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.
