TBD

Hey Friends, sorry it's taken me awhile to update. I will soon. Take care my loves!

Time is Pressing Ever Nearer

OK so I just finished my second goal. It wasn't quite on time but close enough. I finished writing my support letter and am just waiting to hear back from my mom (I sent her a copy so she can help me make any final adjustments). And I finally have my support list finished (at least for now, hopefully I will meet people along the way that will want to join my team) and now I just need to gather addresses, buy some stamps, and get these in the mail! I'm feeling the pressure because we need to have $1700 in by Dec. 17th (I already have 250 in because of the deposit so really I need $1450, but that's still a lot!) and I should have gotten these letters out a couple of weeks ago! Please pray that this won't be too hard of a process and people will be willing to give. These deadlines are going to approach rather quickly!


love always!

Time for Goal #2

Sorry I haven't written in awhile! It's been a crazy last couple of weeks with school and being sick and such.
2 Sundays ago was our first team meeting for Tanzania!
It was really fun to meet everyone who was on the team! I only didn't know about 4 people so that was cool! Most of the people I've already known for awhile and have built relationships with! That's probably one of the most reassuring things. Knowing that I have this steady support system going with me on the trip. They are already my family and I'm excited to see how God is going to transform us all through this experience.
Some encouraging things. I finally told both my parents of my intentions of going on this trip. I was super nervous but after I talked to them I realized I had nothing to be nervous about. My dad was really supportive! And my mom, who it's not that she's not supportive, but she's just worried about me, I am her baby so she's protective over me. But she was game with me going too! And then my grandma is even giving me the money for my deposit! I am truly blessed to have such a great family!
Now comes time to start the support raising. Is it weird that I'm kind of excited for this? I know it will be a tough process but really, I think it will deepen my trust in God and just give me an opportunity to talk to other people about the work He is doing in my life and how they can be a part of it. The only frustrating thing is that awhile ago I made a whole list of potential ministry partners and made a really nice database, and then my computer had to be wiped clean due to a virus, and while I thought I got all my documents back, my computer didn't manage to save that list. So I have to start over, but that's ok. I'll deal. This will be fun! My goal is to have my support letter and a list of all my potential supporters completed by the end of the week. Ideally even Wednesday or Thursday. Stay tuned for more!


Lots Of Love!

Tanzania Here I Come!!!

I MADE THE TEAM!!!

After weeks of waiting not so patiently, I finally heard back, and boy was it worth the wait! I'm on the team and I'm SO excited! Tears of joy are flowing down my face, and I can't stop smiling! This trip is going to be AMAZING! And I'm so glad I get to experience this with people I'm close with! There will be 4 of us going from my college group and then a handful of my close friends from church. Ahhh I can't wait!

Thanks for your prayers, I'll update soon!


lots of love!

Hey friends!
I meant to write this last week, but school has been crazy busy!
Anyways, I had my team interview last Wednesday and I think it went really well. The team leaders I know (for the most part) pretty well and the whole atmosphere was very fun and relaxed. I think I was able to answer the questions well and I felt confident through the whole thing. My only concern is that their main concern was my allergy to nuts. They really stressed the serious of the situation (which I knew, but I understood their concern) and even said that some teams wouldn't even consider taking someone with that allergy. So I'm kind of worried that will prevent me from going on the trip, but I hope it doesn't. I'd rather get told not to go because of a God reason, not an allergy reason. But who knows! I should hear back sometime this week so I'll let you know as soon as I hear! Thanks for the prayers!

Love you all!
<3

So I figured since I'm not 100% sure when the interviews will be, I thought I'd put up some interesting facts I've learned about Tanzania, to keep me consistently posting on this blog!

Hope you enjoy them!

*Tanzania is the largest county in East Africa

*Contains Africa's highest point, Mt. Kilimanjaro

*Tanzania was formed in 1964 when Tanganyika and Zanzibar united

*The life expectancy is the age of 45.

*78% literacy level

*The main language is Swahili though English is widely spoken

*30% of its land is protected through National Parks and Reserves, which is more than anywhere else in Africa

*One of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the world, the Serengeti National Park, resides in Tanzania

*The religion is mostly Muslim, Christian, and indigenous beliefs

Hope to report back soon! And hopefully the next post will be me reporting that I'm on the team and will be headed to Tanzania!

love you!

Application Completed!

