Life's worth living.

It's done. My work with Missions of Hope International is finished. That is such a strange thought. It seems like I just got here and now it is time to go. The older I get, the faster time goes by. I don't think I like it. James 4:14 says it perfectly: "...what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." That is so true. I want to live my life remembering that my time here is nothing more than a mist. It is so precious. This last week was really good. I worked with a church from L.A. on Tuesday. The VBS was great. It was neat because we went back to the center where I was the first week of VBS this summer. That place was the first and the last. My summer's book ends! It was so awesome because that first week I spent most of my time helping in a 2nd grade class. When I got there on Tuesday they all remembered me. They whispered my name and then ran away giggling. They all came and said hi and gave me hugs. It was so neat. I kn

Eleven. That is the number of days that I have left in Kenya. How nuts is that?!? I cannot believe that this internship is pretty much over. What a wonderful, life changing summer it has been. I just want to take a minute to thank all of my supporters. This amazing summer would not have happened if it wasn't for you. Thank you for partnering with me on this crazy God-adventure. Lives were changed because of it. And thank you to all you people who have been praying for me throughout this process. I have felt so much love. I don't understand why God is so good to me. I just want you all to know how truly blessed that I am because of you. This week I did a lot of reflecting and thinking. And honestly, I felt a little bit overwhelmed by everything. I felt like my heart was becoming a little bit calloused towards some things here. And I hated it. I was feeling discouraged and sad for reasons that I couldn't really figure out. I have been praying that God will change my heart

Happy Saturday World! It's 10:30 in Nairobi and I am here to write about another week. Isn't it crazy to think that it's been 5 weeks already? Isn't it even crazier that there will be only 2 or 3 more of these Saturday updates? I don't know where the time has gone. This was a good week. There were 2 teams from Arizona here doing a VBS and medical camp. I was in the snack room. I made balloon hats and painted faces. It was great. The kids lit up when I put that balloon on their head or when I showed them the sorry excuse for a flower that I painted on their cheeks. Let me just say that I am no artist!! hahaha. But no matter how puny it was, the kids could not keep from smiling. It really warmed my heart. I was also really blessed by the team that came. I got to talk with a lot of people and make some new friends. There is just something awesome about working with brothers and sisters in Christ. We had never met before - and probably won't ever be together aga

Hey there dear ones, Well, it is another Saturday in Nairobi. I cannot believe that I have been in Kenya for over a month now. I honestly do not know where the time has gone. This has been the craziest, most uncomfortable month of my life but it has been a month where I have seen God in the most amazing ways. We only have 3 weeks of work left and then a 2 day safari - and then it's time to say goodbye to Africa. That blows my mind. I am looking forward to these next 3 weeks as I will continue to help run Vacation Bible Schools. I know that these last few weeks are going to fly by. Please pray that God will continue to stretch and grow me. My heart's desire is to be like Jesus. I want so badly to be his hands and feet here in the darkness. I want to look more like him than me, and I want his name to be glorified in everything that I do. I have received 9 letters so far!! I am so thankful to be getting them. They really do brighten my days and make me realize how extremely bl

Hey Again, Well, another week has gone by since I last updated you guys. It was a wonderful week!! I have learned so much and grown so much and felt God in amazing ways. If you remember in my post last time (or maybe the time before) God brought "joy" into my life through a little girl named Joy. Well, He did it again! It is like God is making things very simple for me to understand and experience. I had been working through some things and searching to see how God can make these situations better. I was sort of lacking the faith in God that He was good enough and big enough to handle the problems of Mathare Valley. Then, on Wednesday morning, I spent an hour in the home of a woman named Faith. haha God is so funny. Faith has HIV, her husband left her, and she doesn't even have enough money to give her 2 girls breakfast everyday, but she PRAISES God and loves Him so much. She told me that she chooses to be positive because she realizes that God will provide for her an

Hello Loved Ones, It is Saturday morning so I am at the cyber cafe updating the world on my life. This week has been interesting. I was hit with some stomach issues this week. Nothing that kept me from working each day but it's just left my stomach unsettled. I have pretty much lost my appetite for all food. It's not that I don't like the Kenyan food anymore, its just that I feel queasy when I think about eating it. I will get over it I'm sure. This week I got to help a huge church run VBS at the main center. It was a wonderful week. I helped with the snacks and just got to spend a lot of great time with some really awesome kids. I love what I'm doing. I have been spending some good time with the people in my group. We have done a lot of laughing and singing and dancing in the past few days. I have learned a lot about who God is and how He is working here this week. One God story that really sticks out was on last Sunday. I was feeling a little bit down in t

Well, we have been in Nairobi for over a week now. It is crazy here. There are so many people in this city. There is so much brokenness and despair. I honestly have never seen anything like this in my life. I thought I had prepared myself for this summer - but I have quickly realized that I was not as ready as I thought. I have been feeling a wide variety of emotions but the biggest emotion I have been feeling lately is fear. It's strange though because I figured I would be scared walking around this city. But that doesn't really scare me at all. We stick out SO MUCH here. We are the "Mzungus" (white people) and people stare everywhere we go. There is no blending in with the crowd in this city. It's strange because it does not really make me feel uncomfortable or nervous, just a little bit awkward. The public transportation we use here is NUTS. There are these vans or buses called "Matatus". Pretty much they drive by and you have to jump on before they

Hi all! So here I am in Kenya! This has been the most amazing experience. I spent a week in training and then last Thursday we set off for Chicago. Our very first flight was canceled and so our plans changed rather quickly. We ended up flying to Chicago on Thursday night and then were put up into a really nice hotel. We then got up at 4 in the morning and flew to London. By the time we got to London it was very late and there were no connecting flights to Nairobi, so American Airlines got us another hotel in London! There was no flight until 8 p.m. the next day, so poor us, we had a whole day in London to play! That was so amazing!!! London is beautiful. We hopped on our plane at 8 and then flew to Kenya. Our flight arrived at 6:00 am. Over all we flew around 17 hours - and I think I slept for maybe 2 of them... needless to say I was TIRED. When we were picked up we had a whole day ahead of us. This place is amazing. Missions of Hope International is all about helping this communit

So here I go. This is my first attempt at blogging. I am not sure how this really works or if anyone will be entertained or enlightened by most posts. But I'm feeling creative this minute. This should be interesting because I am not a writer nor am I usually creative. Oh well. So, I am assuming that people use blogs to share their feelings and update the world on what is going on in their life. I think I can do that... I'm going to Kenya. That is an odd sentence for me to write, but an AWESOME sentence as well. You see, I am going to be spending the summer in the capital city of Kenya, which is called Nairobi. The majority of my time will be spent in one of Africa's biggest slums - Mathare Valley. This is exciting but freaky. Today is my last Saturday in good old Waterloo for the whole summer. In 5 days I am going to load up the car and make my way to Indianapolis so that my Kenyan adventure can begin. It is there that I get to meet my other team members and learn a l