Housing and Donations Collection

I never thought that I'd be living in such a place in Africa! Our team is going to be staying in the guest house pictured above. It's used to house families who adopting children from Addis. It was started by a man named Dave and his wife. You should definately check out their websites:
http://ethiopiaguesthome.com/index.php?id=5
http://daveandrae.blogspot.com/
Such a cool organization and idea. If you are traveling to Africa to adopt a child, imagine what a blessing a safe and lovely guest home would be.

Right now I'm trying to get all my donations and personal clothing and supplies in order. It's quite a task. I feel so incredibly blessed though. After sending out the email to my friends and family I have recieved responses from over a dozen people who want to help. I have two digital cameras being donated as well - maybe three if my parents allow me to use their camera and doante my own. My prayer is that I end up with too many donations! I just found out that some of us can bring an extra suitcase on the trip through British Airways (since it's a missionary trip). Hopefully I get enough to fill that extra suitcase. I have a professor who is collecting donations at her office, a church who is collecting physical and monetary donations, and too many other people to name.

I've been so busy lately with my new internship that the trip has not been my focus lately. It took me a long time to get around to asking for donations. And now I'm trying to get all my clothing and medication and things in order. But, I have two weeks. And God is good. He's making this happen. I get a little teary-eyed when I think about leaving. I'm trying to prepare for the heartbreak...the heartbreak of meeting these children, who I can feel a love for already, and seeing their endurance and hearing their stories. I hope my heart is open enough to soak all that in and give love back in return. I'm so excited to bring the kids all these fun things. It's seem so small...a coloring book or stickers. But to these children, it's a miracle that an odd pale girl from way across the ocean knows of their heartache and cares enough to bring presents.

More updates to come soon. Until next time...

Donations Please!

Hello dear friends,

I'll be updating this site soon. I can't believe I leave in less than a month. Right now I'm in the process of collecting donations. Please read the note I sent out by email below. I'd really, really appreciate the help collecting donations. You can contact me with questions (makohne@gmail.com):

As most of you know, I'm going to Ethiopia is less than a month! I'll be visiting two different orphanages in Ethiopia that desperately need some supplies (each orphange has over 200 kids). I've complied a list of welcomed donations below (the first half of the list is specific requests from the orphange, and the second half is supplies our team needs to do special activities with the kids!) Please take a look at it and let me know if your heart tugs at you to donate. I will be bringing two 50 lb. suitcases along and will pack as little clothes as possible to fit in all the donations.

I leave for Africa on July 1st and will be collecting donations up until that point. Please, please let me know if you'd like to add to the pile. Ask your friends and family if they'd like to help as well! I'll be down in Minneapolis for the majority of the time before my trip, but will be visiting Duluth on the weekend of June 20-22nd. So let me know if you'd like to meet up!

I can't urge you enough to please donate. It will mean the world to these kids that people all away across the world have heard of their hardships and care enough to send presents.

Donations needed:

Technology - no need to buy! simply if you have one you no longer need, there was a special request for both.
- 1 pc laptop
- 1 digital camera
Personal Effects
- Clothes (2 yrs old to teen)
- Shoes (Elementary up to High School)
- Toothbrushes/toothpaste
- Bumbo seats (5 needed – 1 per trip?)
- Bouncy Seats (5 needed – 1 per trip?)
- Vitamins
- Diapers & formula
- Hand sanitizer
- School Supplies
- Pens/Pencils
- Blank Composition Books
- School Books
- Math
- Physics
- Dictionaries
- English books
- Flash Cards
- Crayons/coloring books
- Back Packs
Games / Toys
- Black Baby Dolls
- Soccer balls
- Small Pumps and needles
- Games (Simple ones!)
- Jenga
- Lincoln Logs
- Legos (simply blocks, not the spaceship one)
- Puzzles
- Jump ropes
Activities/Crafts (they LOVE this stuff – every team should go get this stuff b/c it’s a great way to spend time with the kids)
- Crafts - Go to Michaels!
- Bead Necklaces
- Little wedding bubbles packs
- Stickers
- Foam Bookmarks
- Face paint
- Polaroid camera
- Tote bags to decorate with: Paint pens/jewels
- Nail polish – they love to be pampered by you!

