12-24-10

Im in Beautiful sunny warm ( today) Applesbosch  South Africa. This is the First time ive spent Christmas away from my family, i was really upset about the idea of not being home for while. But as time has passed and not to sound cliche but the reason for the season has been brought up numerous time. Ive been reminded of why i am here to Serve God and Serve Others being with family is wonderful and great but is not why God brought Jesus to earth for us! Lets remember what this time of year is really all about!! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 

just a little update...

So today is December 20th, I left home almost 4 months ago now and wow does time fly!!

so since its been so long since ive updated my blog im going to do it in Sections hopefully this help keep things a bit clearer, in my mind as i write this and in your's as you read it! : )

 From Sept 1st till Nov. 8th -Sobona Sonke ( so all may see)

I was with the Mercy Ships Eye Team Working in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. We Worked in 9 Different Clinics/ hospitals, thats one Per week!  Our  Eye team was made up of 9 people, Dr Glen the surgeon and his wife Kim, Woody the Optometrist and his wife Robin, Henry and wife Mampho our spiritual support/Chaplains, Glenys the OR nurse, and myself. Our team was split into two team Screening and Surgical. I worked as the screening team coordinator along with with woody, Robin, henry and mampho, the others were the surgical team. we would split up during the week, the screening team going to different area which were typically over an hour away from the surgical sites.During the 9 weeks our screening team moved more than 18 times, going to one area for the work week and then meeting back up with the surgical team on the weekends. It was an amazing experience full of laughs and tears. There were many aspects that were much harder than anyone would have imagined But it was amazing to see God provide Growth all round!

                                                  
                                            


We work in Tight       Spaces!

We help move cars




or read books!

               The TEAM!









A dinner party with local surgeons and their familys.



From  Nov 8th till Nov 22nd  VACATION

Noel one of my best friends from home and her mom Maryann came to visit!! I met them in Capetown which is in the Western Cape of South Africa. They spent two weeks here with me and it was amazing! We rented a    car and drove from  Cape town to Gansbaai. While we were driving we stopped along the way to do lots of cool things like see pengiuns, Whales, monkeys, ostrich, taste wine and beer, pet cheetahs. We also took a tour of a local township in cape town called khayelitsha, road the cable car up table mountain at sunset, and we went shark diving!! and all that was in a little over one week! We then flew from capetown to Jo-burg to start our 4 day safari at Krugger National Park, Where we saw lions, Elephants, Rhinos, hippo's, all kinds of deer, wart hogs, Buffalo, different species of birds and lots of crazy bugs!! It was so much fun to see them and all of the wonderful places and animals here in south Africa! I feel very blessed to have friends that would travel so far to see me! and To have an awesome creator, the one and only God!

View Larger Map

Noel Ma and I at dinner

Penguins! 

Shark Diving! Im in the Cage!

Wine Tasting!

My FAV!!

ZEBRA!

Nov 22nd till Now- Applesbosch!

Applesbosch was an abandoned school campus, and is now where the Non-technical Crew of the Africa Mercy live, there are 4 Dorm builds 2 for family's 1 of guys 1 of girls, a large kitchen/ dinning room, a gym with volley ball nets and a trampoline and a stage that was used for the mercy ship academy's Christmas play, theres also classroom which were used by the Mercy ships academy and office building which are used by human resources, the finance department and other necessary departments. There is lots of space for the kids here to run and play, we can often here cows mooing or have goats run through the campus, were are in a very rural area about 3000 ft above sea level and 1 1/2 hours from the city! Quite a different experience then living on the ship, there are less people here and the number are steadily dropping as Christmas approaches, Everyone has there own room which is so nice. Since there are so many less people the Community environment is much more inclusive which i love!! I Currently work in the galley helping cook lunch and dinner   , if you really know me you know eating is my favorite so im really enjoying it, and i work with a great group of people that make it lots of fun!!

Now i bet your probably wondering why im volunteering with Mercy Ships and living on land? crazy huh?
well our home/ the ship is currently having some repairs done, the generators were old and needed to be replaced and there was some other things that needed fixing so the ship could run more efficiently to be able to help more people in West Africa. The ship was in dry dock for some time and now is floating while having to remainder of the repairs, were hoping to move home sometime in the middle of January and then sail to Sierra Leon the beginning of February...I think!

