Switzerland

Made it to Switzerland but can't say that I am a fan of flying. I really just don't like and never feel good once I get off the plane and this proved true again today. I have been able to sleep in the airport (Zurich is a very nice airport and I really could not have a better place for this 12 hour layover.) and am starting to feel better. The whole experience of flying again though was very entertaining. First, the little safety review that the flight attendants give was not done in person by them. It was an animated video and really not nearly as fun or memorable. Disappointing. Second, just before we took off all the screens in front of us played a video about Swiss Air and all of the amenities that they offer. Really what this 15 minute video told me was it might be worth the money to fly first class. It is living in the lap of luxury. A seat that turns into a bed, pajamas and slippers from the airline and what appeared to be 5 star dinning and not your typical airplane food. Here's to dreaming that I get bumped up to first class sometime to get the full flying experience. :) And speaking of airplane food, it is true, not very good. I know that I am a picky eater. This was brought to my attention may times as I was getting ready to leave. I opted for the chicken and rice meal over the vegetarian pasta. I figured there would be too many weird vegetables in the pasta and chicken and rice sounded pretty straight forward. But chicken and rice means that chicken is cooked with onions (I do NOT do onions) and the rice is mixed with lentils. I have never had lentils and honestly would not know what they are if it were not for friends with weird bodies that put them on crazy diets. (Way to go, Aubs. I knew what I was eating all because of you.) I also tried tapioca pudding of this flight. Lentils and tapioca pudding, these have been my food adventures so far. I have to believe that it can only get more exciting from here.

Airport adventures. Zurich is a great airport and as already mentioned, I was able to sleep a little bit more here. I must have looked lost when I got into the airport. I waited for everyone else to check where they had to be for connecting flights instead of fighting the crowds because I knew that I had awhile to wait. My flight was not listed because of the long layover so I did not have the gate that I needed to be at yet. I just started walking. I was stopped when I walked past a security check point. The man asked if I needed help. I said that I did not know where I was going and where he recommend that I wait. He told me that he could get me through security and I would have the entire airport to roam around until my gate was listed. I said that would be great and went through security. Here is the thing, I was the only person going through security! Honest truth. Just me and and about 7 security guards at the checkpoint. Nothing was going so they fired it up and I walked through in less than 30 seconds. Thank you friendly security guard. Since then, I have been sleeping, taking a few pictures and using the internet that I paid $5 a day for.

Now a few pictures, hopefully.

I saw this rainbow just after I found a place to sit and pulled out my computer. I quick grabbed my camera to get a few pictures. I took a few and then remembered to turn the flash off. By this time is was gone and this was the best one that I got. Hopefully my picture taking abilities start to improve.

This has been my view for the day. I have loved watching the sky change over the beautiful trees and small little homes.

That about wraps up my first full day of this adventure. Prayers for a smooth flight in a few hours and that my body is able to adjust quickly as I start at Door of Hope less than 4 hours after I land in Johannesburg!

Missing you all at home, 

Em

3 hours

3 hours and the journey officially starts. The are packed and the 'see you April 30th's' have been said. I just received the last email about where and who will be picking me up in Johannesburg and when I start orientation. My flight lands at 10:20am and I will be picked up by another volunteer near the information desk. She is also from the states and that in itself is a very comforting thought. We will head to the volunteer flat where I will be staying and then I will start orientation at the baby house at 2pm. Quick start but I think it will be for the best. I can't wait to start writing about what happens while at the baby house!

As I pack the final things and say the last 'see you April 30', I can't help but wonder what that will be like 6 months from now. 25 weeks. 174 days. Will the good byes be just as hard? Will the emotions be just as strong? There will be a good chance that some of the people I meet I may only see once or twice in person again. But that is 6 months from now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

For those wondering, here is what my travel schedule looks like:
November 5- Monday
7:10pm fly from Chicago to Zurich, Switzerland (8 hour 45 minute flight)
November 6- Tuesday
roughly a 12 hour lay over in Zurich
November 7- Wednesday
fly from Zurich to Johannesburg, South Africa (10 hour 35 minute flight)
I will land in Johannesburg at 10:20am. (5:20am Michigan time. South Africa is 5 hours ahead of Michigan.)
2pm start orientation!

