I wanted to let all of you know that I have left the World Race. I have been struggling with this decision for about two months and feel that this is what I am supposed to do; that this is what God wants me to do. I feel peace about it. I am seeking God about the next step in my life. I know that he is not done with me. I believe that he has a purpose for my being home and that is what I am seeking. I have applied for a job with Mercy Ministries in Nashville and am looking for other potential jobs as well. Please pray for me in that. Also, please pray for the remaining members of my squad. Last week they lost 9 people total. Some to being called home, some to money troubles, and some being sent home. They will be regrouping before the beginning of next month. Especially pray for my team because two of us were called home (that kinda sounds like we died...oops). Thank you all for your support of me. You have no idea how much is means to me. My blog will be shut down on the 16th so this is my final blog. If you wish to contact me, my email address is daniele.cochran@comcast.net. I will also have my phone back with the same number so feel free to call or text me. Again Thank you so much.
PS Grandma Barb: I am going to try to come to LA when Carly lands and I am looking forward to meeting you. Thank you for all of your comments!
This month is a very lax month. The only real ministry we are doing is preaching at night and on Sundays. Our host family is so great to us. They took us to a resort on Christmas to go swimming! They really do spoil us. Kigali is beautiful (a little expensive though!) We got to go to a wedding on Sat in authentic Rwandan clothing. It was fun.
I am glad to say I surivived the very homesick week of Christmas! I still miss my family something fierce but my family here is taking good care of me. Please pray for my friend Jess. She lost her mother on Christmas and had to fly home. My squad leader Michelle went with her so remember her as she travels back on Monday.
I have preached twice this month so far. My team is doing a really cool Bible study. We will be in the Samuels but first we are doing a background study. Blake (aka the Professor) is teaching us. He's good.
I have finished the video I was working on and will upload it next. Sorry I don't have much to report. Hope the Holidays were enjoyable for all of you!
My team and I have safely arrived at our Month 6 ministry site. We are on the outskirts of Kigali, Rwanda. We are staying with the pastor of Christian Fellowship Church. It is very beautiful here. You should google it! We miss our family back in
Kenya but hopefully one day we will get to return.
As of right now, I am still a little over $3000 short, but I plan to stay. If I have to accept a loan to do so then so be it. I'd rather not, but... I am currently working on a video. I will hopefully get to post it soon.
I tried to upload my sermon but alas, the file was too big. I will try to get it on a different host site in the near future so anyone who wants to watch it can.
This week is going to be tough just because I know that I will not be home for Christmas. Emily will be there but I won't. :( Oh well I guess. All for the Kingdom, right?
My former team leader-turned Squad leader, Michelle is with us for a week or two. Friday is Carly's birthday.
Ok that is all I can think of to update you on for now. Thank you for all who are supporting me, financially and/or prayerfully.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
PS: Sorry my blogs have been practically non-existant this past month. I will try to do better this month.
This is just a short update about what is going on in the "wonderful" world of Daniele. I am in need of prayer. I am struggling with some issues this week; among these: I am severely homesick and am stressed about my support account. I have roughly one month to raise $3085 or I will be coming home at the end of the year. And I have run out of resources. I am not sure what God's will is in this situation. I don't know whether he wants me to stay or go. I do know that if he wants me to stay he will make a way. I personally do not know whether I want to stay or go. Hence the issues. I am squarely on the fence. Please remember me in your prayers this week and also remember my chuch back home. MY pastor has decided the leave the church and I know that this will be a trying time for both him and the church. Thank you for your continued support. God bless you (or Mungu akubariki in Swahili).
As I told you in my last post, I preached this past Sunday. I preached at the first service, Carly preached at the second. According to my teammates, I "killed" it. I went for 47 min and at the end, two people raised their hands to accept Christ. How awesome is that?After the service people kept telling me how it blessed them. And then the next day, one of the ladies told me that it really spoke to her and she realized she was letting fear hold her back from producing her own music! I was floored. It was all God because I felt like I was rambling the whole time. Val filmed it so I will post that video at some point.
Ministry has been going great. We had 2 ladies saved on Monday during our house visits. It was amazing. I can't wait to see what He does.
Also, I finally got my hair braided. Here are the pics:
I really, really love it here. The people are so friendly and welcoming. The whole church has taken us under their wing. They have so many activities for us to be apart of. We have the best host family ever: Jackson, Jen, Derrick, and Lynn. We started ministry this week. Day one, we did house visits. The people here are awesome. We met a lady who fled from the war in Sudan. Her story was amazing. Most of her children are dead or unreachable, yet she has the joy of the Lord.
Last week, one of the children from the church died in a bus accident and we were able to witness the funeral process. Every nite up unitl the funeral service, the whole church meets at the parents house and basically has a big tent revival. The funeral itself was about 4 or 5 hours and we drove at least 2 hours to get there. They celebrate the life, not mourn the death. It was very humbling to watch.
