Arrival in Hong Kong!!!

After a nearly six hour delay in Chicago, after my five hour layover I was finally on my way to Hong Kong! Although I was not overly impressed about spending almost 11 hours in O'Hare, my boss was on my same flight so we were able to have a good talk. I arrived late Wednesday night in Hong Kong and Josh the missionary I will be replacing dropped me off at my apartment so I could unpack and sleep.
Thursday morning Josh picked me up from my apartment and we set off to find a cell phone for me and show me some of the city. It was quite a search, but after about five hours of walking from store to store I finally decided on a phone. Friday I went to the office to meet the rest of the staff and they took me out for a huge variety of dim sum. After lunch we explored the mall at the train stop for the office and found the best deals for a new work computer. Later in the evening we met up with a two of the other missionaries and a girl who has lived in Hong Kong for seven years for dinner.
Today I have been busy buying the rest of the necessary things for my apartment. I had a fun journey carrying back my nearly 50 lbs. of purchases from the IKEA that is about a mile away. It is nice that I am able to walk through the shopping centers connected to my apartment complex, but it was difficult navigating through the thousands of people also walking with a variety of bags in the shopping centers. I have nearly everything that I need now, so it will be much easier to get back from the stores.
I am supposed to have my internet set up on Monday morning so I will have more updates and photos at that point!!!

I am now... fully funded!!!

Thank you to all of my supporters! Your prayers and financial gifts are greatly appreciated. I will be leaving for Hong Kong in just four weeks and I have secured all of my funding for my 16 months of service!

It is a huge relief to have the burden of raising support finished and I am truly blessed to have so many faithful supporters!

Blessings!

The journey begins...

When I first learned that I needed to raise $40,000 per year to serve as the communication specialist I was momentarily overwhelmed. I knew that I had the Mission Central team on my side, but it seemed impossible that I would be able to raise that level of funding over the course of a summer.

After orientation I truly began to understand how blessed I am to have Mr. Thies and the rest of the Mission Central volunteers helping me to raise funds. I was confident that God would provide, but as of June 1st I was just over halfway to my goal. World Mission has a strict rule that all missionaries must have at least 70% of their funding in place before they leave for the field.

I continually prayed that I would reach my 70% mark by July 1st. It would be a huge burden off my shoulders to know that I was going to leave for Hong Kong sooner rather than later, and having an exact date of departure would really help me to plan out the rest of my time in the US.

Over my lunch break on June 30th, I checked my email and opened the message from the Mission Central team informing me of my newest gifts. I was once again overwhelmed when I saw that the five gifts that arrived that day not only put me at my 70% mark but pushed me all the way to my 80% fundraising mark! God truly exceeded my hopes!

I bought my plane ticket for Hong Kong a few days ago, so I will offically be leaving on September 22.

Thank you to everyone who has continually supported me through prayer and financial gifts. I am truly blessed to have each one of you as a part of my team!