Pack your Flexible Attitude!

So I know I havent updated more about my trip... life has been crazy and to be honest it makes me really sad looking through my pictures. But i thought you might enjoy this!

So the Lord has blessed me beyond compare with my living situation this year. I am living with three amazing godly woman! The Lord has divinely given us a house to live in really late in the game and we love it!

Since we have moved in so many things have gone wrong. Oh not with relationships but with this house! The minute we stepped into this house we knew this is where we were suppose to be. It is a 1946 home, wood floors, really cute and has a lot of character. It has been really funny to ask... hmm what is going to happen next.

We moved in and our ac was broken. so picture moving into a house in august with no ac..... that means its HOT! haha but it was quickly fixed. no problem! Got that covered.

Then we smelt gas from our stove. And I was always taught that smelling gas is no bueno. so I called the company they came and looked at it and turned it off. we werent suppose to use it. So what did we use... oh yes george foreman was one of my roommates and my favorite people that week. We just realized that through this time of no stove or oven how thankful we need to be for what we do have. The Lord has the power to take things away from us at any point in our life and we were so thankful that our stove has some difficulties for us to realize this and be resourceful!

So saturday night we were having a birthday party for the amazing Kathryn and what happens again.... :) our ac broke! haha. there was like 30 people in our house sweating together it was great. i am so blessed to have people in my life who endure things because we love each other.

Please dont take this as complaining! I seriously have been seeing it as a comic relief! It has totally been the Lord forcing us to remember why the body is here. It has been the Lord reminding us to focus on him and he will get us through this time. It has been the Lord that has provided amazing friends and family to allow us to crash at their place. I am so blessed. The Lord has been teaching me that through these circumstances, through trials and tribulations our focus and praise should go to him. No matter if our stove works the Lord is going to provide a way for us to eat. No matter if our ac is out the Lord is going to provide a place for us to stay.

In Zambia it was the same thing. Everthing that could have gone wrong in our villa went wrong. We had no water for a day. We had no electricity for a day. We had 12 girls and 9 beds. Our fridge broke. So many things. In the beginning of the trip, on our packing list it told us to pack our flexible attitude. Our villa was amazing. Such an amazing group of girls and we grew closer through all these things happening. It began to become funny. Every night we would wonder ok so what is going to break tonight! we began to call our villa 44 flex. We had to be ready to be flexible. We couldnt complain or have an attitude because that wouldnt fix what happened! We had a great time bonding over flashlights when there werent lights, smelling together because we hadnt showered and in zambia you are really really dirty at the end of the day. It was so great even though everything to the world went wrong.

Oh and we are still also looking for a twin bed for one of my roomates. so if you would be willing to either trade for a queen for a year or let her use your twin or give her your twin bed that would be amazing!

The Lord has provided for us in so many ways and I know that if we remember to rely on him a walk in his path He will continue to show us favor!

Vic Falls pt 1

So it has been a few weeks since I have been home. I haven't had a really hard time adjusting back to our lifestyle but i do have my difficult moments. Some of you know about my trip but I am going to try to type it up on here. It is still hard for me to see pictures of my trip but you will not understand what i mean without the pictures.

I first had the amazing oppourtunity to go to victoria falls. It was amazing. Everywhere you went in this place you are reminded of Gods amazing creation. I dont know how one can go to a place like this and not believe in a creator! The sunrises and sunsets are breathtaking and the millions of rainbows you see everyday remind you of Gods promise. It is beautiful.

Well we arrived in Lusaka and was told that the hotel messed up and overbooked. Well little did we know that she was about to tell us they upgraded us to their five star hotel right next door. How cool. Of all the people they could have chosen to upgrade they chose our group of 30 people to stay at the Royal Livingstone. Every room has a personal butler and we had turn down service everynight. So when we got back from dinner this is what our bed looked like! ha. it was really cool.
On the first full day we went on a hike. we climbed down to what is called the boiling point. It is in the gorge of the falls and it is one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen.



This is one of the views down in the boiling point. Pictures cant really capture its real beauty. It is an awe moment to really fathom that I am in one of Gods creation. This is not man made. This is something that God created .

