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...