Prayer Request!
* For God to continue reveling his will for my life,  for me to take Steps of faith According to His Promptings.
* For The Ship as it continues to be worked on and the men that are working on it.
*For the crew here to remain safe and healthy, Physically and Spiritually.
*For new relationships/ friendships as new crew arrive.
* For my family and friends at home that i miss so much!!
* For Continued support spiritually and financially!

If you wanna see more pics check out my facebook!!

If you'd like to become a partner in my mission you can do so by donating at the following website:
https://connect.mercyships.org/page/outreach/view/crewmates/hickes

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
LOVE
Shannon

Sabona Sonke - So all may see!

1 team
9 people
9 weeks
2,440 miles driven
18 moves
9 clinics
3000 -Patients screened
601-Cataract surgery's performed

SERVING GOD = PRICELESS!!

Time for an update...

i know its a bit over due.

So Monday will start the 5th week of our project/ campaign, it's called Sobona Sonke which means so all can see, here in The Eastern Cape of South Africa. We are partnered with the Fred hollows Foundation, and the Eastern cape health department to provide  training to surgeons on a procedure called msics  and to transfer skills to hospital and clinic staff that will improve efficiency and decrease the number of people blind from cataracts. The first three weeks were spent in Port Elizabeth, the surgeons worked at a district hospital there, while our screening team, thats the team i am on, worked at three different clinics in PE for one week each uitenhage, motherwell, and grahamstown. The second three weeks which we are now in week two of are being spent in Queenstown. The surgeons are at founders hospital at the Sobona eye center, and my screening team will move each week, we spent last week in stutterhiem, this coming week will be aliwal north, followed by cofimvaba. We will then spend our last three weeks in Umtata, the suregon will again stay at one hospital while the screening team moves to three different locations.

Each clinic and hospital had it own complications,, we basically start from square one each week  with new staff and a different understanding of why we are there. One thing that remains consistent from week to week is Gods hand in all of this, we are always reminded of His grace in love in our lives, the  clinic staff  and the community volunteers that help us with translation and praying for our patients.

Being here has been such a blessing ive had more alone time than i have ever had in my life which is both good and bad. Good because ive had lots of time to spend with God and work on my relationship with him its also given me lot of time to  read..if you know me well you know im not a reader haha, and its been bad b/c at times i am bored out of my mind which leads eating lots of junk food lol

South Africa is quite unquie as it is still considered a developing nation some places seem just like home shopping malls, paved road, movie theaters, restaurants and then there are things that remind you that you are not in the us anymore like driving one the other side of the road, which is difficult enough to get used to now add that i am driving an american left side drive vehicle, which is why we drive as a team haha the passenger has to see if it is safe to pass the big truck that is 30 km/h under the speedlimit on  a two lane road one lane going in each direction, Not to mention the monkeys on the side of the road where you would usually find squirrels  and zebras and elephants instead of deer. I am def enjoying my time here Please continue to pray for us as we build relationships with the others that we work with and with the patients we come in contact with that we would be a light shining for Gods glory!

Here are some pics of what we've been doing!

well we have been doing alot more than fighting over benches and seeing wild life but it wont let me upload the rest of the pics! check out my facebook to see more fun stuff!!
<3

2 days

Two days from now i will be headed to South Africa, After about 35 hours of traveling i will meet with my Eye team. As i prepare to leave there are so many thoughts going though my head, i couldn't even begin to write them all here. I know my team and  i will live in 3 different areas of the Eastern cape working with 3 different Hospitals,  our goal will be to help them improve care to the hundreds of people needing cataract surgery. This is a very big task for our team but we our confident in God that he will provide what ever the needs may be. As i continue to prepare to leave please keep me in your prayers, i am nervous and anxious this is a big step of faith. I am sure that this is where God wants me. Please Pray for God's provision and safety for my team and I!

God bless!

Time....

