Hijacked by prayer: Meet Katie (part 2)Katie Cornick - 26 Jul 2012
Yesterday we shared the first half of an interview we had with Katie Cornick as she reminisced on her life; a life hijacked by the vision of 24-7 Prayer. We left off just as God had called her to move to the 24-7 community in Kansas City (USA) knowing that this would somehow lead her to travel to Japan - helping with the relief effort and pioneer 24-7 Prayer.
"It was in Kansas City that I had a dream about China. It sounds funny but I had a dream that I was pregnant with the nation of China. I was having an ultrasound and the screen showed an outline of China in my belly. The nurse was saying "She's about to be delivered. She's going to be delivered soon. She's going to be delivered soon!" God kept talking to me about China and I knew I had a life and inheritance there. In Kansas City there was someone else who I knew had a passion for China called Wendy, so I shared my dream with her and she freaked out! We started dreaming about what a 24-7 team in China would look like. Then we started building team. Team building in terms of friendship and dreaming. Then we started visiting China. All of the work we have been able to do in Japan kind of happened by accident off the back of that. It all started with China."
When asked about what she believes the future holds for her, for 24-7 and for Asia, Katie had this to share
"I see a fresh canvas for Japan. I feel like God is giving me, and us as 24-7, colour and brushes and all forms of creativity to cover this canvas. So many have already come to Japan in less than a year's time, it's been amazing, to see just the consistent influence of having 24-7 present in Japan. I see lots of creativity flowing into Japan and being recieved through worship leaders and some writers. We are working to gather Japanese worship leaders and song writers to just pray for the release of the Holy Spirit. We're also talking to people who have vision for houses of prayer or places of community and how to do church, especially in the Fukushima area where there is a lot of fear of nuclear reaction. The dream is to establish a base there to receive teams for working with global mission centres. We have teams coming through doing prayer journeys, volunteers work, all sorts of creative ministries in order to, not only bless the community, but look at the surrounding opportunities for connecting with local churches. We want a community of artists and lovers of Jesus living in Japan to bless that nation!"
From left: Jon Petersen, Katie Cornick and Wendy Andrews while in working for 24-7 in Japan
To finish off the interview we asked Katie what was the most important thing she had learned in a life devoted to prayer, she had this unexpected answer to share
"It sounds a little like what I shouldn't say, but Jesus always challenges me to not take myself too seriously. It's allowed me to pray in every season. When he shows up and is smiling in my super-serious prayer time I know that I can talk to Him when I'm brushing my teeth. He's levelled the playing field and made it super simple. Whenever I get too serious he cracks in with a joke and makes the burden light again. Allowing prayer to be light is what allows me to pray continually."