Hey everyone!

My name is Allegra Forwith, and I live in Louisville, Kentucky. I am 18 years old, and I just graduated from high school. In the fall of 2012, I will begin attending Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida majoring in marine biology. I have a mom and dad, and I am the second oldest of four girls: Megan (19 almost 20), Marina (15), and Liana (13). This year we hosted an exchange student from Germany, Yvonne (16), and she has become my fourth sister. My sisters are my best friends, and I will probably talk about them a lot on the trip. Family and friends are very important to me, and my hope is that we’ll all grow close as a team and siblings in Christ!

I’m a very active person with a wide variety of interests, therefore I get along well with most everyone! I have played soccer since I was 5, and I’m looking forward to playing street games of soccer in Kenya. I love water sports, snow skiing, and have also played basketball and lacrosse in the past. I love reading, writing, doing puzzles and word games, watching movies, learning unusual facts that most people don’t know, going camping and hiking, swimming, and sleeping beneath the stars. As you might be able to infer, I love the outdoors! If we get to sleep in African huts or go on a safari, I will be ecstatic! I can be shy at first, and I have a slightly introverted personality, but I warm up to people. I want to be a writer/marine biologist/doctor/medical missionary or all of the above…not sure yet.

I’m so excited to be going on this trip to Kenya! My dad is a doctor and spend last October serving at a Christian hospital in Kenya where he did surgeries while teaching Kenyan residents with a program called PAACA (Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons). His stories have gotten me pumped up for Africa! He’s planning on returning to that same hospital again this October…hopefully we can meet up! If everything goes as planned, God willing, I’ll be going on another trip to Nicaragua for the spring semester!

Though I am very passionate about my faith and missions now, I was not always this way. I grew up Catholic, pretty much always believing in God, but lacking passion. In a sense, I was just going through the motions. In the fall of 2009, my family and I started going to a non-denominational Christian church and were baptized as a family in January of 2010. In those few months, I became enthusiastic about my faith. But it wasn’t until summer 2010 that my faith grew to a fire inside me, a true passion. I went on a one week mission trip with my church youth group to the Dominican Republic. Those seven days were a week of firsts for me: first time I was surrounded by people my own age who showed passion for Christ, first time I saw poverty with my own eyes, first time I felt a strong desire to have a personal relationship with God, first time I felt compelled to do more with my life and actually decided upon it. That one week literally changed my life, and signing up for this trip is only part of it!

I can clearly recall two years ago when older sister decided to spend a gap year between high school and college as an exchange student in Spain. My dad suggested that I do the same, but serve in someplace like Guatemala. “Wait, so Megan gets to go off to Europe and I have to go to a 3^rd world country?!?” was my response. We all just laugh now because that’s exactly what I’m doing! And it’s my choice. Just goes to show how much has changed in two years! In some ways, I’m still a baby Christian, but in other ways I’ve very experienced. I was having trouble understanding how I could serve God when I still have so much to learn. My pastor put it to me like this: “How long does a candle have to burn before it gives off light?” I’m learning more  and more and growing stronger in my faith every day. That’s the Sparknotes version of my life! I can’t wait to meet you guys! Let’s bring some light to Kenya!

-Allegra