Traveling in January

To my friends, family, and anyone else who happenes to be on my email list~

Just wanted to fill you in quick on something I am pretty excited about...in three days I will be leaving with a group of 10 senior Nursing majors and one professor for a three week trip to the United Arab Emirates (in the MiddleEast, borders Saudi Arabia). While we are over there we will fulfill the requirements for a class titled Cultural Diversity in Healthcare and we might have a little bit of fun while we're at it.

First and foremost I would like to ask you to pray for our group while we are away. Our travel dates are Jan 1-22. Please pray for our safety and for my mom's mental health as well...I don't think sending her baby girl to the Middle East was one of the things she wanted to see happen in her lifetime!! Ha. I'm kidding...she's doing quite well and is supportive of my decision to go...but I know she, as well as myself, would appreciate anyone who would be willing to cover our group in prayer while we are away. I would also appreciate it if youwould pray that this will be a time of further direction and clarity for me regarding whether or not I will be heading overseas in the future and if I am,what kind of a role I might play in a foreign setting.

One more thing. Most of you were on my email list last year when I was inBolivia. For those of you who did not get those emails...welcome to my email list. If you don't want to be on it, feel free to reply with the subject line,"Do I even know you?". ha. I got the impression from many of you that those emails were well appreciated and even mildly entertaining. As a matter of fact, I even got two contract offers for writing comedy sketches...wait, maybe that was a dream...well, regardless, I will do my best to provide those updates again. I'm not entirely sure what the internet situation will be like over there. To save time over a dial-up connection, I am only going to send any emails I write to my mom and then she will forward them to the list I made in her account with all of your emails on it. So, just know that for the next month, any forwards you may get from Diane Brandes are actually emails from me. I also think we are designating one person to send back generic emails to the school and families. You may or may not get those depending on whether or not I think it is worthwhile for Mom to forward them.

Ok, enough of that. Hopefully that's not all too confusing. I am very excited about the trip. I am anticipating that this will be very unlike any experience I have ever had before. I have mostly traveled South, never East, and the cultures are so extremely different. Feel free to email me if you want, it is always fun and encouraging to get emails from home when you are traveling, but please know there is no expectation or obligation to reply to anything I send. Just make sure that if you DO reply, you send the email to my account, braeva@bethel.edu, not my mom's email. Again, I appreciate any time spent in prayer for myself and my group.

Love you all,
Eva Joy :)