I went to training camp as homesick as I thought I could be. But today as I’m sitting at the Atlanta airport about to head home, after crying goodbyes, I realize I’m homesick all over again. You have become my family. You have helped me grow into a new woman, a woman on fire for God. I am truly blessed to have each and every one of you in my life. I will never forget these past four months and all the memories we have. I will forever miss going to sleep, eating, and using the bathroom with the 13 of you by my side. I will miss the bus rides and cramming into vehicles. I honestly...

Most nights, I go to bed with dirty feet. I constantly struggle to have basic conversations with a population who doesn’t speak my language. There are moments when the smell of B.O. and goat meat is a little more than I can handle. I hear the word “mzungu” an average about 800 times a day. Usually, I can’t remember the last time I took a real shower. Every single day has been a challenge. And every single day has been an absolutely incredible adventure of its own. I love East Africa. From the middle-of-nowhere bush of Kenya, to a little town in the mountains of Tanzania,...

  So it's our 5th week in Senga Bay, Malawi and man oh man has it been a journey.  What I'm feeling at this point in Malawi is something that I can maybe relate to something someone who has had a near-death experience might feel. Except I didn't need a near-death experience. I needed Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi. I needed Africa. I needed Jesus.    Malawi has been earth-shattering for me. I remember back in Tanzania I prayed about a change in me. Of course I already knew I was very different after my Kenyan experience in the bush but i wanted MORE.  I...

This is more of a lesson than a couple of random thoughts. Sorry if it's a bit dense…. When was the last time you thought to yourself, "my words hold power"? For some, maybe its during a speech; crowds of at least semi-attentive eyes give that impression. Perhaps its when you're casting your vote for the new President. Has it occured to you when you see the sick, the sad, or the lost? The truth that you hold the power of life and death in your words. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit~Proverbs 18:21 This is a common...

Four months ago when I got an email saying I would be going to Malawi instead of Uganda I had no idea what to say. Mainly because I had never heard of Malawi before and all I could understand was that half the country was taken up by a huge lake. Now, today as I sit in a land I've called home for the past 5 weeks, I know more about this country then most people do. It's an unseen generation by the eyes of the unwilling.                  These generations of families have more love at the ends of their fingertips, then most of the people...

When you think of children in third world countries, who do you picture? For most my life I pictured children running around dirty, skinny, with obvious signs of hunger and sickness. This past week I saw and felt something completely different. I felt my heart warming to something every mother does.                                                             Most of the older children love to play with white people, but the little ones...