love, jules

Well, we leave for Kenya in less than a month. Can you believe it's already almost time? I guess the summer flew by without me knowing!

So what's the latest? I'm not really sure! I had to miss 3 consecutive team meetings this summer and have only seen the team, or most of them, once since May. Last Sunday we all met up to go to a Kenyan church here in the Dallas area called Upendo Baptist Church. Apparently Upendo hosts other churches in their building because more than half of our team ended up in a South Sudanese worship service instead of the Kenyan worship service.  I was among the group who was in the wrong place. haha. It didn't matter though, we were all excited to be there. It made me even more excited/ready to get to Africa!

South Sudanese Worship!

After we left the wrong service, we "snuck" in to the Kenyan service to try and catch the last few minutes. Well, as quietly as 15 people can sneek. We came in as they were about to pray for a few church members who would be traveling to Kenya soon. They obviously noticed us come in, so they asked us to share where we were from and why we were there. You have to remember, we're the only white folks in there, and a rather large group at that - very noticeable. We told them we would be traveling to Kenya to help plant a church in the Rift Valley, and that we were excited to share the gospel with the people of this area of Kenya.

After the service, the pastor invited us to chat with him for a few minutes and then we had chai, in typical Kenyan fashion, with the church members. I absolutely loved spending time around these people. They are all so very friendly and welcoming! I'm hoping to go back again soon, and possibly on a more regular basis. 

So there you have it, our first experience going to Kenyan Church!

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At the beginning of July I decided to partner with an organization called World Wear Project in hosting a clothing drive as a fundraiser. The plan was for me to gather clothing donations and WWP would pay per pound donated. Initially I was going to host a donation bin, but I couldn't ever find a location to place the bin, so I resorted to Plan B. I collect bags of donations for a few weeks and kept them in my living room until I could get the WWP truck to come and pick everything up. 

This is what your living room looks like when you have
a fantastic group of friends who donate so much!

It didn't hurt that a lot of friends were moving at the time :-)

It ended up taking over the living room...

Although it was a bit cluttered for a while, I was so thankful that everyone was willing to donate their unwanted items to help me raise a little money.

We ended up collecting a total of 1,127 pounds, which equaled $169.05! I was happy with the outcome. Every little bit counts!

Thanks to everyone who donated!

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One last thing - We now have a supply list of requested items from Isaac, the pastor we will be working with in Kenya. Would you please take a look at the spread sheet and see if there's anything you'd like to contribute?

If you'd like to donate any items please email me to arrange pick up/drop off/shipping items to me.

julie.a.cosby@gmail.com

Thank you so much for your support and prayers! 

I'm so blessed to have you in my life.

love,

jules