Carnival Day
Team members will set up different stations with activities such as face painting, jigsaw puzzles, arts and crafts, and balloon animals
Supplies Necessary:
- Face-paints
- Children’s puzzles
- balloons (both round and long)
- Arts and Crafts Supplies
- glue, scrapbooking paper, and children’s scissors
- TONS AND TONS of stickers
- children’s magazines
- any sort of school supplies
- tape, hand paints, coloring books
Holiday Day:
Team members will spend time acting out and describing different American holidays and the meaning behind them. This is a great means to present Biblical truth and the Gospel through the process.
Supplies Necessary
Any decorations or fun things associated with:
- Christmas
- Easter
- St. Valentine’s Day

Last Conference Call

So an update. Last night we had our last conference call before our trip to Africa. It is somewhat crazy to think about since we don't leave for several weeks. Our leader, Geoffrey, though is leading the other groups to and will be in Africa all summer. That makes it a little hard to have conference calls into the summer. Our last call went well. I learned a few things:
1) My balloon making skillz need some fine tuning. Apparently we are going to be putting on some carnival days for different kids. Since I all went and got a kit, I should hopefully be good at this. I should dig out that dvd this weekend and practice...
2) I forgot about the weather. It's only going to be around 50-70 degrees when we are there.
3) It is the cultural thing for man to be attracted to women by their thighs in Africa (maybe like men are to breasts in the US? Not sure if it's the same or not...) Apparently, if a woman shows off her thighs by tight fitting pants (or shorts) it most definately reflects her character. I will be shopping for long skirts (are those even made in the USA anymore?!?)

On a side note...sometimes I tend to ramble and instead of bogging down my friends with all my repetitive worries or ramblings I sometimes instead type them. I found this sentence from a recent Melissa rambling session, and although it's kinda sad, I guess it just sticks out a little bit and I really have no clue where that sort of writing came from. It's not typical for a Mel Rambling:
"Where silent confidence paired with giddiness and anticipation once stood, now stands doubt"

Alright. That is all for now. Until next time...

Thoughts

Two posts in one night...I know, it's a lot. But this one probably won't be too long. I just wanted to get down a few thoughts.

First of all, we just had a conference call with our team. We haven't had one in forever it seems. It was so nice to reconnect and feel as a team once more. Not everyone speaks up during the phone calls and seems to want to share. I hope it's only because it's a conference call and sometimes awkward to speak up and not because people are uncomfortable with the team. I'm hoping we'll all be more chatty in person!

I'm still struggling money wise. Technically, my trip is all paid off in the eyes of 963Missions and African Leadership. But, my Dad chipped in a lot of money to help me meet the deadlines. I'm going to try to sell coffee in person these next few weeks and see if I can gain some of the money to pay my dad back. At this point every little bit counts. It's just been so hard for me to come to terms with. I feel like this trip is what I'm called to do, and I've been trusting that God will provide. Yet, it's hard to not get discouraged when it doesn't work out exactly as I had hoped it would. Not that I'm discouraged, just ready for this financial burden to finally be lifted. Please!

My life will hopefully calm down soon and get into a pattern (my fingers are crossed). I just finished up with my finals and have a few days at school, then at home, and then moving into my summer location and starting my job. I'm excited to start preparing more for Africa within the upcoming weeks. I can even start thinking about what to bring!

Now I'm off to sleep. See...not too long tonight. =)

Until next time...

Invite to Join

I just sent out this email, but for all of you whose email I don't have, please considering joining:

Hey dear friend,

Hopefully I've already shared the news with you, but I am traveling to Ethiopia this summer for two weeks with this awesome organization called the Mocha Club. I realize not everyone can give of their time to fly all the way over to Africa to serve, but I wanted to share how you can be a part of the Mocha Club right from home!

Mocha Club functions as a website, where you give up $7 a month (the cost of 2 mochas) to help Africa. Can you believe that the cost of 2 mochas ($7) gives clean water to 7 Africans for a whole year?! It's only $7 but it's changing so many lives. Mocha Club also supports projects like orphan care, relief for the victims of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan and many more. I wanted you to join me! I'd love for you to join my team and make a difference. Mocha Club is giving away TWO FREE EXCLUSIVE DAVE BARNES MP3s if you sign up. ("Someday" and "On A Night Like This" acoustic versions recorded especially for Mocha Club!)

Personally, I've felt convicted to move from just thinking about it, to actually doing something. And I thought it'd be fun to do this with family and friends. The more of us that join, the greater impact we'll make, so once you join, you can invite friends too. Mocha Club updates us through blogs, videos, and podcasts every month so we know exactly where that money is going and can stay connected to our project in Africa.

