My mind was spinning with the possibility of me serving as an international missionary building a campus of The Life Church in Durban. The idea had just begun taking shape and here I am eight months later about to leave. I sometimes can’t believe that I get the opportunity to do this!

I know it won’t be the easiest experience. It won’t be all downhill. But it will be a life changing year. I have made this commitment and am fully and wholeheartedly relying on God through it. He is the only one who gives Life and who sustains me. It is because of Him and for Him that I live life to the fullest!

It is with that knowledge that I ask you to partner with me on this trip. I have a financial goal of $17,000 for the year. At this moment, I still need $7,077.  That’s less than half my goal! I am looking to have all this by this weekend, Friday May 21st. It’s a huge goal but I believe it is possible.

Will you think about how you can be involved? What about a financial donation to help send me on this internship? This is a great opportunity to donate especially if you have been thinking about it. C’mon! What’s stopping ya!?

Here are the various ways you can donate:

**Make a check payable to “Go Global Missions” with my name in the memo line

Drop the check off at The Life Church or mail it to:

Go Global Missions
1800 N. Germantown Pkwy.
Cordova, TN 38016

**You can also make a payment online by visiting Go Global Missions website.

Select your desired donation frequency and amount
Select my name in the Area box
Continue following PayPal prompts

Make sure to send me your email so I can send you updates throughout the year!

Durban skyline

Not long ago, we leased a building for the location of the Durban church. It’s a very exciting time! In six weeks I’ll finally be able to see it for myself. For now, I’ll be relaying information from Greg and Kristin Evans the church planters in Durban. A recent blog post from Kristin describes the details of the campus location…

We started renovations in new (old) building that will be The Life Church of Durban! The address is 30 Cato Street, Durban, South Africa – to see on Googlemaps, click here. (Isn’t technology INCREDIBLE!!)

As you can see, we are near the beach and the port. Very fun location! All around us are tall buildings with flat/apartments in them. Just down the street a new night club just moved in this week and we’ve already seen the other night life that comes out at night. Plenty of outreach opportunities all around us!

I know this move will be a complete change of life for me. It won’t be a 9:00-5:00  job that’s for sure. The building where we will meet is not a new building but is new to us. We have three floors and from what I remember the first floor is a lobby, the second is the auditorium and the third floor is for the Next Generation ministry. These pictures were taken by Greg. Kassie (fellow intern) shared them on her blog a few weeks ago. The pictures show the middle floor pre-renovations.

The space requires renovations for us to use it as we would like. Some friends and contacts of Greg and Kristin have started to help with the work. My next post will include some of those details along with my favorite…the Next Generation ministry space!

Last year Greg and Kristin Evans came for a short trip to the States during this conference. This year Greg is in town. It is so refreshing to see Greg! I already equate him with my African home. I can’t wait to move!

Seeing Greg definitely makes me more excited to move to Durban. I only saw him briefly last night but we were already talking about what is in the mix for The Life Church Durban campus.

Reality hit a little bit closer tonight. And not necessarily in a home-sweet-home kind of way.

It was more of a put-on-the-gloves-ready-to-fight kind of stirring.

At first, Greg started sharing about the different opportunities for ministry. The possibilities here and there. The different groups we could work with. What we could work towards for the future. Then the conversation turned into personal stories from people’s lives through various encounters he had.

He started talking about the fact that every day he encounters prostitutes. Child prostitutes. Young men and women. And he says the numbers aren’t dwindling. They are actually growing because they are shipping them in for the FIFA World Cup later this year.

Straight up human trafficking.

Makes me sick.

Don’t forget about the other stories taking place: kids living from house to house or on the streets because one or both parents were lost to AIDS, kids not knowing the difference and stepping right into their parent’s destructive lifestyles, or those families barely surviving on the food they may or may not bring home.

Greg with kids from a Children's Cup feeding center

All these things are not fixed overnight. But we can make a difference. We are looking at the big picture but never forgetting the life of that one person needing Hope.

The actual work in Durban will probably take different shapes as time goes on. God might open the door for one inner city ministry and then something else later. The ministry that will start from the beginning though is building The Life Church Durban.  The local church providing ministry, discipleship and community is absolutely vital to any outreach.

That’s why I’m going to Durban. To begin the journey for a thriving, life-giving local church in Durban where all walks of life can find Hope, Truth, Love, Healing, Life! and a fresh start through our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus.

