Okay so we were getting ready to depart from Kenya but not before a lovely vacation that started on an African safari in the Maasaimara and an end with a quick dip in the Indian Ocean in Mombasa.

    We packed our bags on April 12th and in the morning of the 13th we left S.E.E.K never to return again but pumped for the start of a great vacation. Jared came with us and that just made all of our days to have our favorite suclolo traveling with us on this adventure. After all the 11 of us on a vacation in Kenya has ADVENTURE written ALL over it. Not to mention we work with the organization ADVENTURES in Missions. Our entire 8 month trip has been destined for adventure and our vacation was no exception. Our first travel was to Homa-Bay, with the 6 girl team in one little white car and the other 4 girl plus 1 guy team plus Jared in another small car we set off.

(Oh and side note if you can remember to be praying for Kyle and his poor sanity I am sure it would be much appreciated. One guy 10 girls, day in and day out can't be easy. But he is a trooper and being an amazing brother to us all....Thanks Kyle). Anyway we get to Homa-Bay transfer in another matatu (a van/bus thing)...oh and we get into this matatu and it is playing "Beyonce, All the Single Ladies" which seems to be our current team anthem. I knew at this moment in time we were in the right place and this had the potential to be an amazing trip. 

      We travel for a good 3 hours to Kisi, got in yet another Matatu, traveled for a good 4 hours to Naruk, then transfered into another bus on a trip that was intended to take us 2 1/2 hours which in Africa time really means 5 hours. It was okay though because on our way to the Maasaimara we passed zebra's, giraffes, guzzle and what we think might have been a lion chasing down a guzzle. It was a nice ride until the sun went down and then mzungu's (white people) just start to freak. But we kept our cool and a rough 5 hours later we found ourselves at a pleasant sketch hotel in the middle of the Maasaimara in Africa. This is like no other "middle of nowhere" that I have ever experienced before. But we quickly ate some tea and mdaza and went to bed. We awoke the next morning at 5 to get ready and set out on our African safari. The day was amazing, it was one of those days filled with the constant thought of "is this really my life". I am 19 years old and traveling in Africa on a safari looking at lions, giraffes, zebras, elephants, cheetah's, hippo's, monkeys, crocodiles, wart hogs, hyenas, baboons, hare, ostriches, dic-dic, guzzle, water buffalo, jackals, and wide open fields of African beauty. The day was magical to say the very least, I spent the day with my girls on my team and racing around with the other team in a Land Rover right behind us.Thank you all my supporters who made this day possible.

 After spending a good 12 hours out looking for wild animals (all of God's beautiful creation I may add...if you don't think God is real go on an African safari and tell me how else you think all this came to be). We went back to our pleasantly sketch motel to shower, eat and rest for the days to come were still long and we had to be up and on a bus at 3 a.m. to travel back to Narok continue our vacation travel to Nairobi, Kenya (this was going to be our little taste of America). Nairobi is the capital of Kenya and very westernized. We stayed in hostile there and just went out exploring the city. We spent every meal except 1 at this coffee shop called "Java House" so cute, so quant, and it had amazing food. I had a bagel, coffee, carrot cake, raspberry milkshake, chicken salad sandwich, cheese burger, french fries (called chips in Africa), pineapple milkshake (okay so ice cream is what I miss the most). This place was just a little taste of heaven and the foods my team and I can't wait to return home to. I will say we have been talking about food sense our first weeks in Mexico, everyday we talk of the foods we miss and add scrutinizing pain to our souls because we slowly realize for now the foods are total out of our reach. Nothing frustrates you more than to awake one morning with a longing for a massive bowl of cereal with cold milk and realizing that's just not going to happen for you...but I digress and toast with g-nuts and tea is just as fine...(mom our home needs to have cereal and milk when I return PLEASE & THANK YOU).