Please consider joining the team. It's something that can even happen on a broke college budget (trust me, I'm there!)

As always, please keep myself and my team in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to prepare for our trip.

Much love,
Melissa

Click on this link to check it out:https://www.mochaclub.org/mochaclub/invitation/f01416dd5c81331e2604eb0079d57001/7

Mocha Clubbing

I should definately be falling asleep right now, but I just have to say: Tonight, I felt so, so, alive, so in my element, my comfort zone, my right spot. I worked the Mocha Club table for the Dave Barnes Concert (or went Mocha Clubbing as I like to call it). I can't begin to describe how much I love telling people about the Mocha Club and getting them to sign up and join the cause. Then, to hear Dave talk about it from the stage just is the icing to the cake.

He has a new CD out called Me & You & The World (definately check it out if you haven't). I know I've said this in a previous post, but whenever I listen to it I feel like it was written for me and my group going to Africa. It has been the soundtrack to my life for the past month. Whenever I get stressed our freaked out about this incredible journey ahead of me (which happens more than I'd like to admit), I can put on Dave's CD and feel my soul quiet down and be at peace. One song, Carry Me Through, in particular hits me everytime.

Well, I really felt the need to tell Dave this. I was nervous about it a bit because it's hard to tell someone something that personal amongst the random, "hey nice job tonight" banter they get bombarded with. The outcome of sharing this with the Mr. Dave Barnes?

1) We had a little heart-to-heart moment and a connection. It's hard to explain and I'm not going to try, but it was there. And...

2) I found out I need to bring stickers to Africa. Apparently the kids love them, they are easy to pack, and you can bring enough for everyone to have some.

I hope you all had a wonderful night as well. Only a month or so and I will be back at Varisty Theater Mocha Clubbing it once again (for Matt Wertz's concert). Also, two months from now, my feet with be on Ethiopian soil (feel the goosebumps run down my arms as I say that!)

Until next time...

Quotes

I'm a big quote person. You know those books that are all colorful and have lovely, mostly cheesy, hopefully inspirational quotes all through them? Well, I'm one of those people who love them. I've also gotten into underlining sentences in books as I read them that stand out to me. Not that I ever really go back and ponder them, but I like to believe it someone makes them more prophetic and meaningful.

Anyway, the reason for all this insight? I was looking through my phone today at my "notes" section. I rarely use it. I've only used it to record the set lists for concerts (actually, only for Alternate Routes concerts, but now I just decide I'll get the set list from them afterwards instead, haha), but I also found that I had recorded some random quotes. I must have thought these meaningful enough to find that hidden function in my phone to record them:

"History is more terrifying and more beautiful than we know"
This was said by Minnijean Brown-Trickey. If you don't know who she is, you should google her. Seriously. She's amazing. She was one of the Little Rock Nine and she spoke at Saint Thomas this spring. The quote is actually by someone else, but the name escapes me. Anyway, I remember when she said it. I had just had my first conference call with the team to go to Ethiopia with, and my mind was constantly thinking about Africa. She said those words, and I immediately thought about my upcoming journey. These Ethiopians - their stories - are going to be more terrifying and more beautiful than I can ever know. I can't pretend to have the first clue in knowing their history and their stories. But I can listen and learn and love them for it.

"She is willing to try any endeavor that affords her the opportunity to shake up the etch and sketch of everything she supposes is true, a chance to question all her secret opinions: that this thing is good, that one bad; that this person is better, that one worse."
I distinctly remember quoting this from a magazine and laughing to myself that I was such a dork for doing so. One, I like the wording "shake up the etch and sketch" and wish that I could use it in everyday sentences more often. Two, I strive to be that person. I want to push my limits of my own secret opinioins. I want to be "willing to try." I hope this trip does that for me a little bit.

Finally, dear Christine from Mocha Club left this as a comment on one of my previous blogs. It definately warrants an actual entry:
"Lord, I have said the eternal ‘Yes.’ Let me never, having put my hand to the plough, look back. Make straight the way of the cross before me. Give me love, that there may be no room for a wayward step." - Elisabeth Elliott
I was talking to Elizabeth, who I'm going to Africa with, about different ways we try to keep Africa in our minds throughout the day. She suggested printing up a map of Africa and putting it somewhere that I'd see it regularly. I finally printed one up the other day and put that quote on the bottom of it. It now is above my bed so I can see it before falling asleep and after waking up.

This is definately a lengthy post, and I have homework to still finish! Good night all.