Well my teeth are out and after a few days of jello and soup I am feeling fine.  To my knowledge I was not one of the overly funny coming out of surgery however I do remember my bottom lip being frozen and trying to make fishy faces then asking my Mum if I looked like a fish. I also told her that it was  fun and could we do it again. Apparently for the first hour my foggy brain had very little concept of pain.

As my departure date comes closer I find myself getting more and more nervous. It will not be the first time that I have travelled overseas, but it will be my first time travelling alone. My current prayer is that I will find myself sitting next to a class mate. I know that there are five other Canadians going, and I am so hoping that one of them will be on the same flight as myself.  I will not be at all surprised if God answers this prayer. When I left B.C I knew that it would take a miracle for everything to work out if I were to go to Uganda and since I have been home God has not stopped working. I feel so unworthy of all the ways he has blessed me. As I am a fairly independent person it is at times hard for me to accept all the blessings that God has been pouring out, and I have needed to be reminded more than once that if God has laid it on anthers heart to help me in any way I need to accept that help graciously.

Yesterday I finally made it to the city and after a day of shopping I think I am finally ready to go ( minus a few small things ) and my Christmas shopping is done.  It was an amazing day spent with my cousins in the morning talking about their past experiences in Africa and then a laughter filled afternoon as another friend drove down to Red Deer from Edmonton to shop with me before I leave. I am sure that after all our giggling and talking the stores we entered will never be the same.

With Christmas in 3 days and my departure in 12 I am so looking forward to seeing my family as they begin to come home tonight. Looking back on the year I am realise how far I have come, and I know that no matter where life takes me in these next six months God will be with me. He is faithful and will never leave my side, His love prevents it.

28 days and counting,  time is flying by, and I feel like I have accomplished very little. On the other hand I feel like there is not truly a lot to accomplish! Everything that I need to do can be done if I spend a full day in the city, and I  have yet to do that. My flights are arranged, and I will be heading out on January 1, yeppers I leave on New Years day! After what I am sure will be a long two days flying I will arrive in Entebbe, Uganda on January 3!! Whew, I am a little nervous about finding my way on my own in the airports but God will guide me of that I am sure.

In the last few weeks since coming home I have been working, trying to figure out how to do everything, and trying to get together with friends while I am home. So far the last is by far the hardest!  Between my work schedule and all the things they do arranging time to get together is not easy, much to my  disappointment. However slowly but surely I have been able to connect with a few people and the time spent with them has been so amazing! I am coming to realise  that once you complete high school there will be people that you lose contact with as life takes you on separate paths, and your role in the lives of those you stay close with will change, but with a little extra effort you can stay close.

For the last five days I have been spending time in Lethbridge area with my big sister and her family. I had not seen my little niece since July and I am shocked at how much she has grown and changed in the last few months. Last time I saw her she was a still a baby, now she is a little girl who is learning to walk and talk! At the risk of sounding old, they grow up way to fast! It was a wonderful five days though. On Sunday afternoon Natalie and I preformed together as the " background ambiance" for a ladies high tea. I am generally not comfortable playing in front of anyone but it was a ton of fun to be able to do this with my sister.  I have been incredibly blessed in so many areas and family tops that list.  Though I am so excited to be going to Africa the thought of being so far from my family for six months is both scary and sad. All the nieces and nephews will be so different when I get home.

On a down note, yesterday I had a dentist appointment in Calgary and learned that tomorrow I will be having my wisdom teeth taken out. I am terrified of going to the dentist at the best of times so this is not going to be the highlight of my week. Prayers for the surgery and a quick recovery time will be greatly appreciated. My sister has made me promise to take a few pictures of my chipmunk face so that will hopefully be some comic relief.  For today though I am trying to get things done around the house and listening to Christmas music while I pretend that tomorrow does not exist. Only 20 days until Christmas and I can't wait!

Praise!!

Well I do realise that I have not had any updates for well over two months so here goes. Working at the orchard was an amazing experience. It was not a job where you wake up and dread going to work, I found that I would wake up and be so excited to go. Weird I know. I worked with a team of amazing women who made my time away from home just fly by.  Perhaps one of the most rewarding things about my time away though was the chance to spend countless hours with my family. Living with Nathan and Leslie ensured that I got to know them and the boys much better than I have ever before and for that I am so incredibly thankful.  Some may have asked my cousin Jillian how she was enjoying seeing me in her spare time. I am not sure how she would respond other than asking, " what spare time?". It is true that I very likely saw as much of her as I did those I was living with, but only because we worked together so much. By the end of the season we were spending one day a week together peeling apples ( when the cold came that was NOT a fun job ) and varying hours at night having dance parties while we made caramel apples together. I think that was easily my favourite job. Often we would go to the farm after it had closed for the evening and when you have a half hour to wait while the caramel cooks ( we made it all from scratch and if I do say so myself it was pretty good) the dancing can get a little crazy. Especially on nights when we would make multiple batches. I think our record was somewhere around 600 in one day.

