Africa and Brooke

I know, dear bloggers, that it has been far too long since I have updated you. But that is besides the point!

I have always wanted to go to Africa and work with orphans! I just have such a huge heart for kids, especially orpahns! Combine my love for orphans with my love of the world and my love for Jesus and you've got a pretty amazing thing! Guess what?!?! It can totally happen!

So here's the DL. I have been looking over the years for something that combines all these things I love that would actually be realistic for me. And well, becuase I am not the most awesome person at saving money nothing has really worked out. But here I am with this new job and big pay checks! I have been able to save quite a bit of money from each paycheck. But I have only had 2 of them! Lol. But I found an organiztion and a missions trip that would work perfectly for me! And this is the closest I have ever been to actually going!

I always say I want to do something but can never finish the application! Well I finished the application and they've talked to 2/3 of my references who have both said amazing things about me! [Thanks Dub and Dotto!] And he phoned me today!!

This is how it all happened. I met him at missionsfest. The best and the worst place ever! Anyways, I put my name down for their email list and recieved and email about a week later telling me about all the upcoming missions trips available. And so I decided, why not take a look? I have always wanted to do something like this, let's check them out. And as I was parusing the website I decided that it was something I could definitely see myself doing. Now what they do is work with Aids orphans and vulnerable children in Southern Africa. ORPHANS!! IN AFRICA!!! That is enough to seal the deal for me. Not even joking. So I looked into it further and ended up emailing back and forth with a gentleman who works for Reachout2Africa.

Anyways, long story short, I applied for a missions trip in November for about 3.5 weeks. It is $3500 including everything; airfare, food, accomodation, the works! But I got an email back saying he really needed someone to come on the June/July missions trip and after talking to my references, thinks I would be a good fit. [AWESOME!!!] The trip starts June 19th and ends July 28th. But if I can't make that work, then he is willing to make something else work for me.

He is completely willing to work around whatever shedule works for me! He suggested a trip starting July 2nd ending July 28th. It would be a reduced cost and it would be totally realistic for me.

Ok, now that I've gotten all excited I need to sit and think about this and actually decide if this is something that I could do/if it is somewhere that God wants me to be.

There are quite a few things to take into account. I have been accepted to work at camp again this year. I was accepted as Senior Counselor and would LOVE the job. Only problem is I can't do both. I just got a new job working as the late night manager at Mcdonalds and can't take the entire summer off work. But I could still go for one week.

MONEY! More like lack of it. It's the only thing stopping me from ever doing anything aweosme like this! Well I have finally been able to save some of my money. And I think that it could actually work. The entire trip [June19 - July28] costs $4200.00. Right now I have $1200.00 saved. I need $3000.00 in 6 weeks. Now saving $600 every 2 weeks mean I can save $1800. That means I will still be short $1200. I can apply for short term missions at my church and that will cover some of the cost but certainly not the whole $1200. I will also get about $800 back from taxes. So it could work if I don't spend any money over the next 6 weeks!

I really want to do this and know that if this is where God wants me to be then everything will work out perfectly!!

Now all I ask of you is prayer! Please pray for me as I have to make a decision very quickly! And I mean like very quickly!

I need to know if I am going becuase I need to pay for baseball! And if I'm going to Africa then there is no point in playing baseball this year.

Thanks for your prayer! I will keep you updated!