Africa Here I Come!!

So it's official! I will be on my way to Africa in about 50 days! Thanks to all of my friends and family and even people I didn't know, I was able to pay in full for my trip! My flight was booked two nights ago and I couldn't be happier! The rest of the proceeds brought in now will go towards my trip to Haiti in August! Words can not describe how amazing God is! There have been so many signs from Him that this is exactly where I need to go and I cannot wait to see what He has planned for me there! Some of you have asked exactly when the trip is and what I will be doing there, now that it's getting closer I will explain the trip in as much detail as I can! I'm still not even sure what some of the plans are! Haha! Just trying to relax and go with the flow, so I'm not too worried about it! My trip is scheduled from April 5th-27th. I will fly out of Cleveland by myself and meet one of the U.S. families, there are two U.S families who are also traveling there, at a layover. We will all then proceed to fly to Brussels and from there to Burundi. When we arrive in Burundi I assume we will meet up with the other family as well as the missionary families (McCropders is the group name) we are all going to visit and stay with while there. Arrangements for housing have not been set in stone since one of the homes is going through some renovations. I do know that I will be rotating among the families. When we arrive there my job will mainly be with childcare, in all there will be 18 kids all 10 and under. My job will be to work with 12 of the kids with multiple things (a VBS, schoolwork, piano lessons..etc.) anything needed really. I'm planning for 10 days of a VBS and it's definitely been fun coming up with my own lessons! I have also been told that if one of the mothers is not helping when I have the whole group I will have some of the village girls helping me as well, they don't speak any English but they know the kids and can help with crowd control! There will be one of the girls there that speaks French so I will be able to communicate with her the best I can. I've only been taking french for about a month but I'm moving along quickly and hopefully will be able to have a good conversation with her now and then! I'm assuming the Mccropders will also show me around as well as show me some of the work they do at the hospital so that I kind of get a taste for what missionaries do out on the field! This is all the information I have about the trip, more will probably come in the future as I hear it. This blog will keep you all updated on everything that goes on but do not be dismayed if I do not post every single day. The wifi in Burundi is not the greatest and I will be a busy girl! Thank you everyone for your continued support! God Bless! -Nina

A Little Bit About Burundi

Some of you probably have no idea where Burundi, Africa is....besides in Africa of course! That's ok, I didn't know either until my mom pointed it out to me! So let me give you some information about where I'm going. As you can see on the map above Burundi is surrounded by Rwanda, Tanzania and Dem. Rep. of the Congo. It is located by Lake Tanganyika. The official language there is Kirundi which is based off of French. Burundi is very poor and is known for the many diseases it carries. I do not feel informed enough to give you much information but this wiki page will definintely teach you more about Burundi! While I'm there I will be staying with the wonderful McCropder families! (to check out there blog and learn about their mission work in Burundi visit this link here) I cannot wait for this trip and to meet the people of Africa! Thank you all so much for your support! I'm still sending out support letters so if you would like me to send you one please comment below! God Bless!!

The Beginning

Here I sit writing the first entry for my new blog. There's excitement in the air here as I plan for my new trips coming up rather soon! That, dear friends, is why this blog was created! Hopefully throughout the next months, and the next year or two, you come back and read about the many adventures God is taking me on! Even at the age of 17 I have already been blessed with the possibility of going on two trips this year! The first trip will be to Burundi, Africa where I will be for three weeks. While there I will be providing childcare for two U.S. families and several missionary families stationed there indefinitely. There will be 18 children that I will be caring for all under the age of 10. This experience will not only strength my love for children but will also give me some experience as to what missionaries do out in the field. My other trip will be with a youth group from Michigan that I used to attend while Mia was in the hospital. This trip will be to Haiti for one week. We will be helping out a children's organization there! Both of these trips will help me to prepare for after graduation when I hope to go to Haiti and work at an orphanage known as God's Littlest Angels. Some of you know about these trips, and others are probably extremely confused by all of this mission work talk, well let me ease your mind and explain some things to you. The best way to start this is at the beginning, so just sit back, relax, read and travel back in time with me! I think we all started out with a dream when we were little, whether we wanted to be a princess, or a football player, or a superstar. We all had a dream. Mine was to be a missionary. I grew up hearing about my cousin's aunt traveling to Africa as well as many other missionary stories. At a young age, I decided that was what I wanted to do! Well of course as we get older things change and dreams fade, maybe not forever, but they are replaced with more realistic or mature ones. So just like everyone else my dream changed, I wanted to be a singer, then a cosmetologist, then back to a singer and then one day I stumbled upon a Facebook post. One of my friends from Michigan had taken a trip to Haiti and worked at an orphanage there called Gods Littlest Angels(GLA), well if you know me you know that I LOVE kids! So it was natural that I had to read all about this trip. The next thing I know I'm on the orphanages website and soon after that communicating with my friend! Even after one conversation with her I knew that's where I wanted to go. There was no doubt in my mind that was where I planned on going after graduation. (And as of now it is still in my plans and I feel it is my calling. But of course that is God's decision and not mine!) So after we looked into GLA more we all thought it was a great plan and started asking more questions about it. Well just in the past two months or so my parents decided that before I just up and leave to another country I should get some experience. I have never been farther than Kenmore when it comes to mission work. I had two options, I could go to Burundi, Africa with my friend and stay with several missionary families or I could go to Haiti with the Michigan youth group. After contacting my friend about Burundi, we came to the conclusion that she couldn't go so we crossed that one off of our option list and proceeded to fill out forms and contact people about the Haiti trip. About a week later, my mom emailed the missionary family from Africa wondering if there was anything I could do. And you will never believe what happened next! The McCropders emailed my mother saying that they had been praying for someone to come help! They're having two U.S. families come to Africa this April to get information on moving there and they were in desperate need of help with the children! With all of the adults in meetings and giving medical care, the children needed to be cared for. My mom got chills as soon as she read the email! I was so shocked! Not only did God answer our prayers for experience but He blessed me with two trips to hopefully go on and answered the prayers of the other families across the globe! 　 Now I'm busy making a ton of preparations for both trips, everything for Haiti is in place I will just need to attend a few meetings, get some shots and possibly have a talk with the youth pastor. As for Africa...not as much is done....I have to get immunizations and malaria pills, a visa, a plane schedule, clothing so I can match their culture and the list goes on! I will need to raise money for both of these trips so I am also busy writing my sponsor letters and sending them off to friends and family. Though the preparations can be stressful my mom is always here to remind me that if God truly wants me to attend both of these trips it will be done! I am so excited for both of these trips and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for me! You're prayers and support are much appreciated and I hope through this blog I can communicate to you the amazing experiences I will have! I leave you now with a joyous heart and one of my favorite bible verses, have a blessed day! -Nina Isaiah 6:8 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send Me!"