 

Throughout the summer I found that there were many people at the farm who were incredibly supportive of my desire to journey to Africa with Watoto and they would often ask how the  process was coming and if I had yet been accepted into the program. To never have an answer to that question other than "not yet" was incredibly frustrating at times but I did my best to continue to put my trust in God. Thursday November 8 I was asked to come back to work for the day to assist in inventorying and at the end of the day I found myself chatting with my boss for a few minutes. I admitted to her that I was really feeling that I was not going to be travelling to Africa in January as that date was so close at hand and I did not see any way for it to work and I did not even know if I would be accepted into the program yet. Well that night when I went home I found an email waiting for me from the Watoto 360 office in Uganda saying " Congratulations! Your application has been approved." Well I did not know if I should be jumping up and down in excitement or crying ! I had all but given up hope that this would happen and then God works it all together. What an amazing God we serve!

I have something like six weeks until the program starts and I know that there is no way I can do this on my own. There is an overwhelming list of things that need to be done. Fundraisers, shots, banking,..... the list goes on and in truth my little mind cannot see a way for it all to come together. Thankfully I do not have to. God has looked after me thus far and I know he will not leave my side now. I will covet your prayers as I move forward to discover what God has planned for me on this journey. For today I will end on that happy note and with the verse that I have claimed as my own in the last few months.

 Psalm9:10

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

 

 

 

 

 



Well grad is over and done with and already I am finding my days to be much different than any other summer. For one it is hotter in BC than in Alberta, and for two I am living with the knowledge that a new chapter of my life has started. As Sydney and I decided, to say a new chapter does not seem right as so much has changed that life feels almost like the beginning of a new book. However to say we are starting a new book sounds to final and like everything from the old is being left forever in the past. We decided mutually that though life is changing, all the things from the past will remain part of us and friendships do not have to end with grad. Therefore we are beginning a new book but it is a sequel to the one we have written in the past. The is "the adult years"the sequel to all that has happened up until this point. It will have many of the same characters as before and references to all that happened in the previous book.  For any who have known me or for that matter have taken a few minutes to read previous posts, you will know that for most of June ( in the final chapter of  "old book") I was praying that I would receive an answer as to whether I have been accepted into the Watoto 360 program or not by the 29 of June. In one hundred percent honesty, though I believe that God can do all things and that he loves me and cares for my every need, there was a part of me that doubted that he would answer the prayer for confirmation in the time line I had set. I mean he is God and his timing is not always mine ( as I have learned many times since beginning this application process). However on June 30 I found waiting in my inbox another message from the Watoto staff and though it was not the final go ahead that I have been waiting for I have received the second phase of the application process. This requires a criminal record check , and the filling out of two health forms. So though it is not quite the answer I was looking for God did provide for me in the time frame that I had asked of him (though  it does astound me that I had the audacity to set a time frame for the creator of the universe in the first place!!!), and as one of my cousins and various others have pointed out for me in one way it can be looked at as a kind of acceptance in that I doubt that Watoto would have passed me from the first stage to this second if I had not passed the initial stages of application. Now again the ball is again  in my court and if this application is going to be finished  it is once again up to me. It seems so overwhelming, moving, starting over again, and having this all to do in such a short period, however God has promised that "my grace will be sufficient for you". I know that he is looking after me and will see me into all that is coming in my future.By his grace I will continue on and find my way, even as far as Africa.

