Ask and you shall receive.

I'm sitting in the Chicago airport blogging because I ran out of time before I left. I apologize. My house has literally been full of school supplies and Bibles for the last month! God is so good! I had two different people donate a total of 464 Bibles, and between 10-12 schools donate all there school supplies. When I asked the schools for their donations I had no idea what would happen, it was crazy!!! From Grandma and Grandpa Banks picking up 2 huge van loads to Branson Intermediate we had a house full! We sorted school supplies for about a week, so amazed at the supplies that were going to be thrown away and we quickly turned them into enough school supplies for 6 schools/orphanages in Africa. I won't even tell you how quickly I started thinking about what if I could get all the schools in Missouri to donate there school supplies at the end of each year! Mom quickly said let's get thru this trip first :) So when we loaded our truck this morning we had packed a total of 10 totes/suitcases 6 carry on bags equalling around almost 700 pounds of schools supplies and Bibles! I told you God was good! We checked all the totes and leave it to dad we had 2 out of all our totes that were at 50.5 pounds but they let us slide! Once again I am humbled at how God always provides for what pops into this small crazy brain of mine. I will keep you all posted and upload pics as I can! I have 20 days to touch as many lives as possible, so I may be a bit busy! Haha please pray for us as we finish our travels into Nairobi and as I prepare to be God's servant!

 Sorting through some of the school supplies that we collected

 

 

Waiting for our flight

Crazy Cupcakes

So I am totally in fundraising mode! I had seen where another organizaion used cupcakes as a fundraiser, I thought easy enough where do I start? Well one text to my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Vejraska thinking I may be able to put some in the teachers lounge turned into eight class rooms ordering cupcakes which equaled 196 cupcakes!!!! God is good :) Needless to say, they are adorable, and will be deliverd on time tomorrow morning. Thanks to mom and Katie (my Bible study leader) for helping me bake and decorate. A huge thank you to Mrs. V. your the best!!!

Katie and I

Fast Forward 1 Year

Wow! It's almost been one year since my trip to Africa. I came home and quickly got back into the same school, volleyball, school, volleyball schedule. I thought about the kids I had met and left everyday! I knew my work was not done, just had not figured out what God's plan was for me yet. Well let me tell you He has shown me. I have at the age of 15 started my own 501C3 non profit organization called Generation Next! My mission: Supplies For Life! My goal is to provide orphaned or under privileged children with the supplies they will need spiritually and educationally. I came up with the idea to fill a backpack with school supplies and a full size Bible for each child. We are heading back to Africa in June and I am praying that I would be able to provide 500 children with backpacks. Below are a few pictures of my first fundraiser. Chili's let us do a 10% back night for three nights. What a great success. Thanks again to everyone who has supported me and my crazy ideas :) What you wanna help? www.generationnextcares.org

Faithful Friends

Gio, Courtney and Kass

Helping at Chili's Night

The Brown's always supportive!!

Aunt Teenie and her friends!

Safe and Sound

Hello, from Branson, Missouri. Dad and I are home safe and sound. Our trip home started off with some plane trouble in Nairobi, so we ended up staying another night. Which meant we missed every connecting flight home. We flew out Sunday morning and then had to stay another night in London, ok I have to admit that lay over made me smile. We arrived in Springfield around five on Monday. Its Wednesday evening I should be doing all my homework, but still find my mind more in Africa than Missouri. When I left I could not have imagined how life changing of a trip this would be, my highs were as high as one could go and my lows were just as low. I felt every emotion a girl could feel (and thats alot). Everyone asks what the best part was and I can't pick one the whole two weeks were the best of my life. From spending quality time with an awesome dad, beautiful aunt, crazy uncle and sweet cousin to meeting the most amazing, respectful loving people in my life. I think looking back I realize how present God is there. I thank Him for picking a young girl from Branson, to trust with these children. A piece of my heart will always be there. We have around 2000 pictures from our trip as I went through all of them this was my favorite. I think its because it says alot about my trip. The nursery is where I struggled the most with my heart. Aunt Julie was so supportive of me, and helped me to get past the nerves. I loved holding this baby, so many thoughts went thru my mind as I wondered what was in store for her, I can't even let my mind wander for a minute, wondering if she is ok. I guess really if you think about it know matter where she is God is with her. How great is that? I think my life at home will also change a bit for a feel like a different girl on the inside. My last Thank You's are to Aunt Julie and Uncle Logan for taking such great care of dad and I. I LOVE YOU! I titled this blog Safe and Sound, for two reasons.One, dad and I are home safe and sound and second I pray this sweet girl is safe and sound with her family. Thanks Again to everyone who helped me along this journey it was great! With that said, I am already planning my next trip back. We (the whole family) will be leaving the first week in June 2011. We plan on spending our whole time at the Mosop Mission School. I can't wait:)

