Hello Everyone! Thanks for supporting me on this crazy journey of mine.

So lately God has been teaching me a lot. It's been really humbling for me to realize that me worth is not in what I do but it's who I am. I remember thinking that I came to Africa to serve for a year! In my mind serve meant work, working I don't know what that's supposed to mean but it's definitely not what I found. At least the work that I had in my mind. The work I've been doing is making friends. Building relationships. And being involved with church as many church activities as I can be. It's kind of like I'm an intern for the church. I help where I can.

So slowly realizing that my worth comes from God and that it's because who I am that I do things for him and not what I do that defines who I am as a Christian. You would think I would have this all figured out all ready. But no I think I constantly need to be reminded of the love that Christ has for me.

So now that I'm done with my lil speech let's move on.

So the last week in February the electricity went out at my families home. We had already had it go out for a night here and there but never for this long. The power was out for a almost a whole week. It was difficult because since I live in a home with electricity we rely on that to get water pumped into out house. Without it, no water.

While the electricity was out I spend evenings just sitting watching all the motos go by on my busy street and also talking with my little brother about the day and his likes dislikes. He has lots of questions for me as well. I love talking to him because his French is really clear and easy for me to understand. It was interesting because instead of the family watching TV we all just sat out in the court yard and talked. Kinda nice :)

I went to Bouake from 3/2/11 to 3/6/11 for a debrief and training time with all the Journeyers together again. It was awesome because I hadn't seen Chazz, Steph, Devin and Jamie for a month. We were all really glad to get a chance to catch up and share different stories on what we had all been up to and the struggles of getting adjusted to living in Ivorian homes.

I got a sweet package from my family in the U.S.! I got some of my favorite foods! Including s’more supplies which I’m totally excited to share with my Ivorian family. I’ll definitely take some pictures of this very American treat being prepared and eaten. I hope they’ll like it!

So one of the Journeyers Naomi is my partner in the church that I go to. She lives really close to me to I go and visit her often! I feel really blessed to have her in my life. She's got a love for the Lord that is just amazing. We are together a lot and do a lot of things together. So we have become pretty close because we talk about everything that’s going on in our lives. We go to a boutique to get a coke and then just walk around and talk about life. She's great.

Naomi and I are working together on our English club that we are starting at our church. The club will be for people 18 and over or something like that. We are hoping that not only people from our church will come but also it'll involve some of the girls and guys who go to the Mosk across the street. We want to involve not just the people from our church but everyone. This way maybe we can reach some of the Muslims in our neighborhood.

So on 3/14/11 I headed up with Naomi, Rod, Angelika and Justin to Burkina for a week to visit. Gosh it was definitely very eventful for me. Burkina seems to be a lot more westernized then from what I've gotten used to up north in Cote d'Ivoire. But Abijan is just or even more so then Burkina but I haven’t been down South due to the political situation.

Anyway the week consisted of bible studies, visiting missionaries, visiting a game ranch, talking a lot about future ideas for ministry for me which involves animals. I'm really excited about this. There is a chance I will be raising quail in order to sell the eggs for profit for the church. We shall see where this leads. It seemed like a week of vacation but at the same time working hard to connect with different people and get ideas. It is just so fascinating to me to hear stories of how people get to where they are. Burkina was great but I found myself definitely missing my family in Cote d'Ivoire.

Alright here are some prayer requests

Pray for the political situation

Pray for the relationships that I'm continuing to make

Pray for the health of the Journey Corps members. (We have been having alot of sickness lately including an appendix being taken out!)

Praise would be that I have not gotten seriously sick yet. So thank you Jesus! I feel blessed that God has given me good health.

Pray for me because I have some pretty big decisions that I need to make about my time here and what I will be doing.