Possibly the Last Post!

Hi everyone! Well, I figured I'd better get at least one more post in before we go home. :) For those of you who don't know, Ryan and I will be flying out of Liberia on November 20th and arriving in Texas on November 21st. It's really hard to believe that our year is almost up. It's been a challenging year, but also a very good year with lots of new experiences that we'll carry with us for the rest of our lives. I know I will be sad to say goodbye to friends here, but we're both very excited to be home for the holidays with our families.

So, let me recap the past couple of months quickly. In August Ryan and I flew to Kenya for vacation and met up with my dad and brother Derek for an awesome week including safari and relaxing on the beach. The first half of the week was our safari in Masai Mara, and I can honestly say this was at the very top of my list for my favorite vacation spots. I thought the safari was absolutely amazing and so much fun, and I think the guys did too! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone (Camp Rekero where we stayed was great!) We saw lots of animals, and even went on a hot air balloon ride early one morning. The picture below is from the balloon looking down on the migration of the wildebeest. They were everywhere! The second picture is after we landed in a field where we then had breakfast.

After safari we went to Lamu island on the coast of Kenya for a few days of relaxing on the beach. Lamu is known for "no shoes and no cars", so it really was peaceful! We met some very nice people along the way and made some great memories. We were sad my mom and grandma could not join us, but I am so happy to report that Grandma is doing well! It has been a rough ride, but praise God that the cancer is responding to the chemo therapy. She is a very strong woman and we're just continuing to pray that God would completely heal her. Thanks for your prayers.

After arriving back from Kenya it was back to work which was very busy for me. We started on our 2010 budgeting process in August which continued through this month. I actually just got back from another week in Kenya, where we had our annual budget meeting and presented our Liberia budgets to SP management. Everything went well and it was a good experience, but it's nice to have it behind me. :) The meetings took place in Malindi, on the coast of Kenya, and it was a beautiful setting so that was fun. I also got to reconnect with some different SP staff one more time before we head home.

Ryan has also been busy with his program. In September he and I took a trip together to one of our upcountry offices, where Ryan visited many of his project sites. There is so much going on the LIAP program that Ryan runs it's hard for me to even keep track! The pictures below show one aspect of the program, which is rehabilitating farms by giving farmers seeds and tools and providing famer training (for both men and women). The first picture is a group of farmers who are in the training, and the picture below of of them brushing their farm (cleaning out the weeds).

Also, here is a picture of one of the churches that Samaritan's Purse built through our Church Construction Ministry.

Well, that is about it for now. We thank God that He has provided a couple of great people to come and replace Ryan and I here in Liberia. My replacement actually arrives today and will begin training with me in the office starting tomorrow! Ryan's replacement arrives in a couple weeks. I'm sure our last few weeks here will fly by. We are looking forward to hopefully seeing all of you when we get back to the USA! :)