Hello Everyone!!

I cannot believe it is here! We are less than two days away from leaving and I have officially started packing!  God has been so good in helping provide the funding! We are in need of a little less than $1,000.  The school offices have been closed and the online server is down. This means that people are not able to donate online and money that is coming in isn't being counted yet.  I have been keeping track personally. 

So here is the rundown of what we will be doing in Florida for three weeks:

There are six different sections of things we will be learning and covering:
1. Appropriate Technologies
2. Animal Husbandry
3. Sustainable Agriculture
4. Primary Health
5. Nutrition/Food Technologies
6. Cross-Cultural Communication/Communication Development

For the most part these are pretty self explanatory so I hope that it helps give you an idea of knowing what we are getting into. So, Sunday morning our plane leaves at 7:30 AM which will take us to Florida where we will be for 3 weeks. We will not be able to update anything while we are in Florida so I want to tell you now, this is my last update until January 22/23.  The thing about this coming update is that it will actually be sent an update from my mom and be sure to read it. :)
On January 22nd:
- we leave Tampa Florida for a 2 hour 45 min flight to New York. 
- we have a layover for 1 hour 45 mins.
- we then get on our plane to Paris, France for a flight time of 13 hours and 20 minutes. This will take us into January 23rd.
-January 23rd we take our layover in France totaling 10 hours and 10 mins; sitting in the Paris Airport. (This is where I will call my mom and give her an update, and this is where she will update you)
-from Paris we leave on a 4 hour and 40 minutes flight to Bamako!!!
----->With an arrival time of 8 PM   Malian time being 2 PM Omaha time.

Yes, the time difference is six hours! :)

So until then! God Bless and Happy New Year!  I love you all and can’t wait to share this journey with you!

Update December 23, 2010

So it is the Eve of Christmas Eve,

There is 9.47 days left before we leave on the plane for Florida and things are slowly coming together as time goes by.  Yesterday was my last day at work and we are now in crunch time having to move my entire house as well as pack 6 months worth of living! I am so excited to get to spend time with my family the next few days and savor the moments I have. I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas!

I now have $6,419.47 with only $1,380.53 to go!

Our Mali 2011 Team

Andrew Hillmer, Samantha Butler, Kaeli Mincey, and Tamara Hunt

 Our Awkward Family Photo!

 Mmmm...Gotta love books!

 Studying for Africa!

 Our Team out in the snow, enjoying it while we can!

I am going to Mali, Africa!

Dearest Family and Friends,

                I am writing this letter to talk to you about an important opportunity that has been set in front of me.  I am going to Mali, Africa this upcoming semester with a team of three other people from Grace University.  The Lord has been working on my heart and teaching me many things this past year and one of them is ambiguity.  I have been asked for the longest time, “What do you want to be or do when you grow up?”  The answer that always came to mind was either a kindergarten teacher or a famous singer, but what I never thought about was “What does God want me to be when I grow up?”

                This year I have been reminded constantly of the verse Jeremiah 29:11 “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Now, is the time to act upon where the Lord has been leading me, so here I go!  This experience will take me as far away as Bougouni, Mali Africa and will bring me closer to the life lessons that I could not experience here in Omaha, Nebraska.

                We leave on January 2, 2011 and yes it is coming up so close I can hardly believe it! God has been such a graceful and loving Father to me through this time, he has taught me that I should trust Him and His plans for me. This is a tough lesson to learn but it is totally worth it! Not knowing what is coming next seems scary but I have learned that if you are walking with the Lord, He will carry you.

                 For more on what my team and I will be doing: January 2, we will be flying to Florida where we will attend the "Heart Institute" school. There they will teach us: What to do if the power goes out, how to stay healthy, how to cook etc. We will be there for 3 weeks and then on January 22 we will head to Bamako, Mali Africa in which we will live for a month. After that we will head to Bougouni, Mali Africa! We will stay here four months and this is where I will join the choir. Yes, I will be joining the Malian choir! I'm excited! On June 25^th we will go to Paris, France where we will spend about 3 days and come home on June 30, 2011.

During this experience we will learn how to do things the Malian way i.e cooking, washing clothes, yes: going to the bathroom and more. We will be shown how life there isn't so much about "doing", as it is about “being” within the moment. Not only will we be learning hands on but we will also be taking classes to better our French as well as taking classes, for example, World’s Living Religions being one of them. We will also be helping to teach English classes and computer skills to the Malian students who are there. 

As of right now God has definitely had a hand on how far along I am in the financial area of this experience.  The total cost of my mission experience is about $7,800. God has been such a great provider in helping me raise $6,020.47 in just three months! However, I still need to raise $1,779.53.  I know that God will provide for me because he has done this much for me already! It will all go by in the blink of an eye and I want to make sure that I soak up every moment of it. I want to thank all of you for all of the support that you have provided whether it be in prayer or finances or both. It means a lot to me!!

Donations can be made to support my participation in the ministry of Grace by sending checks made out to Grace University sending them to  Kaeli Mincey  at 1311 S. 9^th Street, Omaha, NE 68108., with “edge Mali Kaeli” in the memo-line.  You can also donate directly online by going to http://www.graceuniversity.edu/donate_to_grace/index.shtml  Just be sure to write "Kaeli Mincey" in the spot where is says who you are supporting; In addition be sure to click on "Edge Program/Missions Trip" . Please do not hesitate to call if you have any more questions to Kaeli’s cell phone: 402-320-6436