I’ve finally made it to Durban! Kassie and I began our travels early early Tuesday morning May 25th and we got to Durban Wednesday night around 8:00pm local time or 2:00pm EST.

We have been busy right from the start! This morning, in a couple minutes actually, we are heading to church. Since I don’t have time to share all the details I’ll definitely come back with another post.

Just wanted to let everyone know we are here, safe and busy! Oh, also wanted to let you know the internet only works on one computer right now so things might be short and sweet for a little bit!

*Pictures will be absent for a little while considering it’s not my computer that the internet works on.

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

Let’s look back for a second to somewhere around 45 days ago. Actually, make it 60 days from D-day.

That would make it a Wednesday.

Okay, now that you have somewhat of a time frame and a feel for the day, let me tell you a story.

I was driving to work one early Wednesday morning. I love my drive to work because I take back roads that provide me with curvy roads, green woods and almost no stoplights. The type that you roll your window down for and enjoy the wind.

This particular morning my car was not it’s normal self. I do encounter some stop signs along my route and my car didn’t like them this morning. It would struggle and seem to pout at me. After the initial push, it seemed to get its head in the game and eventually accelerate. Fortunately, it didn’t hold up traffic as it only looked like I was slowly going through an intersection!

My car has 176,000 miles on it. It’s not a spring chicken. Because of this I have become on a first name basis with my mechanic. Yep, he’s a great guy and I certainly recommend him if you need someone. So on that Wednesday morning I thought I would just stop on by his shop and have him take a look at my car.

I dropped it off, had a co-worker pick me up for work and planned to see my car on the way home. After taking a look at my car my mechanic informed me otherwise. It was grim news: my transmission was going, going…gone. First gear had already said it’s goodbyes and second gear was on its way out the door. No wonder my car would barely accelerate from a stopped position!

What was there left for me to do but empty my car of all my things. I took one last picture (maybe my first?) of the car to remember.

This old thing brought me through high school, traveling long distance to college, all 4 college years and then three years afterwards. And it wasn’t new when I got it!

I left it that day on the mechanic’s lot hoping he could sell it (crossing fingers). It didn’t go right away but a couple of weeks later my friend from church sold it! He was able to get more money than expected and then blessed me by giving it towards my trip!

All this and I’m without a car. Do you want to know the craziest thing about this whole story? My boss is one of the most generous women. Monday, just two days before I brought my car to the shop, she bought a car. Her and her husband were keeping their old van as extra transportation. Here comes the crazy part: she is letting me borrow their old car until I leave for South Africa!

Isn’t that amazing?! Talk about God’s timing. Monday she buys a car; Wednesday my car has commitment issues but I’m blessed through her generosity! Does that not speak of God’s provision or what!

I forgot to tell you guys that I had a garage sale awhile back! I had been spring-cleaning my house and realized I had more things than I thought. If this was the case with me, I was sure other people had the same predicament. Two of my friends encouraged me to hold a garage sale fundraiser. They were even so gracious as to help host it!

I didn’t really know what to expect. I sent out a short email to friends with my plan and it took shape from there. I kept getting donations after donations! The week of the sale, I was so busy picking up items from people’s houses and carting them to the location of the sale. I was extremely blessed by people’s generosity!

The night before the garage sale my friends Lindsay, Nicole and I were up late pricing and organizing our hearts out. Then early that Friday morning, we worked practically ‘til we dropped. Item after item was brought out into the yard, hung on hangers and displayed on tables. I couldn’t believe the amount of items we had! The clothes were the hardest part because we had to so much to display. It wasn’t until about 11:00am that we brought the last bag out from the house!

Nicole was instrumental in the success of the sale along with being the best host. She made homemade calzones for us to enjoy while working Thursday night. I will never refuse a meal with bread. (It’s my weakness, especially fresh bread!) Then early Friday morning when her husband came home from work (he’s a firefighter), he made cappuccinos for us three girls. I had declined any, as I am not a coffee drinker. Did this stop him?