 Okay so we spent just 2 days traveling around Nairobi seeing the city, going to the city market for some souvenir shopping, eating some foods we have been missing and all in all just resting and making memories with each other. On our second day in Nairobi we got on an over night bus at 9 p.m. that would take us over night all the way to Mombasa, our last stop before this African vacation/adventure would end. Approaching our destination sometime around 9 in the morning we walked into our apartment/ hotel rooms that was ours for the next day in a half. Wasting no time we had breakfast, got on our swim suits, t-shirts and shorts (cause after all we still are choosing Nova's Kelly and Jimmy). We set off for the beach, the Indian Ocean...oh its' beauty, oh it's relaxing captivating beauty. My team got quick to work on our sun bathing, wasting no time we laid out our khanga's and got to sun bathing. My goals of the day..... 1)Step foot in Indian Ocean-check; 2)Soak up as much son as possible-check. Laying on the beach at one moment I opened my eye's just to look around and take in the things around me. Only I wake to see a camel right infront of me, T.I.A. Only in Africa would you lay out on the beach and open your eyes to see a camel before you.

The day ended with a wonderful dinner out...(Thank you Patty and Barry Becker). Jessica's parents put money into her account so we could all have a nice meal out. It was so sweet of them and much appreciated by 11 missionary college students eating on 2 dollars a day. The next day we woke and spent the day doing whatever we wanted. Some people wanted to sleep a.k.a ME, others went back to the beach, shopping for fabrics, but we all had eating on the agenda. You see we have this trend where ever we go we find a place with food that we like and we always go back there. So we all returned to the restaurant we had eaten at the night before for lunch, good conversation and to pass the time before we got back on a bus at 9 that night and traveled all the way back to Kisumu to meet Paul and Erin, get ALL of our belongings and travel on to Uganda.

   The process of traveling over night, meeting Paul and Erin and going to Uganda was supposed to last about 16 hours. We were suppose to get to the border of Uganda at 3 in the afternoon on Sunday. Hahaha but why get to the border of Uganda at 3 in the afternoon when you can have your bus break down for 5 hours over night only to miss your connecting bus that was going to take you to Uganda at 3 and instead get to Nairobi at 11, then get to Kisumu at 9 at night get ALL of your belongings, almost get left as you try to tell your beloved host's and friends goodbye then get on the bus to be told you are going to be dropped off at the border of Uganda at midnight and oh yeah you might want to make sure someone is there to get you because I know we (being the bus station) told you that we would take you to your destination sense it was our fault that you got stuck on the side of the road for 5 hours and missed your original bus. But we just don't want to take you to your destination like we told you that we would. That would just be out of our way.

     AHHHHHHHHHHHHH and my frustration continues with Africa and the corrupt system here, but no worries I am going to school then coming back to take this situation head on (God wiling). But praise God for True Vine and the ministry we are with here in Uganda. When we got to the border at mid-night they were there. Waiting for us with huge smiles, hugs, and reassurance that everything was going to be okay. We went through the border, got in the vans waiting for us on the other side and headed home to True vine to find bread and tea waiting for us.

    Oh we are home, we are home, we are loved, taken care of and we are home!

    Praise the living God.

Our vacation was an adventure to say the very least. I think even in the moments of travel, total frustration the huge feeling of abandonment and complete exhaustion God was there. He showed in EVERY way imaginable. I knew he wouldn't leave his children at the border so late at night with no one to greet them. 

Thank you God for always showing up.

Vacation was very good we had a great time and great more memories for the books.

 God Bless thanks for reading!

April came but now it's May. Oh my goodness it is May?!?!?! Is that even possible.

My teammate Alison and I have been laughing and making jokes just thinking about the times in Busia, Uganda when we would walk down the road talking about if we truly thought we could make it the entire 8 months. We joked a lot but we are happy to say it appears that we may actually make it.

