Orientation Recap- Departure in 2 days!

Hey all! So here is a little recap of what I've been up to during the last few days! I arrived in Colorado Springs on Saturday with Mom and Dad. We spent some quality time together and met some friends in town before they dropped me off on Sunday for Orientation with Engineering Ministries International (EMI)! Kissing little Saxton goodbye, and saying goodbye to everyone else was pretty tough, as expected. But thankfully I have still been able to call/skype/text so I don't have to miss anyone too much yet.

Orientation. Wow. This week has been so full and so blessed. I am here in Colorado Springs with all of the new volunteers, new staff, and new interns to begin this semester. There are about 16 interns here, and 25 of us all together.

We have been staying in a beautiful place (as you can see from the photo below we have a great view of Pikes Peak.) We have also packed the days full of group bonding activities, cultural training, a few engineering related trainings, personality and strengths profiles, meeting EMI staff, and sharing our testimonies with each other. It has been so FULL.

I have loved every single team member, despite the fact that most of them will be serving in other offices. I have met some of my Kampala team, though! Matt and Kayla Horne, and their 11-month old Micah will be joining the Kampala office in March. Matt will be doing construction management, so I may be working with him on projects. They are also expecting a baby girl in May, which is so exciting! Anne and Daniel are the other teammates here this week that will be flying out with me on Monday. I am so glad that they are on my team and I look forward to sharing this time with them both!

For group bonding we went rock climbing one day (photo below) and each took turns climbing blindfolded with a guide on the ground. FUN but a little nerve wrecking. One of my favorite cultural training activities has been taking on the roles of other cultures and acting them out as teams. And the most amazing cultural activity was studying how to share the Gospel with other cultures that are not as justice/guilt oriented as ours. In summary, many cultures are more power/fear or honor/shame motivated and, so the Gospel needs to include the full story of God's power and glory and not only his redemption. Very eye opening.

We have also spent time taking personality tests, spiritual gifts tests, and discussing our Strengthsfinder2.0 results. In case you are curious, the DISC profile test says I am an Id (Influencing, dominant). My spiritual gifts are listed as Giving, Faith, Administration, Leadership, and Craftsmanship. And my strengths are Communication, Activator, Woo, Positivity, and Arranger. Also, I think a am a Myers-Briggs ENFJ, but we did not do that this week. We have discussed how to use all of this information to best work and communicate others, and to have a clear understanding of how God has called us to serve him best.

We also spent time sharing our testimonies with each other, which was such a wonderful experience. There was a 7-minute time limit on everyone's testimony! That made it tough! This post is awfully long now, so I am going to cut it short. Ill just share that my testimony follows a path through scripture of:
Psalm 23
Isaiah 55:3-5
Jeremiah 29:11-14
Colossians 3:23
Job 38-42

Lastly, I want to start including praises and prayer requests with you all. I know I have the most wonderful support system- so I want to make sure you are able to pray for me as effectively as possible!

Praises:
-Wonderful teammates in Anne, Daniel, Kayla, and Matt
-Thought provoking training- especially on culture and dealing with culture shock
-Refreshing time with fellow believers before leaving!
-God faithfully speaking to me that this is really where He wants me!

Prayer Requests:
-Travel! We leave Monday to Denver, Dulles, Brussels, then Entebbe in Uganda on Tuesday!
-My stomach :( It is historically weak, and I ask for the Lord to bless me with health as I try new foods, etc. (I hear from Daniel that we should expect to eat well...)
-My nerves! I am not gonna lie- I'm pretty nervous! But also very excited

Thank you all so much... And next time I blog, I'll be in Africa!!