A couple of calendar changes...

Change #1: We are changing our team dinner on January 30 to team LUNCH on Sunday, Janurary 31st. We are headed to an authentic Kenyan restuarant called The Kenyan (yep...that's the name). We will meet at the Refinery at 12 noon on Sunday and carpool to the restuarant. We will return tot he Refinery at 3pm. Please do everything you can to make it! Bring $10 to cover your lunch.

Change #2: Our next team meeting is February 7...which also happens to be Super Bowl Sunday. We are changing the time so that you sports fanatics can get to your parties on time. We are going to do our meeting in the Refinery classrooms from 10:30-1pm. This is an important meeting because we are going to plan camp and pass out the packing list. Please make every effort to be there.

Immunizations

If you have not yet made appointments to get your trip immunizations, please be sure to do that in the next 2 weeks. You want to give your body time to adjust to any shots you receieve. Make sure the physician updates your yellow immuniation card.

Also, if you are going to take Malaria medication, I reccommend Malarone. It seems to be the Malaria pill that people have had the least trouble with side effects.

Happy New Year and Back to School!

Hey team! I can't believe it is already January!! And our trip to Kenya is so close and it is so monumental that in my own life I've started marking my calendar by it! For example, I find myself saying "after Kenya I'll go home to Alabama again" or "that needs to happen at least by Kenya." I can't believe it is almost here!

I want to share with you why this trip is so important to me! A few years ago, I was volunteering at my church back in Alabama and I went to a conference/summer camp with some students. I was studying broadcasting and media in college so all of the fancy videos and camera setup that they had there really excited me. One night they showed some videos about some mission trips. I had been on a few local trips at the time but none outside of the US. These videos were so inspiring and really showed me a way that I could tie my learnings in school to a passion that I had for people. But even more than that, as I watched the people in other countries worshipping God, it brought the idea to my mind that in Heaven we are going to worship God with people from every nation and all walks of life! And then I felt God asking me, "Why are you going to wait until you get to Heaven?" I didn't have a good answer! That day God planted a new desire in my heart to visit the nations of the world and worship him alongside them. I do want to travel the world but really I just want to see God's people and see his creation!

Since that day, I have visited Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Both countries were incredible and the love for God that the people had really impacted my life. Kenya is now the next step. I know it is going to change my life all over again! I also know it is going to do the same for each one of you!

Becka Holley

It's fast approaching!

Now that Christmas is behind us and we've begun 2010 the trip to Kenya doesn't seem like something way off into the future! This is actually happening!

I am so excited to be travelling back to Africa, I spent some time working in a township in South Africa in 2002. The thing that struck me while I was there was that the people that we met and cared for were so full of love and life for each other. They faced difficulties that we can't even imagine and had a more positive attitude towards God and faith than most people I know.

I can't wait to learn from these people again. I'm looking forward to see the impact their faith and their attitude towards life has upon our team. I'm excited to see how our experience changes our view of God and His world and how that will impact us when we return. I'm looking forward to ministering to the people we meet and make a difference there but I can't wait to see what a difference God makes in us.

Are you ready?

Phil