Day 1
It's 11:08 PM (local time) and I have arrived safely in D.C.
I am SO ready to crash!
It's been a whirlwind of a day..
Worked for a few hours this morning at the office & said bye to Autum & her sweet puppy, Auty!
Then ran around doing last minute preparations & errands.
Finished packing at home..
Mum & Pa Sartain helped me by feeding me yummy cherry cobbler & ice cream! ;)
In all the frenzy of packing up my things in WI earlier in the week & leaving for Africa today...
I didn't even think about how I would get to the airport. ha!
So, my sweet friend Beth so kindly offered to take me!!
No problems at the Nashville airport.
Found out Starbucks has a new logo...little interesting fact for the day :)
Flight from Nashville to D.C. was smooth...was able to do some reading and journaling-which I loved!
Checked into my hotel..it's a beautiful hotel, except I ended up in a smoking room :(
Maid came & sprayed it for me though :)
Going to get ready for bed now...have to meet our team at 6 AM tomorrow for breakfast!
Our flight leaves at 11 AM. So excited!!!
Please continue to pray for our travels.
I will blog as much as I can & keep everyone posted.
Thank you Lord for this amazing opportunity! I love you.
To my wonderful family & friends, I love you all!!
xoxo
Day 2
It's 9:15 AM (local time) and our team is all together here at the Dulles airport. Yay!
Sporting our Visting Orphans t-shirts too :)
I love it!
Everyone seems super sweet, wonderful & excited to be going!
Had breakfast-to-go & Starbucks.
Now we wait.
We depart at 11 AM so a nice & relaxing morning.
I did get some rest but was pretty anxious/excited about today...
and of course I was worried I would not get up to my alarm-so not sure if it was a deep sleep.
Alarm was set for 4:45 AM.
We figured that in about 4 hours after we arrive on the plane we should be prepared to sleep..
in order to adjust to the time change.
12-hour flight ahead of us!
Call me crazy but I love it.
Lots of time to read, sleep, journal, work on my Bible Study & maybe watch a movie :)
Now it's time to take a walk before our long flight.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Great words taken from my morning devotion:
"A mountaintop is a great place to see the stairs, but to clearly see God requires a change of heart.
To get a clear view of God, focus on Jesus Christ."
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ~Matthew 5:8
Lots of love,
Brenda
** Okay, so I did not get the opportunity to blog while I was in Africa, like I anticipated! Seeing that it was my first trip with VO- I spent a lot of time training on the details of our trips, loved on the children and processed everything all at once. So...this did not leave much time for me to blog. I'm going to try and re-cap things a few days after our arrival home & refer to some things I documented along the way! Bare with me- this could take me a few days to post everything! Enjoy :)
Day 3
We arrived at the Entebbe airport (Addis Ababa) in Ethiopia safely at about 12:45PM.
Long but smooth flight. Ended up in the MIDDLE seat :(
Sat next to an interesting girl that was traveling to Ethiopia to teach Law.
Was able to work on my Beth Moore bible study, read, watch a few movies & even get a few hours of sleep! Wasn't the greatest sleep- but the excitement was part of that!
Once we arrived, our bus drivers, Abus & Julius (yes, his name was A-bus!) were there to pick us up.
We loaded up the Canaan Children's Home truck with all of our luggage and our team gathered on the bus & headed to Jinja (which was about 3 hours away!)
I enjoy sitting at the front of the bus just to take in the scenery!
Dirt roads. Some people walking...usually with a child on their back or carrying some sort of goods on their heads. A lot of people on bikes.
Once we got into the city...traffic was chaos. So many vehicles on the small & narrow roads. They don't really have traffic regulations there. Lots of horns beeping. Many potholes. A lot of congestion and fumes filled the air. People walking in and out of traffic. Government officials & policemen surrounded the city. Much of this was still from the riots that had broken out because of the recent elections.
Once we got to the countryside, things were a lot more pleasant and beautiful!
We arrived at the King Fisher Lodge in Jinja. Wow! Absolutely beautiful resort.
After a long day of travel- it was a perfect way to spend the evening. Relaxed.
We received our rooms - they were like little huts, so unique!
I had the pleasure of sharing a room with Katie :)
We freshened up a bit and gathered together for dinner!
Fresh avocados for an appetizer. Fresh, hand-made juice made by the staff. Spaghetti (for me) for dinner.
Besides the long wait for our food, everything was wonderful.
By this time, we were all well past the point of exhaustion.
We all retreated to bed.
By this time we were all really exhausted
We crawled into our beds, protected by mosquito nets, & fell fast asleep!
Day 4
Woke up to the amazingly peaceful sound of nature - so many different kinds of birds. Blissful.
The sunrise and view of the resort was breathtaking.
We started our morning with a breakfast buffet- homemade omelets, juicy pineapple, juice and coffee!
Simon shared some great words that he received from the Lord with the team.
Next up. A boat ride to the source of the Nile.
Wow. This was amazing.
We stepped into these wood boats and took a peaceful tour of the river.
We were shown exactly where the source of the Nile was...and how it separated from the Lake.
We saw all kinds of exotic birds, a water snake and even a large lizard on shore.
The scenery was beautiful. The sun was shining. God was present! I could have stayed on that river all day!
When we returned back to the resort, we gathered our luggage and the team got together to sort all of our team donations for the different ministries we were going to be serving during the week.
This was amazing!
Soccer balls. Jump ropes. Deodorant. Clothing. Shoes. Medical supplies. Technical equipment. Books. Bibles. Arts & Crafts....and much, much more!
The way this team came together and collected all of these donations & how relatively easy it was to organize it all, was awesome!
Once sorted, we loaded everything back onto the Canaan's truck and departed for Canaan Children's Home, one of the partner ministries we would be serving with.
....more to come :)
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