I'm Going to Uganda!

My freshman year of high school I took Latin as my foreign language. I thought it would prepare me well for a medical profession, most likely sports medicine. The summer before my sophomore year I went on my first mission trip to Mexico. That fall I switched my foreign language to Spanish and decided to pursue global missions (last time I checked, not many people were still speaking Latin;). I went on a couple more mission trips while still in high school and ended up graduating a semester early. I contemplated working full time until college began, or going out of country. I had always wanted to visit Africa but I was 18 and traveling alone. I was encouraged to go to Haiti instead- my home church had established missionaries there and I could volunteer in the English-immersion school. I lived in Haiti for what would have been the second semester of my senior year of high school. I loved it so much, I almost never came home (had it not been for a tall red-head whom I had grown fond of, as well as the opportunity to play college basketball, I probably never would have returned). Still, I left a piece of my heart in Haiti.

I entered college as a missions major and eventually changed to Children's Ministry. I got married, graduated, had a kid, moved to Florida, had another kid, bought a house, became a Children's Pastor, and had six more kids. Life has been full of kids and transitions.

Last fall I heard about a job opening with a local foster care and adoption organization called Bridge a Life. If ever I were not going to be working in the local church, a not-for-profit like Bridge a Life seemed like a natural fit. I looked into what the organization was doing locally, and decided to apply for the open position. During my first interview I discovered that there was more to Bridge a Life than just the local initiatives. BaL is also connected to Mpongo, Uganda and there are BIG plans! My excitement level went up exponentially! Clearly I have a heart for local foster care and adoption, but the possibility of traveling to Africa and participating in Ayinza was the icing on the cake!

I began working for BaL in November of 2014 and am anticipating my first trip to Uganda this September!

A little about our trip:
A team of eight of us will be traveling to Uganda from September 12-25. We'll lose about three days for travel. We are currently finalizing our specific team objectives- generally speaking, we are helping to lay the groundwork for the future site of Ayinza, focusing not only on the building aspects, but also on meeting current community needs, before bricks and mortar. While we are there I will also have the opportunity to meet our Life Group's sponsored child, Noeline. It is likely we will spend most of our time on the future Ayinza site, which means no running water or electricity. This actually makes me pretty happy:) The total cost of the trip is $2500 and each team member is responsible to raise his/her own funds. Tax-deductible donations can be made to Bridge a Life or online.

What about the other Jesters?
They are staying home with their brave Daddy. I can't really think about leaving them or I'll start crying. Everyone is getting older now and, while I will miss them like crazy, I know they'll be juuuust fine. A couple of them have expressed significant interest in coming along, and I hope that will be a possibility on future trips. Ray is more than capable of being superparent for two weeks (but if you want to drop off dinner sometime, I am sure he'd accept;)

There are plenty more exciting things to share, but this is it in a nutshell. Girl who has always wanted to go to Africa gets sweet job that allows her to go to Africa:) If there are specifics you want to know, please ask. I love sharing about this. I'll also plan to post updates and pictures as I am able.

If you've read this far, thanks for caring and thanks for being a part of my life. Love you all!