 So April came in with a bang...On April 1st (Fools Day) we awoke and began the day with what we hoped would have been an April fools joke only to find out the jokes and funny haha's of that day had escaped us. Our wonderful leaders in Gainesville, GA (Kelly and Jimmy) had call to inform us that one of our beloved brothers, and the only one on this team of 12 the truly understands my love for burnt toast was going to be departing from us the next evening. John leaving was a surprise for that very morning but we trust in our leader's decisioin making and the will of God that the call for him to leave was the right choice. But do not worry he did not leave because of any bad issues at home like death or sickness, it was purely just the will of God and being back in Texas (woo-hoo Texas) is exactly where the Lord had intended him to be at this moment the entire time. John I love and miss you so much brother. Not just because you make killer burnt toast, or for the simple fact I haven't heard (GET OUTTA GEORGIA) in a month. But simply because I love you and after spending 7 months of up and down's, in and outs, malaria and typhoid you just grow to love them and miss their presence from your life. But I am hoping, wishing and praying on the fact that I may be able to see you in 10 days in Houston.

 So the month continues; shortly after John's departure we got yet another call from Kelly and Jimmy (the worlds best leader's pretty much) telling us that as our host Paul would be leaving S.E.E.K so would we.Yes I said it, this group of 11 would yet again would be packing up for the 4th time and leaving to return to Uganda for our last few weeks in Africa.

         You see without going into great, grand detail things with Paul and S.E.E.K did not see eye to eye on somethings and there was just a heavy spirit of disunity. So Paul would be moving off the S.E.E.K base and we just didn't feel it right or the right thing for the 11 of us to stay there without Paul. So we were able to talk with True Vine ministry's, a ministry in Tororo, Uganda that we have visited before and we know about this place because Reece (one of my teammates) her church partner's and has been partnering with this ministry for 10 years. Her dad is the pastor of her church in California and he gave us all the contact information that we needed for this place. So in January we visited for a week and we all knew that this is the place we needed to come back to. This has truly felt like my home in Africa. The week we spent here in January won my heart for this place and I thank God that it was in his plans for us to make it back here before we left. This has been a long process for our team going and living then leaving. It has taken more of a tole on myself then I would have ever seen coming. But I think I have found out something surprising about myself in all of our travels and moving on this trip. I more like the abrupt leaving that you never really saw coming or planned on than the goodbye and leaving process you wait for and you know is coming. I am not sure what this speaks about me or my character but for myself and being on this trip where I have met some pretty amazing people (people that I as a joke on my team have decided I want to put in cages in my house so I can keep these people around me), some people that it honestly just sucks to say goodbye to and realize that both of our lives will go on without each other in them, but we will both be okay and I am happy that it was God's will for our paths to cross. Even if it was for a brief moment in time that would abruptly end with a quick hug and goodbye on a rainy night in Kisumu as our impatient bus driver honked the horn to warn us that he was about to depart with or without us.

 To Paul, Erin, Jared, Hezron, Juliet, Michael, JP, Jesse, Joy, Priska, John & Joshua, the girls at Mbita Primary, Omari,Sammie (worlds greatest Piki Piki driver), even the Land Rover (still is the Land Rover my friend or arch-nemesis?), baby David.

 These people are amazing, they filled my time in Kenya with wonderful memories and laughable moments that I hope I can go home and relay to my friends and family but I know it just won't quite be the same....things like.....

    SLAY IT!!!

    Quap

    Suclolo

    BWAH

    Paul's quaping dance

fruit salad

chatting with Erin

fighting with Hezron (in all good fun, kinda)

WOW!!!!

Yiker's

....................

The list could go on but for now I will let it rest in my heart, Goodbye to these wonderful people, I hope and pray to see you again one day but rest on the certainty that I WILL see you again one day in heaven.

   God Bless these people for blessing me, may there hands be used in your kingdom to advance your kingdom. Your will be done and your blessing me many. God protect, God provide, God stay close to your children, loving them and growing them. Thank you that for a brief 3 months in Mbita, Kenya our lives and God's will was lived out together. We love you daddy......

                                                                             AMEN!!

 Hello EVERYONE....

