Africa, Kiddos and Christmas

Eeeeek! 3 weeks till I leave on my next adventure!


Something I love about traveling alone is meeting people in the airports and on my flights. Call me crazy, but, I love talking to strangers! :)

 In September, coming home from Uganda, I met one of the “lost boys” from Sudan! He had an incredible story and I loved visiting with him.

I hung out with a fellow barista in the Entebbe airport and watched him do a little latte art for me!

 

I met a Nigerian lady who had been competing in Beijing and was now traveling back to her home in the states! We talked about African food for a good 30mins standing in the line waiting to go through security.

In Amsterdam I met a team coming back from loving on some sweet Uganda children. I then ran into them again in the Minneapolis airport where they insisted I line hop so I could get through customs and not miss my flight!

Also, huge shout out to the lady two seats down on my second, 8 hour flight, who gave me Dramamine! Who forgets they get motion sickness?? This girl!

I’m excited to see what new friends I make! Hurry up January 14^th!!!

This past Friday was my last day working at the coffee shop. Some people don’t understand why I would quit so early because I already have no money… (if you want to help me with that situation click here https://www.gofundme.com/hs78yvp4 ) Here’s why though. 3 of my favorite people are on Christmas break and I want them to know that I love them just as much as the kiddos I’m going to stay with over the next few months.

Let me just tell you a little bit about these dudes.

Lauren

 She is 9 and going on 25! For real. Some day’s I forget that she’s not my age. I’m 100% sure my life would be extremely boring if I wasn’t her babysitter – actually I know that’s true because the weeks I don’t have her after school I’m like, Hmm what do I even do with my life right now…. We love going on coffee dates, playing at the park and having dance parties. She is honestly like a little sister and one of my best friends.

Aden

 

He is 6. I’m pretty sure he is smarter than I am. Reasoning: At a petting zoo I pointed out the llama that I wanted to go pet and he informed that it was an Alpaca, after arguing with him for a couple mins I realize, oh yeah, that’s an Alpaca….

Addi

 

She is 5. Addi loves her dresses, super heroes and African animals. I love when she goes “Kaywa, can I wook at your Afwica pictures pwease?”? Addi is always asking me to take her to Africa with me! One of these days Addi girl, one of these days! J

I will miss these kiddos lots while I’m gone.

Other than the fact I love these guys, I think I may enjoy watching them because I get to wear sweats all day, watch old Disney movies and relive my childhood. It’s the best.They’re some of the sweetest kids ever.

One more thing, Christmas is this week!  

Can I just tell you guys something!? Christmas time is my favorite. I love every single thing about it! Even the snow – when we get it.

 One of my favorite parts about Christmas is celebrating Jesus’ birthday with my family, both sides!

 I love how we don’t focus so much on the gifts but more on Jesus, each other and the food…especially the food! My mom’s side has a whole facebook group and right now the news feed is just what were bringing to eat – no joke.  ;)  

Sometimes though, I take for granted the family I have. It makes my heart so sad to think some kids don’t have that family.

They don’t get to wake up every Christmas morning and have their parents read them the Christmas story.

They don’t get to feel the warm fuzzy feeling you use to get when your grandma hugged you and told you she loved you.

They don’t get to eat all the food they want until they’re so full they couldn’t eat another bite.

They don’t have this.

Some of them don’t even have Jesus.

They have nothing.

This makes my heart hurt. It makes me realize how thankful I am. How loved I am. It reminds me to keep loving people and showing them Jesus.

So this Christmas remember to show Gods love and make someone smile!

Embrace the Unknown

I think about how happy my heart is, yet how extremely heavy it is. I sit here staring at my Christmas lights and messy room because it’s midnight and I can’t sleep. I think about how 5:00am is just around the corner, I think about how excited I am for Africa, but how sad am that my friends will not be joining me due to funds.  It breaks my heart, not so much the going alone part, but for the RUJA kiddos who look forward to “Uncle Andrew” coming to see them. It literally rips my heart out thinking of Alex (9), crying last August when our team left. It makes me want to cry thinking about him crying… But you know what? I still have this little ounce of faith that something could change, that a ticket could be provided.  I also realize I have to face the hard truth that It might not. Honestly it scares me a little bit…why? Because it’s not what we “planned.” I plan. I make to do lists. I lose them. I make them again. Then lose them again…. But, I always have a plan….and that plan I thought we had for January, well, it changed. That part that scares me is the unknown.  But something God has slowly been showing me these last few days is to embrace the unknown. Be excited about the unknown, because your plans? Well they can always change. J

