First thing you should know about me, Africa is not my dream. It's not where I'm called to. It's not even my favorite place to visit. I prefer Asia and Europe by far. The second thing you should know about me, is that this will be my fifth missions trip to Africa.

My first journey to this part of Africa though. I've only been to South Africa and Swaziland before. In fact, my family is moving to Swaziland (my family, not me. I'm staying in the States to work on my Criminology degree and enjoy life in the Big Easy. Which is New Orleans for all y'all not from around here.). They'll be there as full-time missionaries, running a pre-school  and teaching at a Bible college.

Speaking of my family, there's a lot of us, seven kids (I'm the oldest. A fact I thank God for daily.) and our parents. We're all loud. I'm actually the quietest, which, once you've spent some time with me, you might realize isn't saying much. Right now I'm still living at home on a farm of sorts outside of Jackson, Mississippi. My family has plans to move inner-city this year to a ministry we've worked at for years. They'll probably move while I'm gone and then when I get back, I'll be moving down to New Orleans right away to start university full time.

Alright, so that's all the basic and boring stuff. I'll try not to make the rest of it too tedious, so real quick I'll list a few things I love enough that it matters.

• Boxing. My dad is former Special Forces and we spar as a means of showing our affection for each other. Plus, I love having an excuse to beat things up.
• Johnny Cash. Seriously. I love him. If you ever borrow my iPod, and find my "worship songs" playlist, about a third of it is Johnny Cash, and third U2, and the rest is by...
• Jon Foreman. I love that guy. If his lyrics were a person, they would be my soulmate. I really don't listen to much Christian music, just his stuff. And a little Steven Curtis Chapman.
• Cars and motorcycles. And driving. And working on my truck. I love making things work better and using my hands in a practical way.
• Horses. I've been riding since before I could walk and the hardest thing about moving from our farm is going to be leaving my stupid, gorgeous, way-too-tall-for-me horse behind. Along with his jackass (he's a donkey) companion.
• James Bond. I'm a total throwback. I could've been born anytime between 1900 and 1980 and been perfectly fine. But the 1960s brought some of my most favorite things in pop-culture, and the ultimate spy-man is no exception to that. I really love me some Bond.
• Fighting human trafficking. That means more to me than anything. I spent last summer in Thailand working with SHE ministries meeting so many people affected by the harsh reality of human trafficking. I'd already been passionate about it, but now it's to the point of obsession (which sounds awful but that's how it is). I'm majoring in Criminology in the hopes that I can work finding, freeing and helping victims of human trafficking, as well as bringing their violators to justice.
• Telling stories and traveling. Those two go together for me because the best stories come after an adventure of some sort, and traveling is always an adventure for me. I was the kid growing up who prayed my closet would be Narnia next time I opened the door, and I remember being ten and crying because I would never have a life as important and epic as the fellowship in Middle Earth. Luckily for me God had (has!) plans in mind, plans that I only recently realized are making my life as epic as any from Middle Earth. And I'm very excited to accumilate more stories from y'all and our adventures we'll have this summer.
• Jesus. That's a given, I know. But at the same time, it seems to be something everyone always touches on in their introductions, their relationship with Jesus and how that is. Mine personally is really complicated (my fault, of course. I tend to over-complicate most things.) but becoming so sweet. Not like Songs of Songs "shower me with kisses Lord" kind of sweet. Just really intimate and deep in a whole new way. Whereas in years past my relationship with God was like a grape, nice and all, but not very satisfying, it's deepend and matured as I've aged much like the best most rich wine you can imagine. (Sorry if that offends you. Drinking--not being drunk--doesn't bother me a bit and I've always shared whatever my dad was having but if that's bad to you I totally understand and apologize.) And I just realized I summed up my relationship with Christ by discussing alchoholic beverages. That says way too much about me.

Much longer than I'm sure y'all care for, but there it is! It barely scratches the surface of who I am, but hopefully gives you enough that for any who read this, you'll have a jumping-off point for getting to really know me once we meet at training. I'm also on the FaceBook (as Anna Chryslyn) but I'm terrible with online communications. See y'all in June!