3 weeks til outreach!

Hello,

Great news... our total amount has lowered from $8400.00 to $7600.00 to $6762.00!

The reasons for these changes are: We are spending Christmas in India (staying an extra month) and are ditching our flight from Tanzania to Uganda for a bus! I am actually excited (though I bet this will change during the 24 hour ride) to see more of the countryside and experience how the locals travel.

I have had a bunch of friends promise to pray for me, about 7 people agree to sponsor me, and a few others who wanted to but couldn't right now. Thank you all! It really means a lot to me that you don't run away and hide awkwardly when I ask for help :) and I really love hearing that you are excited for me.

I have been here 2 months this week and it has been so amazing. I've made tons of friends and laugh a lot! Last week we learned about the spiritual dynamics to birth and how whatever spiritual presence we bring will either negatively or positively influence each child.

A key point we were taught was that; just as a footprint leaves a physical mark/memory, our spiritual footprints leave spiritual marks/memories... but they last longer. That is why when you walk into a place where dark things have happened, you can sense it. Many of the places we will be entering in have negative spiritual memories(because of witchcraft, physical abuse to previous mothers, death, abortion...) and because everything we do physically affects the spiritual world (because the physical and spiritual world are completely connected as they also taught us this week), we need to be continually praying, having a positive attitude, staying in unity and working well.

This week we have Dr. Martin Panter from the UK teaching on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and tropical diseases. It is so interesting and helpful for us to gain understanding in what is a part of many Indians and African's everyday life. ALSO we have a 28 year old Doctor Sasa from Burma whose story is incredible! His village sponsored him to go and become a doctor... check out: www.healthandhope.org to see what he's doing in Burma!

We are doing a car wash, market night, and movie night this weekend to raise money for the team.... $44, 000 still to raise ... it seems like a lot but just today we dropped $18,000 off because of the changes I mentioned above! Each day we tell stories of money coming in and subtract it from our total needed and it is so exciting to hear each others stories. A few girls don't know where the money is coming from, it just shows up in their accounts!

Thanks for reading,

Stef