A little one asking me to hold her

You may not be going on the plane with me but you can be just as much a part of it. (Of course I’ll take scores of pictures and videos so you think you’re going along)  If you are praying for me, this trip, my fellow missionaries, the church – you are a part of it. You are investing in building God’s Kingdom. If you are partnering with me financially – you are a part of it. If you are going on one of the short term trips to Durban – well then, yes, I’d definitely say you’re a part of it. See the different ways you can be a part?

Here’s where I’m not going to be shy. I can’t really be a part of actually going unless I get all my funds. Talk about reality check!

I’ve still got a ways to go but that just means an opportunity for copious amounts of people to be a part of this landmark event! Look at the field before you! What do you say?

Let me know what you’re thinking! Send me an email, leave a comment, ask for a letter, donate below, twitter about my blog post, share my facebook page, tell your friends… yep, I’d say that’s about it!

Let me know if you want one of the oh-so-amazing letters. I will be glad to email (kphelan@goglobalmissions.com) or mail it!

There are only 108 days left until I leave! It’s getting closer and closer.

It is such an amazing opportunity to be able to serve my church and build God’s Kingdom on an international level! I am extremely excited to get to go!

Every Wednesday Greg Evans, the missionary living in Durban, meets with a group of people to pray for the city. Some of the things they have set forth to pray about are

* city officials
* leaders
* churches
* believers
* workers to reach the unbelievers
* The Life Church Durban

Greg meets with this group around the lunch hour (1pm) Durban time. Well, that translates to 5:00 too-early-in-the-morning a.m. Memphis time.  I’ve tried to join them at that time and have all the intentions in the world. I mean, c’mon, to pray Hope for a city, to pray for Life and Light for people there, to pray for my future home? I can’t get up at 5:00am to pray at the same exact time that others are gathered doing the same?

My body has said no every time.  Apparently I am not a morning person : )

I was starting to feel bad about not getting up at that hour. It would turn into guilt and getting distracted about the time instead of prayer! So instead I pray when I get up, when I eat, when I’m working, when I’m home and when I go to bed.  Wednesday is my day to focus on the city of Durban.

You’re welcome to join us…

Let me know, leave a comment! Maybe you’re a morning person. You can join Greg and the others…I’ll still be sleeping though!

Took one of the most fun road trips to a close friend’s wedding (miss you Allie)
Had a crazy start of the year at work but it turned into a promotion!
Welcomed my niece into the world in February (didn’t meet her until April though)
Made some great new friends
Spent two weeks in Swaziland and South Africa
Left my heart in Africa
Made the decision to retrieve my heart and move to South Africa
Heard Beth Moore for the first time and now love her
Ran my butt off at my second ever half-marathon
Enjoyed Christmas in New Hampshire

What I am looking forward to in 2010 in 50 words:
(I kinda planned this one to help out the 2009 list)

Leaving procrastination behind : )
Trying to fit a year’s worth of belongings into two suitcases…yeah right
Living in South Africa
The World Cup in Durban
More running!
Understanding South African life on South African turf
Building The Life Church Durban!
Serving with Kassie Perritt and Greg, Kristin and Isaiah Evans

Kassie and I on our way to Africa last May

I will be moving to Durban, South Africa as an intern with The Life Church to our new Durban campus! This past weekend our 3rd BIG weekend of our In The House series was Campus weekend. We talked about the great blessing of the Jackson campus, new developments in the Cordova and Collierville campuses and finally…the Durban campus!

Greg and Kristin Evans moved to Durban in July 2009 to begin establishing the foundation for the new campus. They were the children’s pastors here at The Life Church Memphis before spending a year in Swaziland and then moving to Durban. They are a great family (expecting their first child in 2 weeks!) and I am so honored to be serving with them. I can’t wait to join them across the ocean!

When the Durban campus was announced in church, Greg and Kristin were able to be there via Skype! It was so neat to have them there and to share with the church about Durban.  When Pastor John, our lead pastor, and the Evans were talking to everyone in the service I was so excited! My stomach was jumping the whole time! I could not keep a smile off my face.

I am so blessed and humbled to be a part of this great vision. It’s an honor to be a part of something God is doing not only here in Memphis but across the globe!

The Durban skyline

]]> http://kellyphelan.com/2009/11/196-days/feed/ 0 http://kellyphelan.com/2009/10/facebook-already-knows-this-but-i-dont-know-if-you-do/ http://kellyphelan.com/2009/10/facebook-already-knows-this-but-i-dont-know-if-you-do/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:16:43 +0000 Kelly http://kellyphelan.com/?p=181 You know those notes passed around on Facebook about 25 random things about you? Well, I did that awhile ago but thought I’d share it here too. Here are some of the most random things about me. Enjoy.

