Hello everyone

So once again here's what I've been doing this last month. Of course I can't write everything but I try and write down little moments, big moments, journal entries. Basically whatever I feel like. Hope you enjoy. God has been doing some amazing things in me through this last month of transitioning from one home in Korhogo to another home in Bouake. I move in with my new family tomorrow!

Alright here it is.

4/27/11 Went up to Korhogo for a night and was there with Stephanie who needed some medical attention. I went with her and Angelika to the hospital in Ferke. I ended up giving blood again. It was a quick trip up to Korhogo. Seems like I'm doing a lot of traveling lately!! I've been up and down from Korhogo and Bouake twice in the last week! For Easter and now for Steph. I like it though.

4/30-5/1/11 I went and visited Stephanie, one of the Journeyers, in her home over the weekend. I took my backpack and another little sack and biked to her house. It was not easy! I was just pouring sweat by the time I finally got there. Her house is all the way across town it seems. The whole time everyone always stares at you and yells out white person in the local language. That night I just hung out talked and hung out with her family. Bakary the dad slaughtered, gutted and prepared a couple chickens for us to eat the next day. It actually made me lose my appetite for chicken. geez.

The next day Steph and I biked to the panya market and both got new panyas! On the way home we stopped and visited this lady who had a pet monkey!! It jumped all over the place and sat on my arm and head. It then proceeded to groom my head like monkeys do. It was a tiny little thing and SO cute.

5/31/11 I went to church on Sunday with Steph and there was communion this time. I sat scrunched against the wall the whole time because there were SO many people. I had this awesome lady sitting next to me who I had visited before who is a Christian but who's husband is Muslim. She seemed so filled with joy it was pretty amazing. She looked at my bible and saw that I underlined things that I liked with pen. She then just gave me a highlighter! haha The women’s name is Fanta and I definitely want to go visit her at her house sometime in the near future. She’s a really cool women.

Stephanie's family is great. To cute little boys, although very talkative, a mom and a dad. Then two girls 15 and 9 who came from the village help around the house with the chores. It was a sweet weekend with her family. I'm glad I had the time to spend with her there.

5/2/11 I am so impatient to move into a new family! It's taking a little longer then I expected I'm living at Ecole Baptist until the arrangements are made. It just kind of sucks for me right now because I just feel so much more at home now in an Ivorian then at the school in a dorm. I'm keeping myself super busy here because there are tons of projects that need to be done. A lot of cleaning out a lot of rooms and organizing. I think this is a time where God is like "Holly you just need to be patient in me right now. calm down! I've already picked out your new family in Bouake." Looking back at this week though I think I made the most of it. I got to know Bouake a lot better on my bike as well as spend more time with Steph, Devin and Chazz. I visited my new church for a prayer meeting. Visited a lot of ministry opportunities with Angelika. yeah it was good. I even got a new ministry started with chicken raising at an orphanage who needs the income.

5/5/11- 5/12/11 I headed up to Burkina Faso with all the Journey Corps team. I spent one night with my family in Korhogo before all of us took off. It was a great time and ALOT of time in the car. But good because we had good music to rock out to. I went back to Zazinga where we saw the animals. Elephants, Hurdabeast, Bush Buck, porcupines, and a whole slew of other animals. On the way back we split up because some of the team went to pick up a short term team who is coming for three weeks in Ouaga. I left with Steph, Naomi, Devin ,CJ and Angelika. We had a great time doing a little forest hiking and swimming in some rivers on the two day trip back! We met some interesting tour guides who led us around to different places to hang out. It was definitely good times for sure! Yeah….it was a vacation.

5/12/11 I got back to Bouake today! I talked to Bakary there is a family ready to take me! GAH! tomorrow I meet them and visit for a little while. There is a seminar now for a week in which everyone comes for 6 or 7 days to learn and debrief then back to their families. I'll be moving in with my new family after the seminar. I'm SO EXCITED!!

5/16/11 On Friday the short term team arrived for the U.S. We got to go out with them to an evangelism in town with Jambaroo the church. I was paired up with Hiedi and one of the Ivorian church members and we went from house to house just asking people if we could take prayer requests and pray for them. I think it went pretty well. It was kind of cool knowing a little bit of the local language besides French because once you greet someone in their mother tongue they just light up at the fact that a white person knows the greetings in their language.

5/20/11 This last week has been seminars and also getting to know the short term team who has come for three weeks. It's been cool showing them around and also seeing how far we have come in understanding the culture from when we first arrived. It's been good giving the team tips and telling stories of our experiences in our families.

Prayer requests

Tomorrow I finally move in with my new family. Going to need prayer on building more relationships with a new family and a new church.

Pray for Journey Corps program as it looks like a new team of 9 people will be arriving in the fall.

Pray for the Journey Corps leaders.

Pray for me as I seriously pray and consider staying longer then a year. I still have a couple months until a final decision is made. God is good and I and as I'm here for over six months I realize just how short a year is. It's definitely enough time for God to totally change your life and view of him, but I feel like I'm just getting started with really digging into the culture, the language and friends.

Thanks for your prayers. My family in the U.S. are always telling me that people say “hi” to me at church and that people are praying for me. I can’t tell you how much a appreciate that you take time to pray. It gets me through the toughs times for sure when I think about my supporters who are there for me back in the U.S.