July 13, 2007

I'm finally on my way. We're in the air right now heading toward Atlanta to connect and head for Johannesburg. God has been so faithful in getting us to this point. We raised more than $47,000 to be here. I was worried for a while whether or not we would raise enough money. I thought some of us might have to stay home. The week before we left we still needed around $15,000 - and the day before we left, we still needed $5,000. But here we are, fully funded, with money left over. That alone is a great testimony of our trip and God's faithfulness. Several people wondered and asked me what our plan was for making up the deficit. It was great to be able to say that we were praying and believed God would provide. And he did!

Today is Friday, and we left Yucaipa on Monday to go to the YWAM base. As exciting as it was to leave on Monday, the week seemed to drag, and momentum felt gone. YWAM is doing some great things, but it felt like this week was tailored more for younger kids, and our group had a hard time. But we did meet some great people. The YWAM staff is a great group. They are passionate worshippers, faithful prayers, and kind servants. I feel like I met a great friend in Tony, who is from Ireland (Belfast) and is passionate about his homeland.

But the theme so far has definitely been God's faithfulness to me. On Monday myself and Robert were the only two who still needed our passports. He picked his up on Wednesday, and I had an appointment to get mine reissued on Thursday morning. That was a LONG day. There was a huge line already at 6:30am. When we finally got to a window inside I was told that I couldn't get my passport unless I had a copy of my birth certificate - again. The thing is, I got one the first time I applied - 12 weeks ago, and they kept it at that time. So Kimi left Yucaipa, got me a new birth certificate and brought it to me. At that point I was able to reapply and eventually (9 hours later) get my passport. So many people were praying. God is good!