here is an overview of the 2 months in eastern europe, which were ukraine and macedonia and a little bit of the last month, which is moldova.  it is really hard to pick just a few pictures and stories of what has happened in these months, but here is the best pictures and descriptions!!  please enjoy!!

 also, i want to thank you so much for supporting me thus far on my journey!! it has meant a lot, not only to me, but to all these people who i have come in contact with over this year.  just as a reminder, i still have about $2700 more dollars to raise, until i am fully supported!! thank you so much!!

 september:  we started eastern europe in ukraine.  it was a great month, because we just came out of africa and we got to stay in a house with an american family!  it is what we needed after spending 3 months in africa and the last month in the bush of africa!  it was definitely a blessing from god!  so communication was easier because we had an american contact who also spoke russian, so it was very helpful!  so anyways, in ukraine we did a few different things that were all so much fun!  we did eye clinics, which consisted of going to different villages and setting up a clinic in a church.  our contact gets all the eyeglasses at a local factory for an inexpensive amount and supplies these clinics with them.  there is also a couple of different volunteers that are eye doctors that come with the equipment to check the different patients.  its really great that these people are willing to give up a saturday for other people!  also, at the eye clinics, the people at the churches also talk with the patients about christ.  so its a very neat and organized operation.  when we went, we helped set up the clinic, we played with the kids, and we prayed with the patients.  it was fantastic!  also in ukraine we did corn picking.  we picked corn at a couple of different places.  it was really fun!  we would pick it off the stalk and then we would cut down the stalk and gather them in a huge pile and then burn them.  the corn we picked was for the animals to eat during the harsh winter months.  it was 'left' over pieces that they family didn't pick in the first round, which is for them during the winter months.  it was a lot of fun and really good practice if i need a job when i get to the states!  we also got the opportunity to go into the schools and teach kids.  i love teaching kids so much, so i was super excited that we got the opportunity to do this!  we went for 2 days in a row and taught 9 year olds english.  we did a few different activities, such as english bingo, the song head shoulders knees and toes, alphabet games, and counting.  the kids were so nice and really enjoyed us being there.  we were almost treated like celebrities, because they wanted pictures with us and our autographs!  we also did softball clinics, which turned out to be so much fun!  we would gather at the local parks to start games.  we would of course have to teach them to play, because most people didn't know how to play (including me!!  i never played before until ukraine because im a dancer, not a sports player!!)!!  but i had a blast doing this, because i just went out there and tried my hardest!!  most of the people we taught did really well!!  i was so proud of them (and really of myself too)!!   we also went to the local hospital and went to the kids wing and prayed for them and their families.  this was one of my favorite things to do, because we got to bring some hope, not only to the kids but to their families as well.  and on friday nights, we would invite all the kids and families at the hospital to one big room to watch a movie.  of course the movie was in russian, but it was still fun because it gave the patients a chance to forget they were sick.  we usually had a really great turn out!  and because of your support we were able to bless the family we were staying with to continue to do his work in moldova and of course the churches we visited while we were there!

 october:  we got to chose where we wanted to go for this month.  my team decided to go to macedonia.  we worked with another american contact who has been in macedonia for about a year and a half.  he is actually from arkansas and lives only 30 minutes from me!  so crazy right?!  so this month we had to find our own contact and do that work of our contact.  so we were so lucky to have this contact because he is doing some amazing work in macedonia!  our ministry in macedonia looked like this:  we would go to the university to talk with different people and have coffee with them.  it was so much fun!!  we met some really great people.  we became friends with the people who work and hang out at the small coffee shop on campus.  they were so much fun!  we went to visit them everyday and talk with them.  one of them invited us over to his house to meet his family.  i just love how open and hospitable they are in other cultures.  his house was amazing and his family was so nice.  they gave us snacks, drinks and dinner!  we even watched a movie with them.  it was a great opportunity to show them we really care about him and his family and to build our relationship stronger.  i also met some girls on campus, who were first year students in english, so they spoke very well.  (actually most people we met, spoke very good english)  we met with them a couple of times and took them out of coffee to a different location a couple of times.  it was great!  of course we will keep up with all of them via facebook!  we also cleaned up a local park one day, because it was super trashed.  we filled up 10 huge, and i mean really big, trash bags!  it was great because so many people saw us doing this and so hopefully they will get the idea not to litter anymore.  oh yeah, and also at the university we also met a professor of english.  he obviously  spoke english very well and was super nice.  we met up with him a couple of times for coffee and we just chatted for hours.  he wanted us to come talk to his class and we were super excited to do it, but the day we went all the electrify was out of the whole city! so all classes were cancelled!  but i will have to say that for our contact we opened huge doors for him at the university.  he is actually going to go back to the university and speak to that class!  how cool is that?!  i believe my team and i really opened up a lot of doors for our contact in that city!  and because of your support we were able to bless our contact so that he can stay in macedonia and work in this city to bring christ to them!

