Indonesia!

My amazing school has a program called Emmaus Road (a pretty clever title I think: go read Luke 24:13-35 and you will probably agree!). Emmaus Road sends the students to countries all over the wolrd on different types of mission trips--China, Nepal, Uganda, Bolivia, Spain, and Guatemala are just a few that come to mind.


I, completely loving mission trips, applied of course. I applied to Uganda (the students would be working with orphanages), to Guatemala (where the students would be working with victims of human trafficking), and to China (I don't remember what that one was, but it was awesome!) and was super stoked about it.

I had my interview, no big deal, and began to wait in anticipation of some sort of notification via mail. When I finally checked my box (I was kinda afraid of it), I had the letter! It said I was going!!!

...to INDONESIA?!!?!?

Completely and brutally honestly, I was super disappointed. I really wanted to go to Uganda (or the other two, but I REALLY wanted to go to Uganda). I kinda moped around about it for a while and didn't tell anyone.

"Why Indonesia? So random! That's not even a program you could apply for!"

I went to the Emmaus Road meeting and found out some pretty cool stuff that completely changed my poor attitude:

1) Westmont has been trying to partner with a church (I think) in Indonesia for a while and though that they would be able to next summer and got a surprise letter telling them that the church wanted some missionaries this summer. So this team will be the first Westmont team there ever.

2) The only religion legal in Indonesia is Muslim so what we'll be doing is highly illegal.

3) We'll be island hopping so we'll visit people all over the place.

4) We'll be living with native families that are secretly Christian, but cannot mention it.

5) Our translator will be a Christian too, but is not allowed to admit it or mention it.

So basically, we'll be spreading the gospel "without" spreading the gospel.

I am super excited about it. A little nervous, but super excited! It's going to be so great! I'll be gone like a month and will be exhausted when I get home, but I am soooo excited!

I officially turned in all my paperwork today (which is why I haven't posted anything about it yet--I wanted to make sure I was actually going) and am definitely going to Indonesia this summer. It's a done deal.

YAY!!

The plan is this: I'm going to bring my laptop with me and write posts on this blog as often as I can to keep you updated with what's happening with me and my team while in Indonesia.

I'm really excited about this!

Time for a Little Change!

So, after a little thought, I decided to change this blog to not only focus on my Africa mission trips, but on all my mission trips (for example, a little inside scoop for you--shh! Don't tell!--is that I'm going to Indonesia this summer with like five other students from Westmont College)!

This means I'm going to change the entire layout for my blog.

Starting tonight.

In the words of Scar from the Lion King: Be prepared!

It's gunna be great.

More Fundraising Ideas.

Summer vacation? What's that? For me it's more like summer-vacation-from-school-but-I-am-still-working-my-tail-feathers-off-to-save-money-for-my-mission-trip-so-it's-not-really-a-vacation.

Some of the things I am doing this summer are car washes, bake sales, auctions (maybe...still thinking about that one...what do you think?), and house cleaning.

I am so terribly OCD. My friends, you know who you are, give me a hard time for it, but it doesn't help. My books are in alphabetical order and size coded. My shoes are in order of size and color and type. My money in my wallet is president-head facing me and from least to greatest. So, if you want an OCD housekeeper, send me an email!!

Also, I would love to help tutor school subjects (as long as it is not any other language than Spanish and it has nothing to do with any kind of American, British, or Chinese history or any animal dissections)!

Send me an email if you wanna try my secret-recipe chocolate chip cookies or just try simple snickerdoodles.

T-shirts, Bags, and Anything You Can Think Of!!!

I am officially 1/3 of the way to getting myself in country and 1/4 of the way to getting myself in country and giving a donation to Hannah's Hope!

To celebrate this occasion, I have a REALLY cool thing to share with you--A new fundraiser!! Hooray!!

Soo here it is:
I'm selling tshirts, tank tops, bags, purses, hats, sweatshirts, jammies....about anything you can wear....with my Africa design on them! I am also selling hand designed TOMS (I don't have any pictures to show you of the TOMS though, 'cause I need to be payed up front for those). Shirts are my favorite, though.

The shirts (I have a few) are soo comfy that sometimes I'll just wear them to bed! You know you want one....

Here are a few: Pink is always the favorite! ($15.00)

This is the front and this is the back. ($15.00)

All shirts have a design on the front ($15.00).

But if you want, I could do only a design on the back ($15.00).

Or I could do both a front design and a back design ($25.00).

I have about any color imaginable, too. You don't have to stick with the blue, red, yellow, and green if you don't want to.

Soo, sweatpants, sweatshirts, tanks, hats, bags...you name it!!

Like I said, they're super comfy and I love them!

Who wants one!? Send me an email at off.to.ethiopia@gmail.com.

Cuz' really, who doesn't want one? Or ten?

I Hate Asking for Help/Money, but....

This is the donation letter I wrote:


"Hi!!

I am so excited for the end of this year because I have the opportunity to go to Ethiopia!! I would be going with a group of dentists from Texas that we are friends with and a friend of mine who goes to church with me and her family. The only reason I have been using words like “potentially” and “hopefully” when telling people about this amazing chance is because of how much it costs to go. It is so expensive! It’d be cheaper for me to go buy the used car that I want than it would be for me to go to Africa. It is about $3,000 for me to go. Yikes! I am hoping to raise about $4,000 though. With the other $1,000, I will give all of it to the orphanage my sister, Ray Ray, was at, Hannah’s Hope. Hannah’s Hope is located just outside the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. While there, I will be doing things like playing with the children, helping with the patients, helping cook food, and other such services.

The only problem is that I don’t have a spare four grand. (Shocking, right? A high school student that is completely dirt poor? Unheard of, right?) This summer I will be working very hard to earn most, if not all, of that. I'm going to be doing car washes, lemonade stands, and I'm selling handmade t-shirts—contact me if you want one!-, but I would really appreciate you and your family’s help. If you would be willing to donate even a little bit of money, I would be so grateful!

If you are able to help me go serve at various orphanages and clinics, please write a check to me and in the memo section, please write “Donation for Ethiopia”. You can then either give it to me personally or mail it to the address at the top of the page.

If you cannot help financially, would you please pray for two things: for our team to travel safely and that everything we do in Africa would honor God?

Thank you so much for your help!

Love,
Margie"

If you wanna help, you can shoot me an email (off.to.ethiopia@gmail.com) and I'll send you an address that I will eventually receive it from. Thanks!!