Well something that was pretty neat about our hotel was that we had zebra and giraffes and monkeys right outside our door. It was really amazing to get so close to these animals. It was all fine and dandy until wednesday of that week. I was watching one of the boys because it was their parents anniversary. well we were hanging out. He was bummed out that he couldnt go hiking with everyone else so I was trying to cheer him up by doing something fun. So we were walking around and he wanted to go down to this swing. Well all the monkeys followed us. One of the monkeys got his sisters apple juice cup that she put on the ground. we the boy i was watching came back with a cup of apple juice and another monkey wanted his. Well he was guarding it and trying to keep it away from them. About two seconds later I see this monkey bite this boy. I was in shock. I was thinking "did that really just happen" and of course the little boy screamed and started crying. So i was trying to grab my stuff together so I could go and take him away from this. well about 5 seconds later I hear another scream. This monkey just scratched him again. Well now I was pissed. This little six year old boy just wanted his apple juise and here this monkey is biting and scratching him. So i grabbed him... left my stuff for the other girls to get and ran to look at his back. Of course the monkey broke skin and at this point I am thinking I have to get this kid to a doctor.
So I ran up to the desk with him in my arms and asked where the clinic was. The manager took me over to them and of course I knew nothing about his medical history but I was in charge of him. He was SOOO brave. I was so proud of him. He is completely fine. He has some battle scars from the monkeys and now i dont like monkeys! ha. did i mention that he was only 6. yeh way to go becca. I felt so awful. but his parents were so great. They made me feel so good about it. I thought they might be mad but that was the last of my thoughts at this moment. I am just thankful that the Lord gave me a level head and allowed me to remain calm throughout the entire situation!

We went on a sunset cruise that was so amazing. My pictures of the sunset dont even capture the real beauty of this sun. We saw some animals too. We have some cool hippos, and alligators.Here is my cool hippo picture.
and a pretty sunset picture!

Well the next day people went bunji jumping. It was so cool. It is the highest bridge jump in the world. Almost everyone did it. I wanted to so so bad... but first my mom said no... second it would not have been good for me to mess up my back and then be in really bad pain for the next few weeks in zambia. so I opted to watch everyone and take some cool pictures. I will just put one up. He is only 12 and he was so brave!
Well i am going to leave you with this for now! Next you will get to experience a true safari! :)

Half Way There

For those staying updated on my trip!

Well i am at the halfway mark. I am in London! I have quite a long layover here so I am hanging out in a pretty cool lounge with free internet, free snacks, and drinks. Technically they arent free because i payed to spend a few hours here but it is cheaper than buying all the stuff in the stores in the airport.

I didnt really meet anyone on the flight coming. If there were people doing camp life I had no idea. Because of that I will be spending my day int heathrow airport reading, relaxing, emailing, updating, but NOT sleeping. I only got about 2 hours of sleep on my last flight but i want to get into this time zone so I am staying awake until I leave heathrow tonight around 730.(ps I am 6 hours ahead of you in london and 7 in zambia)

For those of you who know them, the craziest thing happened! I ran into brock and megan about 40 minutes before their flight back to houston. It was really neat. I was just walking trying to find a place to hang out for the day and there they were. They are excited to see everyone and get involved with the Bryan church start. It is also really neat to see how much they love these Zambian kiddos! They already miss them. I am so encouraged by seeing them. They had a great time but they are excited to get back home.

I did learn that I will have internet about once a week. So I will try my best to update you all on what is going on at camp!

I hope that you all are having a fantastic day. Well i hope you are actually sleeping right now because it is 4:50 back home but i hope the rest of your day goes well!

Continue to pray for travel, and health and for the zambians that my group and I will come in contact with. I love you all!

Becca

The Lord is MY Shepard!

As the time comes closer for me to leave for Africa... i get more and more excited about being there but I also get sad that I am leaving the people that I am getting close to. I am leaving the body and I belong to and the fellowship that I have been experiencing. Not saying that I wont have fellowship while I am gone because it will be fellowship 24/7, but it will definitely be different.

Butch spoke this weekend on persecution. I think it was perfect timing for me leaving. I am going to a place that doesnt know Jesus. I will be persecuted. I needed to know that persecution is from the Lord. Without persecution I would not have a growing relationship with the Lord. But then I start thinking... it might not be only the zambians that may persecute me... it might be the people apart of the organization who persecute me for believing strongly in things. Who knows. I am just glad and I am thankful that the Lord spoke through Butch. I want to be like Stephen. I want people to know that I am fully sold out for Christ and that after I am in heaven that people come to know the Lord because of the lifestyle that I lived. Only by the power of God can that happen. how AWESOME would that be. Like Joseph, or Daniel, or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. I want to be joyful always. I want not only when I am in Zambia but when I am here too that I am only alive and here today because of the Lord.

I am going to miss the month and a half with my friend and family here. I am going to miss seeing the body almost every day. I am going to miss out on making decisions for the fall with the new church start. I am going to miss all of those things but the Lord has a different plan for me. There is a reason that I am flying out next sunday for Zambia. There is a reason why I am not going to be here in July and only God knows that reason. I am so excited to be going to and to love on these kids and to share Christ with them.

