Well, it’s here. We are finally 4 days away from leaving… And the questions begin…Anxious? Yes. Sleeping? no. Ready? been ready. Really ready? well… Packed? ha. Scared? (blank stare)

The team is ready, everyone is jabbering about who got the best walking shoes, who got the neatest travel size toothbrushes, who saw the coolest documentary on Moshi the other night…but I turn to the group…”hey guys, are we really, really ready?” This is huge, this is bigger than I imagined it to be when the whole idea began…and now eight months later, we are off! I gotta admit, I am a little nervous… but hey, God doesn’t want us to be comfortable!

Before we left I wanted to give everyone reading this at home a little background on what we will be doing. I am hoping and praying that while we are over there we will have internet access on occasion to keep you all back in the states updated on the adventure God has placed before us. This blog will be used as somewhat of a journal of our thoughts and daily activities!

We will begin our travels on July 2nd and we will be spending two days traveling before we arrive in Nairobi, Kenya. There we will meet Joe, the coordinator of Advance-Africa, and we will stay the night with him for a little “de-briefing”. The next day we will travel, by bus…car?…plane?…boat?….wings?…Not too sure…to our basetown in Moshi, Tanzania. Moshi rests at the base of Mount Kilamanjaro and is a pretty “well-known” little town in south-east Africa. We will be staying with a Pastor and his family, who has so graciously opened up their home to us for two weeks. Hoepfully, we will experience some GLORIOUS African worship and get to be involved in the church activities while we are there…Possibly, teaching some Sunday School classes or just helping out singing with the children (and adults too )! Every morning we will be spending our time at the Rose Education Centre which in an elementary school within walking distance of our host family’s house. Sometime during the day we will make our way over to the Msamaria Mwema Center for Street Children. This is an Orphanage for “street” boys from the ages of 5-16. They are able to keep 50 boys at a time that have been taken off the street due to criminal activity, being used as sex slaves, broken families, and the list goes on… There are actually over 4,000 street children in Tanzania alone…they are just taking in 50 at a time and Praise God for their efforts!! The name “Msamaria” comes from the story in the Bible of the good “Samaritan”. We are just going to be helping around the orphanage however we can! We are just kind of allowing God to use us however He pleases and we know that He will!

I ask that you keep us in your prayers as we are on this journey! It is my prayer that even through the swahili/english language barrier that they can see the Love of Christ radiating from our faces. Pray for unity of our group…we have never actually been together …pray for traveling mercies…pray for our host family, that we be gracious and respectful of their culture…and pray for the children who are about to impact us just as much as we are them!

My love and blessings go to all of our supporters!

We love you all!

Until we are in Tanzania,

Chloe`

(Ethan, Suzann, Jeremy, and Ashley)