Fly Across the Ocean

This week I bought my plane tickets to Africa!!! It is both exciting...and scary...and almost hard to even believe. I feel like this step actually makes it real...I am going to Africa. Wow. I am so blessed by how God worked out the flights. I had been looking for weeks and found (what I thought) were some pretty good deals on flights, but when I went to book them it wouldn't let me or would take me to a site where the flight was almost $500 more expensive than what it had originally been. So I kept praying about it and checking the flights. But they kept getting more and more expensive. It was a little discouraging but I just kept trusting that God had a plan. Then this week one of my friends at work, who is from Kenya, suggested looking at flights from D.C. So I started looking at flights out of different cities and found a flight out of Seattle for $1300! I still have to find a flight to Seattle but even so it will still be much cheaper than the other flights I was looking at. I am so thankful for God's faithfulness in this and all of the answered prayers. I feel this is further confirmation that this is where God is calling me next summer. I leave May 17 and return July 4th. I can't wait! There are still many details to work out but I look forward to seeing how God works in all of this.
This week was Thanksgiving and I feel like this is just one more blessing that God has poured into my life and one more thing to be thankful for.

More Than Inspired...

    This week I started the application process for my trip to Africa next summer. Chills shoot through me and I feel goose bumps raise on my arms as I write those words. It's hard to even explain...but it's like I have waited for this for so long...and now it's actually going to happen?
     Last spring I flew to Florida and took training so that I could work in a Rafiki Village in Africa. The people there are amazing, with amazing hearts for God. If you want to know more about Rafiki you can visit their website: http://rafikifoundation.org
      Before the training started I remember sitting in the Orlando Airport wondering, "God, what am I doing here? I knew it was where I was supposed to be and what I wanted to do... but there are so many times when I doubt. I doubt myself, I doubt what I am doing and what I want to do...and it is those moments that God speaks to me and says, "Do you really truly trust me? Are you going to follow no matter where I lead, no matter how scary it seems and no matter how out of your control it is?"
     Honestly, the thought of actually going both excites and terrifies me. But I know this is what God has called me to. He planted this in my heart years ago and I have chosen to say, "Yes Lord, I trust you. Here I am. Send me." Sometimes the thought that I don't want to do this alone crosses my mind...and then God reminds me, "You will never be alone. Surely I am with you always..."
     As of right now, I have a spot reserved in the Rafiki Village in Uganda from May 20-June 20. I have also submitted an application to Visiting Orphans in hopes to do a two week mission with them in Uganda and Ethiopia. There are still so many details to figure out but I am trusting God to lead me as I take this step of faith.
      As I write this, the words of a Matthew West song keep playing in my head, "I could choose not to move, but I refuse." How many times are we inspired, yet do nothing about it? How many times are we moved, yet go right back to our comfortable lives as usual? I know for me, the answer to that is too many times. And so it is that I come to this point where I choose to be more than inspired. I choose to go. Yes Lord, I trust you. Send me.