T-Minus 5 days!!

So, I'm headed to Kenya in 5 days with Compassion International.


The company I work for has a partnership with this amazing ministry. During the summer months, we work very hard to get as many children sponsored as we possibly can (we hit 3000 sponsorships last summer alone!) Part of this mission includes a Vision Trip each year.

This trip serves several purposes.

• One, it allows the Ministry Event Directors and Coordinators see Compassion in action first-hand. We visit the country field office and get a better understanding of how things work.We will also visit several Compassion Projects where we will meet kids and families of sponsored children to see first-hand how Compassion has changed their life.
  
• Two, many of us get to actually meet our sponsored kids. Have I mentioned how excited I am about this? I'll be meeting Kelvin, a precious 8-year old that my family sponsors (the day after his birthday...can you say PARTY!!), and Alexander, an LDP student that about 22 of us sponsor. (LDP stands for Leadership Development Program. Alexander is a college student who went through the Compassion program as a child and was then selected to attend college through further sponsorship.)
• Three, we will meet the LDP students that will come to the states in May to travel with our summer teams. This will be the first time any of them have been to the states. Culture shock is a reality for them! Meeting them ahead of time helps them with their transition. Seeing familiar faces when they arrive is invaluable to them. 
• Four, we take several members of our production staff on the trips to capture video and pictures to be shown during the summer. We have some amazingly talented people who have the ability to film and portray stories in ways that help people get a better grasp of the mission of Compassion. 

In addition to these things...the experience of the trip itself is something that cannot be measured.

This will be my first Compassion trip. While I work directly with the department who goes on these trips, I took a non-traveling position the very year we started the relationship with Compassion. To be honest, I've always been excited for the team to go on these trips, but have also REALLY wanted to go myself. I am so very thankful for the opportunity to finally go.

I'm hoping to be able to post about the trip daily. We have internet capabilities at our hotel, but it can be sketchy.