After South Africa 2007

I feel I need to post a lot today in order to get everyone up to date! I'll try my best...

After we got back from South Africa in July 2007, it was constantly on my heart that I should move there and serve. I went through a bit of depression upon returning - it was hard to process everything we'd done and seen, but it was also hard to go back to everyday life before South Africa as well as be around people that weren't on that trip. I am sure a lot of people that have gone on mission trips feel this way. I remember our trip home and I kept thinking that there was no reason why I cannot go and live there - I'm not married and I don't have kids. Not that that's all that holds people back, but that's all I could think of that would hold me back. And I didn't have those things so why not?! So, I began the process of looking into three different options to get there. After going through meeting face to face with all three and getting further into the application process, God put it on my heart to hold everything...."WHAT?!?!?! WHY?!?!?" I felt very certain that God was telling me to go on one more trip. And go from there. I really had to figure out if this was God saying this (the hold everything part) or if Satan was swaying me away from serving the Lord. Once the "go on one more trip....and go from there" came, I knew it was certainly coming from God. Ok Lord, one more trip.

About three months before the next trip, which was scheduled for the beginning of July 2008, I said out loud "I wonder if it could be an option for me to stay an extra couple weeks in South Africa." Yep, those words came out of my mouth. At first it was just a 'wonder'. I didn't think I actually MEANT it! Well, I said it out loud in front of the right people and I started the process of finding out if it could be a possibility. I emailed the General Manager of Genesis (the organization we partner with in South Africa) and he said "Sure! Great!" or something like that. I knew that changing my ticket for my return home would cost some extra money and I had an amount in my mind that I knew would be the limit of what I could afford. HA! It was about $200 more. Waaaay below what I was expecting. Basically everything fell into place for me to stay longer GOD made everything possible for me to stay longer!! (Approval from the church, approval of our partners in South Africa, approval from my work!, not a huge amount to change the ticket...I'm sure there were some other things that I'm not even aware of).

Well, that's all I really remember leading up to the trip in 2008. Oh wait - no it's not. I had some big dealings with Satan leading up to that trip. He certainly tested me. And I did my very best to hold my head high. I am only human, so some days it didn't feel easy AT ALL. But, I made it through and soon it was time for South Africa 2008....