Kenya: Exactly what I thought and nothing like I expected....

It crazy looking at a map on the back side of an airplane chair that reads "3.5 hours from Washington, D.C., 33,000ft in the air at -56 degrees Fahrenheit." Um...what?? And that was only a very small portion of our 13.5 hour flight. Supposedly, we passed near the place in the Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic sank - pretty cool!

For some of the girls, the flight was pretty rough. Lindsey successfully locked herself in the airplane bathroom. I know what you're thinking....how?? She doesn't know either, but she definitely did it. That's definitely one of those things she will NEVER live down. We were super blessed to be on a flight that was almost half full of missions teams, going to several different places throughout Africa!!
One of my favorite parts was at the Ethiopia airport playing the "guess what country these people are from" game or the "guess what language they are speaking" game. I don't think any of us were actually ever successful, but waiting at our gate for our connecting flight to Kenya, there were people from everywhere in there! Needless to say our language/geography skills are seriously lacking. Jessica and I interestingly ran into two men in the ladies room at the Ethiopia airport...the culture differences are taking some serious adjusting to - and no it wasn't a co-ed bathroom!

It was so awesome seeing all of the different cultures, ethnicities, and hearing all of the languages. It would be way too incredibly easy to sit and people watch for hours!

All of our flights went really well overall though. On the flight from Ethiopia to Kenya, Lindsey got a serious case of "cankles" aka her legs and ankles were really swollen. Once we finally landed in Kenya, all went smoothly............until we got to customs...

Each one of us brought a personal bag (with all of our clothes and stuff) and a missions bag (with supplies for the kids and the school). We put tons of vitamins, basic pain relievers, allergy medicines, and gauze and such in our missions bag and for the first time in Imani history, we were stopped at customs for that stuff. Instead of what was expected to be a quick breeze through customs as it has been  every time in the past, it took us an hour and a half to get everything checked through. Boy that was a hectic hassle! But we came away with all of our luggage and all of the supplies!!

Anyways, we are finally settled into the apartment with the interns. Just finished devotionals, and we are all about to head to bed to recover from jet lag and get ready to meet the kids and teachers in the morning!

Lala Salama ( Good night) everyone! Nakupenda (Love you)!

Washington D.C.

Well, we made our first stop and just finished eating hot delicious Papa John's.  I will miss you Papa.  We had almost no trouble at all checking our bags in Houston which is an amazing blessing!  We are all having a great time so far; laughing and enjoying each other's company.  These girls are so sweet and so hilarious.  Thank you for all your prayers and support thus far and please continue to pray that we are all able to rest on the 13-14 hour flight tomorrow and that we are safe all the way to Mombasa.  Our flight leaves from D.C. at 11:15 tomorrow, we'll arrive in Ethiopia (7:45 am their time), have a few hour layover, and will then fly to Mombasa!  We are so excited and now we need to sleep!!

Thanks for reading :)
Jessica

What a sight!

Our team and all 13 suitcases!

And it begins!

Late movie night, team prayer, one last Mexican food indulgence then the early morning begins! Up at 8:30, Jessica took care of the coffee, I manned the eggs, Lindsey rocked the biscuits, Laura conquered the bacon, and Hannah took care of all the eating utensils - talk about some serious team work! It's awesome the way we have all united so quickly and with ease. It's easy to see the differences between the 6 of us and the qualities each person brings to the team. We head out to the airport around 1 to begin the first leg of our trip!! We are all so stinking excited!!

After finally getting some much needed rest last night, the excitement is settling in!! We will be in Kenya on Wednesday - we're just fast forwarding through half of Tuesday. Hello time traveling!

Let the journey begin!

- KaRonna 6/25/12

Africa Here We Come!

Everyone is up bright and early after a fun night of organizing 13 bags!! The team is bonding well while cooking breakfast together. The girls and I will be loading up the truck soon and heading to the airport around 1! The team is so, so excited for this adventure to begin! Please be praying for our team's safety while traveling there! We are headed to Washington today and then off tomorrow on our 13.5 hour flight to Ethiopia and then a short hop over to Mombasa! Africa here we come! God bless and protect us in our travels!

A Few More Hours

Hello friends! This is my very first blog post, and I am pretty excited about it! I think it's more excitement about leaving in a few hours, but I am now a proud blogger! 


When I think about these past few months-the Wednesday night meetings with my team, the endless blessings from wonderful donors, and a super great garage sale-it's so crazy to think that it all comes down to this. This moment. In a few hours, I'll be back with my team prepping for our flights to Mombasa. In two days, my feet will be standing on Kenyan soil and it's a moment I have been waiting for for months! 


Up until today, I had no anxiety or fears, just excitement pulsing through me. But as I was packing today, it hit me. I'll actually be on a completely different continent with no family, no cellphone service (for communication purposes, of course), and no Whataburger (that isn't such a big deal...but still). Immediately, I felt the anxiety coming on, but then I remembered something so much more important: MY God is bigger than all my fears and worries. MY God is powerful and moves in mighty ways. MY God is sending me to Africa to fulfill the plan He has for me. The worry that sits in the back of my mind has no control over the HUGE plans God has in store for me when I step onto the Kenyan soil. It is such a comforting and powerful picture! God is going to move in some indescribably amazing ways in Mombasa, and I am so thankful that He has chosen me to witness it all! 


Just a week ago, I was at a summer camp for two weeks as a counselor to 6-8 year old girls and they were quite the handful! I loved every minute I spent with my girls and with every camper at that camp. It's going to be so awesome to go from loving on American kids at a summer camp in Trinity, Texas to loving on Kenya children in Mombasa, Kenya. Talk about polar opposites! Yet, God called me to both. To love and care for children at a summer camp for two weeks and then to head over to the other side of the globe to love and care for children in Mombasa. Pretty stinking rad if you ask me! I'd say it's been an amazingly wonderful summer and it's not even July yet! I can't wait to come home from Kenya to reflect on my experiences at both places and to see how very different they were, but also, how similar they were. 


I've left quite a long post, so I'll wrap it up! A very wise friend of mine (aka my fellow Impact BG partner) shared this quote with me by Hudson Taylor, and it's been one that I have burned into my memory. "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies." I absolutely love it! 


Time to get some rest and I'll blog again in Mombasa! Eeeeee!
Hannah