About This Blog

I will be spending the summer of 2015 on a missions trip in Galmi, Niger in West Africa. I am going with some missionaries and friends of mine, the Zoolkoskis, and will be helping in the SIM missionary hospital in Galmi and around the hospital compound where I will be living with them. This blog is a way for me to keep in touch with all of you who are supporting and praying for me, and to keep you updated as to what God is doing in and through me! If you want to be updated as soon as I post something new, you can subscribe by email or through Blogger. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Finally Here!

Greetings from Niger!

We made it here safely yesterday afternoon! We are staying in a guest house in Niamey (the capitol) for the next few days to do some shopping and get the Zoolkoski's truck all ready to go. We plan to head over to Galmi on Tuesday, unless we get everything done earlier than that, in which case we may leave Monday.
We have only been here for one day so far, so I haven't gotten a whole lot of exciting experiences or stories to share yet, unless you want to hear about jet lag and hot, muggy weather! But let me tell you, just being here is incredible! I am so thankful to the Lord for His provision for this journey and His grace that sustains me every step of the way! I am overwhelmingly excited to see what kind of work He has for me in Galmi, and how I can serve people and learn!
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support! I am pretty sure that I have said that in every post to date, but it is so true! I can't help but sit here and think about how none of this could have been remotely possible without those two things! Thank you so much!
I haven't had a chance to take a ton of photos yet, but here are the few that I have! With the slow internet connection here, they took several hours to upload, so enjoy them! ;)

This is all of our luggage! Maddie added it up and found that it was over 600lbs! This includes our personal belongings as well as supplies for the hospital and gifts for the team that are hard to get here. Some of the most popular things to bring from the States are cheese, chocolate, and (yay!) bacon.

Mr. Zoolkoski thought that our first picture in the Paris airport had to be in front of the Caviar House!  At this point, it had been about 20 hours since I had last slept and would be several more before I got a chance to doze off, but I was still excited, energetic, and read to go! The Lord gave me all of the strength that I needed to make it through a long day of traveling.
Nancy Zoolkoski is on the far left, then me, Joel, and Maddie on the right.

This was the first sight that welcomed me in Niger--the airport! It is somewhat small for an international airport, but was still a warm welcome after a fairly rough second flight!

Above is the view of the guest house courtyard from the patio. This is what I'm looking at right now!

We visited the SIM center in Niamey and saw many of the Zoolkoski's friends, as well as the house they had lived at during their last assignment. This week, they are having a youth impact camp, with around 150 youths attending! Many are not believers, so pray that they will be reached by the Gospel this week! 

Finally, meet the "Desert Rocker"! This is Mr. Zoolkoski's treasured Land Cruiser. He informed us that it has as many miles as if it had traveled to the moon. Mrs. Zoolkoski then said that it runs like it went through a re-entry! ;) We're praying that this baby can make it back from the moon now!

Just so everyone knows, my plan is to keep up with this blog, Facebook, and email while I am here (sorry, no Instagram!). I would absolutely love to hear from any and all of you, and will respond whenever I have a chance! Feel free to message me on Facebook or email me.

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