I just love those days when I get out of bed excited to tackle my huge To-Do list knowing that today is going to be the day I get a ton done. That said, it’s almost amazing that on those specifc days I actually find mysleft being surprisingly unproductive. The other day was one of those horrible days. I had a lot to do and I was all fired up to do it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even able to sit down on front of my computer to start my day until the end of the day.

Here’s a little breakdown of how my day went

• 10 – 11 | Emails and Class Prep
• 11 – 12 | Taught Internship Class
• 12 – 1 | Town run
• 1 – 2 | Lunch
• 2 – 2:30 | Fixing computers/tech support
• 2:30 – 3 | Meetings and Emails
• 3 – 4 | Setting up new printers
• 4 – 4:30 | Fixing computers/tech support
• 4:30 – The start of my day in the office!

There’s always tomorrow.

One night when I was back in the states I found myself rummaging through the family photo draw looking at some very old photos from my childhood. I say photo draw because that’s exactly what it is… a draw. We don’t have any fancy photo albums just one big draw filled with pictures. It was so much fun going through all the photos. It brought back a lot of memories.
See them all in my Photo Gallery!

Some of the my favorite photos include

• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at my brothers birthday
• The best backyard ever
  
• Me and my “blankie”
• With my friend Eric Jones (just a cool picture)
• Dressed in our Sunday best

Things I realize after seeing these old pictures

• Turns out I’ve always been small.
• I really liked to smile when I was a kid
• Man, was I cute!

For a little while now I’ve been looking for an idea for a web application to build. I’ve always wanted to, but never really found anything that I believed in enough to put the time and effort in. That is until recently. During my first couple years as a missionary it’s been surprising how difficult it is to keep track of my support and also to keep up with my supporters. I know it sounds easy, but it’s been one of my biggest challenges.. and I’m not they only one. Most people here at Thrive struggle with the same problems. I’ve been using Quicken to track all my donations and expenses but it still doesn’t really give me the information I need. A program like that is overkill. I need to know simple things. I need to know how much money came in this month, who gave, who didn’t give this month that made a commitment to, what supporters have I not talked with in a while, etc.. These are just a few of the questions I am going to try and help people answer with Giving Tree.

Things are still the very early stages. I’m currently just figuring out how things will work. No pretty designs yet, just drawings on napkins. Actually the stuff is on paper, but I always wanted that story of how it all started from something that was written on a napkin. I’m really excited about Giving Tree because not only will help me, other missionaries, and ministries become better stewards of the finances God has in-trusted to them, but hopefully it will be a source of income for me as time goes on.

This month the state of Florida was in full force in South Africa with two churches coming out on mission trips to Thrive Africa. There was Summit Church from Orlando and River City Church from Jacksonville. Both teams were here around the same time so they actually got to know each other a bit during their time her. One night they even did worship together. How cool is that?! Two different churches from Florida having praise and worship in South Africa!

Interestingly, I actually have history with both of these churches. Summit Church was a great source of inspiration for me after college. At the time I felt I was just going through the motions of life and not really taking my walk with God very serious. They really challenged me to seek what God had for me in this life and how I could make an impact in the world. It was a pretty eye opening time in my life.

It was so great having River City Church out here. Not only are they the church that I visited back in February and I now consider my new “home church”, but the congregation there is filled with lots of my friends, some of which came out on the trip as well. I’m pretty sure if the church had been around when I lived in Jacksonville a few year ago I’d be going there. Another great bonus about River coming out was that they got to experience first-hand what Thrive Africa is. I talked about the ministry to the church when I was back in states in February, but talk can only go so far. You have to be out here and be a part of it to really “get it”. I hope that both teams were encouraged during their time here and were able to take away something.

I woke up the other morning to a site I’ve never seen before… snow everywhere. Even though I hated the fact that it was super cold it was so cool to see everything covered in snow. Another bonus was that it snow all day long as well. Now most people might not see the joy in a simple snowflake, but please realize that I’ve lived in Florida all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this so cut me a little slack for sounding like a little school girl.

Ok… the snow isn’t that much fun anymore. My office is freezing!