A Fort Dale graduate is spending her summer on a mission trip to Mozambique, Africa.

Katelynd Branum, daughter of Bruce and Nan Branum and a 2006 graduate of FDA, is participating in the Harvest School of Missions through Iris Ministries, Inc.

She was initially hesitant in January when she applied to the missions school.

“I asked the Lord if it was not His will for me to go, that He would not even allow me to be accepted,” Branum said in her online blog. “But if I did get accepted, I would trust that He wanted me to go and would provide for the trip down to the last penny.”

The trip cost thousands of dollars, but with the help of friends, family, and local churches, Branum was able to raise the money. She left on May 28 and will return on August 9.

Branum is in school every day, learning the local language, but she is also able to go out into the bush and meet the villagers.

“The Lord began to show me that He has blessed my life so that I may be a blessing. Everything I have been given is just for me to give away. This includes my material possessions as well as the spiritual blessings He gives me,” Branum wrote. “It is so easy to hoard things when we get them. But in reality, the Lord allows us to have what we have. And He gives us the opportunity to share it.”

She has become close to two teenage girls during her time there, Owa and Anna.

Mother, Nan, said that Katelynd has learned, “it’s not so much what you say to these children, just that you spend time with them.”

Nan said it was hard to see her daughter leave.

“I had to learn to let go and trust that she is in God’s hands on this trip,” she said.