So, I'm new at this...

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog! I created this site as a way to keep in touch with everyone while I'm away in Chuka for the semester. I will try to post as regularly as possible so that you all can stay immediately up to date with my grand adventure (and I know you will be checking every hour or so!), but please bear with me as I'm not yet sure what the internet connection will be like once I arrive. As another qualification, I have to warn you all that I'm new at this blogging thing so I hope no one is expecting anything fancy. If you are, you might need to read somewhere else. If not, I hope you sit down, read and stay a while. I haven't been to Kenya yet but I am pretty sure I might find interesting things to post on once I've arrived.

While I'm here and introducing everything, I would like to take a quick minute to say thank you to all of the people that have made this trip possible. A year ago, I would have never guessed that my last semester at school would shape up this way and it is only with massive amounts of assistance that I've been able to pull the preparation for this trip off.

First off, thank you to Cindi for helping me arrange and plan and arrange again! Without your knowledge and connections and sheer willingness to take my countless phone calls and e-mails, I wouldn't have had the slightest idea of how to plan a trip to East Africa. I am indebted to you big time. Second, I want to thank my Mom and brother for being so supportive. I know this hasn't been an easy thing for you guys, but I can't tell you how much it means that I have had you here, standing by my decisions the entire time. Momma, your prayers have done more than we'll probably ever know and I really think they played a major part in getting me to the best possible place, Chuka. Your faith is remarkable and I thank God for you every day.

With regards to those who have supported me, I want to especially thank Nathan. You have listened to me doubt, debate, daydream, and plan this trip for a very long while now and always with such a positive attitude. I appreciate your support for me and assurance that this really was God's plan; even when I started to have those nightmares about mosquitos the size of men and other tropical nuisances.

Thank you to everyone at Mars Hill Church in Georgia who have helped me with details and planning (Louise and Cindy) and given just general advice. A special thanks also to Humphrey and his family, first for agreeing to let me come and spend time in Kenya, and secondly, for giving me some place to stay. I can't begin to describe how much I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone out there!!

Thank you to Professor Keating from the Political Science department for allowing me to stay enrolled full time at school (and therefore accessing my scholarship money) by signing up for the internship class. I appreciate it!

Thank you to everyone else for your prayers, support and financial assistance. Without all of you, this trip would likely still be a thought and not a very real thing coming up very quickly. I might not list you all here by name, but you know who you are, and really, if I were to do that, this post would go on and on and on and on. You are my friends, my family, my Professor's, my acquaintances- I know each of you by name and if I haven't said it here, it's only because I've run out of time. I have appreciated every way in which each of you has contributed, whether that be the time spent giving me ideas for what I will need and not need, the donations from people in a rough time economically, or the prayers that have given me "...the peace of God, which transcends all understanding..." (Philippians 4:7).

Finally, it is by the grace of my Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, that I have been given this opportunity, and for that I'm grateful beyond all belief. With all of my sin and all of the times I've turned my back on the one person who hasn't done anything to deserve it, I should have been abandoned long ago. But the grace of God and the ransom paid by Christ has kept me in the center of God's will- wherever that road may lead.

So I begin this journey, wrapped safely in the arms of Him who loved me first, and the thoughts and prayers of all of you. Thank you.