 

 I went around my small town today asking for donations for my trip. I went into a paint shop and they sent me next door to a hair salon. So I walked in… “Hi I’m Kayla….” And then the next thing I know, the generic spiel is out of the way, then, instead of the normal, “ok, here is a little something...” it turns into just a real conversation with this lady who I’ve only known for about 2mins. She tells me how she has always admired people like me…how she has always wanted to do something like this but something always held her back…not the money or the time but the fear. The fear of the unknown. Wow. I told her the same thing I’ve been telling myself “Embrace the Unknown” After talking for a while, she gave me a donation, it was a heartfelt one, the kind that mean the most. She didn’t do it for a tax write off, she didn’t do it because she thought people would praise her for it, she simply gave a stranger $100 just because she cared. I walked out of that hair salon, with eyes full of tears and a heart full of gratitude and humility; I got in my car and just sat there for a min thanking God for all he’s been doing for me.

 

Something I’ve been learning is share your story. Share what’s on your heart! This morning before I went around town, I had group of older ladies come into the coffee shop I work at. They come in about once a month. Last month they all gave me a little donation. Some could only afford  $1. But that to me is just as awesome as $1,000 simply because they care. They care to pray for this 24year old girl they only see once a month. Who some of them don’t even remember my name but they remember my passion. Today when they came in I was pumped. As I shared with one of the ladies how God provided for me to purchase my plane ticket,  she grabbed my hands and looked me in the eyes “I will pray for you, and I want you to have this…” she pulled out $2 from her purse… “I know it’s not much, but I pray that God will multiple it for you…”  And you know what he did? He multiplied it over and over again. I also have complete faith that he will keep multiplying those two dollars. I literally would be here all day if I were to tell about everyone who has support it me financially and with prayers…It blows my mind. I can’t fathom how many thousands and thousands of dollars my friends, family, and even complete strangers have given me with all the trips I’ve taken to Uganda. But with every trip I take, and with every new day that comes. I see how much God cares. How he puts these people in my life to encourage me. To support me.  To pray for me. To help me remember how blessed I am.

My Heart is Full

I use to only pray when I needed something and I would pray once. It would usually be a quick prayer with a bunch of big words that I’m not 100% sure I knew what they even meant. Then I would wonder “why is God not answering this” or I would get frustrated and think “why do my prayers not work?” “why do people always say pray about? It’s not like it’s really working for me.” Then instead of continuing to talk to God about things I would just rely on other peoples prayers and hope that would work for me. It wasn’t up until really this last summer I finally got it. It didn’t happen right away. I for sure did NOT wake up one morning and think “Today is the day I will make prayer real in my life, today is the day I’ll make Jesus my best friend, my go to.” It was more a process of failing, hitting rock bottom, and then slowly turning to God for help.

I would have a couple days in row where I felt really good about my prayer life, then I would have a couple weeks that were awesome! Then, my life would get all sorts of crazy, I’d get stressed and get my panties all in a wad and instead of praying I would usually end up thinking. “ Great. I hate life. I hate work. People drive me crazy and you sir, yes you, at Wal-Mart in aisle 10 you’re looking at me wrong and taking too long to pick your cereal! Move so I can get some captain crunch and eat my feelings away…”  Then of course everything would calm down my life would be going great again and I would be like, “Yeah I got this all together. Thanks God..."

I think when I started to see a little change in my prayer life was right before I went to Africa this last August.  My friend, Andrew was telling our team that while we were in Uganda we were going to really just talk to God, ask him to direct our days and show us what to do. I remember thinking “yeah, you’re crazy. We need a plan.” But then I also remember thinking “I guess that makes sense, who am I to tell God what I’m going to do for Him while I’m in Africa?” THEN I remember starting to pray a little more. I remember thinking to myself. “Um what if God doesn’t talk to me… What if they think I’m not a good little Christian...” Then it kinda hit me. Why does all that matter? What I need to focus on is how does God see me? I felt so small and humbled. I wanted my life to be different. I wanted Jesus to be seen in me. I wanted Him to be my friend.

