My Name is Emily Herrin, I am 17 almost 18 years old, and I live in Boca Raton, FL on the east coast about 45 minutes from Fort Lauderdale. I am in my senior year of high school at Boca Raton Community High, which I can hardly believe. This year I am full of joy and inspiration, and am learning to take advantage of this amazing time in my life by appreciating every moment. I absolutely love my school, it’s a huge public school but I have gotten myself involved in almost everything possible. Although its going to be a big change, I am so excited for college! 

While preparing for college, I have really been able to take the time to examine my heart, figure out what my passions are, and listen to what I am called to do. Although I cannot yet give you a definite answer of where I will be attending college next year, I do know that God has opened so many doors for me that I never even knew existed. I have found Covenant College that I hope to attend and study Community Development which I am so excited about pursuing. 

When I’m not doing some kind of activity for school, I babysit everyday of the week which is such a blessing for me. My heart lights up when I am around kids, and being able to play with them, help them with homework, and speak life into them while also earning money is so perfect for me and I am so thankful for that!

Some fun facts about me:

I love yoga. Best challenge/workout and quiet time with God!

I love sleeping in weird places, sometimes I sleep on my roof under the stars!

I have a pet snake named Jake. 

I absolutely lovelove Coldplay!

I love baking/decorating cakes, its one of my secret talents!

I am completely obsessed with Peanut Butter (which is great because thats what we will be eating for 2 months!) 

I have one sister who is 26 and one nephew, Colton who is 2 1/2 years old and the happiest kid on earth. 

I am told that I smile almost 24/7, I cant help it when there is so much to be joyful about!

I have been on two mission trips before with AIM ambassadors program, first to Kenya 2 summers ago for 4 weeks when I was 16, and second to Mexico/Texas last summer for 5 weeks. God really knew what he was doing when he signed me up for Kenya, because that trip was when I completely fell in love with Him. I had never experienced the love of God to the extent that I did before I went to Kenya, and that trip forever awakened me and completely changed my view of life. Ever since I have been back I have continued to feel the itch and desire to do something more. The desire to go back to Africa has been placed in my heart way too often to ignore it, so I am excited to see what God has in store for us! 

Honestly, I really feel like I don’t have many fears about this trip since I don’t worry about being homesick, flying (I love airplanes!) meeting new people, not showering, trying new foods, or living somewhere out of my comfort zone. In the beginning, I have to admit I was not too confident that this trip would be possible for me since it was so much money to raise and I had tons of other stuff going on this year on top of everything. But, I knew I had to go and take advantage of this opportunity and God was asking me to rely on him. He has already shown up in ways I did not know was possible, and I know he will continue to provide! Ways that you could be praying for me would be to surrender expectations, since I have to admit I have a lot of those. Gods plan is so much bigger than mine, and I wont be able to see it if I am letting my plans get in the way! 

Words are not sufficient enough to describe how excited I am to meet you beautiful people and travel across the world together. Africa is such a beautiful place, and I absolutely cannot wait to be back on African soil, and experience Swaziland. God has some pretty sweet plans for this trip, and he is going to use us in crazy ways! Please let me know if I can be praying for anything for you, I love to meet new people and hear whats on your heart! Be blessed!