Still decompressing! BUT the good news, I have uploaded my photos and I have gotten some from our other photographers!
http://jjtuckertravels.shutterfly.com/pictures/1275 – Kigali, Rwanda
http://jjtuckertravels.shutterfly.com/pictures/1636 – Akagera National Park
http://jjtuckertravels.shutterfly.com/pictures/1106– Genocide Memorial Photos
I am back safe! Praise the Lord! I am sick though 😦 Hence the silence on here. Hopefully during Thanksgiving break I can start sharing all I learned in AFRICA!
Keep me in prayer for better health!
The time is finally here! Bags are packed, and everything should be ready to go! Remember me tomorrow as I will be on a plane for the first time in a long time! Remember me as I will be around new people and learning new things! Remember me as I can this journey of a lifetime! Pray for my safety and for all that I will be doing! I pray that this opportunity becomes an experience of a lifetime!
I may not be able to post much while I am gone but I will do my best. I look forward to sharing with you everything that I learned! 🙂
Thank you!
Here are some random thoughts that are going though my brain:
1. How sick will I be on the malaria meds?
2. What will it be like to be in an airport again
3. Flying is fun sometime scary, what will I feel?
4. How is my body going to do with this traveling?
5. What movies are they going to show on the plane?
6. What will the bathrooms be like in Rwanda? I had a hole in India…not cool!
7. I’ll be meeting my team Wednesday and Friday…I hope we all get along!
8. How will I feel being away from my husband?
9. God i hope and pray I do not get sick!
10. What will the food be like there?
Yes many random thoughts but please please pray for my health! Pray I do not get sick! Pray that I watch carefully what I eat! Pray that I handle the malaria medicine well! God can do that I trust he can!
The night has come! Finally two days until my journey begins! My bags I think are packed and ready to go! I’m hopeful that I have not forgotten anything major or necessary!
There has certainly been a lot of thinking going through my mind as I prepare to go! Many different thoughts, some what ifs and some concerns about just traveling and taking the meds I need to take.
Tomorrow night at this time, I will the last night away from leaving! Keep me in prayer!! This will be an awesome experience!
Here are some pictures for the day. Flowers and shoes cannot beat that!
Today was an awesome day! I got to spend a good three hours with some awesome friends. It was great to eat some fried pickles, chicken and dumplings and have some awesome moments of laughter and just catching each other up on our lives! We were missing one of the group but we still had fun! I realized we need to get together way more often! You do not realize how much laughter and fun times can really make you have a better experience where you are. It does not matter how tired you are or how sad you may be but when you laugh and have fun, you have a new perspective.
Another thought that hit me today was I should be thankful for where I am in my life. Thankful because I have something way more precious that “money”, I have “time.” Time to go home at 3:30 and do what ever I need or want to do. I have time to be available for my kids as they need me and I have time to work on my certification and LPC requirements. God is good why can I not be happy!
It was very eye-opening to realize that I am actually being blessed by where I am in my life. Yes I may not have all the money I want, or be making the salary I want. But if I was making the salary I do want…would I have the free time? Would I have the free time to work on my LPC requirements? Would I have the free time to work on my grief certification? Would I have the free time to get coffee with my girls? Or would I have the free time to rest? NO!! No I would not!
So my new motto…be thankful! It does not matter how much money you make it matters what you are doing with your life! I need to be much more thankful for the “time” and I should take full advantage of it!
So tonight I submitted another application, I submitted an application to finish my LPC requirements.I found a school right around the corner that will let me finish my LPC requirements 🙂 PRAISE GOD!!!
See don’t you love what you learn about yourself when you have the “time.” 🙂
Keep me in thoughts tonight marks more days down and now I am three days from Africa! I’m nervous but excited! 🙂
Four day and Africa begins! I am so blessed to be able to go and have such awesome friends
Tonight as a way to celebrate the weekend, Im at a hotel with some girlfriends! Thanks to some bad planning Matt has to be at a bachelor party tonight. So the girls and I are enjoying watching tv and eating junk food. Yes I know we should watch the junk food but every once in a while :).
Thank you for praying! My pain has been intense but I have clung to my faith! If I had no faith I do not thing I could go on!
On to partying with the tv and junk good 🙂
One week from today I will be sitting in Washington D.C. about this time. I was supposed to be flying out next Thursday but we had some flight issues and our team got bumped until Friday take off! Which is totally fine, I appreciate one more day to meet with my team, one more day to pray about this trip and one more day to see what God wants me to learn through this experience.
As I re-read my itinerary I cannot help but wonder, “lord how am I going to do this?” From the moment we touch down, until the moment we leave Africa we will be going. This is not a leisure trip, this is not a luxury trip this is a working/serving trip! I’m trying to mentally prepare myself to hear the stories, to stand beside the mass graves, to try to mentally prepare for all that I will see, hear and experience. It is a lot to take in and honestly there are moments where I wonder, am I ready? Is my body ready? Is my heart ready?
It was one thing a few weeks ago to sit and think..oh well Africa is a few months away! Now we are down to Africa is next week! Next Saturday I will be on African land, seeing my first African sunset! Touching a ground that I have dreamed up touching for a while now! My skin has goose bumps as I think about how awesome it is to prepare myself mentally, emotionally and spiritually for this journey! I ask that you pray for this team, pray for safety and pray that we come back as adults stronger in our Christian walk and with understanding that surpasses our ages. I pray that this trip does not become just that “a trip”, pray that it becomes a life changing experience! There is so much we can learn from this time, I pray that we can use it to really touch some one else.
Pray that we can have opportunities to share about our experience with others. Pray that this journey does not stop when we come home but pray that it really impacts us and that it starts something we could never imagine in our lives. If we are willing to be used, God will use us! Are we ready? pray that we are ready for that journey!
I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate your thoughts and prayers for my health! Those that know me personally know why this is so critical for me! I have worked so hard this year to get through so much. My first goal and reasons for fighting forward was because I wanted to walk across the graduation stage to accept my MA, I did not want to accept that I would be in a wheel chair just yet! I did not know that goal would open this door! I did not know that six months after being so deathly sick, that I would be getting on a plane to Africa of all places! Isn’t it cool that sometimes you do not know the awesome things in store for you. I can see why it is so important for us to trust God! He can really do some awesome things!
Thank you so much for your committment to pray, your committment to check on my family while I am gone, your committment to keep me in your thoughts and your committment to listen to me when I come home! I could not do it with out you!
Pray for me tonight as yet another day counts down to one of many journeys of a lifetime!
Ohhh I cringe at the thought of these meds!!!!
WalkingThroughPain 