We've all got time the only difference is how we choose to spend it.  Ive recently made a big decision that may seem a bit rash to some of you but know that i have been praying about this for months and God has given me confirmation and peace. I've now been away from home for just under 5 months although it hasn't been easy i am confident that God is in control. I have learned a lot though the difficulties whether they been personal, work related, or with friends i know God is teaching me and preparing me for whatever lies ahead! and that brings me to what this is all about. In January while in Gateway someone said something about people working for mercy ships for a time and then leaving where as in a paid environment you would work somewhere until you felt God was telling you to leave, Why is working with mercy ships different? if you feel called to work here shouldn't you stay until you feel God is telling you leave? So that has been on mind since then and i have been praying that God would make his plans for my future clear to me.

While in Benin on our Gateway field service portion of our training, i was telling my roommate what my favorite verse is, it's Psalms 45:11 "the King is enthralled in your beauty; Honor him for he is your lord." I then read the previous verse 45:10 which im sure i have read before but never understood it this way before. it say's "Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear Forget your people and your father's house." When i read that i thought WOW is God telling me what i think he is telling me. and i may be taking this verse out of context but this is one of the ways God spoke to me.  Those of you who know me know my family is very important to me and i missssssssssss them so much!! The idea of forgetting my father's house and my people makes my stomach hurt like really really hurt, i love my friends and family so much. At that moment i couldn't imagine God was asking me to forget something i love so much.  So in my stubborn human nature i decided that i needed to be sensible and make sure that i really like the ship before i made any "rash decisions".

I got to the ship the last week of February and was so over whelmed by ship life, my job, and the culture here everything was so different i didn't know act. I didn't know what to do or who to do it with. It took weeks, lots of tears, tons of talking though it, annoying my roommates and finally a chat with the Chaplin  for me to finally feel some peace about living here.The entire time i was struggling i knew that God was teaching me something, i knew that it was his plan for me to be here and that was the only thing that kept me from going home. I never stopped praying for God's will for my life to be evident but the idea of staying longer was not in mind i wanted to serve my time and go home to see what God had for me. Its been more than a month since i first felt that peace about being here. since then living here has gotten much better, my work atmosphere has been much more relaxed, things are running smoothly and  i have a nice group of friends that i can count on.

 This past Thursday as i was riding to work at 645 am the car ride was very quite, so i started to pray and ask God to protect us as we drove to work, to protect our employees, to heal all the patients that we were going to see and then the idea of extending popped into my head and i started praying my life is not own, a saying i got from my friend cyle, i started asking what were my reasons for wanting to go home were they valid? selfish? Godly? As we arrived at the hospitality center and my day began i continued praying i felt an over whelming amount of God's presence, i was finally at peace with the idea of extending my one year of service here to two years of service. I wasn't prepared to share my news with anyone just yet, i wanted to savor my moment with God. : ) Later that after noon i gave a tour of the Eye rooms at the Hospitality center and i was given Confirmation  that i was making the correct decision. After Thursday there would be no possible way for me to think i was supposed to go home now. I am so thankful for God and how he prepares us for every part of our life. Please continue to pray for me as i continue on this journey.

 Since i have decided to extend i will need to begin raising support again i am certain that God will provide exactly what i need. If you would like to help me continue doing God's work you can do so in two ways first and most importantly though prayer and second financially you can follow this link :https://connect.mercyships.org/page/outreach/view/crewmates/hickes

Thank you so much your love, prayer and support!

 Apparently there is some confusion and some people think i live in a straw hut haha I live on board the Africa Mercy, a ship not a straw hut! hahah love you!!

                                                              Linda, Dulce and I

this funny little bike/car i saw driving down the road

some pictures of around Lome', Togo

traffic jam

Oh how wonderful...

Oh how marvelous, is my Saviors love for me!
This chorus has been playing in my head all week. The last blog i wrote was about getting uncomfortable and i thought i was doing that and that i was managing. but after a few days i really felt awful i was stressed about work, stressed about ship life and friends, and home sick. i was completely exhausted and sadly spent a bunch of time crying. i was being very hard on myself, thinking man i am such a baby i just need to suck it up! i than realized that i was not fully relying on God like i thought .. i wasn't giving my day to him fully i wasn't asking him to take my burdens. God's grace and faithfulness has been more evident to me than ever before. my quite times with Him have improved and i feel a sense of  peace like i have never felt before!  i know that with out God i would not be experiencing the peace that i am now! And Because i love posting songs for all to read here's the rest of this one!

