26 days and counting

Hello all!

I am officially departing the U.S in less than one month! Time is flying by and I will be getting on that plane in no time! As the date is approaching fast I would love for prayers to help decrease my anxiety with all of the finishing touches we are making to this trip and finishing up school! I had my last night working at Children's Mercy so I am officially on a day schedule again. Living life on a normal schedule will hopefully allow for more time to get homework and projects finished up and start working on education materials to bring with me to Kenya and starting the process of packing!

Dan and Emily are leaving for Kenya this week and we will not be able to communicate with them until we get off that plane in Africa! Prayers for their safe travel and adjustment are greatly appreciated.

After our meeting with Dan and Emily we learned more about the mission statement of Dala Development and our plan while over there. We are going to be taking a relational approach to helping this community develop instead of giving them all of our resources and having them become dependent on our aide. We are going to be helping them find their own connections and resources within their community to help with development. In particular Laura and I will be working with the local community center and hospital to help the community build trust in the aide that the hospital and community center can provide and know that they are there to help, not steal their money for useless treatments. Education will also be our goal in letting the community know what symptoms to go to the hospital for, STI prevention and AIDS teaching, hypertension, diabetes, and general first aide education. We are planning on doing a community assessment day where we will test blood pressure, blood glucose levels, eye sight, and oral health.

We have a lot of plans for this trip but the main plan is to be flexible for whatever the community needs and situations that arrive. Its a community that events change from day to day so nothing is certain and we just need to be open for the situations that God provides us to be in and ways to help!

That is all for now. Hope all is well and thanks for participating in this journey with me by reading my blog and praying for my team, the community, and me.

-Christy