An update as things are getting underway...

Where has the time gone? SO much has happened since our last post.

For starters, I will begin by introducing our wonderful team of 8 girls who are so stoked to serve the Lord this summer in Kenya - Jamie, Annie, Natalie, Brina, Kristianna, Sami, Hannah & I.  Hannah and I could not be any more blessed to serve with these girls. Over the last few weeks we have gotten to know their hearts and to hear their stories, and we are continually encouraged that the Lord has hand picked every single one of us to form a unique team, special for His purposes. The theme of the past few weeks has been team unity, and bonding together as sisters in Christ so that we are best equipped to serve while we are in Kenya. We are currently striving to model what is expressed in Ephesians 4 & attempting to join together as 8 individuals with different backgrounds, personalities, gifts, and strengths so that we have 1 purpose, which is to bring Glory to our Father. There is already so much love within our team, and I can't wait to see how it's cultivated within the next few weeks.

Our first picture together!

Han hard at work on the griddle

Hannah's last post left us off with Missions Conference which was awesome. In between sessions, our team had a table at the Missions Marketplace, where we were able to raise awareness for our trip and pass out prayer cards to our fellow students, while offering them Chapati (a Kenyan food staple) for "donation". Also, our T-Shirts came in (check them out in the above pic) which was exciting because we were able to sell a few, and get our first fundraising efforts off with a bang!! Thank you Cathy and Molly for all your help with those shirts - they turned out great despite Hannah and my total lack of knowledge and artistic talent in that particular area! You guys were such a blessing to us.

Finished Chapati!

Since Missions Conference, our team has been busy planning and preparing for our trip. To help with that preparation, SMU organized a training weekend for all of the short term missions teams. The weekend was characterized by team building activities, informational meetings to help us with ministry while in country, and challenges to help us get an idea of what we might experience while on our trip. While the training was tiring and slightly frustrating at times, we grew a lot as a team and learned a TON, so we are very thankful that we got to participate in it.

That's pretty much all for now. Currently, we are working on buying our plane tickets, and SPOILER ALERT: Our support letters are being put in the mail this week, so be watching for them! Until then, please continue to pray for us as a team and for By Grace Children's Home.

Be watching for more updates!
Amanda