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Chorus:
How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: "Not my will but Thine;"
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweatdrops of blood for mine.
(Chorus)

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.
(Chorus)

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calv'ry
And suffered, and died alone.
(Chorus)

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
'Twill be my joy thro' the ages
To sing of His love for me.
(Chorus)

Please continue to pray:

For Africa  and all the people that live here

For Godly leadership 

For the ship and patients we see everyday

For the crew of the ship that we would glorify God in all our actions, that we would be a light in the darkness

For me personally that i would continue to have deep personal quite time with God that i would let him carry my burdens what ever they may be

and last but def not least For my youth group at home as they continue in their missions training preparing for this summer missions trips that they would stay focused on God and what he has in store for their lives.

here are some pics of what ive been doing lately!!

                                         Working at an eye clinic on a Saturday morning

loving on children!!

this particular girl is so sweet she gives kisses and say's "i love you"

Being silly of course!!

                    and we cant forget clothes...i had these awesome shorts made for about $3 american dollars!

<3

just a lil something!

 so this is a short video produced by mercy ships, i am talking about how God is working my life! i cant post the link but all you have to do is type in
www.youtube.com  then under the search on youtube type in
slice of mercy ship- shannon hickey

thanks for all your prayers and support and please keep it coming i def need it!!

 <3

Don't get comfortable

I think that is something that God is teaching ...Dont Get comfortable...im 23 years old and until this past January i have always lived in the same house and slept in the same room and in the past 3 months i have lived in 3 different countries each with a different purpose, i lived in Texas for a month for my gateway classroom study, i lived in Benin.West Africa for 3 weeks  for the field portion of my gateway, and ive been living in Togo on board the Africa mercy for 6 weeks now. i started working here as the eye tech team coordinator during the first week of  march and after a month, during which i had gotten comfortable with my position, changes needed to be made. And i was one of the people of figuring out how everything would work...Dont get comfortable....now the reason i think God is teaching me to not get comfortable is because when i am comfortable i forget how much i need him. as i much as i hate admitting that its the truth and i don't think im alone in this. When i am completely uncomfortable, afraid of making mistakes and looking foolish, when i am self conscious, when i have no idea what is going on or what i need to do or how do it. i then NEED to rely solely on almighty God. Since Ive been here Ive seen God do some amazing things i know without a doubt that if it were not for God that i would not be capable of doing the job i do everyday. my job encompasses a lot of responsibility which is not what i was used to...yes at my old job i had some responsibilities but i was delegated to and i would perform the tasks, now i am the one who is doing the delegating and making sure all of the tasks are being performed...with that being said you'd think with some training you'd be able to figure it out no biggie...but in this case there has never been a person to fill my position for long term so no one knew how to train me and i was told to make my job what i wanted..hahah and that is why i think God is teaching me dont get comfortable he wants to teach us and train us and stretch us to be the people he has created us to be. So my prayer for all of you is Dont get comfortable let God stretch you into who he created you to be... i was telling someone about this today and a brandon heath song popped into my head and guess what it is called....Dont get comfortable...i know your all surprised by that! so here are the lyrics:

Comfortable, don’t get comfortable.
I am gonna’ move this mountain then I’m gonna move you in.

Yesterday, this is not yesterday.
You were standing on my shoulders now; you’re standing on the edge.
You’ve been looking for a sign all this time.

I am gonna show you what I mean
I am gonna love like you’ve never seen
You are gonna live like you used to dream
This is your new song

So afraid but you don’t have to be afraid
Even if you make mistakes
You know that I’ll remain
You’ve been looking for a sign all this time.
If you seek you’ll find me every time.

So I am gonna show you what I mean
I am gonna’ love like you’ve never seen
You are gonna live like you used to dream
This is your new song

Na na na na na na na na nanaaah
Na na na na na na na na nanaaah

Can you feel the call of love?
Is it moving you to be a child of God of love?
Is it reaching you?
It’s everywhere the call of love.

