We had our last team meeting on Friday to go through our packing materials, and to go through our check lists of travel insurance, shots, meds, etc. It’s amazing how Zimbabwe is not covered by ANY travel insurance…eek! It’s not that it’s unsafe…it’s just that there’s nothing there. It’s like one of the few places you can’t get copter’d out from. Some of the other countries include Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia…all of which I have been too. So thankful I had good health during my time in E Europe!

I am now taking suggestions for reading materials to take on the plane with me. My great friend, Carl, is letting me take his Kindle (woo woo!), but I wanted to take some books I could leave their with our friends. So far, I am taking, “Crazy Love.”

Much love, friends. Africa or bust!

Our team has been in and out of the Doc the past few weeks getting shots and medication for malaria. September 15th we have our final team meeting before we depart the USA. So excited to get on the ground in Africa. Should have some updated, and more specific prayer requests soon!

Love.

First of all, we purchased our tickets! We depart from Austin on Thursday, October 7th, and connect through Washington DC to an EIGHTEEN HOUR FLIGHT to Johannesburg, South Africa. That…is a long flight. But I’m super excited…it will give us a chance to (hopefully) rest and build momentum as a team. From Jo-burg, we’ll drive north to Musha Weavana, Zimbabwe, and stay with families for about four days. We will spend time with the locals, and at the Orphanage, and spend a day driving around the country doing more research.

After our time in Zim, we will drive back to Jo-burg and fly to Cape Town for the remainder of our trip. We’ll be connecting with all kinds of local leaders, pastors, and people who want to help. I’m so ready!

Secondly, I have officially reached and surpassed my halfway point in fund raising! We are aiming for $3000 but believe our final costs may be as low as $2600. I’m officially at $1804, so I’m almost there! Praise God for the provision through His people!

So lastly it just comes down to being patient! Waiting on the funds and final details to fall into place–praying that God goes before us and that He continues to draw our team closer to one another.

Throughout the rest of August we’ll continue planning and fund-raising. In September I will get my shots (just Tetanus, thank goodness! HA!) and malaria meds.

I’ll keep you all updated! Thank you for your continued love and support!

We had our second team meeting last week. It was great, as always, to sit and talk about Africa. We need to be reminded why we are doing what we are doing, and not stress over the details! We talked and prayed together about who we don’t want to have a ton of planning. Yes, there are essentials like plane tickets and places to stay–even our car rentals (this is a HUGE endeavor in South Africa!). But we want to leave space to be lead by Christ and our purpose there. We want eyes to see a different culture, so that we may engage her fully and be able to tell others what we see.

Thanks for reading, friends! Please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email!

So how will I get the rest of the funds? I also sent out support letters today and I’m also waiting for Uncle Sam to send my tax refund. So far I’m banking just under $1000. Sherry and I are planning a Garage Sale in July. So, if you have junk you want to get rid of–let us sell it!

Thanks for reading!

As I previously mentioned, there’s a family who works for HELP that lives in Cape Town. They work so hard to help support our vision day to day. We will get to put a lot of faces with names, and connect with local leaders and pastore. While in Zim, we’ll be visiting our orphanage and staying with locals within the community, and basically just taking it all in–learning.

Our primary goal here, is relationship building. We also hope to encourage locals on how to give back to their community–helping to care for the widow and the orphan. It’s going to be exciting to get there!

Also, I have launched a donation campaign via Facebook today. I have over 2,000 friends on Facebook, and if they each gave one awesome, tax-deductible dollar, this will pay for my trip! For more information on how to donate you can visit the donation link at the top of the page, or go to: www.emily.bbnow.org. I have already raised $53! YAY! Social media rules.

Love to you all, and thank you for being part of my story.

I have always been a big advocate for, “if you pray for something, God will give you a heart for it.” I have seen this happen in my own life for other countries, people groups and even individuals. The power of prayer and the joy and strength God gives in our weakness is real, and this is exactly what God is doing between me and Africa.

I wanted to create a blog to document the entire story. The time I spend in Africa will not be the bulk of what happens. Our story begins now…in Austin Texas, as we prepare for this trip, and will continue upon our return as we implement new strategies on how to love and care for the orpahns. This is not going to be a place full of frilly words and pretty pictures, but rather an authentic account of something God is doing.

I’m most excited about meeting the people. Not only our friends working on the ground in Cape Town, but I will get to see the orphange that benefited from the garage sale we did back in January. Amazing! This is going to be a truly awesome experience.

Thanks for reading!