Dear Family & Friends ~
Greetings from….home : ) It has been so much fun being home. I came home on Thanksgiving and was able to spend the holidays with Mom & Danny. But as you all know me I couldn’t stay home for long, so I spent the month of January in Mexico with the new World Racers. I was there to help with training all 50 of the racers for two weeks and then spent two weeks working in a village with 6 of the racers. It was a blast! Although it was tough to leave, I came back to Washington in time to work at See’s Candies for the Valentine’s Day madness.
As many of you know when I was in South Africa I decided that I would go and help with the efforts in Swaziland. I will be going to work with an amazing couple that I met during training and debrief last year…Gary & Lisa Black (they have run their own ministries in the past and now work with Adventures In Missions).
Gary & Lisa are planning on starting a pastor / leadership training school for the nationals in Swaziland. There are currently many different ministries running in Swaziland since it has one of the highest rates of AIDS/HIV in all of Africa (according to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaziland). Although my main job will be to help Gary & Lisa start the new school, they are finding that there may be many other ways that the nationals need our help first. So we will also be partnering with current ministries working with orphans, feeding programs, AIDS/HIV awareness programs, discipleship, working with local pastors, kids programs, women’s groups, and the list goes on… so as you can see there is no time to get bored, I will definitely find to much to do.
The surprise is how soon I will be leaving. The plan is to be in
Swaziland by June,
I am flying out May 23. We have over a hundred people coming in June to help serve and to be trained as missionaries before they continue to go out and serve Christ. I really want to be there to help do some of the set up for the teams as well as I can’t wait to see the current World Racers again, who will be arriving for a short stay soon after I arrive. It has been a dream of mine for years to move to Africa and serve as a missionary. I can’t believe it’s finally happening!
So now I guess I have to do the poor missionary begging thing here. I never realized how expensive it is going to be to live in Africa! Crazy! After doing all the math and freaking out about it for awhile the numbers have finally come in, the grand total is
going to be over $1000 per month! That’s a lot of money and I again need your help. I thought that I would be able to raise the majority of my funds by working while I’ve been home, but I also thought my budget would be about half of what it is going to be.
Like Jesus multiplied the fishes and the loaves in Luke 9,
I am always amazed at how a few dollars from a few people each month adds up quickly. If you are in a position to commit to financially supporting me with either a one-time gift or monthly support, Ithank you. If youthink you might like to, but aren’t sure it’s where God is calling you to budget your finances, please pray about it. If you aren’t in a position to provide any financial support, please make a commitment to offer spiritual supportby praying for me and my Swaziland teamweekly.
AIM has made donating easy – online (just click on
Support Me on the left) or by sending a bank check via snail mail (AIM, 6000 Wellspring Trail, Gainesville, GA 30506 ) – just make sure you write my name Casey Wells and Swaziland in the memo line of the check.
Prayer Support: There are always so many things to pray about, here are just a few: finances, safety, that we will make the right decisions on how to best help the people of Swaziland, and that we would know which ministries to partner with / serve and at the right time, spiritual warfare, health, and that we would continue to have fun and glorify God in everything we do.
I have absolutely loved doing mission trips, I believe that I will finally be living as one. Thank you so much for all of your support and encouragement in all of my trips. I wouldn’t be able to take this opportunity without you.
Love and Blessings,
Casey