 Well the time has come to take one more step towards my life long dream of going to Uganda. I remember back in grade five counting down the years until I would reach the point of graduation and would be free to go off to Africa. Even then the dream of going resonated strong within me. In less than a week I will have reached the point that I so looked forward to when I was ten. Looking back I am almost amazed at how this desire to journey across the world has stayed true! On one hand I cannot wait for next Friday! This stage of my life will come to a close and there is no telling what the next months and years will hold. On the other hand I wish I could turn back the clock and relive the last twelve years, if only so that I might appreciate them more knowing how fast they will fly by. Though to some it may be a surprise I am not one who likes change. I love having my own little niche of life and knowing exactly where I fit and what to expect. Funny, going to Africa will be a huge change and yet I am initiating it  anyway! Though I am incredibly excited and have so many plans for the next year I am loath to say goodbye to all that is familiar here. The place I have grown up, the people who I have been with for so many years, all my childhood memories. They are all wrapped up in this place and  not all, but many, of these things will become part of the past. There are so many things that I have been blessed to experience and yet I must now leave them behind. I know that there are many people who I will remain in touch with, and I am sure that I will be back to Sundre again however there are so many people who I will not see again and not matter where I am the world keeps turning and changing so even when I do return home it will not be the exactly the same as when  I left  it behind me. Even if home were to remain the same I will not. Life changes each of us and I know that I am no exception. With that in mind I know that I am excited for grad and yet there is a bitter sweetness to it for the innocence of youth is about to be replaced with the reality of adulthood.  However after next Friday, even if I have yet to receive the go ahead from Watoto to join their team, I will have taken one more step towards my dream. Up until now it has been a long process and I do not expect it to get any easier before I jump on a plane but slowly, step by step, I am headed towards Africa.

In the last week I have been working on putting the finishing touches on my application to Watoto 360. I have been going over it to make sure I have said everything that I needed to, getting all the contact information for my references and double checking that everything is signed and dated as it should be. Yesterday I spoke to my last reference, today I scanned in the papers with my signature and this afternoon I sent off all the papers to the head office! Now all that is left to do is send the application fee and wait. I must confess that now that my part in this process is over I will be spending the next weeks very anxious to receive the reply as to whether or not I have been accepted into the program. I have been warned that the processing of the application can take up to three months!! My prayer is that it would only take one so that I can continue preparing myself and can plan for  the next year. I can not think of a better grad present than learning that I have been accepted.  If all goes well I will begin the program on January 6,2013 and will be involved in  daily bible classes, outreach ministry, and many other life changing activities. The thing that I look forward to most though is the chance to spend time with the children. This is where my heart is drawn, how I love the kids! I can think of nothing better than to be in a program where children are so cared for and loved.

           Well, I have never written a blog before so I am not really sure where to start. Oh well here goes! From a very young age it has been my dream to go to on a missions trip to Uganda, Africa. I remember how I just could not wait for the day when I would graduate and then I could be on my way. Well in a little over a month that day will be here.
           As the years have past I have spent numerous hours pouring over the information for various programs, searching for the one that I felt I was being called to. One such program was a YWAM ( youth with a mission ) program that would have me based out of Sydney Australia. Being as I have traveled Down Under before with my family and that I happen to love it down there I felt that this would be the program for me. Everything about it was appealing and it fit much of what I wanted to do. However there was one small problem, though the outreach portion of the program did travel to Africa, it did not include a visit to Uganda. For quite a while I was bound set on going with this group any way. It drew to me in a way that I knew I would enjoy my time and I also knew  exactly what joining this group would look like as I have had many friends and relatives who have gone to participate in the six month DTS. A second program that I had heard about briefly was a six month ministry school called Watoto 360. Set in Kampala Uganda the program offers outreach to the poor and hungry, bible classes and so much more.
        In retrospect I cannot believe that I did not jump at the opportunity to join watoto instantly, however for many months I was torn between which of the two programs I should apply for. In truth I really did not want to join Watoto, for it was more of an unknown than YWAM. I did not know what to expect from them and I knew so many people who could vouch for YWAM. During the summer of 2011 I found that often what I want and think is best for me is not what God knows will be in my best interest. On a rare Sunday when my family and I attended a church in Red Deer rather than our home church in Sundre I found this out first hand.  To this day I cannot remember what was said or what worship song it was that affected me so but on that day I felt God telling me that Watoto was the place for me, whether I liked it or not. Since then I have been seeking him out and gathering as much information on the program as I can and in the last six months I have begun the process of following God's leading in this matter. I have come to love the Watoto program and this week  I will be sending in my application form. From there it will be a waiting process to see what happens next. No matter what happens I know that God has had his hand on this whole process from the beginning till now. I have been repeatedly taught about patience and provision so now I plan to leave everything in the hands of the one who is trustworthy to carry on the good work he has started in me until completion. Again I may be required to learn about patience is as it can take up to three months for the application to be processed but as I am trusting that this is where God is leading me at this point in time I am planning and thinking as if I already have the acceptance and will be flying to Uganda in January 2013.