:)

i am back with my Daraja family!

i ended up jumping back into the groove of things during our “off” week in Destin. this week was planned to have no concerts so we could catch the kids up on school and ramp up for our crazy July schedule. it was great just getting to have some down time to reconnect to the kids and the team. the girl interns ended up having a day off together! it was so fun- we drove over to panama city and laid on the beach all day and then ate at a really yummy restaurant!! me and anna (another intern) got to host together with six girls at the end of this past week! and it was so great being able to catch up/ stay with her! one of our girl’s cynthia had her 13th birthday while we were at the host home! so they threw her a birthday party- so sweet! the dad was a professional fisherman so we got to eat fresh fish every night- so great! the family lived in a cute little golf course neighborhood and the host let me and anna took a bike ride! it was SO fun- we relearned how to ride bikes and got to watch the sunset over the ocean! and it was just great! one of our girl’s esther ended up getting really sick. she had tonsillitis so anna ended up taking her of her while me and the other five girls had a beach day! and it was just great all around. to end this great stay we had a dance party so fun!!

we left Destin sunday morning and headed to BigStuf in Panama City!! our Daraja bus has been a headache- we haven’t had consistent AC in it all summer and it has been to the “bus doctor” over four times. so we had a church offer us there charter bus to get us to Dothan, AL after we sang at BigStuf on Sunday. we just had to get to there! on our way to BigStuf about 15 miles down the road our drive shaft fell out of the bus! so a family that had hosted some of us the previous week were coming to see us worship at BigStuf and just happened to be driving their camper! so they picked all the kids up and drove them to BigStuf so they would make it in time for the 9:30 show time! so crazy but God was EVERYWHERE!! it was just a really cool day. BigStuf rocked- they brought the family with the camper on stage and thanked them for bringing us to BigStuf in time! then the bus that was being loaned to us got there and it was the nicest bus i have and ever will see! it had sunroof own the entire bus and the seats were comfy and flat screens and it was just fantastic!

Daraja made it to Dothan! we had a concert and an ice cream party! our host home was really cool. it was the momma’s birthday and her name was Robin. and they folded my clothes and allowed us to shower in their ROCKING shower. and it was just a good night.

now I am in Birmingham, AL. we are here all week and have a concert tomorrow. today the church took us to a waterpark and the kids LOVED it!

things are going great! God is using the team in awesome ways and blessing our every step!

a doctor in Birmingham is taking Esther’s tonsils out for us tomorrow!

thing’s are good and are winding down which is crazy to think about! hope everyone out there is good!

a little life update: i am confirmed living in a house in Athens, GA with one of the other interns here in the Daraja family this fall!!

Go Dawgs

home.

i got the chance to come home for a week. and it has been a lot of mixed emotions. i flew in on tuesday; got off my 40 passenger plane and walked on Atlanta airport’s tarmac- literally climbed over barricades to get back inside to the gate! didn’t know that was even allowed.. moms& poop were there at the top of the escalator! so fun! we had some family time and then sent pops back off to africa! so cool. i got a new camera lens and got to meet with andrea! it was so great- she taught me how to use my camera to improve my pictures! i got to go take a day trip to Athens to see the house, i might live in in the fall! i went to the movies with mels and went to downtown Cumming for fireworks.. haha. then i got to go up to South Carolina for the Dannelly wedding. it was SO beautiful and great to see everyone up there! me and moms came back home. i made a really yummy dinner for us! i got to go take pictures with tori today in our sunflower field! i also got to eat lunch with my friend/ Daraja family member Collett.

it was weird to not be around my 35 family members from Daraja. but it was a great time being home seeing friends and hanging with the family!

tomorrow i fly back down and i can not wait!!

MUCH LOVE

BWANA ASIFIWE!!

the past couple of days have been awesome!

we were in port st. joe, fl for four nights. the AC on the bus broke as we drove there from panama city. once we got there one of our girl’s got sick. so it was a hard day. i was feeling torn down and not feeling the community of our team so it was a really hard day. i went home with the sick girl and ended up having to switch host homes so christi could be with her to make judgement calls because her fever had gone up to 104. not good. but the next day she went to the hospital and they said she was fine. we had a concert in this town. it is still segregated, crazy! but the community came together and the youth pastor told us that it was the biggest crowd ever that had come together! so praise God!! before we left port st. joe they had a beach party for all of us. all of us were able to ride jet skis in the gulf of mexico and collect sand dollars. it was a lot of fun. they made a huge bonfire on the beach and we cooked our dinner out there and smores- so much fun!
our bus still wasn’t fixed so we loaded up the trailer and church vans to drive out to panama city for our bigstuf worship set! it was incredible. i got to see alison from NGU. and that was fun. we rented a coach bus to get us back up to atlanta and it had AC!! Praise God! we stopped at chicifila for dinner- and it was incredible!
me and nicole have our “off day” this weekend. so we got to go to the hospitality house with no kids on friday night- monday morning.
friday night we were able to watch TV. crazy. then saturday moms came and picked me up! we had lunch together, ran a few errands, and got pedicures. then i was able to go down to the airport and pick pops up from the airport! so cool. we got to be a family for about two hours- and it was happy times!
today we had 2 concerts at west cobb church and it was INCREDIBLE. God was EVERYWHERE! literally. the devotion with the team before hand was great. seeing the kids after my day off was great. hearing the kids worship/ worshipping with them- great. then our kids went up for sponsorships today- ALL OF THEM GOT BOTH SPONSORSHIPS plus some other kids from a different 410Bridge Community. SOOO cool. God is HUGE. then we got to come back to our host home and actually relax out by the pool in the sunshine. then i got to watch NASCAR!! and then our hosts took us to see night at the museum2.

