Harambee

Our whole group (all 200 of us) went to Washington, DC for the day. Our goal was to be intentional with sharing Jesus in a cross-cultural setting. We had all been given a checklist of things to do to help achieve this goal so we were supposed to do things like ride the Metro, observe parenting skills of families from a different culture, identify different languages, eat at an "ethnic" restaurant, prayerwalk, and be intentional about having spiritual conversations with people. Our little group ate at an Ethiopian restaurant called Awash in the Adams Morgan area. We were told there were lots of markets around there but it ended up being mostly restaurants. Fine by me!

 I don't even know the names of the foods. I ordered the "lunch combo" and it seemed to be injera with mounds of collard greens, yellow peas, lentils and a potato/carrot/cabbage dish. Whatever it was, I liked it!

Emily and I split off from our group after lunch so we could to go our embassies. First stop, Kenya. The men that worked there were awesome! They were so glad we were going to Africa and loved the fact that I had already been before. When they asked why we were going we briefly explained our jobs but said that mainly it was because the Lord had led us to go. One guy was especially wonderful, quoted Scripture, and told us that he didn't know why we were still in the US since God had told us to go to Africa!

Harambee is used to describe unity and literally means "all pull together" in Swahili. Emily and I took our picture by the coat of arms out in front of the embassy.

The Republic of South Sudan actually has an embassy now! It's no longer "just" a mission! For some reason I totally forgot to take any pictures while we were there but even if I had it would have been really underwhelming. It's literally an office suite on the 6th floor of a random office building. The suite next door is a college prep testing center. But even though it wasn't a cool-looking established building with a coat of arms and black SUVs with tinted windows out front, it was MY embassy and I was excited to be there! We talked to the Protocol and Public Relations Officer for almost an hour. He is a believer named Enoch. He wasn't quite as outgoing and animated as the Kenyans but he was patient with my millions of questions.

I was a little discouraged during part of the afternoon because I felt like I didn't have any chances to participate in spiritual conversations with people, but God reminded me that the point of today (and every day) was to be intentional in how I act and what I say...not to check things off of a list that someone gives me. I do feel like I was intentional with the opportunities that God gave me, even though they weren't with the people that I was hoping for. DC was oddly vacant today, or maybe it was just the places that I went to, but in the end I got to meet believers from east Africa and get even more excited about going to South Sudan. I would say that is a success!

Week Eight

I didn't kill anything this week so don't worry, no bloody chicken pictures this time! We actually had a pretty tame week last week. I guess anything is tame after chicken killing, security training, earthquakes and hurricanes all right in a row!

Last week was affinity week here at training, which basically means that instead of ALL of us being together, we did more specific sessions within our affinity group. Our group of 27 going to Sub-Saharan Africa is great, and I enjoy spending time with everyone. A lot of what our group focused on this week was spiritual warfare and the importance of prayer while working among people groups entrenched in spirit worship and demon possession. The topics were heavy, sometimes a little scary and overwhelming, but it is a good reminder of why I am going and how Jesus is more powerful than anything I might be faced with.

If you are reading this blog and know Jesus, would you commit to pray for me? Prayer is how you can be a part of what God is doing in South Sudan and I will do my best to use this blog as a way to update you on specific things to pray for. Maybe God will use those times while you pray for me to show you how you can be even more involved in sharing the good news of Jesus with people who don't know Him.

I have exactly 9 more days until I drive back to Texas. Whoa. I'll leave Virginia on the 21st, spend some time in Dallas and Lubbock, then leave on October 5th and fly from Dallas to Nairobi, Kenya. After a week or so in Nairobi to stock up on supplies and recover from jet-lag I will fly to South Sudan...yessss!

Please pray for:
-smooth travel. I have ridiculous luck with flights being delayed/cancelled and I'm having a minor panic attack when I think about how important it is that I make my layover in London on time and that all my bags actually get to Kenya with me.

-good goodbyes. I'm blessed with great friends and an awesome supportive family so it will be hard to say goodbye so many times in just a few days.

Warning: Not For the Faint of Heart

I'll just go ahead and tell you that if you're not into pictures of bloody, headless chickens then you shouldn't read this post.

If you're not sure whether or not you're into pictures of bloody, headless chickens...go ahead and read it. You know you want to!

Our Sub-Saharan Africa leaders are awesome and have come up with so many creative ways to help us learn "extra-curricular" things about living in Africa. I've blogged before about having dinner at their house African-style, making bread in a pot on the stove, and drying meat. Today was chicken killing 101. Here we go.

Step one: cutting board.

Step two: gather all your friends, make a fire, pass out the utensils and don't forget your box of live chickens.

Step three: say hello to my little fren'

Step four: after watching teammate cut their chicken through the brain you and your partner discuss the pros and cons of just whacking the head off and letting it run around for a while.