November is just a week away and fall has been in full swing. It’s been unusually rainy in Memphis but the cooler weather is definitely welcomed. I’ve been anxious for the trees to start turning colors now that it’s cooler. They’ve been slow about it but today the trees have really turned. Faint golden yellows, deep and bright reds, warm browns, burnt oranges and elegant purples have all shown up. I miss the vibrant colors of New England but still enjoy any fall colors.

I have almost a thirty minute commute to work every morning and always take the same route. There is this one particular back road that I love to drive because of its twists and turns, overhanging branches on the road and generally low traffic. The colors of fall are truly beginning to take form especially on this road. As I was driving this morning, the changing of the season made me think of a specific verse – Genesis 8:22

“While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night,
shall not cease.”

I read this verse with new eyes a couple of years ago and have always loved it since. It is where God makes a covenant to never again flood the earth. He goes on in chapter 9 to describe the covenant. But here at the end of chapter 8, God begins His promise. The verses give me a hope and confidence: as long as I am here on earth, every time I sow there will be a harvest, every summer there will follow a winter, every long night spent praying, wishing, hoping there will come a dawn.

Hope is His name; and Faithful is His promise.

The Beth Moore conference was starting in a mere hour and some odd minutes and I was running late because of a work errand. I had make the 30 minute commute home, pick up a friend who had come in town, drop my car off at my house and then meet Amy Beth and the group at another friend’s house. All this and we were still 30 minutes from the conference!

Finally we were on the road as a combined group. I had joined the group in Amy Beth’s car which including: Amy Beth (driving), Jenna, Melanie and Stephanie. (There was a second car behind us with SarahRuth, Hannah and Anna.) I have a little evidence of what our car ride downtown was like. It’s a dark video (shot at night while raining), but don’t worry, all you need is sound:

What you hear at the end is Amy Beth figuring out I’m recording. Yeah…I had to put the camera away in fear of my life. The only reason I’m able to put it on my blog now is because she’s almost 400 miles away. Hehe, we’re still friends, right Amy Beth?

We arrived at the conference in the nick of time. Jenna’s friends graciously saved some front section seats for us. The conference was amazing. I think a recap deserves its own post though, so that will be for next time. I can just tell you that I have now become a fan of Beth Moore!

The next morning the girls headed out to the morning sessions. I wasn’t able to go because I had a baby shower to attend! Greg and Kristin (whom I’ll be living with in Durban) are expecting! We had a baby shower for them via Skype. Our friends Aimee, Sonja and Samina came up with that awesome idea and pulled it off wonderfully! The video shower was so much fun and I can’t wait to see the baby.

{Side note: I’m training for a half-marathon in December. This definitely puts a twist to any plans because I have to make sure I’m able to run that day. The start to Saturday came really early, like 6:30 early. The girls left around 7:30 and I was out the door to fit in my training. Thankfully it was only around 4 miles! Not to bad for a busy weekend.}

The second car of girls at the conference had to make it home in time for prior commitments so they left just as the conference was ending. Because the group had two cars, Amy Beth, Jenna and Melanie were able to stay later. We took full advantage of the time. Lunch was at The Majestic Grille downtown – I love that restaurant! Wonderful atmosphere, great prices and always a good time. We then ventured to Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn outlets. Amy Beth couldn’t stop proclaiming her love of both. I think at one point, she might have said she loved it more than Beth Moore and her hair, which if you know her is quite the statement.

I was very happy a few girls were able to stay later because they were able to go with me to my church, The Life Church. It was an awesome service with a series from Pastor John Siebeling called In The House. That night was full of blessing because usually I teach/coordinate my two year old classroom but another adult stepped in for me! I was able to worship and listen to the message with my friends – a sweet time.

Ending the day (and this forever long post!) was dinner at our college friend’s house, Christan. She cooked delicious manicotti and garlic bread. One of my favorite meals! Our friends had to get on the road after dinner in order to start the journey back home. It wasn’t before Amy Beth requested to play American Idol on a game system though. Thankfully, it was a borrowed game and they didn’t have it anymore. If you are curious how it would have played out…please see the above video. I love you Amy Beth!

And that, is the weekend in recap. The long extended version. For us long-winded people.

Walking downtown Memphis

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