All in all my trip was AMAZING!!! Through it all God showed me His desire for the church to take Hope to the Hopeless, and He wants us to this through His love and His power. It really is the time to take up the commision He gave us and say as Isaih did "Here am I, Lord. Send me." I have many, many other amazing stories that I could share with you, and perhaps I will post more as the Lord leads me. But as for now I hope you enjoyed reading about what the Lord did through YOUR support this May. I am so encouraged by the number of people who truly lifted out team up in prayer! Thank you sooooo much! I love you all!

In His Service,

Kallie G.

One of the other things we were able to do while we were there was meet with some families and have some authentic cuisine. The dinner we went to was truly amazing. Getting to know the people and hearing about their way of life and just their love and hospitality was truly amazing. I could go into to much more detail- if you want to hear more email me or leave a comment.

After a few months of team preparation and extreme team challeges we headed to the Karis people the day after two of our members graduated from school. After a four hour drive to the airport, 3 layovers ( 1 for 12 hours in Vienna), and many hours on planes we arrived in the beautiful capital city.

During the week we participated in conversation clubs. We were able to share our culture with the students who were learning Eglish there. We also learned about their great culture, their history, and we had a lil' fun too!

On the weekend we were able to go into the mountains of the country to deliver some clothes and miscellaneous school supplies to the orpahnages. We had an amazing time seeing all of the kids and then going outside with them to play games and create crafts.

My heart still burned with this desire, but the class ended and it seemed to be something that wasn't taking as much precedents in my life. Then one day, while I was walking to lunch I saw a sign that said "Do you want to reach Muslims?" Automatically this caught my attention and I took a flyer... It was informing the students of a mission to trip to the Karis people (or Muslims overseas). As soon as I read the information I realized that the last day to apply for the mission trip was that day. So I ran to my room and filled out an application. A couple of days later I was called for an interview to join the team. Come to find out one of the leaders on the trip were in my Christian Witness to Muslim class the semester before. Next thing I knew, I was a part of the IWU Karis Mission Team.

My first Semester, my Sophomore year at IWU, I was in a class called Christian witness to Muslims with an amazing Proffesor. It was an awesome experience. I learned so much about Islam- and through this class I began to have a growing desire to meet and reach out to those of the Islamic faith. My heart began to go out to the Asian and Middle Eastern countries. My prayers for the believers in the countries became more and more frequent as a passion for the persecuted church was rekindled in my heart. Stories I read in Middle School from Jesus Freaks started coming to mind... and I began to read more and more. For some reason my heart was lit on fire for this unreached people group.