Help send me to Kenya!

I will be traveling to Kenya on June 3-16, with a team from Healing Place Church. We will facilitate outreaches to show the simple and practical love of Christ as well as conduct school assemblies all over the country. Kenya is an East African country with a population of over 40,000,000. Over half of Kenya's population is 15 or under! I believe the opportunity of a lifetime lies before us - the opportunity to make an impact on the youth and future of a nation. On this trip, we will have the opportunity to present the loving message of Christ to over 90,000 kids! Those children represent the future of Kenya, the hub of East Africa and me and you have the opportunity tell them how much they are loved, but I need your help!

Firstly, I am asking EVERYONE to please pray for me, the team going, and everyone that we will come in contact with. We need your prayers! I am also trying to raise funds for the trip. If you feel led to donate any amount at all, I would be humbled and grateful. I will directly receive all donations and will update the progress on the progress bar located to your right!

To donate and see up to date blog posts, visit http://www.YouCanSend.me/Brandon

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"Life of an Intern" doesn't describe my life so much anymore. Thinking about starting a new blog or maybe just, personally, retiring from the blogosphere all together. Gotta think about this one...

To keep up with me check out www.twitter.com/bbizzle

EXECUTION ROCK!

Where do I start? It has been a crazy couple of days. The guys have been doing concrete and foundation work at one of the carepoints and the girls have been doing crafts and other work at another carepoint. While the guys were working, we had a brick delivery so me and Barton started hauling bricks -

Oh yeah, it was some heavy stuff.

Yesterday we hiked to the home of one of the carepoint cooks. She walks an hour and a half to get to the carepoint to cook for the kids! It's so easy walk either, it is in the mountains. She proudly showed us her very modest home and we gave her some blankets and prayed with her. I can say for the whole group that we had a very special moment.

Then we woke up this morning to do some REAL HIKING! We set out to climb Execution Rock, where people used to be executed by being pushed off. About halfway up, I started to wonder if I was going to make it to the top, but I determined that I wasn't going to stop. I am SO glad I did it. It was breathtaking at the top. I didn't take any pictures of it on my phone (which is how I have been blogging these pics) but here is a picture of Execution Rock that I found on Google -



I stood at the top of that today! Man, it was incredible - I still can't believe I made it to the top. Tomorrow we meet up with the Mozambique team to do some stuff at the Maphaveni carepoint and then drive to Hlane game reserve to go on a game drive and spend the night there. This trip has flown by. My second time to Africa, but it is safe to say I am returning to American soil a different person.

oh yeah

Thats right - Red Bull Swazi-style. The only coffee we have found is instant aka GROSS so we have been hittin' up the gas station for some caffeine love. This was taken while we mixed concrete today and building the foundation for the new classroom at the Mongwoneni Carepoint. More concrete work in the morning (thank you Jesus, for the gift of Excedrin) and then a hike to deliver some goods and supplies to some homes in the mountains. It has been great. Lots of work, lots of laughs - all for Him. What an honor it is to do this.

HPC_swazi is official

The launch yesterday went GREAT! Everyone was buzzing with anticipation (and red bull) as we were preparing all of the last minute details. Everything from sound, children's ministry, parking lot and preparing a lunch to feed 200+ people - this is truly an HPC campus! Pastor Ben shared a great message about the woman who was caught in adultery and how the pharisees wanted to stone her - but Jesus takes the stones in our lives and turns them into our foundation. It was good stuff. There were 202 people in church to hear that message! The alter was full at the end of service. It was awesome - I will try to post pics of it later. To hold you over, here is a picture from the balloon outreach we did the the other day.

we hiked.

Yeah, its true. We hiked up a mountain tonight when we got back to the hotel. My legs hurt. My back is killing me. But it was BEAUTIFUL! It was so worth it! Waterfalls, amazing trees, MONKEYS!... We just ate dinner and we are talking about how we want to go to the rooms and crash and Natalie says, "Brandon, you don't want to know what time it is." It was only 6:55pm! I'm so tired. I haven't gone to bed this early since 4th grade. Tomorrow is the launch!

HPC_Swazi

These are the brand new HPC_Swaziland signs! They just got put up this morning and they look great! Today we went to a very busy area in the middle of the city and gave out suckers tied to balloons and told people about the church launch in the morning. Then a group of us went up to a soccer field in a really rough area and gave out cokes and talked to a bunch of young people. We are about to eat some lunch and continue to get the church ready for service tomorrow. Please pray that everything goes well in the morning!