Certainly not.

I learned he’s a determined guy.

He brought out a drink for me and told me to try it. He wouldn’t tell me what it was though. He knew I didn’t like coffee but still made something for me. Nicole and Lindsay both encouraged me not to pass it up. I tried it.

Aaaand….nope….still don’t like coffee drinks. Sorry Robert, I gave it a fair chance. Better luck next time  : )

Our original plan was to have the sale Friday and Saturday but Saturday didn’t provide us with good weather. We postponed our second sale until the next Saturday because we still had enough items to have a great second sale! That next weekend we did it all again.

All-in-all it was a great success! We worked ourselves to the end and barely had anything to cart to a donations center. It was marvelous. My only regret was not taking any pictures! I’m training myself to remember to take pictures for you guys to see everything I do. I definitely cannot forget while in South Africa!

But one of the best parts about it?

I raised over $1,000!

Now only if I had time, or energy, to do it again.

The church campus needs renovation in order to hold services and that includes the space for the children’s ministry. Guys from the Friday night Bible Study and friends from another church helped paint some of the rooms. There is more work to be done so I know I’ll get my fair share! It is so exciting thinking about all the details that are taking place. Not too long from now we will be holding our kids ministry in those very rooms!

This is so exciting for me because my heart definitely lies in kids ministry. I started teaching Sunday School for two and three-year-olds when I was only in middle school. Now, I am on a team of coordinators for the Nursery/Preschool here at The Life Church. We do everything from teaching in classrooms to coordinating the Nursery/Preschool classrooms and services. It is one of my favorite times in church. I have so much fun imparting life and His love to all the kids that come into the classrooms. It’s also a lot of fun doing life with my team! To think that I will be a part of building this for The Life Church of Durban is so honoring and thrilling!

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!

There has been so much going on I don’t even know where to start. I guess I’m just going to hit the highlights that include pictures.

A few weeks ago, our church hosted Priscilla Shirer who is an amazing speaker. She preached at every service in Cordova and even in Collierville! That’s 5 services! Every time I hear her speak, she has an amazing message. I would definitely recommend getting a copy of her message from our resource center at church (thelifechurch.com).

Not only were church services awesome, the whole weekend was pretty fun. I got to spend time with the pastors’ children, the two older Shirer kids and their cousin. The Shirer’s have three boys around the ages  7, 5 and 18 months (if I can remember right).

It all started Friday night meeting each other and hanging out. It took a little bit for all the kids to feel comfortable with each other but the adjustment period wasn’t long. Movies, games, Legos and karaoke seemed to do the trick. The youngest one didn’t want to leave his mom’s side! By the end of the night Pastor John won him over and the little one was following him around.

On Saturday morning, I had a work event in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes I can be a morning person. It all depends if I can psych myself up enough! I have to literally prepare my mind the night before so it’s almost as if my brain doesn’t have a chance to completely shut down. So early Saturday morning my work hosted a 5K walk partnering with St. Jude Hospital. The event was great but it was so cold for that weekend. (It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that we were there before the sun at 6:30am and it being the tail end of winter).

After the walk I still had three layers of running clothes on! This was the first time I had walked a course instead of running. I think I prefer the running : ) Much quicker and more gratifying.

I met up with Aimee later that morning and we drove to pick up the Shirer boys and the Siebeling kids for a fun afternoon. We had a great time enjoying the Memphis Zoo and a local fitness club swimming pool! I didn’t get any pictures of swimming but below are memories from the zoo. I’ll be back in a couple days with more updates on what I’m currently up to…for now I hope you enjoy these pictures! (Erin, I know you will appreciate the hat)

Transforming into a leopard!

The kids and I

'M' wanting to swim with the bears

'A' and I trying to take our picture

...much better! (Can you see the 3 layers on me?)

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!

This past weekend was actually the 100 day mark. It was a fun and celebratory time! Kassie and I kept passing each other at church and yelling “100 days!!” Including sharing the time line with everyone else we passed!

