Here we go!!!

Today's the day!! I am so excited!! Our flight leaves in about 4hrs! Our first stop is Minnesota, then from Minnesota to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam to Nairobi and we will arrive in Nairobi on Jan 3rd. Right now I'm actually not nervous at all, just super excited! It's funny to think back to this time last year coming into 2011, I would've never dreamed I'd be going to AFRICA in 2012!!! It's so amazing how God puts everything together! I can't wait to see the things He has in store for this trip! Keep us all in your prayers!

God bless,
Katelyn

It's around the corner now!!!

Well, as you can see on my countdown the trip is 3 days away!!! Crazy! It came up so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were having our yard sale fundraiser, but that was almost 3 months ago! The excitement is building and the nerves are starting to intensify! And now I'm just running around like crazy, trying to get the last few things ready before I leave on Monday. But as I just sit back and think about all the exciting things we'll be doing all the stress and nerves completely go away. I am so blessed to be able to have this exciting, amazing, and once in a lifetime opportunity! To list some of the exciting things we'll be doing... I along with all of the other ladies going on this trip, will be putting on a ladies seminar, in which I will be doing a lesson on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Then we all will be putting on several different VBS's in the local villages. We also will just be spending several hours evangelizing in different villages and tribes. And just ministering to all those over there! It's all so exciting! So now as we get closer I ask that you keep us all in your prayers! And continue to pray for us while we're gone, pray for us to have boldness to proclaim the gospel, pray for our safety and health, pray that our team would be united, ready, and willing to be used in a mighty way by God, and lastly pray that the Lord would prepare the hearts of those we will be speaking to and that there would be a soul harvest in Africa and many would come to know Jesus as their Savior!! I thank everyone that has been a major part in helping us raise the funds for this trip and I pray that God would bless you all! I also thank everyone for their prayers! I will try to update my blog while I'm gone and let everyone know of the exciting things that are going on!


God bless,
Katelyn

Swahili word/phrase of the day:Hakuna matata! - No worries! :)

Yard Sale Fundraiser!!!!

We are planning a yard sale as a fundraiser for the Africa trip on October 8th (the flyer is below)!! I am praying (and hoping you will too) that it will be a major success! I still have A LOT of funds to raise and just found out that I have a shorter amount of time to do that then I thought I did! So I am totally stepping out on faith and trusting God that if it's his will for me to go, all the funds necessary will be raised! So in conclusion I ask that you would keep all of us in your prayer list and continue to pray for the trip and also the fundraising efforts that God would bless it and provide the funds necessary because I know that He can!! :)

God bless,
Katelyn

Church Camp!

Well it's been exactly a week now since we came home from camp and I am just now writing about it (I am such a slacker! lol). Camp was an amazing experience this year! We had a great group go this year and we definitely made some beautiful memories! Here are just a few pictures that captured our fun times!!

God bless,

Katelyn Elliott

Birthdays, Fundraisers, and Camp oh my!

So this week is crazy busy for me! I have my birthday, a last minute fundraiser, camp, and my Dad's birthday, all at the same time! It's gonna be a crazy week and 1/2, but it will be fun! I will try to do a separate blog about each event! My Mom, Sis and I will be making delicious cupcakes for my birthday that I definitely want to blog about! Oh, also, an update about all of the Africa trip preparations, I got all of my shots for the trip... well most of them, I still need a yellow fever immunization shot, a MMR shot, and possibly a rabies shot, but thankfully I was already immune to Hep A and Hep B! I also need to get my passport when I get back from camp. But as of right now that's about it on the Africa trip.
God bless,
Katelyn

A Lil More About Myself..

My name is Katelyn Elliott as you probably already know haha. I am 16 years old and currently being home educated. I will be a senior in high school this fall. I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was 10 and have been faithfully serving Him with my family at First Missionary Baptist Church. I am very involved at church, I currently assist my mom with her 5-6 grade class and will be assisting my sister Alyssa with her 1-2 grade class this summer! Our church is also involved in vacation bible school in which I am blessed to be able to lead the music! I am blessed to have great christian parents that have raised me in church all my life! I am the youngest of their two children and I have an older sister which I mentioned above. She is my best friend and I encourage you to check out her blog which I will link below! I don't know what to say now... haha that pretty much sums me up!

Through this blog I hope to share with you: life stories, bible studies, the things God lays on my heart, and even just lighthearted things such as: fashion, food, music, and the little joys you encounter along your journey through life! So stay tuned for the things to come!

God bless,
Katelyn

My sisters blog: http://asetapartgirl.blogspot.com/ check it out you won't regret it!

Africa Mission Trip Jan. 2012

  Hi welcome to my blog! One of the reasons I created this blog, was to be able to share updates on my mission trip to Africa in January 2012! I am very excited to be able to be a part of this wonderful experience and I know that it's through God that I have this opportunity! Let me share with you how God has worked things out for me to go!

   Back in January I felt like the Lord was leading me and giving me the desire to minister to the people of Africa, but I didn't have an opportunity to. So I told my parents that I am going to Africa... eventually and I think my parents thought it was just another one of my crazy ideas that I wouldn't actually follow through with. So I started praying that God would open a door for me to go to Africa. A few weeks later I decided that I would start learning the Swahili language, because I was sure that God would give me an opportunity to put it to use. So I went to my parents and told them I was going to start learning Swahili and they just kind of said "oh that's nice honey..." ha ha. But I knew that it was something that I definitely wanted to do, so I started googling Swahili and using google translate and I got several greetings down! After a while I think my parents really saw how much I wanted to go to Africa, so my dad told me about a group that heads up mission trips and he told me if I do really feel the Lord is leading me to do this that I should look into it. So immediately I googled them and I get to their site and I see all of the trips they have gone on and then I see a tab that says future trips. So I clicked on it and read through some of the upcoming trips and then I see "Africa trip 2012" and I freaked out! I ran in and told my parents that I am definitely going to Africa with them! And so they said ok we'll look into it. So my dad told our pastor about the trip and he asked my dad if he would be going with me and due to health reasons my dad said he wouldn't be able to. So my pastor said he wouldn't want one of his sheep to go by themselves so he said he would go with me. It definitely gave my parents some peace of mind to know I wouldn't be going ALL the way to Africa by myself! So then a few weeks later the founder of Macedonian Trips (the group I am going with) called our pastor without knowing we were planning on going on the trip, and asked him if he could bring a presentation about Mac-trips to our church. And so of course my pastor said yes! So the founder Bro. Gary Weidenbach came and brought his presentation and we got to talk to him and he told me what I needed to do to insure my spot on the team. So I did that and so did my pastor and also my great friend Jesieka that is like an older sister to me! Which also made my parents feel better for me to have another girl on the trip to make me feel more comfortable! As you can see God has definitely worked things out for me to do something I really felt like He was leading me to do! And I can definitely say that if you are reading this and feel like He is leading you to do something for Him pray that He will open that door and when He does step out on faith and do it! So now I ask you that you would support us with your prayers, pray that God would prepare the hearts over there and also pray for us! The group as of right now consist of: Bro. Gary and his wife Pam, Allison and Cole, my pastor Bro. Brian Langley, Myself and Jesieka. Also pray for those considering going on the trip, I know of a few. And lastly pray for those that will be supporting us financially, pray that God will supply the funds necessary! Thank you for reading this and praying for this trip!

God bless,
Katelyn Elliott

Mac-trips site: http://www.macedoniantrips.com/