I survived Being Snowed In!

Last week on campus we got the most snow that I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I woke up on Wednesday morning to a good bit of snow on the ground and it was still coming down pretty good.   I was thankful for the day off and made the most of it. I played outside half the day with the children on the campus, pushing sleds, making snowmen and women, and partook in a few really good snowball fights. The other half of the day was dedicated to catching up on reading and studying.

 

 

By Saturday all the snow had melted and we had a beautiful day to head into Washington DC. We had a great trip and were able to observe a few Africans who were visiting and working in the DC area. We met a Nigerian family that was showing the maternal grandmother the sights of DC.   We meet quite a few Ethiopians working in the city.

 This week is going into my 8 th week on campus, time has flown by. I am looking forward to this week as the Sub-Saharan team will get to spend some good quality time with multiple people who have previously or are currently working in Sub-Saharan Africa. We will end Friday with the last of our shot days. I think I only have 3 more shots to go!!  

Our group has been learning how to cook a few meals from scratch.  We have learned how to make soups, pizza and brownies from scratch.  This week one of our tasks is to go without electricity for the day.   This will be for all of us a very practical learning task since we will often be living with frequent power outages and brown outs. In fact I just Skyped with a supervisor  yesterday who had to travel to a different location because the power at their home had been out for hours.

Celebrations and Sight-Seeing

Well I’m half way through with part one of training! It has been a great first month and I am making some great lifelong friendships. About a week ago I got hit by a nasty “bug” which made me slow down for a good three days. The Lord has blessed me with amazing house and team mates that showed me love and took good care of me when I was oh so sick.  By the grace of God I was able to bounce back right in time for Valentine’s Day and my Birthday.

On Valentine’s Day I was greeted in the morning with cards and candy by the two cutest kids headed to East Africa that you have ever seen.  My Valentine was a precious 5month old whom I watched while her parents went for a night out. The campus singles got together to serve our married w/children coworkers by watching all the children for the night so they could get away for a few hours.  

I had such a good Birthday! I received tons of cards and gifts in the mail from family and friends back home. It was a full day of celebration, my small group here on Campus made me breakfast, my Sub- Saharan crew through me a party and made my favorite cake Strawberry Short Cake, then me and a few friends went off campus to eat and play over at Dave & Busters.  So it is safe to say I had a great day and felt much love.

On Saturday my friend and I made a trip into Washington DC to go sight-seeing and scope out the area for an assignment coming up in a few weeks. We arrived in the city early in the morning and walked for the next 7hours! It snowed throughout the day while we were there. It was super cold!!! So we stayed bundled, drinking tons of coffee and hot chocolate to stay warm. We saw the Capital, the Museum of Natural History, the Holocaust Museum, the Washington Monument, multiple Memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, the Canal Lockhouse and The White House.   It was a good trip in and I look forward to coming back in a few weeks. Just hope it’s a little warmer!

 

Training Has Now Begun

Can I just say I am very thankful for the opportunity to crate and very thankful that crating is now behind me. Crating for overseas is not an easy task and it involved more work then I originally realized. I cannot imagine crating for six people like a few of my coworkers did in preparation for living overseas. I packed as much as I could fit, closed it up and said good bye. I hope to get to reopen it in a year at my new home.

 

I spent my last Sunday with my Beulah Family. I racked up on all the hugs I could get. My Church family had a sweet time of prayer for me during the morning worship service. The Deacons wives’s and the rest of my Church family prayed for me.  I felt much love from the body of Christ.

The Lord was very gracious to me and provided beautiful clear and sunny travel conditions for me as I drove to training. My second day at training I woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground.  I was very excited to see that much snow but I have no idea how to dress for it!??!  It has snowed almost everyday this week so I better figure it out quick ;)

I have had an awesome first week here at training. I have enjoyed meeting all the other individuals and families who are also here for training.  While at training I am living in a home with two families and two other singles, all of us are headed to Sub- Saharan Africa.  Two of my new friends are a couple headed to the same city as me! I was so excited to meet them :)

Our schedule is jam packed with classes and assignments to help us prepare for our new job roles. The last few days have been 12-15 hour days non –stop, busy days but good days. Pray for me as I learn how to balance time needed for me and the Lord along with socialization, work assignments, and mandatory fitness. Mandatory fitness you might ask?  Yep 3x’s a week, some type of workout or recreational play is a must for 30min or more.   Looks like I get to freshen up on my soccer skills.

Five Days in the Dome

This NYE I attended the Chick-fil-a Bowl, Clemson vs LSU. Yep, I was there in purple and gold cheering on the LSU Tigers who apparently didn’t bring their “A” game. Clemson won, we watched some fireworks, went home and did some last minute packing for Passion.

 

New Year’s Day I was back in the Dome for the first day of the Passion 2013 Conference (Jan 1-4). Passion is a Christian conference for young adults and is held at the Georgia Dome. This year 60,000 young adults attended Passion.  Students from 2,022 different universities and 54 different countries were represented at Passion. It’s pretty awesome to see and hear all 60,000 praising our Lord and Savior as one.  A small glimpse of what is to come.

 

60,000 Worshiping Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

 I was there with 10 of my crew from Beulah. We had fun staying downtown in Atlanta and riding Marta to and from the conference every day. This was the first time a few of them had ridden Marta, which is crazy since we live right outside Atlanta. Watching them learn and experience it with a few thousand other people honestly was pretty funny.  