I can not thank you all enough for the prayers and support that you have already given me. Know that I could not do this without all the support and encouragement that I get from you. Please keep it coming via facebook and email as I know there will be times in the upcoming weeks that homesickness will set in. I love you all and will miss you more than words can say.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. 30 And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. 31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.  - Matthew 10:29-31 NIV

Hymn of St. Patrick

Christ be with me and within me
Christ behind me and before
Christ beside me and to win me
Christ to comfort and restore
Christ beneath me and above me
Christ in quiet and danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger

Christ in every heart that's broken
Christ in every joy and pain
Christ in every word that's spoken
Christ in sun and moon and rain
Christ in resting and in rising
Christ the Lord of all my life
Christ to guide me and to shield me
Christ protecting me in strife

Christ be with me and within me

Christ behind me and before

Christ beside me and to win me

Christ to comfort and restore

Christ beneath me and above me

Christ in quiet and danger

Christ in hearts of all that love me

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger

     My prayer everyday but especially today and in the week to come.

5 days...

Well, I suppose that it is about time for an update again. 5 days! That is what the countdown says. It is hard to believe it is that close. The past few weeks I have been busy checking things that need to get done off the list. The suitcases are out and opened up. Last night I started to put things in them. Most of what I will be taking with me is clothes and reminders of home. Almost everything else that I will need I will be able to get once I get to there. This means that I will be trying new shampoos, toothpastes and other things of this nature. For those who know about my need for routine, this could prove to be a bit of a challenge in the beginning but I just keep telling myself that it is all part of the adventure!

As the countdown number gets smaller the amount of emotion that comes with this step of faith get bigger. I have been asked what I am most nervous about. The short answer is relationships and communication. It has just been in the past few years that I have really begun to open myself up to people and truly show who I was to more than just family. The biggest influence for this is by far Geneva. Through my summers of serving at camp I have learned the importance of community and have been blessed to have found a Christ centered community to be part of. The relationships that have developed as a result of this will be life long and are people that I rely on so much. It is scary to think about leaving these behind for 6 months because life will never be the same with these relationships again. I have faith that they will only get better but they will not be the same. The other fear is communication. I will not be connected with a phone to make a quick call or send a text with. I will be relying on internet connection for most of my communication with friends and family at home. I will also have to learn to initiate communication with those at home with my schedule and the time change. While there is the fear of how the communication piece will work, I am so thankful that the internet is so widely used and that this kind of communication will be possible. Now that the nervous have been put out there, I am also very excited for this trip! I have dreamed about doing orphan ministry in Africa for so long and it is now a reality. I am really excited to love on babies and learn about a new culture. I am excited about the possibility of new friendships and having another place in the world that is 'home'.

Please continue to pray this week as I say "see you May" to friends and family finish getting ready. I had to send in one more piece of information for my visa to today so please continue to pray for that process to be completed as soon as possible. Pray for safe and easy travels and for s sense of peace to continue.

P.S. I am looking for suggestions for music and books to have with me. I need a few new songs to put on the ipod. I am going to take a couple of books with me also and as looking for any suggestions that you might have.

The Beginning

All right, this post is going to be long. It will cover the last year or so of my life and what has led me to this point and to Door of Hope. Read what you want and skip what you want.

I have always been a dreamer. For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of my perfect job, what my family will be like one day and the extravagant house we will live in. Some of these dreams I really do believe and hope come true but others will forever be dreams. One of my life long dreams is coming true and in a matter of weeks in fact! I have had a dream to go to Africa and love on the orphans of that continent for as long as I can remember. After much prayer and many years of planning this is going to be my reality. On November 5, 2012 I will be leaving from O’Hare Airport at 7:10PM to head to Zurich Switzerland and finally to Johannesburg South Africa where I will be living for the next 6 months.

