19 days!

Oh wow, so much has happened in the past two weeks since my last post. Working at a summer camp tends to keep you on your toes in all the best ways :)

First, I'm a little delayed in sharing this news (apologies), but as of last week, my trip is...
FULLY FUNDED!!
Thank you to everyone that generously offered their financial support, and to everyone that prayed for God to provide the necessary funds to make this possible. I am overwhelmed with gratitude!

This is pretty close to my reaction when I got this news. Enjoy:

So yeah! Receiving all my funding was a huge milestone, and now all that's left to do is:

1. Pray
2. Finish packing (Anyone have an extra mosquito net lying around? Shoot me an email!)
3. Pray some more
4. I'd like to bring a "thank you" gift to Carole, the Director of Wycliffe Benin who has been helping me prepare for this trip since the beginning of the summer. Any good gift ideas?
5. PRAY.

In case any of my readers find this interesting, here are a couple fun (used as a relative term in this case...) pages that I've come across in my research about Cotonou:

• A very interesting page that gives details on the climate and weather in Cotonou
• Benin, Yovo Style--This is a illustrated journal (written in French, sorry anglophones) written by a girl who traveled to Benin. Talks about the things she packed and some of the things she did, and I'm a fan of her cheeky style :) (If you were wondering, "yovo" is a word people in Benin use to describe white people. From what I've heard, it's kind of like the word "gringo" in South and Central America, and it's not necessarily derogatory)

Ebola Outbreak

I'm planning to give an update on how trip preparation is going, but first I wanted to give some information about the ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, for anyone who is interested. I'm sure most of my readers have heard about it, whether or not they've deliberately sought out information on the subject. In this post I'm going to share some links to articles that I've found useful.

First off, the outbreak has it's own Wikipedia article. I found its descriptions of how various countries have been affected and are taking measures to contain the spread of Ebola to be helpful.

The outbreak started back in March, 2014, but I hadn't really caught wind of it until the past few weeks. I was a little late on the news uptake because I was so often busy with my work at camp. At this time there have been more than 1,700 cases and over 900 deaths caused by the outbreak.

Here is an interactive timeline of how the virus has progressed, with a map of countries that have been affected.

Other articles covering the outbreak
New York Times
CNN
New Republic
New York Magazine
USA Today

For anyone that is wondering how all of this has affected the area where I will be in Benin, as far as I know, there have not been any confirmed Ebola cases in Benin since the start of the outbreak. In Nigeria, Benin's neighbor to the east, there have been around 10 confirmed cases and, sadly, 2 deaths. From what I've read, it sounds like the Nigerian government's ability to identify the cases as Ebola early on has helped them to respond effectively and treat affected individuals. It also sounds like travel between African countries is being greatly restricted and regulated.

I would like to ask anyone reading this to spend some time in the weeks and months ahead praying for the people of West Africa

• For God to comfort those who are sick and those who have suffered the loss of loved ones
• For God's protection and healing to be known in affected areas
• For doctors who are called to provide care for the sick

Davanni's fundraiser photos

I must apologize, dear readers, because I promised to put up photos from the fundraiser promptly after the fact. However, I have since disgraced the meaning of the word "prompt"--here we are, a week and a half later. Time certainly does fly at camp! We had an amazing week with around 60 junior highers up at Camp Ojibway, and it was extremely fun. :) That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.

Well, without further ado, here are some photos of the happy pizza-eaters!

Thank you!!

Thank you to those that came to Davanni's last night to support my trip! It was so fun to see everyone. What a blessing to be able to share the story of how I got involved with Wycliffe, what I'll be doing in Benin, and how God has already been working through this whole journey.
Davanni's will donate 20% of the proceeds from the event towards my trip. I was excited to learn that the final amount from the fundraiser, which will be donated towards my total funds, is $133.09--praise God!

In other news, I found a lip sync video of Pharrel Williams' "Happy" that someone shot in Cotonou, Benin! Check it out below :)
I hope to post some pictures from Davanni's in the next few days. Until then, stay cool! (both literally and figuratively)

Update on the summer (+ Pizza fundraiser this Wednesday!)

