the ending of one adventure begets the start of another

This week marks the last week. The last week of the lease at my college house, Cherokee.

Cherokee has been such the place. It's provided many memories, laughter, late night studying, and conversations. I am so thankful for the time that I have been able to live here. The past 2 years I have lived with 8 different girls, yet only 5 of us lived there at a time. Each semester I had the opportunity to share my room with a different girl. I learned how to share one shower with 4 others and what time of the day was best to hang in the hammock. I lived in a room with no closet, but with a slanted door and ceiling, and I participated in the Cherokee tradition of Wednesday night dinner and Friday morning breakfast.

Cherokee's got character. It's not much to look at, but it feels a lot bigger once you get inside.

The original Cherokee girls, fall semester 2011. 

(Julia, Amy, Emily, me, and Tessa) 

With the chapter of college and College Park living coming to a close, I am so excited to start this new chapter of GAiN and Texas living. Just another month and 26% of support to go until the new adventure starts!

The first adventure: support raising

My job at GAiN is funded by support. GAiN is a non-profit & a ministry and doesn't have any central funds to fund employees. My task this summer has been to build a team of financial partners who will support me monetarily as I work next year. I have been contacting people to meet up with them, telling them what I will be doing, and asking them to come on this adventure and partner with me next year.

If you asked me before if I would ever take a job that required raising support, I would have laughed. No way. I am too independent and I don't want to depend on people. But God had a different idea. Since going through this journey my attitude has changed. I have seen so many blessings come out of support raising.

1. It gives others the chance to be a part of what GAiN is doing. Not everyone can or wants to go and travel to different developing countries to bring humanitarian aid, and not everyone has the curriculum development skills set that I do in order to further GAiN's health programs. But many people still want to be a part and support the work we are doing, and this is a way that they can do so.

2. It has reminded me that we are not supposed to live independent of one another. While I would like to keep my life on the private side, I've realized that life is not meant to be lived in isolation; it's meant to be shared. Life is sacred and sharing how you are impacting others, what God is doing in your life, and your perspective on it all is so important.

3. It makes me so passionate about my work. In support raising, you meet up with many people to ask them to partner with you. During this time I get a chance to talk about what I will be doing and the specifics of my work. It is a time that I get to remind myself what I am doing and why I am doing it.

This summer is the season of support raising. And just like that it will be over and I will be in Texas. For now I am trying to live in the moment and cherish this part of life that I am in. To date, I am 62% supported and it has been incredible to watch God pull in support from all over! 

Pennsylvania Distribution Center (PDC)

GAiN has two locations in the U.S - an office in Dallas, TX and a Distribution Center in Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania. I will be working out of the Dallas office, but got a chance last week to visit the distribution center. All of the aid is processed through the distribution center and is then shipped over seas to different regions and partners. Twice a year the distribution center has a week long packing event where volunteers come and pack up the aid that is to be distributed throughout the next few months.

Last week was one of these weeks and I went to help out for a day to see more of what GAiN does out of their distribution center. They have many types of aid that they pack up in the PDC: blankets, seed packs, food (rice and beans), medical supplies, shoes, clothing, and even teddy bears and gospel bracelets that get distributed with the aid. 

I had the opportunity to work in the food area and help package and pack beans to be shipped out to different regions. They have a whole process assembly line in order to get the beans packed! First, you place a plastic bag underneath the funnel and then measure one scoop of beans and pour it into the funnel. 

The bag then gets placed on the sealer. But before the bag is sealed, it needs to be completely free of air  so you are left with a bag full of beans and nothing else! After all the air is smoothed out, the bag gets sealed with heat. 

This is my friend Makayla helping me seal the bags. She came up from NC with her church to help out at the PCD for the week. This was her first missions trip and she was so excited to be able to help pack food for people.

Seeing the tally board and realizing how one bag provides 6 meals really made an impact on me. It made me realize just how much we have in the U.S. Why do we in America think that we need so many options and so much food?

The bean packing session that I was a part of sealed and packed 246 boxes, which adds up to 35,424 meals.  

Throughout my time at the PDC, I realized just how much my heart is bent towards helping those without basic needs. My heart is for those nations who don't have those basic needs met in the form of food, clothes, water, etc. Being at the PDC really grew my heart more for what is to come next year!

embarking in an adventure

For the next year I will be going on an adventure with Global Aid Network. GAiN is the humanitarian aid arm of Cru, which is the christian organization I have been involved with during my college years.

I will be working on further developing health curriculum for their international health programs. For all the aid they give out, GAiN pairs it with an educational component, which provides an opportunity to build relationships in the community and to tangibly share the love of Christ with families in the villages. It also helps to empower the people in the villages to take ownership of what we give them. 

I am so excited to start working with GAiN to develop curriculum for their Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WaSH) program. I made this blog in order to document my journey, the adventures I have, and write down some stories of my year. The first adventure is the task of support raising this summer. It has been neat to watch God provide and I am excited to see what he does the rest of the summer and year! Come along with me for the ride!