New Faces, New Friends

I arrived in Palmer Lake Colorado last Monday (Nov 26). I am attending a 3 week course from Mission Training international called SPLICE.
Spiritual
Personal
Lifestyle
Interpersonal
Cultural
Endure/Enjoy
2 weeks are complete and we have already covered a lot things such as interpersonal conflict, cultural types and so much more. I have enjoyed getting to know my classmates - we are diverse in age, background, education and denomination but are drawn together under the common flag of soon heading out  to some form of cross cultural missionaries. We are united by the struggles of saying good-bye to family, fundraising and not knowing what God has in store for us. This connection makes dinner table conversation flow easily and we are quick to get to many heart issues.
I have enjoyed getting to know these people the past week and look forward to getting to know them more.

Also interestingly enough this week and next week will be the longest I have been in one place since I left Edmonton Oct 28, 2012 and this will be the longest I will be in one place until I arrive in Nairobi Jan 4. Those of you who have read closely may be wondering why I'm talking about 2 weeks when it is a 3 week course. The answer is I skipped out of Palmer Lake on Thursday afternoon and flew to Minot ND. Here my entire immediate family  (Parents, siblings  nieces and nephews) met together. We enjoyed a hotel that had a swimming pool with fun watersides, had a family dinner complete with speeches, singing children and good food. It was great to be all together as a family as it has been a while. It was also goodbyes to some of the family who I will not see until I return from Kenya in 2015.

So back to now. I am loving the time here in Colorado the course is located at the foot of the mountain, below some pictures of what I took just outside the door of the training centre, where I am staying and learning.

View from the back balcony

Elephant rock out the front door. 

Garden of the gods

I also headed out to the Garden of the god's outside of Colorado Springs. There are all these crazy rock formations.

So if anyone is still reading this I should share one last thing. I received a fundraising update last week I am at 100% of the support raised, PRAISE THE LORD. This is such a blessing and it is great to go to Kenya with the knowledge that my bills will be paid. Even greater than the financial support is the prayer support that many individuals have committed to. Those of you who are now thinking: well, I guess I don't have to give anymore,I ask that you think and pray about it. You can also read this former blog post. http://respiratorykenya.blogspot.com/2012/10/fundraising-info-and-good-byes.html