I just want to show you what I mean
I just want to love like you’ve never seen
Do you want to live like you used to dream?
Then I’ve got a song for you

Coz I am gonna show you what I mean
I am gonna’ love like you’ve never seen
You are gonna live like you used to dream
This is your new song

Na na na na na na na na nanaah

You’ve got a new song

Na na na na na na na na nanaa

prayer request:

• for God to continue to reveal himself to me in magnificent ways!
• for me to rely solely on God and notice that i need him all the time
• for transit youth ...my youth group at home...as they start there missions programs for the year
• for unity and growth at dundalk evangelical presbyterian church-my home church
• for deep Godly friendships
• for God to reveal his will for my future and for me to be patient and wait for his perfect timing 

Blessings

    Love shannon

March 23, 2010

So this morning was one of those mornings when you just really don't want to get out of bed...you know the kind where you hit snooze 3 times then can't finish your breakfast and spill your coffee because your running late. Luckily that did not set the pace for the rest of the day... i finally finished my coffee and was able to have things running fairly smoothly at the hospitality center when it was time for the Cataract surgery patients from yesterday to have their eye patches removed.  On a typical day i am busy with paper work so, i do not see the patches removed but today i was able to be involved.  As i  went along physically removing the patches from their eyes  two of the last three instantly had a major improvement in their vision.. now the others probably had some improvement but these two ladies were so expressive and over joyed with having their vision back..i wish i had a picture or video to show you but i don't and im not even sure know  if  they could catch the emotions and expressions of these women. it was really the most amazing thing ever! Ive finally had my moment where i realized this is why i am here...I am here to help people see physically and pray that they will  "see" spiritually by showing them God's Love and Amazing Power!

now you would think that would be enough to make my day awesome and it definitely would have been But it gets way better!

One of the day volunteers that i work with name is Cyrill, he is a local pastor. He is a hard worker and prays with our patients through out the day. I typically have random conversations with him but today i was deep in thought about home, maybe even missing it a bit...Sniff sniff. But out of the blue, i would even say randomly but i know that there was nothing random about this He asked "what is the name of your church in the west? I would like to pray for it."( we've never talked about my church before)  Now if you go to my church you understand why this is so amazing, the nations are standing together in prayer, united as one! how awesome is that! i hope this excites you as much as it did me! This is God using everyone, just know as you pray for us here, we are praying for you back home! Please join us in praying for churches around the world!

Just another little tid bit on Friday i will have been on the ship for a month! I truly cannot believe how fast time is flying! im loving it!! please continue to keep me in your prayers as i continue to seek God's will for my future!
Love
shannon

16 days in Benin

So here i am on the ship in Togo, West Africa, I have been here for a week now. I am sorry i didn't posted a blog earlier but this new environment  is a bit overwhelming, so i thought it would be  better to wait a little while before i wrote any thing and i will fill you all in on ship life and my new job and everything in between but not in this blog...hehe....as you have read this about 16 days in Benin.


Benin is a small country in West Africa, it was colonized  by the French so their main language is French but depending on where you are there will be different dialects or tribal languages. The only reason i know that is because my Gateway team just did the field portion of our training there. we were there for, lets take a guess....16 DAYS!!!! haha 


While in Benin we stayed in a city called Abomey at the motel D'Abomey. You know how you usually you look for a hotel or motel based on the amount of stars, like a 5 five star would be the best. This was def a no star motel by american standards but by Benin standards it was a nice motel. There was no consistent electricity not just at the motel but in the entire country of Benin, many business had there own generators to power what ever they needed. many times when there was no electricity there would also not be any running water. which we later found out was because the pumps don't work without electricity.DUH!!! so it was very interesting to live in conditions like that. i learned to conserve water and how to shower out of a bucket and how to flush the toilet with the same bucket of water so we really did need to conserve haha.


our main ministry was working with an orphanage better known as a children's home because some of the children's parents are alive but are in cases or ill so they are unable to care for them. My team had several projects that we completed at the children's home, we built shelves or cubby holes for the children's belongings to be stored in, we built a swing set that they loved and so did it and we fixed their clothing lines so they wouldn't have to hang there clothes on the fence. almost everyday that we were there we did a skit with a bible lesson for them, and my "transit missions team" should be happy to hear to hear that we did sin chair for them and then they tried too reenact it for us. The most important thing we did while we were there with those beautiful precious children was that we LOVED them unconditionally as much as humanly possible.One my favorite memories from there is when a little 5 year old boy named frank fell asleep on me and i had to do was to cuddle and love him....and then of course i fell asleep as well. 