tomorrow we drive to snellville, ga. and i get to see the family and my segera mission april africa trip team! i am pumped!! then tuesday we drive back down to panama city on the bus with AC!!

thanks for the prayers!

MUCH LOVE!

i LOVE my life.

definition of my life as of tonight: literally nonstop going. physically exhausted. emotional roller coaster. spiritual high! filled to the rim with love. relying on His grace. perfectly satisfied. pure joy.

typical day (actually what i did today): wake up around 7am. get myself ready. have a little QT. get the boys up and get them ready. have breakfast. make our lunches. leave for the church to be there by 9. start school. teach 6th grade- today, i taught square roots and properties of matter. set up the “BrightPoint” table. fixed lunches. ate lunch. sat through soundcheck- incredible. walked to “ThePig” (aka Piggly Wiggly- a grocery store) for some candy! ate my candy. got the kids down for nap. caught up on some phone calls. woke the kids up from nap- precious! played musical chairs for an hour. ate dinner. changed into our concert costumes. passed out programs. danced my heart out. ran the “BrightPoint” sponsorship table. packed up. went out on a pier to watch the sunset. came back to the host home. ate another dinner. got the boys showered. had tickle fights and prayed. did some laundry. and am now lying in bed anxiously awaiting going to sleep!

i wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else, doing anything else than here. i am loving it! if there is a concert near you- please come. it is life changing. these kids are incredible and God is doing HUGE things through them!!

MUCH LOVE : )

ps we are heading up to the ATL area on friday (June19) so feel free to come to those concerts

time keeps on slipping slipping slipping into the future.

Wow. Hey friends.

Life is incredible! I can’t even wrap my mind around it being my life. I am having the time of my life. Weird, that I keep using time because at BigStuf Camps this year the theme is time.

Since the last update..

We came down to Panama City Beach, FL and have had four worship sets. They all have been incredible. The first session had about 700 students and then this week there are about 1500 students at camp. Crazy that our kids have the power to led them all into worship.

We’ve also went to Destin, FL for a few nights and had an almost concert. It was incredible! My host home was awesome. I got a chance to stay with Linah (one of the Kenyan adults) and two boys. What an experience. I got to see the different sides of Issac and Dennis. The house had a pool and we had more swim lessons. We also ate yummy food and Denise had a fride full of Diet Cokes- Hooray! We sang at a few church services and it was great! Then we had prepared ourselves for our almost concert. It turned out to be fantastic. Five churches (all different denominations) came together and hosted the Daraja Choir. Our kids rocked the stage and glorified God in a big way. I got to run the BrightPoint table and eight kids got sponsorships!! Way to go, God!

At our homebase in Destin, we taught school, learned new songs, took naps, played a lot of soccer& ultimate soccer. I kicked some butt- haha, just kidding- but it was a lot of fun. Anna (another intern) and I hung curtains on our tour bus and they look hysterical but very resourceful!

We got to eat Chickfila and let me tell you- it was incredible!! Mm, sweet tea! Today, was my first “day off”. Me and Nicole went out and ran some errands. Then we watched our kids worship. We also got to take naps out on the beach- SO great. We ended up missing our family because we have been surrounded for about a month now with 30 other people continuously! On our way to dinner we happened to run into our “family” in the stairwell and it was precious- all the kids literally hugged us and told us how much they had missed us. It was definitely a highlight. So mixed emotions but it was really a great day. We got to go to the main session at BigStuf and worship was incredible!

I know this is a random blog but just wanted to post an update. Thanks for all of you that are keeping up! Please check the schedule and try and make it to a concert. Next weekend we are coming back to MetroAtlanta and I would love to see some familiar faces!
www.410bridge.org/daraja

MUCH love!

o sifuni mungu!

Jambo!

I didn’t realize how hard I would have to work to keep this thing updated. It’s been a couple days and a lot has happened!