So I completed my first goal of this whole experience!!!

I finished my application and turned it in yesterday!
Now I just have to wait, which will be hard, but it will teach me patience.
Application due date is Sept. 1st and then I think interviews are on the 7th. So I've got a couple of weeks to wait but it will definitely be worth it!

The application was a challenging process but I learned a lot through it, and I've decided I like to be challenged. It makes me stronger!

I'll update again after the interview!!


love you all!!

First of Many Goals I'm Setting For Myself

Ok so through this whole process, I am going to have to make goals for myself to keep me on track of everything I'm going to need to do. I mean, this whole process to get to Tanzania is going to take almost 10 months! That's a long time to stay focused! But I mean, I can do it, this is something I really, really want to do, so I'm not about to lose momentum! But I know with school just around the corner, life can get busy and things can unexpectantly pop up, so I'm solving that right now! When I went to Hampton Beach, I procrastinated a lot. Well no, let me be more specific. When I went to Hampton Beach, I got a head start on preparing and sending out round 1 of support letters, but then it was seriously months before I sent out round 2 and there was a whole lot of people I never even sent letters to! It was all because I just kept putting things off, even though it was something I really wanted to do, I let other things take priority. But not this time, this time I'm going to stay on top of things, and be much more relaxed going into this than I did going to Hampton Beach.

So what is goal #1 you may ask? To finish my Tanzania application by Sunday August 23. This is a week from today (well technically yesterday) and the day before school starts. I only have five questions left so I figured if I do a question a day I should be set! The reason I want to be done by Sunday is because the first couple weeks of school are always super chaotic, and I know if I don't finish my application soon, September 1 (the due date) will creep up VERY quickly! So I just decided, it's a very do-able goal to have my application completely completed by next Sunday!

Please pray that I get the application finished and that if it's God's Will, the team leaders will find that I should be placed on the team!


Love you all!!

:)

The Beginnings

Some background info!
(disclaimer: this may be pretty long!)

For a little over 2 years, I have been attending Newport Mesa Church. Aside from just regularly attending, I have been involved in helping start up a college group, I've been in the choir, I've helped out in the children's ministry, I've played in a church softball league, and I help work the Welcome Center. Now, I know that's a lot but I love it all! One thing I have yet to do though with my church is go on a mission's trip. I've gone on mission trips before, and a lot of you probably know that most recently, I've spent a summer in Hampton Beach, NH.

When I first started at NMC my pastor Rick, told me how I had to go with Africa with him and the church. When he first told me that I honestly thought he was insane. I later found out that they were going to go to Ethopia soon. I was really interested in the trip and I went to the info meeting and all that jazz, but in the end, I felt it wasn't in God's timing for me to go. So I pushed the thought aside for awhile because I knew if God wanted me to go to Africa, He would present me with an opportunity to go.

A couple of months ago they announced in church 2 trips coming up. One of them is Tanzania. The more I toyed with the idea, the more I decided that this was the time for me to go. I mentioned it to my college pastor, Michael and he said that he wanted to go on the trip too. Then one of my really good friends Michelle said she really wanted to go on the trip too! This just made me more and more excited! So I prayed a lot about it and I felt God was really telling me that this was the trip He wanted me to go on. So I went to the information meeting, I heard the details, I remained calm through the knowledge of the shots I'd have to get and the money I'd have to raise, and in the end? Well I'm more excited than ever.

Even though the trip is not until May, I'm starting to write this now because I am preparing for the trip now. There's a long process, and I thought it would be good to keep it documented. My first step is filling out the application. It's a really long application that I'm not exactly enjoying but I know I'll appreciate the trip much more once I finish it and turn it in. Right now I also have just finished making a long list of people who I feel would want to potentially support me. I already did this because when I need to start raising support it will be in the middle of my semester and I don't know if I'll have the time to name storm, so I just did it now while I have time. The next step in the process, once I finish my application, will be the interview. I will have to have an interview with the team leaders and then they will decide if I join their team or not. So in theory, this can be a short-lived blog because I could be wrong in thinking this is the trip for me. However, I honestly don't believe I'm wrong and so if it's God's Will I will make the team!

So that's where I'm at right now. I will try to keep you all updated! Please keep me in your prayers as I go through this whole process of simply making it on the team and then from there, please pray for the team who gets to go to Tanzania and that all the funds will come in!

I love you all so very much!