Hey all!
I'm getting ready to leave London now. I will post more later, but I have had an enjoyable time here; even though I've only been around in the night time hours. I managed to do a little sight-seeing last night and still get some sleep.
I will give you all the details and pictures later. Hope everyone is having a great day!
-Katie
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
"My message to the heavens is..."
London Mayor Boris Johnson stated it best today when he said: "My message to the heavens is-- you have put on a fantastic display of snow power, and I think that is probably quite enough."
Currently, I'm waiting to see if my flight will be delayed or (God forbid) cancelled due to over 10 inches of snow in London. As of right now, Heathrow is closed along with all other public transport. Please pray everyone!
UPDATE: My flight out of Phoenix has been delayed a day. I now don't leave until Feb. 3rd. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.
-Katie
Currently, I'm waiting to see if my flight will be delayed or (God forbid) cancelled due to over 10 inches of snow in London. As of right now, Heathrow is closed along with all other public transport. Please pray everyone!
UPDATE: My flight out of Phoenix has been delayed a day. I now don't leave until Feb. 3rd. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.
-Katie
Friday, January 30, 2009
Orphanage in Chuka
Hey all! Hope everyone is having a good week so far!
I'm getting closer and closer to my departure date (only 3 days to go, can you believe it?!) and I just wanted to take a quick minute to put some more information up here.
First off, I wanted to give you all the link to the Kenya Connection orphanage in Chuka that I will be working with. Now, what I would really like to do is add it to a list of favourites on the side of the blog, but I can't figure out how to do that with blogger. If anyone knows, please help me! Until then, I will resort to including a link in this post. :) Also, here is the link to Mars Hill Church in Georgia (their non-profit co-established the Kenya Connection orphanage). And finally, here is the link to the Just One Voice non-profit, run by Miss Cindi Brown, that has helped me from the very beginning in getting this whole thing set-up.
Second, I wanted to let everyone know that my flight will be leaving at 9:20 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 2nd, so if you could all please pray for safe travels for me for the next two days following that (I won't get to Nairobi 'till Wed. at 9:30 p.m.), I would appreciate it!!!
Lastly, I wanted to give everyone an idea of what exactly it is that I'll be doing while in Kenya. From my discussions with Louise and Cindy, it seems that many of my duties will center around helping with organization. I will be helping to organize the non-profit financials, standardize the clothing sizes of the sponsored children (between Kenyan and American sizes), and assist Humphrey (the Pastor who runs everything there) with anything else they might need. In addition, I'll be helping with the tasks necessary to keep the orphanage running and the children fed, clothed, cleaned and sent off to school! Just a guess, but I think I will be kept fairly busy... :) I can't wait!!!!
Thanks again to everyone for their help with this (a special thanks to everyone from the comments on the last post for your prayers, good wishes and help- Jennifer, you might have just saved me a world of embarrassment with the advice about napkins, pants and baggies!!).
I'm looking forward to keeping you all posted on my progress!
I'm getting closer and closer to my departure date (only 3 days to go, can you believe it?!) and I just wanted to take a quick minute to put some more information up here.
First off, I wanted to give you all the link to the Kenya Connection orphanage in Chuka that I will be working with. Now, what I would really like to do is add it to a list of favourites on the side of the blog, but I can't figure out how to do that with blogger. If anyone knows, please help me! Until then, I will resort to including a link in this post. :) Also, here is the link to Mars Hill Church in Georgia (their non-profit co-established the Kenya Connection orphanage). And finally, here is the link to the Just One Voice non-profit, run by Miss Cindi Brown, that has helped me from the very beginning in getting this whole thing set-up.
Second, I wanted to let everyone know that my flight will be leaving at 9:20 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 2nd, so if you could all please pray for safe travels for me for the next two days following that (I won't get to Nairobi 'till Wed. at 9:30 p.m.), I would appreciate it!!!
Lastly, I wanted to give everyone an idea of what exactly it is that I'll be doing while in Kenya. From my discussions with Louise and Cindy, it seems that many of my duties will center around helping with organization. I will be helping to organize the non-profit financials, standardize the clothing sizes of the sponsored children (between Kenyan and American sizes), and assist Humphrey (the Pastor who runs everything there) with anything else they might need. In addition, I'll be helping with the tasks necessary to keep the orphanage running and the children fed, clothed, cleaned and sent off to school! Just a guess, but I think I will be kept fairly busy... :) I can't wait!!!!
Thanks again to everyone for their help with this (a special thanks to everyone from the comments on the last post for your prayers, good wishes and help- Jennifer, you might have just saved me a world of embarrassment with the advice about napkins, pants and baggies!!).
I'm looking forward to keeping you all posted on my progress!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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.
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.
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