While in South Africa I will be volunteering with Door of Hope Children’s Mission. Door of Hope is a ministry that takes in abandoned babies from the ages of 0-2 in Johannesburg when the mother cannot care for the baby. The goal is then to reunite the baby with other family members who are able to care for the baby or to start the adoption process for the baby. The ministry was started by Berea Baptist Church when the pastor noticed that many babies were abandoned by their mothers because she was unable to care for the baby. The church put a baby drop box in one of the side walls so that mothers could drop off the babies anonymously to be cared for instead of abandoning them in the streets. Today the ministry can care for up to 60 babies at a time to be cared for. The baby drop box is still used but the ministry also gets babies from the hospital and the police when they are found. I will be helping to feed, bathe, play with and love on the babies with the other volunteers and staff.

I found Door of Hope through an internet search during my senior year at Hope. I emailed them to see if I would be a good match to volunteer with them. I found through communication that I loved what Door of Hope was doing and really wanted to be a part of the ministry. I started the long application process the end of the school year and beginning of the summer. I was almost finished with the application and was ready to send it in and commit to volunteering for the school year. The great plan was then to come back to the States and start my teaching career. There were some things that came up during the summer and I had a feeling that leaving was not what I was suppose to be doing. I did not have a job to start the year but I also did not feel as Africa was where I was going to be. I continued to pray and decided to start applying for teaching jobs in the Holland area for the year. After a few interviews and being turned down for each job, I was a little nervous for how the year would turn out but knew that I was where I was suppose to be. Then through connections I was offered a long-term substitute teaching position to start the school year off. I was thrilled and excited to start my teaching career! I subbed in the third grade classroom from the beginning of the year until the end of October. I was sure that other long-term positions would turn up and thought that I would spend the year long-term subbing. I was excited about this to meet so many kids and see so many grades. I did not get another position after this one ended so I just started to sub on a day-to-day basis. I started to look for other possibilities. I found a nanny position that was supposed to last for about 2 weeks for a little 7 week old girl. I applied and was offered the job. I loved this job! I have always loved babies and my biggest dream in life is to be a wife and a mom. When the 2 weeks were up the nanny that was supposed to start full time called and notified the parents that she found a different job. I was called and offered to stay on with this family full time. I accepted this job after prayer and was so excited to watch this little girl grow up. It did not take long for me to get very attached to this little girl, K, and her parents. Both her mom and dad work from home for the same company based in Minnesota. I loved the daily conversations that I had with her mom and I loved playing with and caring for K everyday. I was not at all how I dreamed that life would be for the year but it was great. During the entire year I was able to be part of a supportive friend community and continue to build friendships that were centered on Christ. Never once did I think about how I thought at one point that I was supposed to be in Africa. During this time I also accepted a position on summer staff at Camp Geneva for a 5^th consecutive summer. I continued to nanny for K until May and then started looking ahead to my summer. It was during this transition that the longing to go to Africa came back and in full force. After trying to push these thoughts and feelings away, I decided to start the application process again see what happened. The application process took the entire summer because I paired it with working at camp. I was during my last week at camp that I was accepted to volunteer with Door of Hope. I prayed and talked with family and friends about the decision and just after camp ended I accepted and agreed to start in November. I had about 10 weeks then to get updated on immunizations, fill out a visa application, start fundraising, book flights, begin a blog, figure financial things out with the bank, get prescriptions for six months, and the list continues on. But I have not looked back once. I know that this is where God wants me to be from November until April. I have not idea what this adventure will hold but I am excited to find out. I have to continually remind myself that this is happening, that my dream is coming true. So there you have it. That is just the beginning of my journey so far.

The purpose of this blog is so that family and friends at home can be part of this journey with me. I cannot make promises on how often it will be updated, if pictures will accompany every post, that the spelling and grammar are always correct or that the words will make sense and be eloquent. I can promise that it will be honest and it will be a team effort with Christ. I am so excited for this journey and so glad that you have all decided to take it with me.