Blogs in Kenya

I leave the states tomorrow to go to Kenya!

I am so excited it's crazy.  I will soon be reunited with my beloved Africa.

I told you all I would continue to blog while I'm out on the mission field, and I will.  But I'm gonna try to keep this as simple as possible.

AIM, the organization I work with, gives us a site to blog off of.  This is where I'll be posting the next couple months.

http://kenya.adventures.org/

Click that link, then my name, and you will see a list of blogs I have posted from that website.

Thanks for keeping up, and I look forward to seeing your comments :)

I Hate Packing

A pile of clothes, shoes, shampoo, and deodorant has exploded itself all over my bedroom, waiting to be nicely reorganized and shoved back into a 70 liter pack.

The shampoo stares at me with destructive eyes.

The bottle threatens to explode soapy bubbles onto my newly laundered clothes.

I shake a heavy-duty, gallon-sized Ziploc bag at the shampoo, but it stares back, eyes cold with malice.

The deodorant feigns unpracticed protection.

I ask, "will you guard my underarms from stench, dear friend?"

"I've never been to Africa before.  I don't know if I can withstand such heat," some fluttering eyelashes and fabricated naivety accompany this reply.  It desires more from our relationship, perhaps more recognition for it's mediocre work.

I flash the deodorant a mean glare, but it seems not to notice.

My shoes threaten to be clunky and awkward, too big to fit in my pack.

My shoes do not like going to Africa.  They have tried to escape from my sight numerous times.

They, like the deodorant, feel under-appreciated, I am sure.

The only allies I have are my skirts.

The unlikeliest of all friends, they willingly fold, twist, and maneuver into the cramped spaces of my pack.  Perhaps they are so willing to work with my limited vacancy because of their utter excitement.  My skirts will see the sun each and every day in Africa.  They will be worn for the first time in months.  I imagine they feel like puppies waiting to be adopted and loved.

I guess now it is time to conquer this battle zone rather than personify inanimate objects.

On to packing...

Goodbye Minnesota

Well, friends, I am excited to say I am leaving Minnesota for the summer TOMORROW!

Yep, these are my last few hours in the state I call home.

In less than 24 hours I will arrive in Atlanta, Georgia to start my wonderful summer adventures.

My summer schedule is confusing, and you are probably already scratching your head because you thought I was going to Kenya.  Fret not!  I am still going to Africa, just not tomorrow.

This is what my summer schedule looks like:

Georgia

North Carolina

Georgia

Kenya (June 5- July 28 (don't bother trying to reach me by phone these months))

Georgia

and alas, on August 18 I fly back into Minnesota just in time for the state fair and the new school year to begin.

If you still want to support me in this Kenyan mission trip I am going on, it's not too late!  I need about $400 more in order for this trip to be paid!  You can still support me with a tax deductible gift by clicking here, putting "Kiersten Smith" into the participant name box and following the directions from there.  Or you can send a check made out to "Adventures in Missions" in the mail with "Kiersten Smith- Passport" in the memo line to this address:

Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470 

And don't worry, I'll keep updating my blog while I'm overseas, so keep checkin' back!

Round Two: More Information

If you know me or follow my blog, you've probably caught on that I'm leading a mission trip this summer for college-aged pupils (ages 18-22).  If you've been keeping up, you also know that I did not know where I would be going this summer.  Well, guess what.

I found out where I am going this summer.

Do you want to know?

Okay, I'll tell you.

I am going to....

KENYA!

Wanna know some things about Kenya?

This is a map of Kenya.  It's in Africa on the East coast on the Indian Ocean.

Kenya is bordered by Uganda (where I went on a mission trip fall 2011), Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

This is what their flag looks like:

Bantu Swahili and English are the two official languages of Kenya.

Kenya gained full independence on December 12, 1963.

Nairobi is the capitol of Kenya.

During the trip I will be walking alongside the participants on my team, encouraging them on the way, and also doing logistical things like making sure the team is where they need to be, keeping a budget, etc.  The ministries offered to us in Kenya can be anything like hospital ministry (including but not excluded to praying, assisting nurses, volunteering in the kitchen), hanging out and befriending the locals, or volunteering in children's homes.

The trip will cost me $1500.  If you are interested in supporting me in these ministries over the summer, you can email me at kiersten.smith@hotmail.com

or

click here, enter "The Passport" in the program box, and enter "Kiersten Smith" in the participant box

or

mail a check with "Kiersten Smith- The Passport" in the memo line to this address:

Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470 

Keep reading my blog to stay updated on what I'll be doing this summer and what's going on in my life right now!

The Box

 Consider the box.