We also helped start up a prison ministry with 3 pastors from the area. The prison that we worked with was built to house 400 people and is currently housing over 1,000 people. That was the most heartbreaking thing to see. There were already some people in our group that didnt like the idea of us doing prison ministry, but we were told to remember "what you do for the least of these you do for me" and it is easy to work with a children's they are so cute and lovable but prisons, some of our group didnt like the idea. i have done a little bit of prison ministry meaning Ive done it once in a prison in Mississippi and i felt safe and had a great experience, so i was expecting the same kind of situation. We were blessed to be given permission to work with the juvenile group. in order to get to the were the were kept we had to walk through the main portion of the prison, in the us you would expect them to be behind bars, in cells or at least behind some kind of barrier but that was not the case for us. We walked a path straight through were the 1000 men lived there we able to reach out to shake our hands, call out to us, or walk directly in front of us, this was a scary experience for me not only did i not feel safe but the conditions that these men were kept in where inhumane, disgusting, just plain awful. that is why i say we were blessed to work with the juvenile group that consisted of   22 boys and 2 girls with ages between 12-20, it would have been much more difficult if not impossible for my small group to work with all of those men. the juveniles much to our surprise  were very attentive they sat and listened and responded and even shared when it was appropriate.we did skits for them as well and they made up their own skits to do for us that were very relevant to their society and how God works. we also sang a song to them in french one day and when we came back the next day they all stood and sang the song along with the hand motions back to us! Since we have left we have had some communication with one of the pastors and they have kept up  the ministry and since we have left there have been many answered prayers. While in the prison we prayed for God's will to be evident to these young boys and girls and we prayed that justice would be provided. Many of them had been in prison for years and never had a court date. Since we have left a few of them have been given court dates, one guy in particular had been in prison for 10 years and never saw a judge and he now has an upcoming court date and his fines are only 100 us dollars. it awesome that they can see how God works and they can learn to trust God not man.




Benin is heavily saturated in voodoo and before i came here i would not have known what that meant. A dear friend of mine wrote me a letter and in that she said something about Africa being very spiritual and i thought what the heck does that mean?...am i not spiritual? i was totally confused until i got to Benin and i realized what she meant. i am sorry i do not know how to describe it besides  it is very spiritual almost unbelievably spiritual. now i have always known the devil existed but had never heard or learner about bad/ evil spirits i thought it was kind of silly just a joke really. But here in West Africa it is no joke the devil has these people in his strong hold and continues to tell them lies about God.


the overall trip was really amazing definitely a growing experience for me personally, i feel like i learned a lot about my self , others and about this culture. i hope you didnt mind reading this i know it is quite long but i wanted to share what has been happening with you all! 


Prayer request:
* for the children that they will always be completely provided for and that will see and learn about Gods love as they grow.
*for the prisoners that they will continue to grow in their knowledge and faith of God. that they will be light to other prisoners and that Gods will for there life will be evident to each and everyone of them.
*for the pastors that will have strength through God to continue working with this ministry and that it will grow.
*please pray for all of West Africa that God light will shine!
* For my team to keep the bonds that it has made and for them to grow stronger and for the friendships to continue to grow!
* for me personally pray that i adjust, to the ship each day has gotten better and better but please pray that continues, pray that i have grace to live in community and i make friendships that are up lifting to God. and that i continue to learn my new job position!!


thanks for all of your continued love and support!!
here are some pics please enjoy!!
           
 this is what our motel looked like these huts where split into 3 rooms and two of us stayed in each room

  

our bathroom with said bucket

dulce was the best roomie ever!- she taught me how to flush with a bucket!

children at the orphanage

i taught frank how to play the hand game

there is a guy up in that tree cutting down palm branches

                                            

                                                 cute little frank!!

 huge fire ant hill 

they were all over the place

the yellow van we rode around in everyday

pretty ladies after church!!

