-lookers gawk and stare)! I have a blast with Anna, and she continually refreshes a child-like perspective in me. Sometimes when we go to the park together I feel more like a big sister or even another kid, as we hop on rocks over the creek, climb up mountains and read books in pagodas. We are constantly asked how we’re related (of course they think two people with red hair must be related), whether I’m her mother or sister or cousin.

As I teach, I also learn. I came to a realization, while sitting on a mountaintop, that teaching her about animals and insects and plants is giving me a new appreciation for all of the facets of creation. This place is a perfect place to re-appreciate nature because it is also so very different from home. From the mountains that seem to shoot straight up out of flat ground to the many varieties and uses of bamboo, I can’t help but see a very real glimpse of the creativity of our Creator. In my heart, experiencing nature here is like experiencing God first hand. I am so thankful to be teaching a subject that I can learn so much from!

I am a friend…
My roommates and fellow teachers have been not just my default friends, but also a huge blessing! It is amazing how quickly you can appreciate the few people who speak your language and know your culture when living among everything foreign.

However, the friends I have always been most hopeful of making are the friendships with students and that is quite a different challenge. Most students are very sweet and easy to get along with, but the deeper friendships I long for will take time to build. Getting to know the students through small dinners and class parties, we’ve built a good foundation of being comfortable around each other, joking with each other and even discussing some very tough topics in and out of class. I have been praying for all of them and several individually quite a bit this semester and I am hopeful to continue to see them grow curious or eager to learn.

I will be a camp teacher…
Thanks to our Father’s provision through many of you, He has given me the opportunity to stay here for the month of July to help with summer camps. Summer camp is a very unique situation in which we will spend 2 weeks at a middle school, team teaching with one of my advanced students. Not only is this going to be a lot of fun, with activity packed days, but this will also be a very good chance to get closer to the advanced students. By working together, we will no longer have the ‘teacher’/’student’ limitation and we can finally be real with each other.

Other Things Happening…
- Earlier this semester, we had 3 students go to a church in a bigger city and get baptized!
- Many students are at different levels in their walk, from curious to teaching other students.
- College Connection: 2week relational cultural exchange with students from Akron coming to pair up with advanced students and build friendships through many activities

Please keep praying for…
- Deepening friendships with students (the attached picture is advanced students)
- Curious/Questioning students
- Like minded student community
- College Connection: friendships, opportunities to share, energy
- Endurance for the rest of the semester
- Important decisions for the school

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support!

Living by his grace,
Emily