Okay, as you may have noticed, "updating the blog" is not one of my spiritual gifts. The day I got to spend at home last week was spent working out the last details for the pizza fundraiser at Davanni’s this Wednesday, and I didn’t get to write a new blog post as I had hoped. In addition to camp, I’ve spent two short stints in Ohio and Michigan to attend friends’ weddings, which was extremely fun but left me a little short on time. Ah well, such is life. Speaking of which, here is a little update on my past few weeks:

First, A REMINDER:

Only two days left until the long-anticipated pizza fundraiser at Davanni’s! In case you forgot or missed it the first time, here are the deets…

Davanni’s in Richfield (by 64^th and Penn)

Wednesday, July 16^th

5:00-9:00pm

All you need is a special coupon that tell Davanni’s to put a portion of your food purchase towards my trip with Wycliffe. I would absolutely love to see you there and answer any questions you may have about Wycliffe or my trip, so come hungry!

After my week of counseling 2^nd-4^th graders at Camp Ojibway, I was part of the work crew for 5^th-6^th grade week. The work crew does a lot of work behind the scenes that the campers often don’t even notice, and as a result we have a lot less face-to-face interaction with the campers themselves. While it is a bummer to be around the campers less, a lot of staffers agree that work crew offers a valuable time of “mental rest”, and it is an opportunity to humble oneself and work on tasks for the purpose of serving the campers, even if they often won’t notice. One major perk of the camp where I work is that "quiet time" is literally scheduled into the work day. During my time alone with God, I have been especially drawn to the words of Paul, who, despite major adversity, never forgets the joyful reality of his calling--to share the gospel of Christ.

Most of the time, I feel like I have so little in common with Paul, because it feels like my road so far in pursuing my calling in Benin has been so smooth and full of enthusiastic support from friends and family. But all the same, the things that Paul writes are still so pertinent to Christians today that it’s hard to ignore the truth that he speaks. There are times when I feel stretched thin between serving at camp and working through fundraising details. But I am reminded that it is not about my abilities or capabilities (or how much time, attention, and organizational skill I have to devote to the details), or even about any setbacks that I overcome, but about God’s power and goodness. Without him, everything that I am doing is pointless.

Here’s something exciting: I’ll be purchasing my plane ticket in the next few days! I’m excited to have an official departure date nailed down so I can stop saying “sometime in late August…” like a ninny. My hope is that getting that piece of the puzzle will help a few more pieces fall into place as well. I’ll finally be able to apply for a visa, for one thing. :D

I guess I’m not sure what else there is to report. There is just enough craziness in life to keep me on my toes and keep me trusting in God’s power to get through and still have oodles of fun :)

If you have been keeping up with my blog (which I appreciate ENORMOUSLY! Merci beaucoup!!) and still have questions that I have left unanswered in my various writings, please leave a comment or send me an email! Since I am still in the planning stages, it’s hard to know what would be most helpful to write about.

EDIT: I have a few prayer requests to share with you..
1. I was having an annoying case of "runner's knee" earlier in the summer, and had a physical therapy session to learn how to help it heal. While my knee has been bothering me progressively less, I haven't been able to attend my last two follow-up appointments because of changing plans, etc. Please pray for continued healing in my knee! I would not like that problem to follow me to Benin...
2. Please pray that I would continue to find time to rest and reflect.

Update from the camp lyfe (and happy Snowball Saturday!)

Whew! This week was definitely a whirlwind of activity. We had our first week with campers up at Camp Ojibway where I work, and I had a cabin of 12 energetic and fun 2nd-4th grade gals. If you would like to read more about what we were up to that week, you can read all about it on the camp's blog! I thank God for my two CITs (Counselors In Training) who were there to help me keep our cabin full of campers happy and safe--I could NOT have done it without you guys! As you can see, we all made it home in one piece, smelly but happy :)

This will be my third summer of working at Camp Ojibway, and it seems to me that every week brings with it different challenges and surprises. This week was definitely a learning experience, and after some time of reflection, I learned a few important things.

On the second night of camp, there was a power outage that had some of the campers scared and left most of the staffers rather frazzled as we worked to adapt our schedule to accommodate for the lack of electricity. As I put my campers to bed, I was preoccupied with thoughts of what would happen if the power could not be restored by the next morning. However, after my campers went to bed and I went to a meeting with the rest of the staff, the camp lit up around 11:00pm. We were all so relieved and excited! Later that night, I was reflecting on the 5 hours we spent in the dark, and how much I was worried about tomorrow and failed to trust in God to provide for every need we had that night. It's not like God had forgotten us. As Jesus said in Matthew, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father" (10:29). How much more will he attend to our needs, despite our doubts and concerns! He definitely taught me a lesson in trust that night.

