Preparations

Readers,
This will be my first real post. Right now I am putting together my budget for the trip and honestly I'm coming up with more questions than answers. That's okay, though. I have a great team of people behind and in front of me. They're pushing and pulling :) I'm having a lot of fun with this process and it's starting to sink in about how much work it is, too.
I have been given a Grandparents exercise as part of my training. This means I have to find a person from Malawi, who now lives in the Lower Mainland and can teach about the philosophies and traditions of the culture. I tried to find someone today, but to no avail. If anyone has any ideas, they can post them to my face book page or drop me an email (hannah.hughes01@gmail.com). I am getting excited to meet someone from my host culture. By the time I go to Malawi, I might know more about Malawi than I know about Canada. All of this will be head knowledge, though. I'm sure the experiences I'll have will teach me just how little I do know.
My Pastor has been helping me with prayer cards, and I hope to have them finished and ready to go by the weekend. If you're not someone I see regularly, but would like one, please let me know via face book or email. I would love to include you in my list of contacts and have you praying with me in this wonderfully exciting and spiritually and emotionally stretching time. I am seeing God work in me to shape me into the person He wants me to be when I go.
God has been providing for me along the way. Over the last few months I have really seen His work in my life and seen Him answer many prayers.

If I could say on thing that might encourage you, it would be this: don't stop praying because you don't see or hear God's answers to your prayers. Keep trusting and following His guidance. He will supply all your needs and blow your mind in the ways He works. He wants to erase any thought that you could accomplish the hard things by yourself. He wants to bless your life. Give God a free hand and see what happens. These are lessons that I am endeavouring to learn, also. I know that God has not done great things in my life because of me, but in spite of me. Jesus calmed the storm in spite of the fishermen's lack of faith.

I appreciate your support during this time and hope you will rejoice with me in God's faithfulness. :D
Hannah