    SO my time in Kenya as you know is quickly running out....ahhhh so sad!!!!

   So this blog is going to be pretty much short and to the point. While I have been here
my mom has been applying me to colleges as I think I told you before so I am looking to start
school in the fall...(fingers crossed and a lot of prayer about where). But before I get to college
it turns out that I will have about 2-3 months of the summer ahead of me. Much to my dismay
gas is still expensive and sad as it is living in America is not free. Much to the African's
dismay we are not all rich either with a house for every season.

   So I write all of this to say does anyone have a job out there for a 19 year old girl who is
just coming back from a 8 month mission trip to Mexico and Africa???? Please oh please...
I work hard I have a few refrence's. Last summer I was the youth intern at River Point Community Church (miss you guys)
and before that I worked at Global Tech, a candle company and they really seemed to like me and I worked hard for them as well.
So I am not really picky at all I just need something to start saving money for school in the fall and getting around this summer.
I get home on May 15th so yeah. I just want to put this out there and let God work. My last 2 jobs have been truly God given and
worked out really well so I know he will provide again. If you have anything for me or anything you would like for me to consider
you can just e-mail me at kcclash15@hotmail.com ..in the subject please put "summer job" so I know not to delete it if it is an
e-mail I do not recognize.

                LOVE
                LOVE
                LOVE

Hello friends and loved ones....

I can not be leave how time is flying by here. We only have 2 months 5 days left in Africa then we will be on a plane heading for Houston. Then on May 15^th I will be home to see my mommy, my beautiful friends and family who I miss SOOO much. My time here is has been a journey and the journey still continues I never know what is coming next and I left all expectations in Georgia before I left. The Lord has brought me to and through so many things and I can't wait to see what he is bringing me through next.

            Right now I am learning to die to myself and things that I want for my life and just trust him that all is going to work out just the way he has planned. I have had to die to college. Which is even crazy that I am worried about college because we I left I had no plans to go to college or desire and I now have both. God one day just laid it on my heart that I want to go to college and so I had my mom apply for me (thanks mommy you are amazing.) But now I have to wait and that just kills. Satan loves to attack me and make me think I wont get accepted or college is not where I am suppose to go but I can't wait. I have this burning passion inside of me to know more, to have more knowledge and work hard in school. Now he has put a passion in my heart for government and the corruption in the government so he has led me to want to major in Political Science.....this will be a fun one to explain to my dad and my grandpaJ. But it is so cool how he works and changes people's hearts. I know he has my plans in his hands. He knows where I am going what I am going to study and how I am going to serve him. I just have to trust him with that which Satan hates when we trust God because his plans for us always bring forth good.

So yeah, that is what is going on with me and in my heart right now. I am just trying to stay in the moment here with my beautiful team because our time is short but our time here is not finished yet. So prayers items for me is for our team to become even closer to one another, for me to be accepted into college and for the people here in Kenya that we work with ( the S.E.E.K staff) and our leaders Paul, Erin and there 2 twins. They are all so good to us and we love them so much.

 I hope all is amazing with you and that God is moving in your life....God is good and God is love....I love you!

           God Bless,

              LOVE,

              LOVE,

              LOVE.

"He's not a baby in a manger anymore

He's not a broken man on the cross

He didn't stay in the grave

And he's not staying in heaven forever."

            The quote above is song lyrics from a song called "People get ready" by Misty Edwards. This song has been speaking to me in SO many ways. The lyrics go on to say "he's alive, he's alive, he's alive.....so people get ready Jesus is coming."          Wow this song has such powerful lyrics. "People get ready Jesus is coming." So many times we forget that, we live our lives free from bondage doing as we please like we do not have to answer to anyone but there is a king and he is coming and we WILL have to answer to him. He is alive and he is coming. I can't wait to see my king and my savior face to face.

   I love the part of this song that say's "And he's not staying in heaven forever."  He is not staying in heaven forever...he will be back. He promised us he will be back. We don't know when but we can sit and rest on his word that he will be back.

