Three more days.... but who's counting?!

Salutations! Welcome family and friends to our little website so we can keep you guys updated on our journey to Nairobi, Kenya! We'll keep you informed by posting journal entries and pictures throughout our stay! Thanks again for being so supportive of us in this trip!

How do I start these things? I guess I could start with how I feel three days prior to us leaving. A blend of emotions really - Excitement... Nervous.... Joyful..... Anxious..... and as I type these mixed feelings I noticed a poster that hangs to the left of my office desk. It's a picture Steve Watson took of an Acacias tree -a common tree found in Africa. If you've ever seen the movie, "The Lion King" theirs an acacias tree where Simba hangs out right before the stampede takes place and his father comes to rescue him.

The photo is beautiful... the sun's rays seep down through the clouds with the acacias tree right smack in the middle of the picture. As a promotion when we went through the series World Missions at the church, we enlarged this photo to a movie size poster and printed the statement, "Be less for Christ." Three words were posted below the tree in a smaller font reading:

Tireless. Fearless. Relentless.

It gave me chills. I've seen this poster a gazillion times and for the first time it gave me meaning. I'm about to travel to a world that is displayed on the news as one of the most poverty stricken countries in the world. Suffering is an understatement - AIDS, psychological scars from the wars, malnutrition, neglected children, pot-belly kids because of parasites, and the list goes on....

When I proposed the idea of spending the summer in Africa, I was asked this question:

Do you really think you can make a difference?

My answer was this....

YYYYAASSSSSHHHHHHH!!! (side note -for those of you that don't watch The Office, you're missing out on this term that is equivalent to "yes" in Michael's language).

We've all heard the story about the little boy walking down the beach throwing starfish back into the ocean. One by one he tosses them and a man comes up and says to him, "There must be thousands of starfish on this beach, it would be impossible for you to save them all, you can't possibly make a difference." The boy smiled as he picked up another starfish and tossed it back into the ocean. "I made a difference to that one," he replied.

With every smile, hug, new found friend, clothing handed to a child in need, medicine distributed from our medical team, and every utterance spoken of the name Jesus Christ, we have done one small thing to advance His kingdom. We will make a difference.

We will be...

Tireless.
Fearless.
Relentless.

Till next week -
Chrissy Johnston