On Saturday I had pictures taken in order to use for my website, letters, postcards etc. Kelly Mayberry was the fabulous photographer! She is a creative genius and I love her work. She mostly concentrates on artwork and fine art photography but also does portraits. It was a no-brainer to ask Kelly to take my pictures.

I also asked a friend, Katie, to come along in order to help out and provide laughs for natural pictures! Let me tell you, she definitely provided the laughs. Katie was such a huge help to me and to Kelly M. with her naturally creative eye. Hair in the face from the wind? Katie fixed it. Poses? Katie’s provided ideas. Entertainment? Katie debuted new hilarious dance moves. To recap: she was a tremendous blessing.

I’m not going to share all of the pictures here because I have yet to decide exactly where I want to use my favorites. (And there are over 100 pics!) But below are some of the fun ones. Kelly took me to a nearby park called Shelby Farms and knew exactly where to shoot the photos.

These are some of the first location – a simple rock wall. Kelly asked me to stand against the wall and I had no clue what I was doing. It was pretty funny – both Kelly and Katie were laughing at me. Kelly was asking me questions and I couldn’t smile and answer at the same time! The expert she is, she did manage to catch some realllly good ones at this location. These are some of extra ones…

Then we moved to one of the fields with a huge tree right at the beginning. As we were walking over to check out the spot, I stepped on some thorns. These were huge massive ones! The one that stuck me was about 3 inches long and in a bunch of about 3 or 4 other thorns. Not fun! I had to literally jerk it out of my foot. The puncture wound is still healing!
Here are a few of the photos from that location (ones that I don’t have enough room in other projects)….

Do you see how the wind was blowing? And a fun picture in the middle of Katie!

Then a few photos on a park bench…actually there is only one photo without future plans:

It was a fun morning! I was extremely happy with all the pictures. Can’t wait to show you my favorite ones!

It was a complete honor to be able to serve at the Collierville campus this past weekend. I had actually never served in Collierville before and was so excited to have the opportunity before I move to Durban. Now I only have to get to the Jackson campus at least one time!

I serve in the Nursery/Preschool section of our KidsLife ministries. Many times I teach in the classrooms but I generally coordinate the services in the Nursery/Preschool along with a great team. This time in Collierville, I was a service coordinator during the two services. I made sure to prepare ahead of time to document this monumental occasion for Collierville! We still have some work to do in the decorating department for Junior KidsLife and Nursery/Preschool but you can still get the idea of the church. These pictures are also for Greg and Kristin Evans serving in Africa to build our Durban campus. Greg and Kristin: I thought about you while building this Collierville Nursery/Preschool team! (captions correlate to photo above it)

Welcome to The Life Church Collierville!
Behind the camera is the side entrance with the main entrance and auditorium straight ahead through the double doors. The hallway to KidsLife School Age, Junior KidsLife and Nursery/Preschool is to the right.

Kinsey is an enthusiastic and friendly sight at your Connection desk!

Need to check-in your children to KidsLife? Visit Venus at guest services.

Our 3 and 4 year olds gathering to begin the Bible lesson Lil’ K.

It’s a dark picture (not the best photographer) but this is the 1 and 2 year old classroom dancing to Lil’ K.

Our baby classroom (above) with pictures of beautiful babies following…

Some great artwork done by the creative team! The kids loved it! They would be walking down the hallway with their heads turned towards the wall. Many a parent had to encourage their kids to watch where they were going.

Our KidsLife School Age room. Such a cool sight. I didn’t have my camera at the time they were singing and dancing but that was awesome too.

Sherrie is one-of-a-kind. She leads our Junior KidsLife and is the best. This picture was taken during first service. Every classroom had more kids then we expected and this classroom was no exception. I can’t remember how many came during first service but there were 33 five and six year olds during the second service! What an opportunity for ministry!

Thanks for visiting the Collierville campus with me! Join us at the actual campus next week: services at 9:00am and 11:00am. If you need directions or a friend to go with, let me know!

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.”