It’s been a whole week since this journey began and I can honestly say that time has flown. Never before have I felt God’s presence so strongly for so long, yet I know He’s not going anywhere – I’ve never felt like I was supposed to be somewhere like how I feel like I’m supposed to be here. These girls have become like family so quickly. Laughter echoes through our house and I know I can talk to every girl about anything and they will listen. I can’t help but thank God that he put them in my life....

         Ministry this past week has looked a little different than what we all envisioned.  We didn’t actually get to Swaziland until Wednesday night, and only started “real” ministry at a care point on Friday.  So what have we done the rest of the time?  I like to think of it as team ministry: getting to know, care, and love each other.  It’s been hard.  Seventeen girls, who just met each other, living together 24/7 is as difficult as it sounds.  Especially when it consists of sleeping on the floor in...

We spoke with the host contact this morning after the team landed in Johannesburg! They have the team and were making the drive to Swaziland!  YAY! UPDATE! The are sleepy and but are showing great excitement for the month. (SEE PIC)

When we arrived in Swaziland, I felt the immediate culture shock. It had been six days since seeing my parents and about two weeks since I had seen my friends. My mind couldn’t grasp the 16 hour flight into the African winter. The girls on my team were so welcoming and gave me a sense of comfort and home. Yet, those first couple days I spent the majority of my time talking with God trying to make sense of this crazy thing I had done. God, am I going to make it through this whole month? Am I going to get along with these people? Am I going to build lifelong connections? Am I, am I, am...

As a child, the God I worshiped was big, all-powerful, just, all-knowing, and way up in the sky. He was sometimes kind of scary. And while that is for the most part true, there’s so much more to a God worthy of all our praise. As I’ve matured in my faith, God has become my companion, my teacher, my comfort zone, and my best friend. He is involved in every single aspect of my life. Throughout the course of this trip, the Lord has focused on teaching me the latter: that he is so dang involved. He is so present. He is doing big things right before my eyes. He’s not the...

“I’m SUCH an amazing dancer!” are words that have never left my mouth. (Well, maybe they have, but they were dripping with sarcasm.) Those who know me understand that my dancing skills are far from decent, but I can definitely have fun with awkward outbursts of what I call ‘dance.’ In all honesty, dance has never been my thing. Music itself is a huge way I can connect with Him, but really only when I listen to it or sing it. Being able to sing to Him feels as if I’m sitting right there in His arms, safe and secure. Dancing on the other hand, I can’t...