We are OFFICIALLY going to South Africa!

As you all know from my last post, Nicole and I have been carefully tracking the cost of plane tickets to South Africa over the past couple of months. You also know that the cost of those plane tickets has been steadily increasing, and that Nicole and I were very apprehensive as to how we were going to gather the funds to buy the tickets. Well, once again God has proved His faithfulness! As it turns out, the cost of leaving in August and returning in September is actually about $1000 cheaper than leaving in July and returning in August.

After verifying that these new dates would work for the Brittinghams, Nicole and I were able to buy our plane tickets! Yes, that's right, we bought our plane tickets today! And, somehow, God managed for us to do it for $1566.41 each. Wow. We will now be leaving Friday, August 13th (arriving in Kokstad on Saturday, August 14th) and returning on Sunday, September 19th (leaving Kokstad Saturday, September 18th).

Thank you all so much for continuing to pray for us and for this trip. It is so encouraging to see God's hand in this trip in every single step!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

God answered a huge prayer this morning when Bethany voted to support me and Nicole with Africa this summer. Money has been a huge concern recently, as the price of plane tickets continue to rise. As of yesterday, they had reached $2400 with taxes and fees, which is about $900 more than they were when we began planning for this trip. Needless to say, Nicole and I were praying! And boy did God pull through. We are so thankful that the church decided to support us. God made it possible for the church to support us for about half of our plane tickets, which is more than we even thought was possible!

This has been such a growing experience for me thus far. I have never before had to rely on God to bring in the money, and so far He has been so faithful! I am very excited to see how He brings in the remaining $1625 (assuming the plane tickets don't go up anymore in the near future, which is definitely something you can be praying for).

Nicole and I were also informed today that anyone interested in supporting us individually can make a donation through the church and thus receive a tax deduction. If this is something that interests you, all you need to do is write "Bri for Africa" and/or "Nicole for Africa" (whomever you would like to support) in the memo line of the check and place it in the offering plate on Sundays. You can also write "Bri for Africa" and/or "Nicole for Africa" on the blue offering envelope in which your donation is enclosed and place the envelope in the offering plate.

Thank you all so much for continuing to pray for me, Nicole and for the trip as a whole! I will try my best to update this blog as more updates come.