So this is it. Oh man, oh man, oh man. Today’s the first day of a 50ish day adventure that’s sure to challenge and change me in many ways. There’s a ridiculous amount of emotions running through me right now, which makes it a little difficult to verbalize how I’m feeling.<\/p>\n
Also I’m just now realizing that this blog should be a very\u00a0<\/em>interesting endeavor for me, seeing as I am a crazy perfectionist in regards to everything I write (thank you AP Lit).<\/p>\n Anyway, I want to clarify just a bit about what I hope to do through this blog. First of all, I want to share about the incredible things I’ll see the Lord doing through this amazing organization. Having visited Village of Hope last summer, I know firsthand that God is very present there. Not many things make me happier than getting a chance to return to a place where I sense the freedom Christ gives so generously. Next, I want to reach out to those I’m leaving behind in the States. You guys know I love you and will miss you like crazy, so this is a nice way to communicate with you every so often. If I don’t personally know you, but you’re a follower of VOH’s latest updates, I’m glad I can be a way for you to get new info on the current events at the Village! And finally, everybody needs some kind of outlet. I’m definitely the kind of person who has many\u00a0<\/em>thoughts but feels guilty when they talk somebody’s ear off. This way, you decide exactly how much you want to read of my thoughts, and I can drone on about the stupid little things I feel are necessary to put in my updates. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n yay internet<\/p>\n That’s the funny thing about writing in a blog like this. Since this is my first experience of blogging completely through these mini-essays, I’m desperately hoping that I can find a good balance of truly being myself in these posts but not being so casual that it’s painfully obvious a teenager is writing them. I’m a straightforward person, though. I like being honest with people because I believe the most meaningful conversations happen when we move past formalities and into the real stuff. So I want this blog to be true to that ideal, and I hope y’all can bear with me through whatever happens on this journey!<\/p>\n Another belief that I am challenging myself to live out on a daily basis is one that you’ll probably notice through my posts. I believe without a doubt that this life we are blessed with is made for so much more than we’ve come to passively accept. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who creates stars with a single word. We’ve all been given a body and mind capable of insanely great things, not meant for living the same life as the next person. I feel very convicted that God wants to do great things in and through me, which gives me encouragement when I’m about to board two planes that will take me to the complete opposite side of the world. When the part of me that thinks I’m in charge of what I’m capable of takes over, the next couple months of my life seem impossibly scary. But when I remember that the reigns don’t belong in my hands – but instead in the hands of a real and living God – I feel invigorated to take on His challenge to experience everything the world has to offer.<\/p>\n I know there’ll be days on this journey where I’ll forget this and start freaking out, I’m just calling it now. There’ll be hard days, there’ll be great days, and there’ll be everything in-between. Prayers would be greatly appreciated for any and all of these situations. Please be praying that I stay focused on the mission and keep from feeling alone or weighed down. To be open with you, I think my biggest fear is that somewhere in the middle of this, I’ll get homesick and get distracted from the greatness around me. I want to appreciate every part of this journey, I want to experience Uganda fully, I want to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.<\/p>\n Ok Lord, I’m here, I’m ready, and all I need is You to lead me through this. Your plan is perfect, even though I don’t know much of it at all. I pray that I remain open to Your will. I pray that Your spirit will be the flame inside me that keeps me going strong.<\/p>\n Wow. This is happening. I’M GOING BACK TO UGANDA TODAY!!<\/p>\n {Haley}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So this is it. Oh man, oh man, oh man. Today’s the first day of a 50ish day adventure that’s sure to challenge and change me in many ways. There’s a ridiculous amount of emotions running through me right now, which makes it a little difficult to verbalize how I’m\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voh"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haleywhitaker.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}