Joy In The Midst of Struggles

It was Thursday night (July 13). We were at our late night debrief where I was an emotional wreck from the life changing day of going into 7 different disabled homes. I was so filled with joy and God's love that I couldn't stop joyous crying. Our debrief ends and our leader, Amanda, asks me and two other girls to stay back. Oh no..what could they possibly want from me.  "So ladies, we have our women's conference on Saturday and we would love it if you guys could share for 5-10 minutes your testimony and how God had redeemed you". Um what now? Me talk in front of 500 women about my life? Cue the heart pumping butterflies in the stomach. I did say yes because I felt the Lord saying these women need you. I mean I have shared my testimony before but in smaller environments where I knew the people. As I started thinking I said God you know what I am not going to prepare a speech I know you will be with me and provide me with the words these women need to hear. S

I never really knew why God called me to Kenya. I knew I have always wanted to go back to Africa because I loved the people but I didn't really know the purpose of me going. I doubted it A LOT before going and it did not click until the day I met Simon. So I had found out that the organization (Missions of Hope) had just started a program for the mentally disabled. I knew that on Thursday we would be doing more home visits. I had asked my leader if there was anyway possible that I could maybe go visit with some disabled individuals. It didn't really seem promising and my prayer this whole trip was "God just let me be your vessel for your kingdom". So we show up Thursday morning and the social worker that works with the disabled was there and my leader made sure I was in her group!  We got the opportunity go into 3 different homes that morning. It was amazing how God used me because in Kenya the locals are extremely ashamed of disabled people. They make them hi

Jambo!! I am made it back from a life changing trip in Kenya! I will be posting a few blog posts about stories that happened there but first I wanted to give you all an overview/timeline of what I did everyday over there July 7 - We landed at 2 in the morning! As we are all waiting to get our luggage we notice that no new luggage is coming out. Hmmmm what is wrong?? Yeah well all 90  of us lost  our luggage. Our flight out of LAX was delayed which made us have to rush to our next plane in Turkey. The airport personnel decided they did not have time to transfer our luggage to the next plan which ended up for us not getting our luggage. We got like an hour of sleep and then we had to wake up and start our day. We went to pangani which is the main school we worked at. We were greeted and had an opening ceremony from all of the kids. Then we got to take a social worker and walk around the Mathare Valley. We were able to go into one of the shanty's and pray over a sick girl and h

Wait, how is it already time to get on a plane in less than 48 hours and go to Kenya! As some of you may know I lived abroad in South Africa for 4 months. When I was there I fell in love with the people. Their joy and love grew my heart so much. I knew that when I left the Lord would bring me back to Africa. How and where I did not know. Until... One day I was sitting in church and it flashed across the screen that they were advertising mission trips. Then popped up the destination to Kenya. I just knew it was my time to go. I had no travel plans for the summer and I figured what better way than to go to serve others. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed by what God plans for me. If you were to ask me 10 years ago that I will be going on 3 mission trips by myself (not knowing others)I would have said ha! your joking.  But here I am. On this trip, we will be working in schools, making home visits and giving out solar lights, putting on a woman conference for 500 local women, taking the