the beginning continued...

I went to see a friend of mine, Helen Mukibi, to talk and pray about how frustrated I was that I didn't know what I'd be doing next year. She said that she felt God wanted me to journey the unknown with him and that I probably wouldn't know my plans before I leave, that felt really true, and made a lot of sense in my heart, but scared me completely. She also said that I should read some biographies by people who have been there and done it. Not being much of a reader, I took one book from her collection thinking I might just be able to read it in a month.
I've never read I book like this before, I wanted to read it all the time. 'The Street Children of Brazil' was so inspiring and really confirmed my desire to be working with street children next year. A friend of mine from church, Hannah Delaney, had been to work with street children in Brazil a few years ago, so I told her about this amazing book I'd started to read. Her reaction....screaming! It was written by a family friend, and it was the charity of the author who Hannah went out with. Small world after all. Hannah helped me get in contact with the organisers to see if I could join them in Brazil. Working with 'Happy Child' is now on the agenda for next year. YES, I have something!
A few days later me and Hannah went to an event in Manchester called 'The Stand', all about human trafficking and what we can do to help stamp it out. Hannah and I felt like the evening could be really significant for my plans next year. A man called Tony Campolo spoke about the work his charity does in Haiti. I really felt I needed to speak to him, as Haiti had been a country in my prayers ever since the earthquake, and I'd told myself if I ever had the chance to go out there I would go, if it was right to go of course. So I asked him if they needed teachers or extra help in Haiti, and would they want my services. He said teachers were exactly what they needed, but mainly as a support to the existing Haitian teachers who have maintained a dictatorial style of teaching since the rigid dictatorship in Haiti. They now want to know what the best ways to teach children are. So he put me in contact with his staff. I've been praying about this as its a bit different to what I imagined I'd be doing, but I'm really open to the plan changing and the year taking its own course, steered by God hopefully. As of yet they haven't replied to me, so we shall see.
But on the way out of 'The Stand' I bumped into a friend from my youth down south, Ross Gill, who was up to get some advise about safe houses for girls as he has opened one in Portsmouth. I told him about my year off and he said I should check out the 'House of Heroes' for the street kids of Manila, Philippines, which he is one of the founders of, along with a guy I did a church trip to South Africa with when I was 15, Craig Johnson. As he was telling me about it I got chills down my spine, it sounded like the early stages of 'Happy Child' in Brazil. Wow if I could work with these guys too I'd be so excited. I immediately went home, found out as much as I could about the work they do and emailed Craig. Really praying I get to go out to Manila to work with this charity, got a meeting with Craig soon about the possibility of going out there next year, just praying it works out.
The final development has been to go out with a friend of mine to work in the orphanges of Thailand and Cambodia which she, Emma Gaze, worked with a few years ago. This would be over the summer, so she can come back to start her new job as Ivy Manchester's youth leader, but that means I'll be leaving really soon!! But the nice thing about going out with her is I get to do the first part of my travels with someont I know and to places that she already knows the people, so it sounds like a great beginning leg. Especially because I'm getting so scared about the scale of everything and how little I am. Going on my own somewhere will be a first anyway, but for a whole year where I'm still so unsure of so much, that's huge for me. Luckily I have a big God coming too!
It was so amazing that within the space of a couple of weeks I could be working in Brazil, Haiti, Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia. Well that's progress anyway....but I still believe that things will change and develop, most of which while I'm out there. But praise God for giving me some direction. Now to book the flight out to Thailand, not knowing where I'll be going from there but probably flying home from Rio a year later. AHH!!!

The beginning...

Thank you for looking at my blog about this year's journey into the unknown! Let me tell you a little bit about what will be happening this year and the heart behind it....

As a Christian primary school teacher with a degree in Geography, you might be able to guess what things I'm passionate about...working with children, of all ages, absolutely LOVE it. Learning about other cultures and other physical and social environments, how their situations have been caused and problem solving for solutions to poverty. Loving and serving the poorest communities by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless, but through a loving power that can mend emotional scars and rebuild shattered lives. I'm really interested in working in poor places; to empower local people to have the skills and confidence to be the solutions to their own poverty. My heart is particularly broken for the children of this world who live on the streets and who have been robbed of a loving childhood.

With this passion burning inside me, I requested a year out of teaching to work in some of the world's poorest places, with some of the most deprived people. Amazingly, my fantastic school have allowed me to take time out from my job to do this. And this is where the story begins...

At the time of requesting a year out I had no idea where to go, I just knew I would be going! I wasn't worried, as my life's experience so far had taught me that everything always falls into place if you pray and trust God, however the planner in me was worried and anxious to get things sorted! Every time I tried to sort something out there would be no response from the charities I was speaking to. So frustrating, I just wanted an idea, a place to be excited about, a mission to pray about but nothing was happening. Everyone around me kept asking, "Where are you going, what are you doing?" which added to the realisation that I had no clue. As I prayed about it I felt like God was keeping from the plan for a while on purpose. Did I really trust him with next year and my life, was I going to let God plan it or would it become something that I organised in the hope that it matched Gods plan. I knew I had to let go and just trust God that it would happen in the right time, and that he would not just help me find a trusted charity to work for, but that he would cause my heart to break for the people of a country and I would know it was right. A few weeks later at church a friend said to me that as she was praying for me, she felt God saying that God is holding off telling me the plan because he wants me to want it more, and that something would happen to change things. That something did happen...