Just monkeying around...

So today is Monday. That means a day of prayer and fasting with LIA, which has come to be one of my favorite parts of the week. I love being able to listen and learn what God is doing in the lives of the LIA staff members and what they are hearing and learning in reference to their ministry as a whole. It's definitely the part of the week where I learn the most and try to just listen as much as possible...

But today was an extra exciting day. It was the last day of LIA's "quarter", and so we went with the staff to an arboretum about 10 minutes from the office. Just picture every amazing tree that you have ever seen in National Geographic, add about 20 more different kinds of trees, and then put them all right next to eachother in a big forest. It was beautiful. We each spread out a towel on the ground under a tree and were able to have personal God time for about 4 hours. It was awesome. It's pretty easy to worship Jesus when you are surrounded by the most beautiful trees you've ever seen and monkeys are just hanging around. (I know... bad monkey pun, I couldn't get them out of my head all day. Hey hey there's the monkeys... no more monkeys jumping on the bed, the list keeps going...) But yeah, it was definitely a great day to completely devote to reading and praying and worshipping. I'm definitely going to have to incorporate that into my pharmacy school curriculum somehow.

Also a cool part of the day was that Gus, an awesome LIA staff member who pretty much smiles all the time, graduated with his masters in Sociology last week. So we went back to the office and had a big celebration for him... he put on his graduation gown and we at cake (obviously the fast was over) and it was great. There was so much encouragement from the LIA staff, it was really cool to see them all hanging out and completely enjoying eachother's company.

This week we are going to Thika, but we don't leave until Wednesday. So prayer for our trip would be much appreciated. We're not really sure what we are going to be doing, but LIA has a number of partner churches there so we will be helping them out as much as possible. Also... continued prayer for health would be much appreciated as we continue our journeys and endeavors. And shout out to our Poland-mates, because they are just stinkin awesome and deserve a shout-out. We can't wait to hear all the cool things you are doing there!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support, as always. I think I can speak for all of you when we say that we love you guys and are so glad that you are supporting us in this amazing experience.

Mungu aku bariki!
Lauren