 I am not sure why this song speaks to me so much the lyrics are so powerful and the music that goes with this song always hits me right in the heart and reminds me of the king I serve. He is not a king that you can carve out of wood, not a savior that asks for so much but never gives back he is not a white man, a black man, an African, he is the LIVING GOD...he is alive.

My friends get ready because Jesus is coming and on that day we will celebrate with out creature.

            God Bless you all...thank you for reading and supporting me you mean so much to me but you mean even more to the living God we serve.

          LOVE

Hello Readers....

    How are you all?

But I really want to write about the righteous anger I have built up inside of me about the corrupt government here in Kenya We had a good week of debrief and then a wonderful 2 weeks on outreach and hopefully I will be able to tell you about that later but right now the corruption here is so heavily on my mind I have to get it out. I really want everyone to be praying as often as they can for the people of Kenya and for the government officials in high places to have a softened heart to its people and stop all the corruption that is going on.

So we have had 2 separate experiences so far with the police and both times it has made me so mad. I find here I have to hold my tongue a lot more than I would at home (sometimes they just can't handle the strong willed American woman that I am).

One day my friend here Reece and I were out in town with our good friend and piki piki driver (this is a motorcycle...main way of transport) Sammie trying to locate a friend that Reece has who was visiting Kenya really close to us. We were driving all around Mbita and looking so hard. Sammie was calling ever pastor and friend he could think of who might be having some muzungus from America working with them but we had no luck. On our way back to town with Sammie the police here who stand guard at random locations stopped Sammie and said "this man is under arrest". There was no reason for him to be under arrest so Reece and I were super confused. Sammie told us to just wait and he followed the officer. And here in Mbita the police just say you are under arrest take the keys from the driver and carry our about their business "patrolling". It is so frustrating and useless. While we stood and waited for Sammie the police officer stopped 5 other drivers just to harass them and for no other reason than to get money from them. This is what the police do here. They stopped you, tell you that you are under arrest and they are going to take you into jail then you bribe them and they let you go. They just pull people over they hardly ever have a reason except they want money. It is so corrupt and so frustrating and that day they pulled Sammie over because he had 2 muzungus on his bike and when they see muzungu they see dollar signs...I just want to shout at them from the top of my lungs "WE HAVE NO MONEY"!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!! So Sammie was able to pay him 300 shillings which is about 3 or 4 dollars and they let us go. But oh it made me so mad and they do that stuff all the time here. They piki piki drivers pay a "tax" in the morning to the police office other wise they will have to spend the day in jail so it is easier to pay that "tax" in the morning instead of losing a whole days work.

The other time we had to deal with that was on our way back to Kenya after our debrief week in Uganda. They have yet again random spots on the road where police patrol and they stopped us again said they were going to take our driver to the station so he got out talked with them and paid the stupid bribe that they wanted and we were able to go. But I was so mad they started to get into our car with us and make our driver go to the station and the police had gones like rifles to small hand guns and I was not okay with them being in our car with that. Also the people here have no where to turn to. We have found working with some of the girls in the schools and talking with the teachers that often time's girls can be raped and the man can go to the jail and either pay a bribe to the police or to the family and the man can be let go free. And in some instances it's the police who are doing the raping. So the people here have no where to turn and it breaks my heart to see this. God has put such a passion in my heart to want to help the people here but he has put more of a love in my heart for the corrupt system and for praying for the people who are in charge. Like the president of Kenya and governors and police men. I want to see so much more for the people of Mbita and Kenya and all of Africa...They deserve and need so much more. They need people that they can turn to too help them.

Please remember Kenya in your prayers.

My prayer is that when I go home God will fill me with knowledge of a way I can get back here one day and help stop the corruption. Cause right now my smart mouth and annoyance does not do the trick, but I pray hard for the people and I believe change is coming.

God Bless and I love you all......Thanks for reading

LOVE
LOVE

LOVE