Some girls want COACH purses...

When my mom helped me buy my Typhoid vaccination last month she said "Some mothers get to buy their daughters Coach purses. I spend the same amount of money buying my daughter vaccinations so she doesn't die in Africa." After a couple of offers from my Uncle Mike to purchase a universal handcuff key and knife to sew into the bands of my jeans I feel the need to reassure everyone that I am taking my pills and will have all of my travel wits about me!

I just finished packing my bag and tomorrow will begin the LONG journey to Nairobi, Kenya. We fly from LAX to Detroit, to Amsterdam, to Johannesburg and eventually arrive in Nairobi. Needless to say, our team is not planning on a ton of work in the first couple of days.

We worked this week at the CRM office in Anaheim. I have a much better understanding of the mission and vision of Enterprise International and what we will be working on while we are overseas. I will spend some time processing on paper (during the hours and hours of flight time) some of my thoughts on "Business for Missions" and the way that CRM conducts ministry. I will try and have that posted the next time I have internet. For now, please pray for safe travels and open hands to serve!

Six days and counting...

May and June have flown by! The days were filled with catching up with family and a few Washington friends, being maid of honor in my first wedding, and then saying good-byes and packing up my suitcase again.

I spent some time in California this week in the San Francisco area with this week with “my soul mate”. Even though we don’t believe in soul mates, my soul was definitely fed spending time with Cecilee eating Chinese food, walking in the Marin County hills, and reading aloud for hours from the books we are currently enjoying. I took a train from there to Central California to see my former roommate, Ashley, get married. It was great to catch up with Vanguard friends and then enjoy Inn N' Out on a roadtrip with my wonderful friends, Tessa and Joanna, as we headed south to Orange County.

Because of the pace of the past month (maybe even four months) it has been a challenge to keep perspective and not view my life as a giant “To Do List”. Without the help of the Holy Spirit the honor of standing next to someone as they take their wedding vows, or the blessing of traveling across the world, can quickly turn into one more thing that I need to check off of the list.

I was reminded of Micah 6 “With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?... He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The focus of my life is not to be a phenomenal maid of honor, to start a world-changing non-profit, or to have everything on my to do list done wonderfully as an offering to God. Instead, I want to see this simply as another opportunity to walk obediently in awe of the Lord in this season, however fast paced it might seem.

The internship begins tomorrow, and even though I do have a significant to do list, I am working through it slowly and not finding my identity in it's successful completion. Only now, as I am finishing up some research is it beginning to sink in that I will be on a plane next Monday traveling across the world!

As of today, I am only five hundred dollars short of my financial goal for the entire trip. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped already by contributing financially to this trip. I am so grateful for such wonderful people supporting me! If you feel led to help with the remaining balance please look for the link to the CRM website below on and earlier post. Please stay in contact through this blog or by e-mail, I am looking forward to keeping in touch while I am gone!

~Juli