 november:  our last month we get to spend it in moldova (which im in right now as im writing this!)!  we are in a small village working with a church.  so last week the guys worked on constructing a beaver house for beavers.  apparently beavers are really expensive here and so to raise them, breed them and then sell them brings in a lot of money.  so by working on this project we are helping the community bring in extra income, which they need as this is a very poverty stricken area.  so thats really cool to be part of!  so during the mornings the girls get to choose from three different ministry areas.  option number one is to stay behind at the church and pray.  prayer is something that they need a lot of, because they are the only church in this area.  option number two is to do door-to-door visits.  which this look very different then in africa.  we take food to different houses and talk with them for a bit and then usually pray over them.  we are lucky to have a couple of people with us that speak english so they can loosely translate for us.  option number three is to do farming.  which for the past week was farming carrots.  we had to pull them out of the ground, then clean them, and then shred them.  they then put them in jars, so they can use them during the harsh winter months.  it was very hard work but well worth it, because it was helping them get ready for winter.  after lunch we get to do the activity with the kids.  this part is so much fun!  we do a bible story and songs with them and then they do a couple of games.  some of these kids are the ones that live in the shelter that is part of the church.  they have about 8 kids (both boys and girls) who live in this shelter.  they are here either because they were abandoned or their parents died.  its great that they have some place to live and eat that is safe.  there are also other kids who come from the village to participate in our afternoon activity.  it is so much fun!  we also do prayer before breakfast, after lunch and at night for an hour.  i believe that this week will look like last week! and because of your support i am able to be part of this ministry for my last month and also we get to bless our contact and his church, which he can use to grow his church and his shelter!

me picking corn

me with some of the kids at the kids program

 so this is my final installment of my journey!!  i thank you for supporting me and letting me enjoy all these wonderful stories and so many more that i have no room to type!!  just a quick reminder, i still need $2700 more dollars before i am fully supported!!  thanks!!

here is an overview of the three months we spent in africa. we visited three different countries, which were: kenya, tanzania, and uganda. it is really hard to pick just a few pictures and stories of what has happened in these months, but here is the best pictures and descriptions of the three months!! please enjoy!! also, i want to thank you so much for supporting me thus far on my journey!! it has meant a lot, not only to me, but to all these people who i have come in contact with over this year. just as a reminder, i still have about $2700 more dollars to raise, until i am fully supported!! thank you so much!!

june: we started africa in kenya. we were located in a small village that was about 8 hours outside of nairobi. we did so much in such a small village. it was amazing! first i want to say that most people knew english, which was a surprise to me, but at the same time a blessing! we went to various schools where we taught the students. we would do some songs and bible lesson. we usually did our most famous skit, which is the good samaritan! so much fun! we also did home visits. that usually looked like this: we would go to various neighborhoods and most people would invite us in to talk with them. we would ask them about their life and we would tell them about our trip. then we would share the gospel with them. it was amazing how open the people would be to hear the good news and how many people wanted to accept that! so cool! we would also give them bibles and invite them to the church that we worked with. we also went to the hospital and visited with the patients in the mornings. it wasn't like a hospital in the states, oh no. this was, see how many people we could fit in one huge room and how many babies can we fit in one bed. it was very different from anything i have ever seen. so hard. we would go in to the hospital and pray and encourage the people that were sick. i remember the first time i ever prayed for someone, he was a prisoner who killed his brother a few month earlier. i just remember thinking to myself, how much he needs help and needs to know that god still loves him and that he needs to hear about jesus. i remember praying for him to be open in his mind and heart to hear god, and each time we went back someone would go pray for him. i hope the people we went with continue to show him love and support. and of course we also preached at different churches in surrounding villages. this was the first time i actually official preached! it was nerve-racking, but not actually that bad! it really helped me practice for what was to come the next month. one of the last days we got to work with some street kids. they range in age from 5 years old to 18 years old. what we did was we fed them bread, milk and cookies. i have never seen so many kids so hungry. we also did a bible lesson with them and prayed for them. they were just hungry for more than food. they were hungry for an answer of how to get out of the streets. that was probably one of my teams favorite times. it gave me such a perspective on what really happens in not just kenya but africa. there is so much more to tell you, but i would end up writing a 100 pages!! but i will say, because of your support we were able to give out bibles, feed lots of kids, get medicine for a few sick people and bless the church and everyone we worked with!