Pray for patience. Pray for perservance (Hebrews 12:1-3). Pray for safety. Pray for wisdom. Pray for lives to come to know the Lord. Pray for barriers to be broken down. Pray for love that we can show Christ love and not love of the world. Pray for growth. pray for truth to be spoken.

I cant wait to be apart of what the Lord is doing with Camp LIFE right now. Only 7 more days to I fly off. Only 7 more days till i get to hold those zambian babies in my arms. Only 7 more day till I get to be apart of a movement going on in Lusaka, Zambia. Only 7 more days.

ONLY 20 Days

So I was looking at my countdown to zambia and i leave in 20 days. how crazy is that. that means I leave college station in 16 days. Oh my goodness. I still have so much to get and to buy and to organize and pack. My packing list that they gave me is pretty ridiculous but I trust them since they have been for this long and I havent. I am going to be in Zambia for 3 weeks. I cannot wait.

First I am going to victoria falls! I am super excited because that is one of the seven wonders of the world so I am so excited to see that. Then I will be at camp for more than 2 weeks.

On the way to zambia though I have a stinkin long 14 hour layover in London.... so why not take the express train and go see the sights. I am praying that I will have a traveling buddy while I am there because yes I am pretty independent and I am very good with directions but being in a foreign country by myself and seeing the sights by myself just wouldnt be the same as having someone along side to enjoy them with. I have been to london before but if you know of any great places to go see while i am there please let me know!

I cant wait to wake up every morning and see these beautiful faces of children. I know it is not going to be easy and some of these kids are going to be so closed off at first but I cant wait for all of them by the end of the week proclaim "The Lord is MY Shepard." Please be praying for walls to be broken down and for the Lord to be evident at camp. Pray for safety not only for my travels but for the children. These children are either orphans or they are in serious needs. Safety for where ever they are sleeping. Safety from Satan and what he is going to try to do during camp to these children. I am so excited to be able to love on these kids. Pray for health. I can get sick pretty easy so pray for physical health from sinus (it is really dusty and windy) and that my back will be strong and hold up well for the 3 weeks I am there.

I am so pumped and ready to roll. Please pray for my trip and for what the Lord is going to do!

Excitement

So I am so stinkin excited!! My brother asked me about a week ago if I wanted a bookshelf?

The question kinda caught be off guard but I told him I have been wanting to get one. (mainly because I have become very fond of reading lately which means I have books and no room for them to go!)

So i got home today and he came and showed be the sketch with the dimensions and stuff. He is making it for me this week! I am so excited!

My brother just became really handy the past year. He and his wife totally gutted and remodeled their guest bathroom so he is getting really good at making stuff!

Yay for handy men and yay for bookshelves! i will have to post of picture of what it looks like and the process! handmade things are the best gifts in the world!

So... i made my blog fancy! it took me a while to find a layout that i truly liked... it might be changing because I am not totally sure how I feel about this one but it was the best that I have found so far! yay for revamps and organizing!

The past few days I have felt the need that I needed to organize.

Not my schedule

Not my life

But organize my closet and my dresser.

Mainly getting rid of clothes or taking out clothes and putting them away. Now I have been putting this off all weekend but I knew that if I didnt do it today that I would not have time to do it all week and that I would really want to. So I did it today. It was actually really good.

My dad will be proud! I got rid of 17 pairs of shoes.... isnt that ridiculous! He always gives me and my mom a hard time about shoes. We like shoes and i think my dad owns maybe 6 pairs. His tennis shoes, sandals, black and brown loafers, and a few different types of boots. I didnt even know that I owned that many pair of shoes and I still have more.I should have known it when they dont all fit where they are suppose to go. Those 17 pair were the shoes that I just dont wear. That is so crazy. first of all why would I keep them if I am not wearing them and second of all why do I have so many. It was about half of my shoes which means I still have alot more. AH!

I went through and took out shirts and pants or other clothes out of both my closet and my drawers. I made two piles. stuff to give away and stuff that I would like to keep. So it feels really good to do this! I am not sure why I wanted to but it feels good. Maybe because the Lord is showing me that STUFF cant make me happy. STUFF cant satisfy me and STUFF wont be with me in heaven so why medidate and idol my stuff. That is so hard living in this world but I am still growing and learning when it comes to this!

I encourage everyone to go through and organize and to get rid of stuff that is taking up your life. Clean it out... get rid of it... give it away. It really did feel good of getting things out that were cluttering up my life.