In preparation

Seattle to Santiago: 6455 miles.

Wow, a month and a day until I leave for this amazing country in South America called Chile. I couldn't be more thankful for anything right now, God has blessed me humongously through this trip, in so many unimaginable ways!

A little background to how this all started, in case anyone is interested...

It was early spring of 2012, I was finishing my 9th grade year at Kenmore Jr. High, and I was sitting in church when they were doing the announcements. An opportunity to serve as a highschooler alongside elementary kids in Wenatchee, WA was available. I thought this would be great for me because my grandparents live there, so I already knew a lot about the town and I'd get to lead elementary kids! Turns out the 3 days in Wenatchee was a blast! I got to meet so many young children that I didn't know, many of which eventually came to Chile with me. We got to serve homeless shelters, a woman's shelter, and perform outreaches in a local park. This trip was actually the "tester" trip, so to say, for the larger trip to Santiago, Chile. A few weeks later, Pastor Bryan, our high school pastor, announced that a small group of high schoolers were going to be able to work alongside the elementary kids in Santiago, Chile in November. Wow, I thought to myself, this seems like the perfect trip for me! I HAVE to go!!!

Skip to thanksgiving 2012, and here I am, excited to leave for Santiago the very next morning! We leave on a flight, very early I may add, to Dallas/Ft. Worth and from there we took a long 10 hour flight down to Santiago! Upon arriving, we were greeted by the missionaries Doug and Shelly Kallestad, originally from here in the Seattle area. That first day in Santiago was amazing, I instantly fell in love with the landscape, the people, the food, and especially the weather! Boy was that nice to come from rainy 40 degree Seattle all the way to sunny 80 degree Santiago!

Ever since then, I've been wanting to find a way back to Santiago. I made so many friends there and I love their lifestyle compared to the American lifestyle. So fast forward a year to December 2013 and I was chatting with my friend Andrew, and he told me how he went to Chile during the summer for the internship, and I figured it out! That's exactly what I needed to do!! So now comes my mission trip to Ecuador, we left just a few days after Christmas. We met up with a group of Chileans there, and I talked to a lot of them about the internship, and they all agreed that I should definitely do it and that they would love to see me there.

So now fast forward to now, spring of 2014, and here I am preparing for a trip that is the most amazing opportunity yet!

6 weeks in Santiago, playing with kids, helping with ministries, and doing construction projects. That sounds close enough to heaven for me... :)