Africa...

Oh how I have missed blogging!! Its been three months since I wrote my last blog and it has just been incredible how much has occurred since then! However I write this blog today, the day before we fly out to Africa! For Jason and I this is such a humongous thing! For a start we have never been abroad before, we have only experienced an hour flight to Inverness and with all the issues of anxiety that surfaced for me last year I never dreamed in a million years I would be stepping out on such a life changing trip tomorrow.

Our flights are at eight pm tomorrow so we will be doing most of the flying through the night and then we arrive at Ethiopia around five am. We then have to wait at Ethiopia airport for five or six hours before we board the last flight to Mombasa airport in Kenya. We should arrive in Kenya around one pm ish and then we will be making our journey towards the village of Utange. Utange (according to Google maps) is about 50 minutes from the airport.

We will be spending two weeks in Kenya, staying in an action centre which will have basic facilities. Our main job will be in helping the local community by teaching or assisting at the local school, helping with the Feed500 programme, farming the land etc. Also, however, the money raised will be going towards building a high school as education tends to finish after primary school. Jason and I have collected together lots of books ranging from children's books to young adult. I also added a few classic books by authors such as Charles Dickens and Jane Austen (I couldn't help myself hehe!) I feel so blessed to be able to give these, from someone who is a book lover and English student, it feels amazing to provide others with something we really take for granted in this country!

Most importantly though, I have been really challenged this year to think about the way my life is but also how I yearn for it to be. I know that this trip will really further challenge what God has began in me. We live in a culture that focuses on me, myself and I quite a lot and it can be a struggle at times to not be influenced or shaped by that. Yet in going to Africa, a place where people struggle for the simple things such as water or food, will humble my heart and humble my eyes and I know Jason feels the same way which is why we both made the decision to go on this trip. We want our lives to be changed radically by Jesus and our hearts are open to that!

We were really blessed last night at Revolution by the prayers from our Church and we are so thankful to have such an amazing Church. So please keep us in your prayers over the next two weeks while we take such a huge step of faith!