Think about it's edges, limitations, corners.

Boxes are dreadful things.

Whether it be physical or metaphorical, they are difficult to work with.

Lift with your legs, not your back!  How many times has a heavy cardboard moving box pulled a muscle?

So many times we are told to "think outside the box," meaning break out of traditional thinking, straining our brains and causing endless hours of stress trying to be original.

See?

Pesky.

Difficult.

Dreadful.

If boxes have edges, corners, and limitations, then God certainly does not fit inside a box.  I have been telling myself and others not to put God in a box for a while now.  It is one of my favorite things to tell people, because God has no limits.  There is nothing God can't do.  How could our omniscient, omnipotent God fit into a box?

I have been trying so hard to not put limits on God.  I have tried to keep all the doors, windows, and pathways in my life open to how God moves by not planning anything anymore.  I had decided that making plans causes me to get stuck in a single tunnel-like mindset.  So I decided to stop planning.  No planning = no limiting God.  Fool proof.

"But what if God wants you to plan," a dear friend asked me.

Crap.

You mean God might want me to plan?  You mean by trying not to limit God I have limited Him?  You mean that because our God is omnipotent He can make plans happen if He tells me to make them?
Crap.I guess I put God so far outside the box that I accidentally captured Him inside another.

PS I am leading a mission trip this summer with Adventures in Missions.  It costs me $1500 for two months out of the country (I will know which country I am going to soon).  If you are interested in supporting me, you can email me at kiersten.smith@hotmail.com or go here.  Be sure to select "The Passport" and to put "Kiersten Smith" in the participant name box.

Stop Being Lazy

Stop being lazy.

God shook me awake to the reality of how I have been treating my time since being back from Uganda.

I have been viewing this semester at school as a transition time.

I have been looking forward to the future so much that I have been absent in the present.

I have been asking God to show up, wondering where He was.

This entire time He was asking me to move.  To do something.  Anything.  To give Him an opening to show up and do wonderful things.

I've gotten bored because my days blend together and I perform the same monotonous tasks each week.

I have asked for adventure, but haven't even looked out the window to find it.

I have wanted God to do all the work.

You can lead Kiersten to water, but until she decides to stop looking past the horizon, she becomes stuck in the same spot.

In my looking forward to the future I have been lazy in the present.

But now, after God shook me a bit, I have resolved to stop being lazy.  I will work to put myself far enough out of my comfort zone that I lose myself and act solely as God asks me to.  I will stop thinking that this time at home is for me to wait on God to do something.  I will create windows in my conversations for the Lord to come through, giving Him the opportunities He needs.

PS I am leading a mission trip this summer with Adventures in Missions.  It costs me $1500 for two months out of the country (I will know which country I am going to soon).  If you are interested in supporting me, you can email me at kiersten.smith@hotmail.com or go here.  Be sure to select "The Passport" and to put "Kiersten Smith" in the participant name box.

Curious Coincidence

First of all, happy Easter weekend!  It is finished!  In my opinion, this is a wonderfully appropriate song to celebrate and praise God with.  It's another one of my favorites.  You can listen to it while you read my blog.  :)

As many of you know, I am currently enrolled as a student at a local community college.  Because of my full time status I spend entirely too many hours in class.  Luckily, to avoid a terribly monotonous semester, God has placed next to me a woman with whom I am all too similar.  We are both hilariously funny (I'll prove it to you; ask me to tell you a joke), we both drive Avalons, and we are both crazily in love with Jesus.

But that is not where the similarities end.

One Wednesday, weeks ago, we both were having a rough day.  No, that's an understatement; We were having a painfully awful week, our faith being tested.  While we were both struggling, neither had any idea the other was also having a tough week.  One night toward the end of that miserable string of days, while communicating about an upcoming class project, we started talking about life.

We inquired about each other's majors, plans, aspirations, etc.
This conversation we had was 100% planned by God.
Absolutely on purpose.

Without meaning to, and without careful consideration of the words we were saying, we were able to speak truth into each others' lives about the difficulties we face, and to have faith in God through it all.  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  It was a big hug from God, only in person form and word form, and not to my physical self, but to my heart.

It astonishes me that God would take such a coincidence- a woman sitting next to me in class who is also having a bad day- and use it to comfort my soul.

But then again, I don't really believe in coincidence...



PS I am leading a college-aged mission trip with Adventures in Missions this summer.  The trip costs $1500 and lasts two months.  If you are interested in supporting me, you can either do it here (make sure to select "Passport" and put Kiersten Smith in the name box), mail a check to 
Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470 
With my name in the memo line
Or email me at kiersten.smith@hotmail.com to find out more info.