The 'Gamecock Girl Art' Blog: A Good Place To Live

I love Bristol. The city is not at all conceited. It knows it's not the best, but it is good. Even Brad Pitt thinks so. First of all, it's the birthplace of country-music. A lot of up-and-coming musicians come through. We heard this group called Futurebirds at Border Bash. The once-a-month festival on State Street gets its name because the middle of the street is the literal border between Tennessee and Virginia. I'm glad I technically live and work on the Tennessee side so I can add another state to my collection. Bristol is definitely the smallest city I've lived in, but so far I'm loving it. It's been three weeks and my car needed gas for the first time yesterday. (Probably could have gone a couple more days but the Low Fuel dinging was getting annoying.) Everyone knows everyone. It's Mayberry. People have been so welcoming, having us over for dinner, inviting us hiking, etc. We've already gone hiking a couple times. There's a beautiful park in our backyard. If you drive not too far you can find some really fun trails that lead to falls. We hope to do that one day this week. We almost went yesterday, but I just felt like bumming out at our pool. Yes, the house we're staying at has a pool. This gracious GRACIOUS family is letting us stay in the studio apartment over their garage. It's been so great. Once it's cooler we can walk there from work.
   So "work". This is what we've been doing with SafeWorld. I can not even describe how blessed I am to have this job. This "job" was made for me. (It's so funny saying "work" and "job" because it doesn't feel like either whatsoever.) In the morning we read and catch up on the news around the world, sharing articles with each other. I've been studying up a lot on maternal health around the world. Out of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, it is the least improved. Probably because it is so broad and the hardest to raise awareness. (I'll just have to talk about that more later.) Then we've been planning for a lot of different events. Here we go:
   This weekend we are helping Jon Acuff with his Quitter conference. Hopefully he'll talk to me this time, unlike the Join A New Story benefit when I was so rudely ignored. I believe I was ignored because I worked the drinks. There is no way a SPEAKER of an event didn't need to drink anything in that amount of time. He was told I was there and wanted to thank him for introducing me to SafeWorld too!
   At the end of August Jordana is taking Rachel, Sarah, and I to Haiti to meet everyone at Heartline Ministries- this is who the Join A New Story benefit was for. We are trying to help them raise funds for a new maternity center. They are in competition right now to receive a $50,000 grant to help with this. Currently they're in second place. Go here to vote for them every day! Takes no time. Put the link on your favorites. Troy and Tara Livesay will be familiarizing us with the people and programs of Heartline. From this, Sarah, Rachel and I will be able to better design trips for groups who want to help. We'll also now be able to better advocate for Haiti's women. Another place we'll be visiting is a school in Gressier (Gray-see-Aye), Haiti, to see if there are ways SafeWorld can get involved there. I know this will be a life-changing trip and can not wait to share it all with you.
   In September we'll be leading a conference on missions for a church in Johnson City. I am so excited about this church. They just want to hear our philosophy on missions and see how we can start partnering together. I have never heard of a church doing this: calling up an organization and saying, "hey, we want to learn from you. We want to see how our church can love our brothers and sisters around the world." This is a Wednesday to Sunday conference. We'll be planning events for the children, youth, and adults on all of these days. There is so much work to do for this!
   In October we will be featured at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. If you've ever heard of the Passion conferences, it's like that, but for leaders. We're expecting 13,000 christian leaders to be in attendance. This is a great time for SafeWorld to network and advocate for maternal health. I've been loving the brainstorming and designing we're doing for our display there. Again, maternal health is such a challenging cause to fight for. It is not easy, however that's exactly why I'm so glad we're stepping up to advocate for change. Someone needs to.
   In November we will be going to Uganda for a medical trip. On this trip we'll be passing out mosquito nets and setting up remote clinics. We have surgeons, doctors, and nurses coming along. What's so cool about SafeWorld though is anyone can join us. If you have a heart, come along. Please spread the word and get in touch with me if you or a friend are interested. My work email is Katherine@SafeWorldNexus.org and my work cell is 423-217-3199. I know this will be another life-changing experience. I would love for my friends to join me! We also plan to go in Jan/Feb and June if you don't think you can raise the funds by November.
   So this is all the stuff I've been working on the last couple weeks. God also provided a temporary babysitting gig three days after I got here. So if I'm not in the office that's what I'm doing. The more I can be in the office the better though. If you would like to support my work with SafeWorld go here.  In the dropdown menu select "2011 Internship". Another dropdown will occur. Select "Katherine Hodges". Then fill out all your information. At the bottom under Additional Options you can select a box to "make this a recurring transaction." Do that if you would like to give monthly. Every little bit helps and I am soooooo appreciative. If you have already donated you should have gotten a Thank You card from me or it will be there in the next couple days. I understand that this is YOUR hard-earned money and I will be a good steward with it. That's all I have for now. I will be blogging more about all these goings-on. SAFEWORLDNEXUS IS THE BEST!

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

-Henry David Thoreau