Hey y’all! My name is Mary Elizabeth Gaston, but I go by MEG (my initials, pretty cool huh? My parents rock). I’m from Monroe, North Carolina where I live with my mom, dad, and older brother. We also have two dogs named Ellie and Bo. My brother and I are only 16 months apart, so we’re pretty close.

During the school year I live in the small village of Misenheimer, NC. I go to school at Pfeiffer University, it’s a small private college. Very very small, but I like it. My brother also goes to Pfeiffer, so while I was still in high school I heard so much about it from him that I decided to look into going there. And I did! I am a junior majoring in Math with a minor in secondary education. I want to teach high school math. As far as working goes I am a Resident Assistant (RA) at Pfeiffer. 65% of Pfeiffer’s students are athletes, but I am not. I did play soccer in high school, but I didn’t want to play a sport in college. I’m glad too, because school work keeps me way too busy.

I am the RA of the only apartment styled resident hall on campus. I live there with my two best friends at Pfeiffer, Brinkley and Lindsey. Brinkley is a junior like me and Lindsey is a sophomore. Some days we fight like sisters, but I would be lost without them. We’re all fairly busy during the day, so we use the night to catch up with what’s going on with one another. As far as free time goes I don’t have much, but when I do I like to hang out with my friends.

I like to think I’m a pretty funny person, and I love to see people smile! That’s normally the first thing I notice about people. I also love kids, and at first I wanted to teach elementary school, but I would much rather play with them. I don’t mind heights as far as roller coasters or flying goes, but for some reason standing on a table or a chair freaks me out. Weird, I know. When it’s time to get down I always get this fear that I’m going to fall. I love to talk; my nickname in elementary school was megamouth, if that tells you anything.

I love my church at home, they have been one of the greatest support systems as far as mission goes. When I was in middle and high school we would go to West Virginia for Operation Warm-Up where we would take warm clothes, blankets, and food to the people who didn’t have much in November. One year we realized that the kids in the places we were going rarely had a Christmas, so a couple of the people at my church decided to start Appalachian Mission Project where we go back to WV in December with toys and food we had collected for the kids. It was awesome, and I loved seeing the kids’ faces when they were picking out their Christmas presents.

Other than going to WV all through high school I have been on two mission trips out of the country, both through Pfeiffer. The summer after my freshman year I went to Cuba for 13 days. It was an amazing experience and I met so many wonderful people and got to know a lot of my peers. My second mission trip out of the country was over spring break my sophomore year. I went to Guatemala with a team of about twenty people. We were only there for a week and it broke my heart when we had to leave. These mission trips showed me a lot about who I am and what I want to be when I grow up.

I can’t wait to experience Kenya with each and every one of you! Ever since I got back from Guatemala a year ago I have been praying about what God wanted me to do with my life. I felt called to go to Africa, and after talking with my old pastor and the minister here at Pfeiffer I decided to look into a trip I could go on. I asked one of my friends because I knew he had been to Africa for an extended amount of time. He also went through AIM so I talked to him a good bit while I was applying for this trip. I am so excited about this trip; I just wish it was June already!!!