The first night was a blast. I got to go home with the Shook family. They ordered Chinese food for the girls. Eunice had a fever so we had to stop and get her some medicine. The place was closed but the lady who was closing ended up being from Kenya and gave us the medicine for free! They ate their chicken and rice- and enjoyed it. Eunice is a quiet, 9 year old and Monica A. is 13 and very outgoing. Euni hasn’t figured out that she will be getting another meal later; so, she eats lots of food at one time and she is tiny. Monica on the other hand doesn’t eat a lot because she is planning on not getting another meal and if she eats less now then the hunger she feels later won’t be as great. Interesting! They got to meet three huge dogs. Euni liked them but Monica was petrified. We went upstairs to bathe. I turned the bath water on and then pulled the thing for the shower.. and their eyes lit up. They couldn’t believe that they weren’t going to have to lean over and sponge bath it with the clean water coming out of the bath faucet. They put their new pajamas on and were ecstatic to see their bag full of clean, new clothes. I put them in bed and by the time I had set my bag down to go back in there to pray- they had fallen asleep. We got up early the next morning! The girls woke me up around 630. They came in and watched cartoons in my bed with me. So fun! We got dressed and headed down to eat American pancakes for breakfast. They really enjoyed them. Then we all headed to the 410 office to meet up with everyone.

The kids hung out with the Journey interns while the Daraja interns ran around and figured last minute things out for tour. We ended up accomplishing a whole lot and tons of pieces just came together! Hooray. Way to go, God.

We packed up the Daraja bus and headed to Peachtree City, GA- for our first “concert”. The bus had AC running only on one side- so, hello Summer heat Eunice ended up falling asleep on my lap. It was so cute. When she sat up there was a ring of sweat from her head. Bless her. We had sound check when we got there and then headed off to our host homes.

Euni doesn’t speak very clear English yet so it was a little hard to get her to interact with the family. Monica ended up translating for Eunice and speaking to the family. The girls got pretty tired but I wanted to keep them up. So, we got the host family to play us instruments. They played the Flute and the French Horn. Then we taught Euni and Monica how to play Jenga. We showered and then all slept in the same room! Yay, for host homes with WiFi.

Day of the first concert. We were singing five songs with the SouthSide Church Band. When everyone got there they had sound check. Abbu (the choir director) sang and he rocked his songs! Seeing all this come together brought me to tears. The kids did a great job! After the two services- we went back to the host homes. On the way to Church- Eunice and Monica buckled by themselves!

We ate lunch and then played on PhotoBooth on a Mac. We then got to go to a swimming pool, for the first time! The pool had a water slide and it was a HUGE hit. The host home took us to a neighborhood dinner party. After we ate, everyone asked the girls to sing. Then the people at the party prayed over my girls. I got to sit down and talk with a really cool lady from Iran! On our way home, I reached back to give Eunice a high five and she spit her mouth full of chewed apple into it. Oh that girl makes me laugh.

 

 

… to be continued stay tunned

SUMMER is HERE.

hey all!

sorry it has taken me a while to get this thing a goin’. i arrived back in the states from being fully immersed in Kenya culture for two weeks. it was an incredible trip!

highlights: i cut down a tree with a machete, carried a log up a mountain for about a mile to build an entire fence (to keep the elephants out), fetched water from the steepest point in Karima and carried it to a house for a lady, meet and played with my 23 african orphans (who make up the Daraja Choir) and connected with my intern team who is now my family, was greatly surprised by my mom, pops, amanda, and mels at the top of the ATL escalator!

we flew back into the states on wednesday. the kiddos flew in today. we have beeen working HARD at getting everything ready for our summer tour kick off and patiently awaiting their arrival.

tonight, we went down to the airport and waited at the top of the escalator for them. then when they got their we had massive hug-fest in the middle of arrival hall in the ATL airport. seriously, best moment ever. 23 kids running into your arms screaming your name and saying they missed you much. gosh, so great!!

i still cannot believe this is my life. thank you to all who have helped get me here! i will try and do better about keeping this updated. i will also post pictures at some point on my facebook- so, stay tunned!

you all are great!!

much LOVE,
cait

awareness letter!

Hey all!

This year has been huge in my life! If you were not aware, I ended up taking this semester off from school. God called me away from one place and to another. The day after I decided to withdraw from school, a great opportunity arose for me to be a “nanny” for three great kids! I am learning so much about life and myself through this family that God placed in my life! I will be transferring to a different school in the fall but first comes my summer!
This summer God provided me with an incredible internship! I will be traveling around the southeast with a choir of 24 African children. Check them out at {www.410bridge.org/daraja/}! I have already started preparing for this! I get to take a trip to Kenya with the other interns May 13 and then our choir tour/ my internship begins! I cannot wait. Time is flying by and soon enough I will be in full swing touring with the choir. Come see us if you hear that the Daraja Children’s Choir will be in your area.
I do have to raise support for my internship as well. However, once again, God has already BLESSED my socks off – I am about halfway to my required fundraising amount! Of course, that means I have more support to raise – if you can partner with me in any way I would be so grateful. I know that this is a difficult economic time for many of you and I want to assure you that prayer is the foundation for my summer. I would love for you to jump on board and begin praying for us as a team. So please start praying!
When donating financially please make checks payable to “The 410 Bridge” designate in the memo line “Daraja Intern Support- Caitlin Pitts” and mail them to:

The 410 Bridge
Attn: Daraja Children’s Choir of Africa – Intern Support
35 Old Canton St.
Alpharetta, GA 30009

If you want to follow along with me on my journey – I will be updating my blog regularly starting in May. {http://caitpitts.wordpress.com/}

MUCH love,

caitlin