SOOOO EXCITING!!

Sooooooo TODAY my darling Mommy Dearest and my darling Daddy Dearest and I sat around the phone and had a speakerphone conversation with the missionaries that I have been emailing back and forth about my trip to Kenya.

It was awesome to get to talk to them in person and ask questions and instantly get an answer, and ask clarifying questions and instantly get an answer, and just ask as things popped into our heads. Mom and Dad LOVED it because they were doing all the worrying I probably should have been doing but was too excited to do, and they got a lot of details they'd been concerned about getting.

But I just got EXCITED.

SO SO SO SO EXCITED.

Plan so far: Sometime at the beginning of January I fly into Nairobi and meet up with my host missionaries, and go with them to live in some sort of missions compound (from what I've gathered it's a group of houses/apartments/guest house-type things) for a little bit until I get accustomed to the area and how things are run, and then start getting involved in one of the many clinics they are working to set up. My host missionaries work with Kenyan doctors and other medical people to set up permanent medical clinics all over Kenya. Several are in the Nairobi area, within an hour or so, and a few are scattered farther away. I'm going to spend about a month in each of 6 different locations just working with the doctors and doing whatever I can.

In March there is a missions conference in Mombasa that I'll get to go to as well.

And the best part (rather, the part that I got MOST excited about tonight!) is that my visa, a tourist visa, only lasts for 3 months. so at some point, I have to leave the country and come back in. So I could go to Uganda, and then come back. And guess who's going to be in Uganda? HEIDI!!!

Now. before you get SUPER excited for me, realize that she's going to be far, far away from Kampala, Uganda (the place I'd likely fly into)

BUT.

If MY visa expires, that means hers is going to expire TWICE. And she's gonna have to leave the country TWICE. Now maybe, juuuuust maybe, between me leaving once and her leaving twice, we could actually SEE EACH OTHER in Africa!

how cool would that be? :)

So that's what I'm praying for this week. :-P

Yet Another Facelift

Feel free to ignore any and ALL posts below this one, as there is a great chance that only one of them are interesting to any given person, and it simply won't be worth your time to read the other 15 or so posts. Unless you're really bored. Or stalking me. And if the latter is the case I'd prefer you not read them anyways.

Anywhoo.

Once again I have revamped the blog...changed the title and the background and the layout, in preparation for an onslaught of new visitors (my high school English teachers would be so proud of my use of and ability to recognize hyperbole there!) (And I'm assuming you didn't even notice, since you just got here anyways, but since you're behaving and not reading all the old posts, I had to give you SOME history, right? :-D )

So I sent/am sending/will send letters or some other form of contact (wahoo facebook) to lots of people in my life telling them all about my plans for the next year...I will copy and paste the official answer to the question "What is Danielle going to be doing for the next year?" riiiiiiiiight here:

Last winter, I attended the World Missions Summit - a conference where thousands of college students

and young adults were challenged to give a year of their lives to missions, and pray about doing so for a

lifetime. Before I even arrived, I knew that I wanted to give a year, and the summit was a great time for me

to see what opportunities God might have out there for me. On the last night, I signed a card pledging to

spend a year doing missions after college, before my post-graduation plans to attend medical school.

As you may already know, I recently graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biology.

While in college, I got involved with a Christian organization called Chi Alpha, which is a ministry that

gives students the opportunity to grow and serve God during their college years, reaching out to others on

campus and allowing students to encourage each other and enjoy fellowshipping together. Joining Chi Alpha

was the best decision I could have made; it is the place where I found an amazing group of friends who

helped me to grow as a person and in my relationship with God. Because of the huge blessing Chi Alpha

and its pastors, Matt and Tracy Herman, have been to me, I have decided to spend the next six months

working with them in Cornell's chapter of Chi Alpha through the Assemblies of God U.S. Missions program.

My responsibilities will include meeting weekly with several girls individually for discipleship, leading a

small group Bible study, participating in a mentorship program, and doing various administrative activities.

I am ecstatic to be able to go back to Cornell for a semester and have no classes, but more importantly, to be

able to spend my time investing in the lives of other young adults and giving back to the ministry that has

given so much to me! I feel that I have grown so much deeper in my relationship with God during my time

at Cornell and have learned so much more about life, and so I am excited to be able to share that with the

students who are still there!

Additionally, in January, I am planning to go to Kenya, East Africa for six months working with the

Assemblies of God World Missions. While there, I will be travelling to various free clinics in the Nairobi

area, and one in the rural northeast area of Kenya. These clinics are run and staffed by missionaries. I will

be directly involved in the medical care of the patients in any capacity that I am able. This will be my third

trip to Kenya, and by far the longest of the three, and I cannot wait to go back! The last time I was there,

after driving around the city of Nairobi, I told my dad, “The more I see, the more I love this place…I just

want to lie down on the ground and give Kenya a hug!” Medical missions is one of the best ways to minister

to people, because it provides a fantastic opportunity to talk with them while showing them the love of God

in a very real and tangible way. It seems fitting that we should use meeting their great physical need as a

way to help to meet their great spiritual need.

So there you have it. That's my life plan until juuuust about exactly one year from today.