                                                       












thanks again i hope you enjoyed reading about what ive been up too!
love shannon

So Long

fare well! this is my last night is the US for next 13 months and i am full of emotions i am super excited and cannot wait to get on the airplane and fly off to Africa. I know this is an amazing opportunity to serve God and others....but on the other hand i am kinda freaking out (on the inside) its hard for me to imagine leaving everything that is familiar and comfortable for the completely unknown with that said i am still So So STINKING EXCITED!!! This is going to be an experience of a life time! So we leave at tomorrow Tuesday Feb 9th at 730am to take a 5 hour drive to Houston where we will wait 3 hours to board our 10 hour flight to Paris, followed by a 5 hour layover and then a 7 hour flight to Cotonou, Benin, West Africa! quite a bit a traveling def well worth it! i wont be able to communicate with any one for the next three weeks while in Benin, so some prayer request while i am there are travel mercies, team unity, health, comfort (spiritual and physical),and for God to prepare the hearts of the people we will come in contact with. I'll update you all as soon as i can!!
Thanks again for all of your prayers, love and support!!
love Shannon

Jesus Took My Bad Karma!!

So I've now been here in East Texas for 3 weeks....I can't believe its already been that long! well i feel like I have been in a class room for more than 3 weeks but  thats because i have the attention span of a small child....haha!! Since I haven't been on top of this blogging stuff i have some catching up to do!! Two weeks ago Dean Sherman was our teacher for a few days and he taught us about spiritual warfare. Here are a few basic principles that really stuck with me:
- Jesus took  my bad karma- how awesome is that, all the crap that you or I have done is forgiven and always will be.
- Spiritual warfare is 24/7 not event based-this is kind of a new concept for me but its so clear that it is true!
-Blinded minds can not see- Blinded minds meaning people that do not have a relationship with God. they are unable to understand the glory and grace of God because they are blinded by the god of this world, no matter what you say they cannot understand and that is reason that all we can do is pray that God opens their eyes to his wonder and majesty.

Last Saturday my entire Gateway training class went on a Silent Retreat at a state park in Tyler,TX.    That was a new experience for me, i don't usually sit quietly and wait for God, i usually talk and talk and think and talk and think and talk some more .it was really awesome to spend quality time with God alone!

This past week in class we talked about interpersonal development  and conflict resolution.   We took the disc personality test i am a D/I-D which means dominate and inspirational so basically it says i like to be in control or can be bossy and i like to have lots of friends and gain energy from groups of people rather than from being alone.the personality test also told me that i am an over achiever im not sure i believe that lol.  We were given kind of a strange assignment this  week we had to write our own obituary's . Now when i first thought about this i thought i would want to be remember for having some kind of awesome career or for inventing something really awesome but i wasn't really to sure so i just started to write and when i finished i read what i had just wrote and i surprised myself lol what i want to be remember for is being a wonderful loving wife and mother that lived her life completely after God's heart! ( dad DONT freak out...it wont be anytime soon lol)  i cant really remember where i was going with this haha but my mom will happy that i realized im more like her than i though.

lets see what else would you like to know about the last couple weeks.....we went bowling at this cute little bowling alley that opened up on a monday night just for my class...small town's are pretty awesome....they feed us really well here i think we eat like every two hours...i spend lots of time in class coloring so ill post some of my pretty pics for you to see! i cant really think of anything else to tell you! please continue to keep my class and myself in your prayers as we continue our training here and as we prepare to leave next week to go on our field service in benin! Please also pray that this is a smooth transition for me and that i dont get to home sick. Its weird i so badly want to be in two places at the same time!  Thanks so much for all of your love and support!!        

                       bowling was lots of fun ...my shirt glowed looks pretty cool! huh?

whos really pregnant??

perfect stance! hahah

my bowling team plus Dulce

we had a hot dog cookout and my skewer matched my shirt!

I get very bored in class...

so i ...

color!

melissa

                                                 mrs sherry sent me an awesome card with this mask inside!!

               

i figured it out!!

So here are some random pictures of this weeks activies!!

breating mask for the fire fighting!

the container that was used for the fire fighting drill

me and melissa!

im super strong!! haha

Baby sheep!

me and dulce!!

me and anna aka alaska