july: the next stop in africa was tanzania. this was my favorite month in africa. we were in the most beautiful place called morogoro. my cousin actually had been here on a mission trip a few years ago! we worked with a small church and basically lived in the neighborhood that the church worked with. which worked out so well, because we got a chance to really build relationships with the people. so during the morning we would do home visits. it looked very similar to kenya, in that the people were very friendly and welcomed us into their homes with open arms. again, we would ask them about their lives and tell them what we were doing. we would then share the gospel with them and most of the time the people would be more than open to it. and many people did accept it! praise god! during these home visits, most of the people were already christian, so we would encourage them to continue in their walk and to go to church. we also handed out bibles to these people. during the evenings, we would go to the church a do different ministry. each night was something different at the church. like mondays were youth, tuesdays were women, wednesday was all church members, thursdays were choir, and fridays were all church. so we took turns preaching to these different groups. i usually did the womens group on tuesday and took this time to tell about my past and then give them encouragement about the future. i also did youth one time with my teammate jake. we did a skit that involved giving my heart to him and he would crush it. but by the end of the skit, i learned to give my heart to god and that i didn't need jake anymore. it was really a great skit! again i related the skit to my past and then gave them encouragement about the future. it was a great time! there are so many more stories to tell but again like kenya i would end up writing 100 pages!!! but with your support we were able to hand out bibles, hand out food to different families, bless two different orphanages and of course bless the church and everyone we worked with!

august: our last stop in africa was uganda. i want to be honest with you, since you are my supporters. uganda was my least favorite month in africa and probably my least favorite on the race. we lived out in the bush, as you would say, and we moved villages every 2-3 days. it was extremely rough on our whole team. we never really had a chance to rest, because we were always moving. i was also extremely sick during all of uganda. i believe we did 20 days of ministry and i did about 8 actual days of ministry, because i was sick or we had days off. it was not good times. i had malaria twice and ulcers, which really caused me a lot of pain. so i missed out on seeing most of my team, because i was in a smaller city and they were out in the bush. but one thing that was amazing being in the small city, is that we met an american missionary, who helped us out so much! she has been in uganda for about 2 years and worked with a local church, to do medical ministry to the local village. so i call her the saver of uganda, because i was fortunate enough to stay with her both times, instead of having to stay in a hospital. she even cooked american food for me! god is blessing her in so many different ways! so when i was doing ministry this is what we did. in the mornings we would do door-to-door evangelism. which consisted of gathering people from different neighborhoods to tell them about jesus. most of the time we would just stand or sit under a tree and basically preach to them. we had to have 2 different translators, because each village we visited had a different dialect. so it was hard to make sure our words were really transferring to the people as we said them. but at the same time i am thankful, we even had translators! and then in the evenings, we would do crusades. what these look like, is that everyone in the village comes out to hear us preach. one of us would preach for about an hour or so and then our contacts that came with us, preached the rest of the time. we would first worship for about 2-3 hours, then we would hear the preachers, and then we would pray for all the people. people would come forward who needed prayer for various things or if they wanted to accept christ. some nights they would get over around 10 or 11, but a couple of nights we did all night crusades, which lasted until about 2 or 3 in the morning! i missed those, because i was sick, of course. and that is what we did everyday for the entire length of uganda. and because of your support we were able to bless all the different churches we visited in the different villages, we were able to bless our contacts that worked so hard with us and of course the american missionary who took care of me and my team!

me with street kids in kenya

me walking with kids in uganda

with a family in tanzania

me with a kid in tanzania

so this is just africa! stick around for the last part of my journey because i talk about eastern europe!! and of course just a reminder that i need just $2700 more dollars before i am fully supported!!! thanks!!