Saying Goodbye

Nancy with the blanket I made.
Ride to Bomet
Sharon, my friend leading me into the village.
My Tenwek Friends
Well yesterday was our last day :( Logan, dad, and I went to Bomet. Which is only a couple of minutes away from Tenwek. We rode in a matau which is crazy. It is a 5 seat car and they fit about 8-10 people in it. It was a little squished. We went to some stores around there and just looked. Dad got a backpack for $8 and then Logan got a book. Then we went to their grocery store, that and the matau were my favorite part. It was fun to see all the different brands. They also have Obama gum so we got us a pack of that. I got some tea leaves to make chai. Here they have chai around 5 times a day and they drink it boiling hot. Its really good a Nancy taught me how to make it. Later that night we went down to Nancy's neighborhood (with Nancy that way she could translate) I gave the family's a blanket and we gave the kids suckers. They all loved the blankets and were so thankful. After we finished giving out the "7" blankets we had ( we had eight but didn't tell Nancy that, she is about 5 months pregnant ) we went to Nancy's house and talked for a while and surprised her with her blanket. She LOVED it! She is so sweet and I will really miss her. While leaving her house all the kids that I have been playing with the past couple of weeks were outside and we got a ton of pictures with them and they even tried taking pictures with my camera. I will really miss everybody! I can't wait to come back. Everybody here is so nice. I am very sad to be leaving, but I will be happy to be home. I am so glad I came. I have learned a lot about the people in this small village as well as alot about myself. The one thing I know for sure is I am going home a different girl, a humbled girl, with a bigger heart for the Lord. I am so glad the Lord brought this opportunity to me. I am very blessed to have such great friends and family who helped me and supported me through out the the whole process and while I was here. I love you all very much, and thank you! Now I have to go we are leaving for Nairobi thanks again, bye.

Triplets

Yesterday I went back to the nursery. I didn't get sick thank goodness. Julie and I helped a mother who has triplets. We got there early and got to hold them until the mother got there. When she got there we helped feed them. I fed one, Julie fed one, and the mother fed one. The one the mother fed had to be feed through a tube. She would pour the milk down a syringe and then it would go down to a little tube and then in to the baby. All three were preemies and there was one boy and two girls. I fed a girl and Julie fed the little boy. I did much better this time and I didn't get near as much milk on that baby as my other trips. The one thing that they both did was fall asleep while we fed them, but she still found a way to drink it with her eyes closed. They were all adorable of course! My mom would have loved it!

Later that day I took a walk around town by myself and took some pictures with a flat Stanley that one of my Aunt Tammy's students sent to us. It was really nice just to take one last walk, I went down to the waterfall , it was not as near as heavy as the first time we went there, but it also hasn't rained as much. It was still really pretty. I will really miss it here and all the friends I have made and hope to come back next year on break. Today is our last day and we will be handing out the tie blankets some moms and daughters helped make. So will take pictures for you guys to see who got your blanket. Well I better go I will blog tonight to tell you about our last day, bye.

Mosop Orphanage

Sweet Drummer Boy

This is the family we stayed with.

Dads Tire Swing
Playing Hot Wheels

The past couple of days I have been at an orphanage call Mosop. It is a boarding school for missionary kids and orphans. Monday when we got there I got to play with all the little kids (3rd grade and under) while my dad and the girls I was staying with went and had a "talk" with the boys and girls in the upper classes (they were separated). Dad talked about respecting women (something that is not done here in Africa) the older girls talked about purity, and protecting your bodies and that you have the right to say "no". I played red-light green-light with the little kids and they loved it, when I would say it really fast they would just laugh. After the talks they have a church service on Mondays and we got to go to that. It was really neat and in the first picture that is the boy who played the drums during the service. He did a great job and it sounded really cool. Now they have some praise and worship music, I loved it:) After that we went back to the house we were staying and had dinner. For dinner we had the same thing we had at Nancy's but also had potatoes.
On Tuesday we went back to the school and in the morning we all went to the preschoolers class we played at recess with them and then would help them in the class room. The class I helped in was learning how to write their abc's. So we went around and helped them do that. When we were done with that dad and I went and played P.E. with the older kids. I played volleyball and tried to play soccer but I fell a couple of times because my shoes were slick and my dress a bit long, so I ended up just taking my shoes off to play. Then we went back to the house for lunch. After lunch we took the toys we brought and the bracelets me and my friends made, down to the school. I gave the bracelets to the older kids and the toys to the younger kids. They all loved every thing! We played for long time with all the toys and had tons of fun! After awhile I heard someone playing the drums. It was the same boy again, and then more kids started coming and before I knew it they were having a little praise and worship going on. It was so fun, and they were all adorable. It was so neat and they did it without any teachers or anybody telling them to do it. After that we went back to the house and had dinner. We had the same thing for lunch and dinner, but I didn't mind it was all good to me. Later that night the little kids that stay at the house came back and me and one of the older girls I was staying with went and sang songs and danced with the little girls while the little boys stood outside the door and watched and laughed. It was a great day and tons of fun.
Wednesday(the day we left) there was some news that one of the teachers family had been in a crash on their way out to his graduation. His mom, dad, and one of his uncles died, one was in the hospital, but in bad shape. So in the morning all the teachers came to the office and we had a mini church service for him and his family. It was neat to see how caring these people were. They care more about one person than I have ever seen. They give so much more respect to others. After that dad and I went back to the preschoolers class and helped out some more. They also had a swing set frame but no swings. They did have some tires that the little boys would push around, so dad tied on two of those to the swing set and they loved that and played on those forever. Then it was time for lunch and we went back to the house and had lunch and said our good byes and headed back to Tenwek. It was a lot of fun and wished I could have stayed longer I will miss them all very much and will definitely be back next year on spring break