We Are Expecting!

No, we are not pregnant, but we are expecting!  I am expecting great things.  When I heard about this trip, something started tugging on my heart.  I made many excuses as to why not to go, but couldn't get it out of my mind.  After much prayer, discussing with Gabe, and then meeting with Jolena, we decided to go.  I don't step out in faith very often, but I hope I am starting a new pattern.  Now with less than a week left before we leave, I know that I am supposed to be going on this trip.

Among one of my many excuses not to go was that we would have to stop trying to get pregnant for a couple months. We have to get a lot of immunizations and it is not recommended to get pregnant while being shot up with a bunch of chemicals, makes sense.  Most of you know that we have been trying to get pregnant since last summer and have had no results so far, although practice makes perfect (that's the theory anyways). I only have one functional fallopian tube, so we knew it was going to take us a little longer than the average Joe (and Jane). This has not been a huge source of worry, but the journey is a bit of an emotional one.  

I just wanted to write about this as a testament to how amazing God is.  At the end of one of our meetings for our trip we each were instructed to draw a name of a team member out of a bowl, and we were to go over and pray for him or her.  I drew Kristen's name and once I was done praying for her she asked if she could pray for me.  Of course I said sure, so she began to pray.  As she was praying she looked up and said, "I don't know if this is way off, but I have a picture of you in my mind and you are pregnant.  You are walking towards the sun and holding a man's hand."  Now Kristen had no knowledge of our history and did not even know that this was a concern of mine.  After getting over the shock of the moment, I thought, "Oh my gosh, He really loves me." And for someone who struggles with guilt, this is a great realization.  It also gave me confirmation that this is what we are supposed to be doing.  

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

I am looking forward to this trip and beyond with great expectations!  

PS. We leave in T minus 3 days!!!  WOW!

 

Detailed Itinerary

Here is a more detailed itinerary. Created by Jolena Watson:

Date:	Place :	Pray for us:	Gifts: We have already received most of funds for all the gifts thanks to all the generous givers !!	Prayer partner:
May 23	Depart Amarillo – 1:05 pm	Travel and baggage- 22 hours !
May 24	Arrive in Uganda - 8:15 pm	Drivers to be in place . Waiting and ready to receive us - they will be coming all the from Kenya
May 25	Orphanage and neighborhood outreach	Minister to broken young lives	Food , hygiene items
May 26	Kirinya, Jinja womens & remand -three different prisons -hundreds of prisoners!	Speak powerful words that breakthrough veils and doubt , words of prophecy for them	Bibles , food & hygiene items
May 27	Orphanage and neighborhoood outreach	Serve the grandmother leader and minister to young broken lives	Food , hygiene items
May 28	Luzira condemned men & women prison & deathrow --------Juvenile prison . Four different prisons with hundreds and hundreds ....	Speak words of real HOPE , forgiveness and purpose . Strength & words of prophecy	Bibles , food , hygiene items
May 29	Wells of Hope office( organization we are working with )	Ministering to the ministry team (25).	Christian books
	Rongo , Kenya
May 30	Travel across Uganda to Rongo -12 hrs.?	Minister to the stranger* and travel	Gifts ???
May 31	** Church service , home visits & video	Strengthen , comfort & encourage. To pray healing , deliverance , joy and purpose for them	Food , mattresses, Bibles
June 1	Home visits , seminar and , video	Outreach to entire community – unity	Food & Bibles
June 2	Travel to Nairobi – 8 hours ??	Rest , unity , joy , wonder , renewal
June 3	Massailands – ***Water well dedication !!!!	Water well to blow ! Tribes to receive Jesus as Lord – favor with leadership	Food & Bibles & WATER
June 4	Mitumba Slums – Nairobi , Kenya Children's seminar	To present the Savior in an exciting and purposeful way to children	Food , tracks , crafts
June 5	Church seminar and the ****first ever Mitumba community outreach with a night movie outreach .	Empowering words and actions – we are discipling the very broken and very thrown away by society . At dark we need your prayers for opened ears and safty	Food, Bibles , tracts
June 6	Sinai Slum- newly evangelised slum in Nairobi Mitumba Bible Cub for youth & orphanage -play at park time & dinner	Prayer walk Outreach to youth in the slums and precious play time with the orphans	Latrine Food ,beds, mattresses,sheet
June 7	Church, Sight seeing and departure at 11:45pm Kristin will be staying behind to begin her volunteer time in Mitumba	Travel safety and rest on the way home – Pray for her as this will be a testing time	Kristin

