Hello there. My blog has been pretty quiet lately and I apologize for that. Since coming back from the race in December life has been one thing after another and a lot to process. Last December I had a beautiful month at home and then in January I headed down to Gainesville, GA to train for leading a Passport trip. Passport is a mission trip for college aged kids to serve and love people all around the world. I was in Nauta, Peru serving the people there for three hard beautiful months. Then this summer I found myself at my favorite place, Riverside Bible Camp in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. If I am ever anxious that is always the first place that my mind wanders off to for refuge.
Our theme at camp this summer was Transformed. For three months myself and our entire beautiful staff shared Bible stories, skits, testimonies, and we worshipped all while sharing how Jesus transforms our lives. I saw hundreds of kids have their lives transformed by Jesus this summer. Praise Him. It came from the Bible verse Romans 12:2 ” Do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Can I get an AMEN? When we are able to unplug from this world and all of the fleeting desires that it gives us and truly put our hope in Jesus and only Him and submit to His will for our lives that is what He wants. Our minds have to be renewed daily and we need to be reminded of truth that He believes of us. Finally, we can rise up against anything because God has always been with us, is with us right now, and will always be with us. That’s why we are called to go and share His love and the beauty of the Gospel with everyone we meet. Whether that be to the grocery store cashier, your boss or the people of South America. People are in desperate need of Jesus and His love. Everyone is searching for something to fill the void in their lives and only He can fulfill that need eternally. That’s what Jesus can do. He can transform us from the inside out. That is exactly what He did in my life and I have so so many stories of Him meeting people exactly where they are at and transforming their lives. Once a person experiences Jesus Christ and receives His Holy Spirit there is no turning back. The lost are found. The love that people have been looking for is finally theirs.
The thing about transformation is, it doesn’t just happen. Don’t get me wrong it totally can in a second and God is God so He can do anything He wants on His timing but the truth is that transformation is a process. Refinement isn’t fun. The process to look more and more like Jesus daily isn’t easy. I use to think that I wanted to be a Christian because life would be awesome and so great all the time and I would always be happy and there would never be anything wrong. But let’s be real. That’s been the exact opposite since I have let Jesus enter into my life and surrendered my full life to Him. It’s been rough and confusing and nothing at all what I would have imagined for myself. But I can confidently saying because I have lived my life with Jesus and without I would never go back to a life without Him. Even though He flipped my world upside I have seen Him remain faithful to His promises. He has loved me when no one else has. He has given me hope and I know that I have a beautiful future because of Him.
Transformation can happen anytime anywhere when Jesus is involved, but I know for this next season that The Lord has called me back to South America specifically to Ecuador for the next three months. I will be co-leading a team of nine college aged girls back to the Amazon jungle to a ministry called IncaLink in Loreto, Ecuador. We will be living in the community preaching at churches, putting on vacation Bible school, other children’s ministry, manual labor, and any other ways that we can serve. I desire to see the people that my team and I minister to in Ecuador become transformed because they experience the love of Jesus through us. I also know that my heart was completely transformed and flipped around when two women my sophomore year of college poured into me, came along side me, and I know that God is going to do the same thing for these nine women.
I am humbly asking for my supporters to come along side me in prayer again another journey with Jesus.
Prayer requests:
– safety and health for myself and my team. No malaria, parasites, disease, illness, or sickness in Jesus name
– for people to accept Jesus as their Savior and surrender their lives to Him
– for unity and growth within the team
– the Holy Spirit to perform miracles internally and externally in people’s lives
– I need to raise $ 2,000 to be fully funded to serve in Ecuador for this season. If you feel lead to donate and support me you can do so at www.kelseykraus.theworldrace.org and click the support me tab!
While I am gone my team has a blog http://ecuador.adventures.org and you can check out and read what exactly we are up to! As always you can message me on my email at [email protected] or on Facebook if you have any questions or prayer requests. I am so thankful for these leadership opportunities that The Lord keeps blessing me with and am overflowing with gratefulness from every single one of my supporters who believe in me and the dreams that God has given me.