 

Headed to Passion 2013

It's just a little Crowded on Marta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

We were encouraged throughout the week from Ephesians 3:14-21, that our God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. We headed home with the challenge to love and share the gospel with all we encounter. There are billions who are in spiritual slavery in world today and 27 million who are in physical slavery due to human trafficking. As believers we need to share our Faith and fight for freedom, we cannot be silent.

We are in it to END it

Candel Light Vigil, Raising a Shout to End Modern Day Slavery

 I expect that next New Year’s will be a little different! I look forward to meeting the new friends, learning from new experiences and tackling all the new challenges the Lord has in store for me in 2013.

!!! Merry Christmas !!!

While preparing for Christmas this year I have been busy traveling and saying some goodbyes. I went down to Florida to visit and say my goodbyes to grandmas, aunts and uncles and a few friends. I am blessed to have an amazing family who while they are sad to see me go are very supportive of the reason why I go.  I love you all and I’m blessed to have you in my life.

While in Orlando, I got to go to Epcot to hang out with Aunt Elizabeth, Gabrielle and the Mouse.  I had a blast! While there we rode some rides and prayed for the Nations while walking from country to country.  We had lunch in Mexico, dinner in France and our hearts broke for the lost in China seeing the statue of Buddha full of offerings left by those visiting the park.

Me and Gabrielle with Our Ears

I made it back home to Georgia in time for Christmas!!  I enjoyed spending Sunday with my church family and celebrating the birth of our Lord and rejoiced in the anticipation of His second coming. The young adults gave me some very thoughtful gifts to take with me to Africa and made me a cake. A huge praise is that the young married couple I have been praying about taking over the group have committed to taking over after the New Year! I’m excited for both them and the group!

My Cake From Young Adults

 

Christmas this year could have been big, wild and full of social chaos but that was not what I wanted. I wanted a nice, quiet Christmas focused on the greatest Christmas present ever given, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  So we celebrated Christmas as a family, the four of us, Dad, Mom, my brother Bryan and me.  

 

If you didn’t know my father is an amazing cook but my mother is also a good cook who does not get to practice her culinary skills that often because my father is the top chef in our home. On Christmas Eve day, mom taught me how to make some of our favorite cookies from scratch, so that I can make them next year in Africa. For fun, I reverted to a childhood favorite activity and made a ginger bread house. I thought it turned out pretty good.

 

My Gingerbread House

We always strive to make it to a candle light service on Christmas Eve. This year we went to one of the churches our family helped charter. It was nice to see old friends and familiar faces.  Since there are not little ones in our home, Christmas morning gets a late start! We sleep in and then have brunch in our PJ’s before gifts are opened.

 

It’s been a great Christmas and I pray Christmas is much more than a baby being born in a manger long ago for you. My prayer is that Christmas will be a reminder and celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ who came to die for you and for me.

                               Merry Christmas!!

A Christmas Party and The Hobbit

Thursday night was the Christmas party for the young adults from Beulah. I have an amazing group of young adults who are on fire for the Lord and I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for each one of them. We crowed around the table eating our hearts out, indulge in too many sweets and played games. The crowed dining room full of conversation and laughter was the perfect way into the second half of our night, the midnight viewing of The Hobbit.

Some of the Young Adults playing Loaded Questions

 

We actually had the pleasure of making our journey to the theater and back in a limousine (oh yeah we arrived in style). One of the members at Beulah went out of his way to love on the young adults, making our Christmas party extra special and we were all soooo much appreciative. 

 

 Our Limo Ride to The Hobbit

 

If you know J. R. R. Tolkien's work you know it’s not that hard to find symbolic meanings that relate to our lives and walk as Christians.  Our reactions unfortunately are at times very similar to Bilbo’s initial reaction to the task he was chosen for, “Sorry! I don’t want any adventure, thank you. Not today”. The excessive comforts and safety in a predictable life-style was holding Bilbo back from LIVING.  Yet in the end Bilbo goes on this journey, is challenged and grows along the way and it became much much more than just an adventure.   

 

While I’m currently packing and thinking about my up and coming adventure I remind myself: The safest place I can be is in God’s sovereign and perfect will.  My comfort can and will only be found in Him. I was chosen before the foundation of the world for this journey and I am not going alone, He will be with me every step of the way! Those truths don’t promise that the journey will be easy, not challenging or even always "safe"  but they are more than enough for this girl to say, Yes, I want to go on an adventure!

Christmas Is Coming, It Just Might Not Be Cold

The tree is up, the halls are decked, lights are twinkling AND it’s warm outside.  I guess this is just a way of prepping me for Christmas in Africa.  With the weather being agreeable, I went for a hike yesterday at Kennesaw Mountain with a good friend.  Melinda is my hike, kayak and anything outdoorsy buddy and I am going to miss her….sad. 

We went up the trail on the backside of the mountain, this was new to me. It is much more challenging, longer, scenic and less crowded then my normal hike up.  Why am I just now learning this? We came across a group of young adults on the trail and I was excited to hear that they are headed to Passion 2013. The Passion conference is a month away and one of the last things I will get to do with my group. I’m looking forward to it!!

Later in the evening we went to see A Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater. The play was great and you would have to be a Scrooge to not enjoy it. It has however made me want to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol. I know it’s silly and for kids but it’s one of my Christmas movie guilty pleasures.