A dream to soon come true

I have some very exciting news to share. Paul and I are going to Kenya!!! This is something we've dreamed of doing together since we were dating. I've been three times and the love I have for the country and the beautiful people is something I could never describe. Paul has listened to every Kenya story and seen every picture (more than once) but it's one of those things that you can't fully "get" unless you have been. Not that Africa is the only thing or place that does this to you, but it's like once you've been it gets in your blood and your life will never be the same.

When Paul and I first started dating I had just gotten back from my first trip to Kenya. So it consumed a lot of our conversation from early on. Paul shared with me that he too had always dreamed of going. So the desire to go together has been there for years but the trip is always in late summer, right when Paul's official soccer season is starting which makes it not possible for him to go. To skip a lot of details that won't excite most of you, Chuck Peters (a 78 year old man who has been going to Kenya for over 20 years and is also like a grandfather to me) was willing to plan a trip for this December JUST for Paul and me!!! It's the only time logistically that Paul is able to go. We are planning on leaving the day after Christmas and coming back around January 5th or 6th. So it will be a much shorter trip than usual, but Paul has to go back to work and 10 days is more than plenty of time for us to be gone from Gray. Paul's parents are both teachers and will have time off over Christmas break. They plan on staying with Gray the first 5 nights or so and then my mom will finish out the rest of the time. This was a huge decision to make and though it was our desire, we didn't take it lightly! We've been praying and talking about it for a couple of months. It will be extremely hard to leave Gray for so long but we hope to grow our family sometime in the near future and the timing will only get harder. We are taking a huge step of faith as far as the financial aspect of this trip is concerned. I have raised a lot of the money for my trips in the past but what I didn't raise we were able to take out of savings. That savings isn't there anymore and with living on one income, we won't have much (if any) to contribute. We know that God is faithful and will provide and we are trying not to worry about it and leave it in God's hands. We were very encouraged by the response of our Bible Fellowship class when we told them on Sunday. A couple of people asked how they could donate and my very dear and generous friend Alex has offered to head up organizing a yard sale to raise money for our trip. Paul is also planning on doing a free soccer camp and asking for donations towards the cost of the trip.

I ask that you join us in praying about this. We leave in just three months and there is quite a bit of planning and fundraising that needs to happen. I will update here once I know for sure when the yard sale and soccer camp will be and other ways that we might be fundraising. In the meantime I'll be dreaming of sharing about Jesus with these sweet, beautiful people in one of the most amazing places on Earth.