The Count Down Begins!

23 Days until Departure!

Well it is August 1st and I am back in Pittsburgh heading into the home stretch before I depart for Malawi Aug. 24th. I just returned from the New Wilmington Mission Conference where I was a high school counselor. The week was great and I really enjoyed getting to know and work with my girls! Highlights included: listening to some great speakers talk about missions and how God is moving in the world, hearing about Summer Service 2010 Egypt, playing volleyball, running with my cousin, getting to talk to lots of people about Joy to the World Ministries and my trip, spending time with missionaries who served in Malawi in previous years and who were able to give me some great advice and encouragement, doing a dance with my girls in the HS talent show, and getting to catch up with some of my Summer Service 2008 Malawi teammates! Sooooo Fun!!!! :-) Although I am a little sad conference is over I am very ready to begin preparations!

These next 3 weeks are going to be crazy busy and fly by so fast! Within these next 2 weeks I hope to get everything packed and to finish up all of my homework for my Perspectives class. Right now I have nothing set out or ready to pack I only have the beginning of a packing list. In terms of my Perspectives class I am on lesson 5 out of 15. I hope to have all 15 lessons done before the class starts Aug. 15th. Yikes! The class (Perspectives on the World Christian Movement...check it out if you haven't heard of it! www.perspectives.org) lasts through the 21st so I will only have a few days after before I leave.

Support Update:
Well as you may have noticed it is August 1st! The day that I had hoped to have all of my support in by! So whats the latest?!  As of July 21st I was at 28%. I am not gonna lie this made me a bit nervous considering I was leaving for NWMC for 1 week...the last week in fact before my Aug. 1st deadline! So I was basically out of contact for the entire week unable to have any control over the situation at all! Not able to be proactive contacting anyone or checking on the status of my support. Very nerve-racking!  I was talking to one of my friends on the phone before I left and she said to me "Yeah I know that will be very scary but what if God just takes care of it all for you and you come back to 100% support". I chuckled and admitted that yeah that would be pretty sweet but didn't really think twice about it because it seemed impossible. I fought those thoughts (that it was impossible for God to raise all of that support) all week! On numerous occasions during conversations about my trip people would ask me where I was at in my support raising and when I would tell them 28% and that I want to have it all in by the end of the week some would just laugh and say "well I guess that isn't happening". Part of me agreed with them thinking that yes it was not going to happen but I fought really hard not to believe that lie and not to limit God! I kept praying that God would do the impossible and show me how powerful He really is!  By July 25th I had jumped to 43%.  I was amazed! I couldn't believe that God had provided that much just in a few days! Well the week continued as expected with me not being able to check on anything. I arrived home yesterday afternoon. Today I sat down to try to figure the situation out and was completely surprised. I had received some notifications from various people about contributions AND...(*drum roll please*)...I am at 100% of my initial $8,000 goal!!!! WHAT?!?!!!! GOD THAT IS TOTALLY RIDICULOUS!!!! Now I still have to wait for a few of them to actually officially go through but still! WOW!!! God did it!!!!! Are you kidding me?!!! I am speechless!!!

It has been so crazy to see how God has been answering my prayers recently, especially within this last week at NWMC and through my Malawi stuff. I don't know why I am so surprised everytime He does answer my prayers because He promises that He will ("If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer" Matthew 21:22) but anyway I am continuing to learn and grow so much through this process! Oh Boy!

Now all of that being said since the time I sent out my initial estimate of $8,000 a few additional expenses have popped up (like additional money for housing rent) so if you have just sent a donation or still want to help support my trip any additional money received will help cover these extra expenses. Also I have been notified by JTW of their need for a specific type of ink cartridge for the printers in their internet cafe in Kasungu. I will be trying to round up a bunch of cartridges that people would be willing to donate to take over with me. If this sounds like something that you would like to help with shoot me an email and I will give you more specifics (stephanie.smith1168@gmail.com).

Thanks again to all of you for helping to make this trip possible both financially and through prayer!!! I am so so soooooo grateful for your support!!!

Tsalani Bwino
Steph

Prayer Requests:
-Packing: that I would be efficient and creative in packing and that I wouldn't forget anything
-Perspectives: that God would help me move faster through the lessons while still absorbing all of the information and that I would complete all of the lessons before Aug. 15th
-For my Dad and sisters who will be in Malawi Aug. 2-14 on a mission trip with my church working with Ministry of Hope the other ministry I worked with while on summer service (how cool!)
-That I wouldn't be anxious or stressed trying to get everything done but that I would be able to enjoy my work and really be present at home this last month