I have been in Wales for close to two weeks now. It seemed that as soon as I got used to the people and places in London, it was time to go. However before everyone serving in the Hands On program in Western Europe left London two weeks ago, we had a commissioning service. It was a great time of prayer, encouragement, and challenges, but the song we sang before we all departed really put my heart and mind in the right place. The chorus said “We must go, live to feed the hungry, stand beside the broken, we must go, stepping forward, Lord keep us from just singing, we must go.” Our time in this world isn’t about being comfy and making friends although God blesses us with those throughout different points in our life, but it is all about furthering the Father’s kingdom and bringing Him glory. It was a wonderful note to end on. Sunday August 23rd my team and I took a train to Cardiff Wales our place of service. I am serving with 8 other people. There are the two guys Garret and Chris and then the seven girls Carrie, Audra, Lindley, Jesslyn, Pamela, Jenifer, and myself. The two guys and Jenifer and Pamela are staying in host homes for the four months. Myself and the other 4 girls are staying in an apartment or a flat as they call it here. It is owned by a man in the church we are attending in Wales that recently got married and is now on the mission field in Burkina Faso with his newlywed. Our dishwasher in our flat is our two hands. Our washer only has symbols on it no words so we really have no clue how it works. Sometimes we can’t get it to start, sometimes it runs for hours, and sometimes it won’t let us open it HAHA. We have no dryer and with the constant rain here it is not much help to hang your clothes on the line outside LOL! Oh and our door is quite temperamental; it only unlocks after 5 minutes of jiggling it all over the place haha. The only thing one can do is laugh about all that:) Our modes of transportation here are our two feet and the bus system. I won’t lie it is hard being at the mercy of public transportation, and it is also no fun walking in the rain. A positive thing I can say about it though is I am so worn out at the end of the day from walking that I have no problem going to sleep HAHA! The weather has not been totally dreadful yet. We have some sunny days and some cold rainy days, but our supervisor Marc Verlander said the sunny days are not going to be around much longer. The problem is that it is so windy here that you look outside the window one minute and it is sunny but in the next minute a storm cloud has moved in and it’s raining. There was one day I decided not to bring my rain jacket with me because it looked so sunny and bright; let’s just say I won’t make that mistake again haha. My supervisor like I said is Marc Verlander and he has an amazing wife Charity and three adorable daughters all under the age of five Carys, Bailey, and Addison. Marc is a great leader and his family is great. Both this week and last week have been fairly laid back. Half the day we’ll do orientation and training stuff, and the other half we’ll have to ourselves. The church we’ll be attending and serving with is Glenwood Baptist Church. Everyone there is so excited to have us and absolutely amazing. We will also be working alongside a group of British students that will be coming in on Saturday. These two weeks have allowed our team to get fairly acclimated to the area and figure out the bus system. It has given us a great chance to see the beautiful sites of Cardiff. They have beautiful castles, bodies of water, and parks. It is an absolutely gorgeous country. This country has a very rich history including revivals that have broken out here over the years. Our prayer is that God would reign out another revival in this place and awaken the people’s hearts to Him. Next week is when the real work will begin, and everything will be a whirlwind from then on out. I am not fully aware of what all I will be doing at this point, but I do know one of the areas I will be working with is the children’s ministry. Please pray for the team’s health as the days are getting wetter and colder. Also culture shock is really hitting now that we have been away for three weeks. The Welsh word of the week is trolley which is their word for a grocery cart:) Have an amazing week everyone!