Hey guys!

My name is Bailee Slack but most of my friends call me Bai or Bee, but really anything's fine! I'm from Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri (it's an actual place and a lake). It's really beautiful but in the summer it's more or less a trashy tourist trap, complete with a "Party Cove". My parents kept me away from the party scene and I spent a lot of time tubing, riding waverunners, wakeboarding, hiking,  fishing and kayaking growing up. I seriously have the best, most quirky parents anyone could ask for and we are super close. Both of them are principals now...my mom was my 6th grade science teacher (and the only teacher to write me up) and my dad was my middle school principal (as if middle school wasn't hard enough). I have a little brother named Skyler who is 15 and my grandma has lived with me since I was 7. She lost her mental filter awhile back and seriously says whatever she thinks, which has led to some EXTREMELY awkward situations.

Right now I'm a freshman at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) majoring in biology with a minor in cultural anthropology with the hope of going to medical school. I'm kind of a nerd and I actually get paid to go to school so I don't have a job right now but I'm defenitely not a mooch!

I absolutely LOVE the outdoors more than anything and spend as much time there as possible. I love fishing, kayaking, biking, hiking, and just chilling on the dock. The hardest part of coming to college for me was leaving nature behind....KC isn't quite the same, but I love it anyway! My friends all call me a hippie and my mom calls me her flower child because I spend so much time outside and I'm super laid back. I absolutely love music and concerts and that is where the majority of my extra cash is spent. Recently I've been to the Dave Matthews Band festival in Chicago last summer (so great!), Bon Iver, and Avicii. I love the fleet foxes, Sublime, Jack Johnson, Red Hot Chili Peppers (their new album kinda sucks) and Best Coast (just to name a few). I also love thrifting and antiqueing, and I recently bought a record player from 1967 that I love dearly. 

I have a dimples with matching freckles in each one that I used to get teased about when I was little. I love ice-cream more than any food on earth and eat it almost everyday in the summer. I refuse to eat orange skittles and pick every single one out of the pouch. I have a lucky shirt that ridiculously good things happen to me when I wear, and it is most defenitely coming to Africa.  I find myself in awkward situations ALL the time that make for hilarious stories. Once a biker guy tried to get me to joust him with a styrafoam noodle in wal-mart. No joke.

I have done a few smaller mission trips within the US to Nashville and Colorado, just with my youth group, but for as long as I can remember I have felt called to Africa and I want to eventually do medical missions and have a free clinic there. I am ridiculously excited to get my feet wet in international missions and here more from God about how exactly he wants me to serve him. I feel like God has been telling me to have no expectations for the trip and go in flexible and ready for anything, and to seek him as much as possible this summer to grow more mature spiritually. The thing I'm most nervous about is having little contact with my parents because we are so close, but I keep praying and I know God will give me peace!

Can't wait to meet you all and serve the Lord together this summer!