Step five: hold headless chicken after it has run around on the grass and debate how much you're regretting the decision to participate in the first place.

Step six: admire bloody chicken head on previously mentioned cutting board. Resolve to never use that cutting board again.

Step seven: after dunking the chicken in boiling water, pluck all the feathers off, channel your inner butcher and try to remember that you still enjoy Chick Fil A.

Step eight: place chicken in trash bag and put in quad-mate's fridge for them to enjoy later.

Appalachian Trail

So here I sit in the middle of Virginia with a bunch of SEC fans while Texas Tech is playing their first game and only one other person here cares. At least there's one other Red Raider here with me! But seriously, it's so lame not being around other TTU fans, especially when it's football season. At least we won against Texas State 50-10!

 Last Saturday we had a hurricane so this weekend Emily and I decided to make up for it and go to Shenandoah National Park. It's not too far away and this flat West Texas girl needs some hills in her life! The park entrance is only about an hour away from where we live, then we drove about an hour into the park to get to the Loft Mountain area.

We left late and aren't serious hikers (understatement!) so we did a moderate 3.2 mile hike that took us to a few trickles waterfalls.

The first half was great because it was all downhill! Coming back was a different story. But overall it was really fun and I'm so glad we went!

Hey Irene

So, Irene has been a total dud. I mean, I know I shouldn't say that because it would actually be terrible if things were really crazy in our part of Virginia. But still. If we're gonna have an earthquake AND a hurricane in the SAME WEEK, we may as well go all out. All we've gotten so far is rain for literally 12 hours straight, plus wind. The power has gone out about 6 times but we've got generators so NBD.

What does the Sub-Saharan Africa affinity group do when we are stuck inside all day? We make bread and beef jerky. Duh. Our affinity leaders are awesome and they are trying to teach us everyday practical things that we could possibly use on the field. We were supposed to incorporate some chicken killing/plucking today, but we have postponed that for another time without hurricanes.

Start out with some basic ingredients. As in, five ingredients plus stuff to mix it in.

Invite all your closest friends who are also experiencing a hurricane.

Next we moved on to meat drying. Get ready.

Lots of meat, lots of seasonings.

I've never been very enthusiastic about eating meat so most of this kind of grossed me out, but the whole process was just so ridiculous that I kind of enjoyed it. We used paper clips to hang meat strips on a hanger. This stuff has to dry for days, so I think some people have it hanging up on their shower curtain rod in their bathroom, or maybe over the dryer.

So, I probably wouldn't rank Hurricane Irene as one of the highlights of my weekend, but we still managed to have fun!

Running

One of the things that I really enjoy doing is working out. I'm not obsessed, but I do feel like exercise is a good stress reliever for me, plus I just feel better when I'm active. My access to the gym ended when I came to training, but there are plenty of things to do for exercise at FPO. I'm used to using cardio machines with TVs attached, and weight rooms with matts, free weights, and machines. Now it's a really new combination of Jillian Michaels workout DVDs (that girl is no joke!) and running.
A few times in my life I've been able to get over the 3-mile hump but it's been like 4 years since that happened. I've dabbled, but I think I get bored too easily. For whatever reason I actually really like running here. I've gone from flat/dry to hilly/humid, which would normally trap me indoors. I hate humidity. And that is not an understatement. Anyways, most of the girls in my house go running every night at 9pm. Our off day is Friday because who wants to spend Friday night running, and then usually everybody picks their other lazy day to not go, but overall everyone has been pretty committed. Running is more fun when there are 4 or 5 of you sweating to death instead of just you!
Tonight I'm back up to running 3 miles straight. Not super impressive, but more than I've done in a long time. I'm guessing I won't be doing a ton of running (for fun anyway) in South Sudan so I'm going to enjoy this while I can!

Earthquake!

So just when I was starting to think that FPO needed a little excitement...we had an earthquake! At 5.9 magnitude, apparently it's the biggest earthquake in these parts since 1897. We were sitting in our session right after lunch (which is really the worst time to have 200 people sit and listen to a speaker) and everything starts rumbling. At first I thought it was thunder, then I thought it was our contingency training starting early, then I realized that no we were not in a simulator and the floor shouldn't be moving. We all ran out the door, appropriately using the emergency exit doors, and stood outside waiting for everything to stop moving. It only lasted about 30 seconds but it was intense! Nobody was hurt and as far as I know there wasn't any damage to any buildings on our campus, and the internet/phone connections were only messed up for a few hours. There was a 4.2 magnitude aftershock about 7 hours later, but nothing happened, just a little freaky.

I know 5.9 isn't the biggest deal ever, but for a girl from Texas it's pretty exciting! Good to know that I don't have to be in South Sudan for the action to start!

Oh, and Hurricane Irene is headed our way. Bring it.