After the week was over, I was thinking about all the difficulties that came with having a large cabin of young campers. It was difficult for me to feel like I could counsel that many girls very well. This may have been due to several reasons: I had a hard time giving each of my campers the one-on-one attention that they should get from their counselor. My drive to be consistent in the way I treated each of my campers may have kept the few that really needed special attention from getting it. But while it is easy to only focus on the difficulties that any camp counselor faces, it also highlights my need to point campers to God, because I cannot be all things for them, and I certainly cannot be everywhere at once, but God can. My prayer after reflecting on this week would be that God would be teaching me to be less self-reliant and to lean on him to be my strength and the true refuge to whom I should be pointing the campers. What a valuable lesson.
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
That he understands and knows me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice, and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the Lord.
--Jeremiah 9:23-24

I would definitely value your prayers as the summer continues. Pray that the staff would continue to bond and take advantage of good communication to make things flow easily. Pray for energy for work crew and counselors alike, and for wisdom for our counselors as they will be meeting their campers for the week and want to help them to have a fun and meaningful camp experience! I would also appreciate prayers as I continue to balance working at camp with my fundraising efforts.
I have already been so blessed by the outpouring of prayerful and financial support that I have received in the past month. Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to send encouraging emails, snail, mail, and texts! Your words are extremely encouraging.
(You can take a peek at my fundraising page for updates on that front!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of FUNDRAISING, I have a new way for all of you, my dear readers, to celebrate Snowball Saturday: You can invite your friends and family to Pizza Fundraiser that I will be hosting at Davanni's in Richfield!
Check out the event on Facebook and RSVP
But if you are opposed to Facebook, you can also RSVP by email at kapitchford@gmail.com :)
And here are the deets:
Where: Davanni's Pizza in Richfield (6345 Penn Ave S, Richfield 55423)
When: Wednesday, July 16 from 5:00pm - 9:00pm
What you need: Everyone planning to attend needs a special coupon, which they will give to the cashier when they pay for their order. Davanni's will donate 20% of their "coupon sales" towards my fundraising total! I hope to hand out coupons at Hope Church and email out printable coupons a few days before the event.
If you would like to receive the coupon by email, let me know by sending me a quick email. That would be super helpful!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last but not least, I hope to update the "Got Miles?" page before I go to sleep tonight. I apologize for the delay in giving those details if you have been wondering how to donate miles. Life has been a little crazy, and I didn't have a lot of time to touch my blog while I was at camp (go figure...)

Happy Snowball Saturday! (round 2) + an update

Hi all,

I'd like to wish you all a very merry Snowball Saturday! It's that time of the week again. If you would still like to help me celebrate this very special occasion, I wrote down a few ideas in my last post. Basically, this is meant to be a very easy way for my readers to help me out by telling others about the mission of Wycliffe and specifically what I'll be up to this year. Wycliffe's mission is to make sure that every person in every nation can have access to the word of God. I will be joining this mission in Benin by helping to produce audio and video renditions of the scriptures they are translating into local dialects there.
All you have to do is think of just one friend to whom you could mention this mission, and take a second with that person to pray for Wycliffe and for me as I pursue this calling. If this effort is surrounded in prayer, I am confident that this calling will come to fruition according to God's will :)

Now for an update!
You may have noticed at the top that I've added a couple of new pages (yay!). The ever-so-creatively named "What I'll Be Doing" page gives a brief description of what I will most likely be helping to accomplish while I'm in Benin. The "Got Miles?" page is for anyone who might be interested in donating frequent flyer miles towards my airline ticket to Benin. If you are a frequent flyer with Delta, check back for more info on how you could contribute! I still need to update that page. I've been addressing a lot of envelopes recently, haha.

Which brings me to my next piece of news... I sent out the rest of my letters today--praise God! Thank you to my mother for getting them printed and helping me fold all of them. I have already been so blessed at the response I've received from people who have heard about my plans. I've gotten a few phone calls, Facebook messages, and emails... Thank you, thank you for taking the time to send a kind word. It made my day!

Finally, you can look forward to details on other fundraising events and fun opportunities to contribute that will soon be in motion... do I smell pizza? ;)

This week I'll be praying for my brother David and his fiancé (that's right, FIANCE!) as they continue their adventures in Europe (that's right, EUROPE!). Prayers for safety are always in order when travel is involved, but also that stress would not be a part of their fun daily activities as they transition smoothly from one glorious adventure to the next. Love you guys!