Sunday, August 23, 2009

it's been too long...


...so let me catch you up on what's been happening!

it feels like it's going by so quickly that i have to remind myself to slow down and take it all in every once and a while. today actually marks the third week of me being in nashville and working as a Pray With Africa "intern." and i am loving it!

first, i would just like to say that our documentary,
Listen: A New African Narrative, is an absolutely beautiful film and i can't wait to share it with you and with those i will be showing it to this fall while on tour! Just a quick synopsis: the film features 5 different individuals in 5 different countries in africa (liberia, south africa, mali, uganda, and malawi), and it shows how they as leaders in their community are prayerfully making a difference. Each individual is battling a different obstacle whether it's water sanitation, disease, conflict, poverty, or malnutrition, they are boldly standing up in prayer and doing something about these issues. it's beautiful. and i'm so excited to be on the road...okay, maybe a little anxious too!

so, my first week here was filled with learning the history of each country, getting to know the other people i will be sharing this experience with, and learning the history and mission and philosophy of Pray With Africa. the beginning of our second week is when the real work began...on the first day of that week we got split up into our teams, and i am so excited to tell you that i am a part of the east coast team. 3 others and myself will be traveling to kentucky, west virginia, virginia, washington dc, baltimore, delaware, philly, new jersey, new york city, a few other cities in pennsylvania and cincinnati!!! talk about an exciting 2 months! we'll head out on september 11th for an adventure of a lifetime!

here's a picture of my team! team bEAST coast!



















from top to bottom: Robin, Kevin, myself, and Chris we are quite talented as you can see by our layering abilities...so it will most definitely be a fun road trip!!

Ever since we got split into our 2 tours, we have been working on actually booking our tour for it to be a reality...so it's been a lot of time in front of a computer researching places on google, cold calling people/churches/coffeeshops/universities, etc., and making lots of return phone calls and follow up emails. my booking responsibilities are for the washington dc area, baltimore, and delaware area, so if anyone reading this has any connections i would love to make more contacts! it's a very daunting task, but it's exciting as well, and we have about 2 weeks to book 80+ screenings...yikes!

we've also spent time meeting The Upper Room staff as well as members of the General Board of Discipleship and that has just been overwhelmingly wonderful and i am constantly thankful for the generosity of those who have invited us to lunch, bbq's, brought us meals to our house. and even more thankful for them really believing in what we're doing and caring so much as to learn our stories. God is so good!

i am excited to see what God has in store for us this fall...please know that i couldn't be doing this without you!! thank you for your prayers and support it means so much--continue to stay in touch!! more to come, i promise to make it more frequent!!

Friday, August 7, 2009

contact info...

just wanted you all to know how to get ahold of me for the next 4 months!

snail mail:
Pray With Africa
c/o Nicole Guthrie
1908 Grand Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212

email:
personal: nicole.guthrie@sckans.edu
pray with africa: nicolepwa@gmail.com

phone:
cell: (620) 218-3549

i would really LOVE to hear from you!!!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

sometimes it's hard, but that's okay...

today i am having somewhat of a rough day...if you read my last blog, you know that i have relocated to nashville for the next 5 weeks, as i venture out with an organization called Pray With Africa. i landed in the states wednesday night from nairobi and 3 short days later made my journey to nashville. we started our training sessions on monday and i am thoroughly excited about our work, about my teammates (as they are awesome!), what's to come the next few months...

but it's also hard, and that's okay too...i am fairly adaptable, but 3 days time to completely switch my life is finally catching up with me. we are doing a lot of learning, and research about africa, and watching the film we will be showing on the road, and it is making me really miss being on the continent, being with the kids, being with my friends in eastleigh, and being with my friends/team. i have had a very soft heart today and on top of all that, we watched a film this evening called "War Dance"...it is a phenomenal film about the children in northern uganda who travel to kampala to compete in a national music festival, but it focuses a lot on the hardships and unbelievable atrocities they have witnessed and sometimes even done themselves. its heartbreaking--and it made me miss being there more, but also empowered me to keep going and is inspiring me more annd more to spread Pray With Africa's philosophy.

i don't want to end on kind of down note...so let me share some hilarious moments that have happened so far...today we had a hula hoop session, where we learned some awesome techniques and despite the fact that my hips don't lie, i kinda stink at it, but it was so much fun! and yesterday we played a game called bigger and better. we started out with a paperclip and went out in groups to exchange our paperclips for bigger and better things, in the hopes of finding decorations for our house! here's our list of what we ended up with: a rolling office chair, a real chair, a foot massager, a lamp that doubles as an ash tray, a regular lamp, bubbles, a painting, a vase, an end table and a bookshelf, a rug, an empty plastic container and a coupon for two free tacos...we rock!

so all in all, it may be hard...but it's also very, very good!