I suppose you could say that now it's official. Last week, our plane tickets to Cote d'Ivoire were bought! October 28th is the date, and it's a one way. It's finally starting to feel like it's really happening.. though I'm sure I won't fully realize it until next month sometime. In the meantime, I'm filling my days with French learning, reading, painting, getting rid of things, buying new things, filling out visa paperwork, getting immunizations, and oh yeah - making muffins. I just made a batch of blueberry, my new favorite.

How am I feeling about all of this? Humbled, thankful, and a bit of restless excitement. I am incredibly blessed to have 100% of the money that I need for this coming year in Africa. Seriously, PRAISE GOD that I been surrounded by people in my life who support me, as well as people who don't know me but who God has laid it on their heart to give. In case you don't know, at the end of July, a grant organization in my community anonymously gave me HALF of what I needed to raise. It was an incredibly affirmation that I'm living out God's will and not my own.. because I can assure you that would not have happened if this going to Africa thing was my own idea.

I went to my home church for the first time in a few months, as I'm all moved out of Philadelphia now, living at home in western PA until I leave, and was greatly encouraged by a few things. My high school youth pastor and his wife are adopting, a process which usually takes a few years. Back in January, Amy made me dinner and we talked about how sometimes you just need to take a step of faith, and God can take that and open or close doors. At that time, she and Jeremy had just decided to seek out adoption and go with an agency, and someone in their family had told them that their financial needs for the adoption were covered, period. And at that time, I was thinking about applying to Journey Core, amidst all the other organizations I'd talked to at Urbana. Today, Amy and Jeremy are expecting a baby in a few weeks, and I have a plane ticket to Cote d'Ivoire with Journey Corps. Coincidentally, the amount that they needed to cover the adoption costs is the exact same amount I needed to send me to Africa for a year. Yesterday when I talked to Amy, we laughed about how now we're on the other side of the mountain, in awe of how great God is.

Encouragement #2: I stood up in church and told them the good news that I'm at 100% and have a plane ticket for late October. I also asked them to pray for the other 8 Journeyers who are still raising money to go at the same time. And though I didn't plan to, I mentioned the name of a good friend I've had throughout college, who is also going, but needs $5,000 yet. I had two people, one at church and one via phone later that night, tell me that they would like to support her since I have all that I need. So awesome!

Summer, Adriana, and Aaliyah. Strawberry!

Angel the destroyer

Tyreek and Tymeeka making confetti cupcakes

I spent last week in Philadelphia, to help prepare for and set up an exhibition of the kids' artwork from camp. As you can see from the pictures, we made muffins! It was quite a project, but it was awesome for the kids, to be as much a part of the exhibition as they could be. A lot more kids helped, but often they'd run in and out of the house.. as is typical for 3234 Potter St., no matter who is living there. Two days later, we decorated them with icing and sprinkles of various colors and flavors, which was SO much fun. I think they loved that part even more. A handful of them got to come to the exhibition as well, which had an incredible turnout! We also went up front with them and sang a few songs from camp, including "whose side are you leaning on?", "Undignified", and "Baby shark". Can't say I didn't feel pretty ridiculous dancing around and shouting in front of a bunch of grownups and trying to get them to join in - instead of the normal group of kids on camp mornings. All in all, it was encouraging to see the kids taking part in the art opening, and to see them lead songs while I just stood on the sidelines. Yeah, it was a perfect finale to my time in Philadelphia, but mostly, I think it was great for the kids to be part of something where other people came to see them and their work.

Our decorated cupcakes. We had 5 pans of these! Over 150 cupcakes!

Those of us from Potter St. that were able to come to the exhibition

Our Potter Street Camp mural, a compilation of the kids' drawings from camp.

(Posted on http://steph-africa.blogspot.com/)