* We believe the Holy Spirit has given us knowledge that there will be a time of encountering a stranger on the road to minister to.

**This is the AIDS area – we will be given the entire Church service time to minister and then we are going to the homes of the widows and orphans that have been kicked out of the community for following the ways of God . Also getting to show a video at night to reach out to them all in this area . Video in the wilderness on a sheet!!

*** The water well should be ready and hopefully blow water the day we arrive – this is to be a celebration day with over 250 tribe members and 8 government officials attending

**** Video outreach to Mitumba – we have hired government security to provide a safty needed to be out after dark in the slums – this is very risky ground we will be on and requiring much prayer please!

Thank you for your prayers!

Prayer Needed

We had our second to last meeting for our trip to Africa last Sunday where we learned that even more has been added to our itinerary.  Jolena Watson is the mastermind behind this trip, and she has teamed up with 3 trusted ministries in Africa: Wells of Hope, Christian Mission Aid (CMA), and REM Kenya in which we will be serving.  Our goal and theme of the trip is to bring HOPE to those who have very little.  Through these ministries we will be serving prisoners, orphans, victims of AIDS, students, government officials, and whoever else we happen to come across on our journey.  Here is a very rough draft of our itinerary. (There will be an updated itinerary soon and I will post that on the blog.)  

May 23: travel to Africa from Amarillo

May 24-29 (Uganda): Prison ministry (Gabe will be teaching at the juvenile prison where there may be a crowd of 2500!), visits to orphanages, neighborhood outreach. We will be providing food, bibles and hygiene products to the prisoners, and families of prisoners.

May 30: travel to Nyanza - Rongo

May 31-June 1 (Nyanza - Rongo): AIDS ministry, home visits, food ministry 

June 2: Travel to Massailand

June 3 (Massailand): Well dedication, 8 government officials will be attending and Jolena will be teaching.  This will be a day of celebration!

June 4-6 (Mitumba slums): Our group will conduct the church service and a seminars to adults one day and children at the school the next day. We will make orphanage visits and will be conducting manual labor wherever needed.  We have been given permission to show a movie called "The Hope" where anyone from the village can attend.  This is considered pretty dangerous because usually nothing good happens in the slums after dark, but they have given us permission.  There will be police in attendance and we will be serving popcorn and tea.  This could be a really great opportunity to get a message to the whole community!  

June 7th - adventure day (Jolena has a surprise for us this day, I'm thinking it might involve animals...)

June 8th - travel home

 There is no doubt that a lot of prayer is going to be necessary to guide and protect us on this trip.  Some of you have already committed to pray for us and we are extremely grateful!  What we would like to do is find people to pray and possibly fast for us on specific days on our trip. If you would like to commit to a day of focused prayer for us, then please leave your name in the comments.  If there is a specific day that you prefer then specify which day, otherwise I will just assign you a day.  Thank you for all of your love and support! 

The Startings of a Blog

Well hello there. I decided to start a blog to update all those who are interested in keeping up with our African adventures, and who knows I might throw in some stories about other things as well. I thought it would be easier than sending out e-mail updates. This way you can stop by on your terms.

We are leaving May 24th and will return June 8th. I will try my best to keep this blog updated with prayer requests for our team and any other interesting updates. So stay tuned because I know that God is going to do some amazing things on this trip!

Also, I could not think of a catchy/creative name for the blog.  "Skypala Stories"... lame-o.  Any suggestions?  Please leave ideas in "comments" Thanks!