 Fast forward to the trip, here I am in Africa, living life. Feeling that peace I always feel in Uganda, that overwhelming sense of closeness to God. I don’t know how to explain it but I always feel closer to God in Africa. I meet these 5 sweet kids in Uganda who turn my world upside down and show me what prayer is all about. Here is this girl who has had more hurt in her 12 year old life than I’ve had in all 24 years of mine, yet she prays with such intensity, such passion, that it brought tears to my eyes. During a service my friend Robert was preaching and had us hold hands with the person next to us and pray for them. I looked over at sweet Rose and she was pouring her heart out to God, but not for anything for herself, but for me. Wow. Talk about humbling. At that moment all I could think about was how blessed I was to be there, to experience life with such amazing people who love God.

You would think that after Uganda and all the answered prayers I saw there I would keep it up. But no, I still have those weeks where it feels like God’s not right there with me and usually a few days later I realize it wasn’t that God’s not there for me, it’s that I’m not there reaching out to God to help me. I'm there reaching out to my friends, putting all my burdens on them instead of going right to the one who wants to hear from me the most.

This past month God has brought me to me knees so much. He’s shown me that saying “hey lets prayer about it,” isn’t cliché it’s legit. It’s not easy though.  I had to realize I can’t just pray for rainbows and sunshine, I have to pray for the hard stuff too. It’s the asking God to take all of me, to make me come to Him for everything, even if that means having nothing. That was probably one of the hardest prayers for me because I knew it would require me to make changes I didn’t want to make. Do things I didn’t want to do and give people money that I thought “I needed” for myself, my own fundraising needs. But what I’m learning is, living everyday talking to God and constantly seeking him, everything really does just start to fall into place. Sometimes maybe it’s  not the exact outcome I would want but I know, I have this peace that I’m right where God wants and doing what God wants, I feel like the only way to describe how I feel is saying my heart is full…

Most of you know I’m trying to raise money to go back to Uganda in January and stay for three months. If you want to read more about “my story” or feel like God is asking you to give a donation here is a link to my go fund me page.https://www.gofundme.com/hs78yvp4

Be You

As I sit here on a rock, listening to the tiny little waterfall rush down I can’t help but feel at peace. Calm. Worry free. I could have a million things on my mind but when I come out to my favorite spot in good ol Fort Scott I always feel relived and as if the rest of the world just stands still for a little bit.

I’ve tried to start this blog probably a million times. No joke. Every time I feel like its not good enough or no one will want to read it. But then I think, why does it matter? I just want to start one because It something I’ve always wanted to do. So today I decided to take a little hike to my favorite spot and just go for it.

Something that has always held me back from doing many things (like starting a blog) is that fear of “What will people think” But what I’ve been realizing in the last few months is, it honestly doesn’t matter what people think. I remember one of my friends saying something along the lines of “You don’t have to fit in a box. You were made to do something special and that usually requires you to not care what others think and live outside the social norms.” There is so much freedom in putting aside those people pleasing thoughts and embracing who you are. Finding your identity in Christ and being the person God intended you to be.

A couple months ago I saw this really awesome necklace. It was a key with the words “Be You” on it. The moment I saw it I loved it.  I asked Megan where she got it. She informed me that her husband makes them.  I asked if he could make me one and long story short, he did. When I asked how much it would cost his answer kinda blew me away! He said, “Nothing, it’s all yours…When you decided to wear it take a picture and post a message on social media about the importance of embracing your uniqueness. If anyone else should need it more, give it away and I’ll give you another one.”  I knew right away this key was just a little reminder from God to keep on embracing that freedom I have in Him. To not care what others think and to just wear those leggings... Haha But for real, when you decided to embrace your uniqueness and remember that you were created to do something special it makes life is so much better, So much more enjoyable and helps you to live in the moment. To Be Present. To Be You!

Thank you Kenny Felt for starting the "Be You" necklaces and for letting me name my blog after them!