Liberia 2013!

My dear friends and family,

 I am so excited to share this opportunity with you! I don’t even know where to begin! I remember watching “Idol Gives Back” when I was 9 or 10 and seeing Africa for the first time. I remember seeing starving children and dying people for the first time. I only saw it on a screen, but I knew it was real and I wanted to do something about it. I have dreamed of going to Africa for as long as I can remember. As you may or may not know, this past summer (2012) I travelled to Port Au Prince, Haiti in July. While we were there, we had the opportunity to love and care for children in four different orphanages. One orphanage in particular really struck me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.

            Mostly all of the children were sick, coughing, and dirty. Some of them didn’t have clothes. The ones that did were wearing sweaters, pajamas, clothes that were too small, clothes that were too big, just a shirt, or just pants. Some of the kids even took turns wearing clothes. I would see a boy in an outfit one day, and then the next morning he would be naked and another boy would have the outfit on. The children didn’t have underwear. Some of them had hernias, and some had bloated bellies. When they ate, they would scream and cry, grabbing rice from each other and shoving it in their mouths as fast as they could with tears running down their cheeks. While cleaning out their school desks, I found rice that they had hidden because they didn’t know when their next meal would come. The orphanage smelled like a barn, or worse. Their water came from a dirty pump outside. I will never forget the sound of those kids crying. The orphanage was dirty and smelly and heartbreaking, but I loved it.

            I loved walking in to a bunch of kids yelling “Joana! Joana!” I loved little hands constantly reaching up for me to hold them. I loved teaching them about Jesus. I loved twisting pipe cleaners into hearts for them. I loved sharing water with sweet little babies. I loved never going more than 5 minutes without holding a child, or two, or three. I loved the way they all crowded into a little room to sing and jump and shout and praise God at the top of their lungs for hours on end. I loved the way they insisted on helping us carry buckets of sand that were way too heavy. I loved doing work with one hand and holding a baby in the other. I loved kissing little cheeks and wiping away little tears. I loved when a million little brown faces crowded together, all wanting me to take their picture. I loved washing away dirt that had probably been there for years. I loved showering those kids with love that they probably hadn’t felt since 2010 when a terrible earthquake took their mothers and fathers.

            After this week in Haiti, I was certain of one thing: that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. I love Mexico, and I love Haiti, but I believe that the Lord has called me to Africa. After praying about it for many, many years and many discussions with family, pastors, spiritual leaders, and missionaries, I have decided to move to Africa next year when I graduate from high school. I don’t know all the details yet – in fact, I really don’t know any details – but that’s okay. I trust that God, who knows better than I do, has it all figured out, every last second of it. I believe that I was created to love orphans and that is exactly what I plan to do. The Bible says in James 1:27 that “Religion that the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” So to me it’s that simple. I know that there are children in this world who need someone to hold them, to feed them, to clothe them, to love them, and to teach them about Jesus. I want to be that person. I want to live like this:

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’

And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”

Isaiah 6:8

            With that said, I have been praying for a very long time for an opportunity to go to Africa this summer (2013). I asked God that, if it was His will, could I please go for more than one week? J God is faithful, and answered my prayer. On July 6^th, I will get on a plane and fly very far to a beautiful little country on the edge of West Africa. Liberia is a small country, just a little bigger than Tennessee. The people there speak English. We will be leaving on a Saturday and returning two Fridays later. While we are in Liberia, we will have many ministry opportunities such as: working with church planters and evangelists, sharing the Gospel, work projects, and caring for orphans and impoverished people. I can hardly believe this dream is coming true. 

           It is a pretty expensive dream, but I know that nothing is too big for God. I am simply asking that you pray. I would not ask that you do anything more or less than what God places on your heart. If the Lord leads you to contribute to the cost of this trip, I am humbly grateful! Please pray for me as I prepare for this life-changing two weeks. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!

All my love,
Gianna <3