Today, we went to an orphanage. Oh my goodness. I wanted to wrap all of them up and take them home. They seriously blessed my soul. They sang and danced for us and we taught them a song/dance. I also got to narrarate a story with them. Amazing!
Today is Thanksgiving. I hope everyone back home enjoys their day and doesn't miss me too much. (Jess, you can't have my portion of the hashbrown casserole just cuz I'm not there.) We bought sweet potatoes (to make fries with), chocolate, and peanut butter to celebrate.
Tomorrow I am getting my hair done (keep an eye out for the video) and we get to go to the praise team's practice. Seriously one of the best I have EVER seen. My goal is to get to dance with them one Sunday.
Sunday, I am preaching. Please pray for my 15 min sermonette to miraculously turn into an hour long sermon!
I hope all is well in your part of the world. My team and I just arrived in Bungoma, Kenya. We already love it. I know the holidays are coming up and it is often a hard time of the year financially.However, I wanted to write and encourage any of you who are looking for a charity or good cause to donate to, to consider supporting my race. (Its tax deductible!) I still need about $3000. If I don't get it before the end of the year, I will have to leave the race and I REALLY do not want to miss out of what God is gonna do in and through me on the remainder of the race. Please consider supporting me if possible. Pledges count! Even if you can only give $20/mth for the next 7 months, it will still count toward my total. If you know some one who would be interested in supporting me, feel free to pass this along. And even if you can't support me financially, please cover me in prayer and keep up with my blog.
Thank you, God Bless, and Happy Holiday season from Africa!
So we had our first debrief this past week. It has been a very rough week. Especially for my team. The squad has lost 3 people this week: 2 voluntarily and one not. The one that wasn't voluntarily was my team leader. Last week, some mistakes were made and it was decided that he needed to leave the race. He left walking in new freedom and that's the important part. It was really hard and quite a shock for my team. However, I believe we came out stronger. The squad leaders decided to keep us together, thank God! Carly is our new team leader, something I am very excited about. I just love my team. Blake is our only guy now, but he is fine with it. I seriously love this guy. He surprises me everyday. Of course, my girls are still so dear to me. I am so excited to see what Africa holds for us. Its gonna be great. We are still mourning and missing Logan but we aren't dwelling on it. We leave for Bungoma tomorrow morning. I don't know if we will have internet or not. We'll see. Today we are celebrating Val's birthday.
Ok well I wanted to catch you guys up. Hopefully my next blog will be more eventful!
So I have safely (and finally) arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. It was one of the longest travel days on the Race to date. Let me start before the beginning. Saturday afternoon, I decided to take a nice warm shower so I'd be clean for travel days (because nothing makes you feel nasty like an airport). The shower in our room was cold so I took one using the hall bathroom. It went well until I left the bathroom. For those of you who don't know, I have a cyst on the end of my tailbone (its called a Pilondial cyst). Well as I was stepping out of the room I had the thought that I was going to slip and I did just that. My feet flew out from under me and I landed straight on it. I sat on the floor for a few minutes before I could move. All I could think was, "Please don't let anyone I know walk by!" Ok so Fast forward to Sunday morning at 3:30. We get to the airport at 4:30. It doesn't open til like 5:30. We get checked in and all and find out our flight is delayed. My butt is beyond sore and swollen. It hurts to sit, stand up, sit down, sneeze, use stairs, etc. Several friends give me pills but they don't really help. The airline tells us that because our flight is delayed that they are providing breakfast so we have to go back through security to the restaraunt. We eat. Then go back through security. A few hours and more delays later, they feed us lunch so we have to do the security thing again only this time there are 5 lines with over 100 people in each line. -_- Finally get back through. We sit there til 6 pm. Then we fly to Bahrain (5 hour flight). We land and get off that plane to find we have 20 min til our next flight leaves. As we run through the airport, we see a Chili's, Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, etc. Why couldn't we be stuck there for 10 hours?! So we get on the plane; another 5 hours. The flights are murder on my bum. At one point I am ready to cry because it hurts so bad. Anyways, we finally land in Nairobi at around 3 am. We get through customs, get the bags, load and get on the bus, and head to the hostel. I went to bed at 5:30 am and woke up for breakfast at 9 am. Thank God there is a nurse on the squad and she gave me pills that actually help.
We will be in Nairobi for about a week. Then we head to Bungoma. While in Nairobi, we are on lockdown because of some conflict with Somalian militia people. Don't worry! I am safe. We are across the street from the Dept of Defense and they are keeping an extra eye on us. It was a heck of travel day but I really like Kenya so far. The weather is good and the people are friendly. I am looking forward to this month. However, we have 2 more people on the squad going home so please so a prayer for them. Ok that's it for now. Love you guys.
