An African Adventure

For those of you who don't already know, I will be jumping on a plane this Sunday evening - 10 May 2015 - to have a little solo adventure.

My destination: Windhoek, Namibia

Most of my gap year so far has been spent working as an intern at a law firm in Birmingham.  Since my placement came to an end a couple of weeks ago, I conveniently have a few months open to adventure! And well, when on gap yah...

Plans!

I am going to be living in Namibia for the next 9 weeks, probably doing an array of different things that may consist of the following:-

• assisting the 'Agape' team in Namibia where possible ('Agape' is a Christian organisation that many of you will know my parents work for);

• helping with English/Humanities/reading at one of the local primary schools;

• shadowing a lawyer;

• getting involved with one of the local churches;

...and, of course, you can't step foot in Africa without enjoying the beautiful desert landscapes and safaris.  A girl's gotta enjoy a holiday too.  

I'll be honest and say that a lot of my day-to-day plans and activities are loosely planned at the moment, but I think this is the best way to approach the trip.  I believe that God wants to use me and any gifts that I have for a greater purpose than the one that I could dream up.  I think this is part of life's great adventure as a whole, but is especially true of my time in Namibia.  My prayer is that I will come to understand more about Jesus and be a blessing to those I meet during my time there.  However if there are other purposes or things that I am to learn about during this trip, I would hope that I have allowed enough space and time for these purposes to unfold.  And this really excites me!

For those of you who pray and might like to receive prayer requests and updates from me during my trip, please do let me know - my aim is to send weekly updates by email and I would love to add you to the email list if you're interested.
(I will try and stick to the weekly updates,
honest! haha)

The wonderful Shave family pictured below are kind enough (and brave enough!) to take on the challenge of having me live with them for the duration of my time in Namibia.  The Shaves are close family friends of ours and I've actually spent three weeks with them in their home there already, during a family holiday a few years ago.  I have to say that being able to stay with close friends makes the trip far less daunting for me and I am so grateful for their generosity.  I can't wait to travel this adventure with them.

From left: Geoff, Emily, Nate and Caz

I'll continue to update this blog with updates/news/stories/thoughts and I'd love for you to join me on my adventure from across the internet.

Thank you to all those who have already said such kind and encouraging things to me prior to this trip.  Please send big fat virtual hugs to my family who I'm sure will miss my emotional teenage presence dearly.

Lots of love,
Charis

P.S. for those of you slightly bemused by the title of this blog, my name 'Charis' is Greek for 'Grace'.  
Thought I'd use the play-on-word of my greek name and my general life intention of seeking ways that I can better demonstrate grace to those I meet...